University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: Brazil

Dias & Schapiro (2026). “Resisting democratic backsliding from within the state: Environmental politics in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.”

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Dias, V. M., & Schapiro, M. G. (2026). Resisting democratic backsliding from within the state: Environmental politics in Bolsonaro’s Brazil. Policy Studies Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.70101 The article argues that polycentric governance can enable meaningful resistance to democratic backsliding from within the state by fragmenting executive power across multiple institutions with overlapping authority. Focusing on environmental politics …

Kapiszewski (2011). “Tactical balancing: High court decision making on politically crucial cases.” 

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Kapiszewski, D. (2011). Tactical balancing: High court decision making on politically crucial cases. Law & Society Review, 45(2), 471-506. This article advances a new account of judicial behavior: the thesis of tactical balancing. Building on existing models of judicial decision making, the thesis posits that high court justices balance a discrete set of considerations—justices’ ideologies, their institutional …

Aguiar Aguilar (2012). “Institutional changes in the public prosecutor’s office: The cases of Mexico, Chile and Brazil”

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Aguilar, A. (2012). Institutional changes in the public prosecutor’s office: The cases of Mexico, Chile and Brazil. Mexican law review, 4(2), 261-290. Given the critical role played by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the criminal justice system, the reform of its powers and underlying framework is fundamental in enhancing the rule of law and democracy. …

US hits Brazilian judge’s wife with sanctions as Trump showdown deepens

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The Trump administration has escalated tensions with Brazil by sanctioning Viviane Barci de Moraes, wife of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the criminal case against Jair Bolsonaro. The U.S. also revoked visas for six senior Brazilian officials and targeted the Lex Institute, a family-linked financial entity it suspects could be used to …

de Sa e Silva (2020), “From Car Wash to Bolsonaro: Law and Lawyers in Brazil’s Illiberal Turn (2014–2018)”

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  de Sa e Silva, F. (2020). From Car Wash to Bolsonaro: Law and lawyers in Brazil’s illiberal turn (2014–2018). Journal of Law and Society, 47(S1), S51–S73. https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12250   The article examines the role of law and lawyers in Brazil’s recent democratic decline. While legal professionals are often depicted as either victims of or counterforces …

Kyle, Reiter (2021), “Military Courts, Civil-Military Relations, and the Legal Battle for Democracy: The Politics of Military Justice (1st ed.)”

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B.J. Kyle, A.G. Reiter, Military Courts, Civil-Military Relations, and the Legal Battle for Democracy: The Politics of Military Justice (1st ed.). London: Routledge, 2021. Summary: The interaction between military and civilian courts, the political power that legal prerogatives can provide to the armed forces, and the difficult process civilian politicians face in reforming military justice remain …

Dias (2025), “Rule by Law in Democratic Regimes: How Legal Actors Undermined Democracy in Brazil.”

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Vitor Martins Dias, “Rule by Law in Democratic Regimes: How Legal Actors Undermined Democracy in Brazil.” March 19, 2025. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5185132 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5185132 Summary: This article analyzes how prosecutors, judges, and police officers coordinated efforts that undermined the rule of law in Brazil, the world’s fourth-largest democracy. Such practices are often institutionalized in non-democratic …

Pereira (2003), “Explaining Judicial Reform Outcomes in New Democracies: The Importance of Authoritarian Legalism in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile”

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This article investigates how the legacies of authoritarian legal systems influence the capacity of attorneys to drive judicial reform in emerging democracies, with case studies from Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.

US sanctions Brazil’s Supreme Court justice overseeing case against Bolsonaro

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On July 30, 2025, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, citing human rights abuses and political persecution in the case against former President Jair Bolsonaro. De Moraes, who is overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial for allegedly plotting to overturn his 2022 electoral defeat, faces asset freezes under the Global Magnitsky Act. This …

Pereira (2008), “Of Judges and Generals: Security Courts under Authoritarian Regimes in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile”

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Anthony W Pereira. “Of Judges and Generals: Security Courts under Authoritarian Regimes in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile,” In Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes. Edited by Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa, 23–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Summary: Few academic studies have taken the law and legal institutions under authoritarian regimes …