Law of Brazil

The current Federal Constitution, created on October 5, 1988, is the supreme law of the country.

Nevertheless, according to article 103-A of the Brazilian Constitution, only the Supreme Court is allowed to publish binding rules.

The prerogatives and duties of judges are the same, however, and the differences lie only in the competencies, structures and compositions of the Courts.

Upon completing their studies, they need to pass an exam held by the Bar Association of Brazil (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil in Portuguese).

Each state territory is divided into judicial districts named comarcas, which are composed of one or more municipalities.

Some states, such as São Paulo and Minas Gerais, used to have a Court of Appeals (Tribunal de Alçada in Portuguese) which had different jurisdiction.

The five regional Federal Courts have jurisdiction over circuits of several states and tend to be headquartered in the largest city of their territory.

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.