INTERNATIONAL JUDICIAL COOPERATION

My activities in the main theme “GRUPO METROPOLITANO PAULISTA DO PROGRAMA AGENDA 21” is under the forty chapters of “PROGRAMA AGENDA 21” which defends the interest of Human Rights and the preservation of the environment. This article’s objective is to present the chapter 39 of the “PROGRAMA AGENDA 21”.

Brazil is a member of the International Community which undertakes responsibilities before other countries in the world to preserve human rights and guarantee of dignity, which is also a fundamental principle of Brazil State. I want to highlight that the increasing globalization of the modern world has caused an immediate high circulation of products and people. As a consequence, there might be conflicts with local rules and regulations.

Internationally, agreements and treaties are signed by countries that are engaged to meet common objectives. It strengthens the international cooperation, which favors the application of the fundamental human rights.

Those agreements Brazil has signed are now part of its own legislation in accordance with article 5º, §2 of the Federal Constitution. “The rights and guarantees expressed in the Constitution do not exclude other agreements derived from the regime and the principles adopted by it, or from international agreements which the Federal Republic of Brazil is part of.”

It’s necessary to point out that the International Judicial Cooperation aims to guarantee the juridical contribution and the access to justice, strengthening, then, the Rule of Law. It has the objective to facilitate the interchange of solutions to state problems, aiming at the intentions of States abroad as well as to attend external demands.

The general aspects of the Juridical Cooperation are: when the judicial display of a nation is not enough to show the solution to the controversy, and needs to resort to an auxiliary, which can help provide juridical activities to other nations. It is a policy of mutual help internationally.

To provide efficiency to law measures that come from other states, the anti-project, whose articles will be analyzed, aims to include rules for the International Judicial Cooperation that involves the civil, penal, economical and administrative rights, social and taxable welfare in the Brazilian Legislation.

The article 1º sees the mechanisms of active and passive international cooperation through the following procedures: rogative letter, direct assistance, legal ratification of foreign decision, transfer of lawsuit, transfer of criminals.

The article 4º aims to “open boundaries” and avoid obstacles that make communication very difficult among the nations. And the article 5º says that the Minister of Justice is the central authority for all kinds of cooperation.

Therefore, the rogative letter, legal ratification of foreign decision and extradition, for instance, is under the Constitution and competence of the Minister of Justice, as well as the Supreme Court and the Federal Supreme Court.

It is important to highlight that the concentration of the authority to interpret foreign acts in the Supreme Court make the efficiency of the services not viable.

São Paulo, 5th January 2011

Dr. Fátima Regina da Silva Feitosa
Lawyer and Occupational Safety Specialist

Traduzido por Rosa Frasão Okerenta