Superior Court of Justice (Brazil)

Superior Court of Justice
Superior Court of Justice
Superior Tribunal de Justiça
	15°48′30″S 47°52′02″W / 15.80833°S 47.86722°W
Established	7 April 1989; 35 years ago
Location	Brasília, Federal District, Brazil
Coordinates	15°48′30″S 47°52′02″W / 15.80833°S 47.86722°W
Composition method	Presidential nomination with Senate confirmation
Authorised by	Constitution of Brazil
Appeals to	Supreme Federal Court
Appeals from	State Courts of Justice
Judge term length	Until aged 75
Number of positions	33
Website	www.stj.jus.br
President
Currently	Maria Thereza Moura
Since	25 August 2022
Vice President
Currently	Og Fernandes
Since	25 August 2022

The Superior Court of Justice (Portuguese: Superior Tribunal de Justiça, also known as STJ, IPA: [ˌɛsiteˈʒɔtɐ]) is the highest appellate court in Brazil for non-constitutional issues regarding federal law. The STJ also has original jurisdiction over some cases. Its jurisdiction is provided for in Article 105 of the Brazilian Constitution.

A Special Appeal (in Portuguese, Recurso Especial) can be made to this court when a judgement of a court of second instance offends a federal statutory provision or when second instance courts have issued different interpretations of the same federal statute.

By rule, the STJ decides only questions of law, not any questions of fact and the probatory elements on the case, about which the Second Instance Courts give the last word.

As in other superior courts in Brazil, STJ's justices are called "ministers" (Portuguese: ministros), not to be confused with ministers from the executive branch.

History

Prior to late 1988, Brazil had only the Supreme Federal Court (Portuguese: Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF) as the Court of last resort, which would hear all highest appeals of mostly any matters, including other Higher, National Courts. As demand on the Judiciary was becoming intense, with a growing number of suits and cases, largely the result of the accessibility generated by the multiplication of first instance Courts, the STF found itself in a critical situation of unmanageable volume of service, urging for a correcting measure.

As the National Constitution Assembly started in 1987, one of the earliest projects to be included and eventually approved was the creation of a new National Court, in parallel with the already existing Superior Labour, Military and Electoral Tribunals, placing the STF on a higher degree. It was the beginning of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), to which were transferred most of the issues then heard by the STF.

The STJ was physically placed in the building previously occupied by the Federal Court of Appeals (Portuguese: Tribunal Federal de Recursos [tɾibuˈnaw fedeˈɾaw dʒi ʁeˈkuʁsus], also called TFR, IPA: [ˌteɛʁiˈɛfi] or [ˌtjɛʁiˈɛfi]). The TFR was a stand-alone Tribunal mainly designed to hear all ordinary appeals from decisions by Federal Judges. Although having a parallel jurisdiction to second-instance State Courts, its judges were called "Ministers", denomination given to Justices from higher Courts. It was extinguished by the 1988 Constitution, which distributed all its competence to the new Federal Regional Courts (a total of five, placed around the national territory), with the Ministers from the TFR becoming the initial Justices of the STJ.

The Superior Court of Justice had its competence slightly altered by Amendment 45/2004, which transferred to the Court cases like the homologation of foreign court orders.

In relation to other courts

The 92 courts of the Brazilian judiciary
v t e	State		Federal
Superior courts		0	Supreme Federal Court STF	1
Superior courts		0	Federal superior courts STJ TSE TST STM	4
Common justice	Court of Justice TJ	27	Federal Regional Courts TRF1 .. TRF6	6
Specialized justice	Court of Military Justice^[pt]	3	Electoral Justice Courts TRE	27
Specialized justice	TJM	3	Regional Labor Courts TRT	24
Total ^[1]^[2]^[3]		30		62

The courtroom
Inauguration ceremony of minister Laurita Vaz

References

^ "O Brasil tem 91 tribunais - Para Entender Direito" [Brazil has 91 courts - Understand the Law]. Folha de S. Paulo (in Portuguese). 20 October 2010. Archived from the original on 3 September 2015.
^ DataSelf (8 January 2021). "Conheça as diferenças e funções dos tribunais brasileiros" [Know the differences and functions of the Brazilian courts] (in Portuguese). DataSelf. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
^ Conselho Nacional de Justiça. "Tribunais - Portal CNJ" [Courts - CNJ Portal]. National Council of Justice (in Portuguese). Retrieved 28 June 2023.