The political uses and mobilizations of law: the case of Lava Jato in São Paulo

• Grant number: 22/15194-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2023
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Marcos César Alvarez
• Grantee: Amanda Evelyn Cavalcanti de Lima
• Supervisor: Liora Israel
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/07353-2 - Top-down citizenship? the impacts of Lava Jato in the perceptions about the justice system, BP.PD

Abstract

The Lava Jato anti-corruption operation began in 2014 in Brazil. Its intense publicization incited the population and members of the justice system to take a position on its actions and political consequences. Between 2016 and 2017, NEV's team within the CEPID FAPESP project "Building Democracy Daily: Human Rights, Violence and Institutional Trust" interviewed 19 judges in the capital of São Paulo. They answered questions about their perceptions of the justice system, what it is like to be a judge, and their work routine. Even though Lava Jato was not a subject, eleven of them mobilized it to ally with or distance themselves from the model of justice defended by the operation. This research project aims to explore the interviews from the theoretical axis of the political uses and mobilizations of law by understanding the action of legal professionals as political and explaining how the political uses of law influence the perceptions of São Paulo judges about their professional identity and legitimacy. (AU)