Over the last year, Brazil’s judiciary has come under international scrutiny following its actions in the aftermath of the 2022 presidential election. Observers have simultaneously praised the Brazilian courts for their independence and raised concerns regarding potential overextensions of their power. Though the last year’s events certainly merit discussion and analysis, this report focuses not on the headline grabbing news of the Supreme Court and any accompanying salacious political stories but rather on the more anodyne judicial reforms that have occurred in the country over the last two decades. Indeed, though Costa Rica and Colombia have grabbed most of the attention as paragons of successful Latin American judiciaries, research suggests that Brazil ought to be part of this conversation as well. Linn Hammergren, a leading scholar in the field, has highlighted Brazil’s ability to receive and process “a phenomenal demand for court services” as a “success story,” while other researchers have found Brazil to rank near the top of Latin American countries in terms of judicial performance.

In an attempt to explain Brazilian success, this paper begins with a general overview of the key steps that the country has taken since its 1988 Constitution to improve the efficiency and quality of the judicial system. It then focuses in on the most active area of reform in the last five years – the use of digitalization and AI to try to address the rampant backlogs and delays that plague Brazilian courts. Finally, the report closes with a discussion of areas ripe for further reform based on discussions with Brazilian court insiders and a review of the available literature.