From the university banks to the toga: the academic trajectory of the ministers of the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (1988-2013)

Abstract

Through the study of the academic trajectories of the ministers of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil and through the inclusion of the requirement of “notorious legal knowledge” imposed by the 1988 Constitution to all members of the court, this article intends to unveil patterns or criteria, which today are unclear, of what in practice has been considered an outstanding life trajectory of elected ministers, and its greater or lesser relation to the academic past of the magistrates. In this way, it is proposed to delve into the question of how the changes in the legal market of the last decades have impacted on the way in which the positions of magistrates have been provided in this court.