Structural demands and the legal culture of handling conflicts of interest: case studies according to the guidelines of structural litigation
Brazilian Judiciary; structural conflict; structural litigation; legal culture; right to the city.
This research focuses on the challenges faced by the Judiciary in identifying and adequately handling structural demands that are part of its growing caseload. Since these demands originate from disputes whose resolution requires prospective, gradual and long-lasting measures, they do not fit into traditional techniques for handling conflicts of interest. Based on this premise, the works produced by judges within the scope of the Master's Program of the National School for the Training of Judges (ENFAM) were analyzed, which cover theory and practice applicable to structural demands and provide, albeit partially, insight into the difficulties faced by the Judiciary in identifying and adequately handling structural demands. The investigation culminated in an empirical analysis of acts performed in structural demands aimed at guaranteeing the right to the city, taking as reference public civil actions on irregular and clandestine subdivisions that were or are being processed in the judicial unit of Rio Branco’s County, in the State of Acre. The in-depth research with a qualitative approach and predominantly deductive method was developed in four chapters, besides the introduction and final considerations, and corroborated the hypothesis that one of the main causes of the unsatisfactory results regarding the treatment of structural demands is the Brazilian legal culture of handling conflicts of interest, which seeks to resolve disputes through sentences with little openness to dialogue and to the participation of interested groups. Possible convergent paths were pointed out for effective judicial protection in cases that, aside from public resources, require an interaction between the Judiciary and the collectivity