THE JUDICIAL POWER IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The judicial function is essential to any political organization. It was from the institution of the royal courts in the Middle Ages, ensuring peace and justice to the poorest populations, exploited by feudal barons and disregarded by the ecclesiastical authorities, that the Modern State was born and could developed itself. Therefore, it is impossible not to wonder: who is to be allocated in the state judicial function? Because of that, should the holders of that power exercise it? Is it permissible for the judiciary to operate without controls? The answer to these fundamental questions cannot be made on a purely theoretical framework, without a concrete analysis of the social reality in which political organization operates. This reality is defined essentially by two closely related factors: on the one hand, the actual structure (not only official) of power within the society; on the other hand, the current collective mentality, regarded as such the set of ethical values predominant in the social environment. In the contemporary state, notably in the framework of capitalist civilization, the collective mentality has to be shaped decisively by the holder social group of supreme power, according to its own interests.