DEFINITION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND ORIGIN OF CUSTODY HEARINGS: a study on the European Convention on Human Rights and its impacts on the brazilian legal system.

• Grant number: 24/21169-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Public Law
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Andrade Fernandes
• Grantee: Luísa Sasaki Chagas
• Supervisor: Antonio Pedro Nunes Caeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Coimbra (UC), Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/07536-8 - Achieving the 16th UN Sustainable Development Goal for the 2030 Agenda through the development of effective criminal policies, BP.IC

Abstract

This project is part of ongoing scientific initiation research focused on the study of custody hearings as an effective criminal policy and a tool for achieving international objectives, particularly the 16th Sustainable Development Goal of the UN for the 2030 Agenda. The initial research aims to establish more stringent concepts for custody hearings to enhance Brazilian law and protect the institution from flexibilizations that may undermine its intrinsic characteristics. To this end, an immersive study of the origins of the institution, extending beyond the Brazilian context, will be conducted through a Research Internship abroad at the University of Coimbra. Custody hearings are not exclusive to Brazil; the term refers specifically to the prompt presentation of detainees to an authority. My research indicates that the earliest document outlining this presentation is the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), in Article 5, item 3, which specifies the necessity for every arrested or detained person to be promptly brought before a judge or other authorized magistrate, with the presented individual to be tried within a reasonable time or released during the proceedings. From this, I deduce that custody hearings have historical roots in Europe, a continent that can most accurately reflect the true intentions behind establishing a mechanism for the prompt presentation of detainees to authorities, whether to ensure the right to defense or merely to guarantee the legal security of the process. Such definitions fundamentally alter the perception of custody hearings, as the first ensures a fundamental right, requiring a strict norm without broad interpretations-this hypothesis aims to be demonstrated-while the second allows for the relativization of the norm, treating it merely as procedural without addressing the individual's merits. To confirm these hypotheses and gather more information regarding the European Convention on Human Rights, it is essential to analyze literature discussing the topic, available at the European Documentation Centre and the Library of the Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Furthermore, considering the importance of studying the effectiveness of custody hearings as a criminal policy, it is noteworthy to highlight the extensive work of Prof. Dr. Pedro Caeiro, the proposed research internship supervisor, concerning the effectiveness of norms over time, including the establishment of a research center dedicated to analyzing norms involving systematically vulnerable individuals, including those deprived of liberty, titled "Law and Vulnerability".