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Military Justice in the State of Pernambuco After the Brazilian Military Regime: An Authoritarian Legacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Jorge Zaverucha
Jorge Zaverucha*
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
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Abstract

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This article is based on research conducted in the archives of the Auditoria Militar do Estado de Pernambuco. It substantiates the violation of the basic principle of equality before the law resulting from the existence in Brazil of two different court systems—one civil and the other military—with varying legal proceedings and sentences for similar crimes committed by civilian police and military police. The article reviews how the authoritarian regime enlarged the scope of military jurisdiction, a situation little changed more than a decade after the authoritarian regime ended. The article also shows that the Justiça Militar do Estado de Pernambuco functions in a hybrid manner. It is an agency of the civil judicial branch, but most of the judges are military, while the lawyers are civilians and the trials are conducted by the Ministério Público. Thus the military police can influence the outcome of judgments without having to assume the burden of rendering decisions because the final responsibility rests with the civil judicial branch. Finally, the article highlights the incompatibility between the continuation of this kind of military justice and a democracy seeking consolidation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , 1999 , pp. 43 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

The article was translated from Portuguese by Sharon Kellum. I would like to acknowledge the helpful comments made by two anonymous LARR referees.

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