Democracy and new judicial institutions in Latin America

• Autor(a) principal: D'Araujo, Maria Celina Soares
• Data de Publicação: 2001
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/6365
• topic: democratização na América Latina; acesso à justiça; justiça gratuita; mecanismos alternativos de resolução de conflitos.

As the authoritarian regimes that dominated the South American continent from the 1960s to the 1980s coasted to an end, there emerged a repressed demand for justice and rights. New laws were not enough: these democratic traits could be guaranteed only by a pro-active, alert and swift judiciary branch. It was expected that, side by side with a reformed judiciary structure, there would appear alternative dispute resolution mechanisms that would relieve the case load of the judicial system and provide swifter decisions to the common citizen. This is the case of several recently introduced innovations in most Latin American countries, such as the public defender or the ombudsman, free legal counsel, arbitration courts, mediation and conciliation courts, and small claims courts in Brazil. This paper presents an evaluation of these several modes of democratization of the access to Justice in Latin America. It also compares them and emphasizes the importance of these institutions in strengthening citizenship.