Brazilian Judiciary

The Judiciary of Brazil is the Judiciary branch of the Brazilian government. The structure and the division of jurisdiction of the ramifications of the Brazilian Judiciary is defined in the Brazilian Constitution.

The system is divided primarily in the ordinary courts (Justiça comum) and the specialized courts (Justiça especializada).

The specialized courts are kept entirely by the Federal Government and are divided into three areas of practice: the Military courts, the Labor courts and the Electoral courts.

The ordinary courts are divided between the Federal and the States' judiciaries. The Judiciary of the Brazilian Federal District has the same subject-matter jurisdiction of the ordinary state level judiciary over that special territory, but is kept and organized by the Federal Government.

Municipalities hold no judicial powers.

The system also includes two special central Courts that are separate from the other divisions: The Supreme Federal Court and the Superior Court of Justice. Both have headquarters in Brasília.

The Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal) is the highest Brazilian Judiciary. Its main responsibility is to serve as the ultimate guardian of the Brazilian Constitution, with the roles of a constitutional court.

The most common tool of that Court is the Extraordinary Appeal (Recurso Extraordinário), granted when judgements of second instance courts violate the Constitution.

The Supreme court also holds the power to analyze the constitutionality of a federal or state law or statute, and thus making it invalid, through the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (Ação Declaratória de Inconstitucionalidade).

Other original jurisdiction includes the decision over extradition.

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