Politics

The politics of Brazil takes place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Brazil is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the National Congress. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. One of the fundamental principles of the politics in the Republic is the multi-party system, as a guarantee of political freedom.

The administrative structure of the State is a federation; however, Brazil has included the municipalities as autonomous political entities making the federation tripartite: encompassing the Union, the States and the municipalities. The legal system is based on Roman law.

Executive Branch

The Union's executive power is exercised by the government, headed by the president, who is elected for a four-year term, and is allowed to be re-elected for one other term.

Legislative Branch

Legislative power is vested in the National Congress (Congresso Nacional), which is bicameral. It consists of the Federal Senate or Senado Federal (81 seats; three members from each state or federal district elected according to the principle of majority to serve eight-year terms; one-third elected after a four year period, two-thirds elected after the next four-year period) and the Chamber of Deputies or Câmara dos Deputados (513 seats; deputies are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms).

The seats are allotted proportionally to each state's population, but each state is eligible for a minimum of eight seats and a maximum of 70 seats. The result is a system weighted in favour of smaller states.

Fifteen political parties are represented in Congress. Since it is common for politicians to switch parties, the proportion of congressional seats held by particular parties changes regularly.

Judicial Branch

Brazilian jurisdiction courts function under civil law and adversarial system. The Judicial Branch are organised in states' and federal systems with different jurisdictions.

The judges of the courts of first instance take office after public competitive examination. The second instance judges are promoted among the first instance judges. The Justices of the superior courts are appointed by the president for life and approved by the Senate. All the judges and justices must be graduated in law. Any Brazilian judge is compulsory retired at the age of 70.

States' Judicial Branch

The country is divided into judicial districts named comarcas, which are composed of one or more cities. Each comarca has at least one court of first instance. There are specialised courts of first instance for family litigation or bankruptcy in some cities and states. Judgments from theses district courts can be the subject of judicial review following appeals to the courts of second instance.

Judgments of courts of first instance are usually made by only one judge. The Brazilian judiciary system uses jury trials only for judging crimes against the person.

In all Brazilian states, there is one court of second instance, named the Justice Tribunal (Tribunal de Justiça in Portuguese). Some states, as São Paulo and Minas Gerais, used to have Courts of Appeals (Tribunal de Alçada in Portuguese) too, but with different jurisdictions. The highest court of a state is the Justice Tribunal.

Second instance judgments are usually made by three judges, who, in the Justice Tribunals, are named desembargadores.

Federal Judicial Branch

The national territory is divided into five Regions, which are composed by one or more states. Each region is divided in Judiciary Sections (Seções Judiciárias in Portuguese) with a territory that may not correspond to the states' comarcas.

The Judiciary Sections has federal courts of first instance and each Region has a Federal Regional Tribunal (Tribunal Regional Federal in Portuguese) as a court of second instance.

There is a special federal court system for labour litigations called Labour Justice (Justiça do Trabalho in Portuguese) with its own courts.

Superior Courts

There are two national superior courts that grant writs of certiorari in civil and criminal cases: the Superior Justice Tribunal (Superior Tribunal de Justiça, STJ) and the Brazilian superior court, called the Supreme Federal Tribunal (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF).

The STJ grants a Special Appeal (Recurso Especial) when a judgement of a court of second instance offends a federal statute disposition or when two or more second instance courts make different rulings on the same federal statute. There are parallel courts for labour law, electoral law and military law.

The STF grants Extraordinary Appeals (Recurso Extraordinário in Portuguese) when judgements of second instance courts violate the constitution. The STF is the last instance for the writ of habeas corpus and for reviews of judgments from the STJ.

The superior courts do not analyze any factual questions in their judgments, but only the application of the law and the constitution. Facts and evidences are judged by the courts of second instance, except in specific cases such as writs of habeas corpus.