How legal indicators influence a justice system and judicial behavior
The Brazilian National Council of Justice and ‘justice in numbers’
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14800158 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pedro Rubim Borges Fortes (0000-0003-0548-4537, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 39-55 |
| Publication date | 2015-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0732-9113 • E-ISSN: 2305-9931 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/07329113.2014.994356 |
| OpenAlex | W2054579634 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 19 |
This article explores how the rise of legal indicators influences the administration of justice and judicial behavior. The incorporation of mathematical formulas, complex equations, and statistical data into the administration of justice has a strong influence on judges, particularly on internal competition for promotion and professional disciplinary control, as judicial activity is now monitored, measured, and regulated by numbers. As a case study, I examine how the ‘mathematical turn’ has transformed the internal administration of the Brazilian justice system, analyzing how sanctions and rewards are not based on substance or ideology, but rather on numbers of sentences, trial length and amount of procedures in a court's dockets. Assessment of the quality of adjudication is primarily based on quantitative evaluations based on statistical numerical data. Based on the Luhmannian concept of ‘legal irritants,’ on the Foucaldian notion of bio-power and on Llewellyn's, legal realist insight about judicial behavior, I analyze how judges have to manage their own statistical records. In this sense, the Brazilian National Council of Justice and its project ‘justice in numbers’ provide a rich case study of the internalization of legal indicators into the justice system. As the Brazilian judiciary is now governed by statistics, innovative indicators emerged, such as the comparative analysis of performance, ‘procedural traffic jams,’ and level of litigiosity in different tribunals. In this context, managerial efficiency has become very important and judges must digest their statistical data to get promoted and avoid disciplinary sanctions as evidenced by concrete examples
Criminology · Economic Justice · Political science · Sociology · Corruption and Economic Development · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems
Fatores que aumentam o tempo do processo judicial no Brasil
Factors increasing case disposition time in Brazil
Sentencing discretion, authoritarian legacies and punitive consensus in Brazil
Law-jobs in the algorithmic society
Supping with the Devil? Indicators and the rise of managerial rationality in law
Legal indicators, global law and legal pluralism
Smart monitoring of the criminal justice system
Paths to Digital Justice
Law As A Social System
The New Law and Economic Development
The Paradox of Rule of Law Reforms
Economic reform and judicial governance in Brazil
How Innovative Was the Poupatempo Experience in Brazil? Institutional Bypass as a New Form of Institutional Change
The Normative, the Legal, and the Law-Jobs
Legal Irritants
Security, Territory, Population
Comparative Law by Numbers? Legal Origins Thesis, Doing Business Reports, and the Silence of Traditional Comparative Law
Citizens against the State
The courts, law, and democracy in Brazil
| Citations per year | 0.73 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |