Arts , Humanities & Social Science

Abstract

This paper discusses the democratization of the judiciary in Brazil considering its access for people who live in favelas. We used a temporal and spatial analysis of the civil decisions rendered by the Court of Appeals of the State of Rio de Janeiro (TJRJ). The analysis takes two perspectives: (1) the access to justice – whether individually or collectively; and (2) the response of judges to the claims filed. The results suggest a connection between: (1) the increasing access by favela dwellers to the judiciary and the improvement of social development levels; (2) low incidence of collective claims and negligence by judges regarding this kind of claim; (3) lack of consistency between the precedents and the favela reality and social changes over the past few years; and how these findings (4) challenged some academic common-sense beliefs on "access to justice" in Brazil.