Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: Gabriella Coelho Santos

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : Gabriella Coelho Santos
DATE: 16/06/2025
TIME: 09:30
LOCAL: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/19%3ameeting_ODYzYzIxMzAtY2MwMi00ZTIxLWI1YTAtNW
TITLE:

BRAZIL IN THE GEOPOLITICS OF STATE IMMUNITY: the unstable frontiers of the relativization of sovereign acts in violation of human rights established by the Supreme Federal Court’s Thesis 944

KEY WORDS:

Geopolitics of State Immunity; Jurisdictional Immunity; Changri-lá Case; Thesis 944 of the Federal Supreme Court

PAGES: 138
BIG AREA: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
AREA: Direito
SUMMARY:

This dissertation investigates the relativization of state jurisdictional immunity in cases involving alleged human rights violations, based on a critical analysis of the judgment rendered in Extraordinary Appeal with Aggravation (ARE) No. 954.858, which resulted in the formulation of Thesis 944 by the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal — STF). The episode, known as the Changri-lá Case, serves as a starting point for examining not only the legal arguments mobilized by the Court but also the discursive and normative shifts that made such a decision possible. The research problem lies in understanding how the Supreme Court, by relativizing the jurisdictional immunity of sovereign acts linked to alleged human rights violations, repositions Brazil within the geopolitics of state immunity. The central hypothesis suggests that, by resorting to indeterminate normative grounds — such as the generic invocation of “human rights” — the Court broke with the cautious logic that had historically guided Brazilian state practice and projected the country into an isolated discursive position, lacking consolidated support in prevailing customary international law. To demonstrate this hypothesis, the research unfolds through three specific objectives: to reconstruct the historical and legal trajectory of the Changri-lá Case, with emphasis on the legal arguments and interpretative choices that led to the formulation of Thesis 944; to contextualize, based on the case’s temporal landmarks, the geopolitics of state immunity within the international sphere, examining how the Brazilian judiciary and executive responded to this dynamic amidst alignments, displacements, and tensions; and, finally, to critically interpret the legal and geopolitical consequences of Thesis 944, especially concerning the effects of the indeterminacy of human rights as a normative foundation, while suggesting possible alternatives. Methodologically, the analysis is structured as a case study, in accordance with the approach proposed by Robert K. Yin, based on the critical reconstruction of the ARE 954.858 judgment as the central analytical unit. The investigation relies on a detailed reading of court documents, ministerial opinions, and statements from the Office of the Prosecutor General, while also engaging with legal opinions issued by the Legal Advisers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant scholarly literature. The theoretical framework combines the categories of apology, utopia, and indeterminacy, as developed by Martti Koskenniemi, with the notion of vernacularization of international law, as formulated by Sally Engle Merry and Peggy Levitt, in order to explore how specific legal discourses were received, reinterpreted, or instrumentalized by Brazil. By invoking fragile legal grounds to justify an interpretative shift unsupported by consolidated normative standards, the STF produced a borderless exception that challenges the limits of the legal regime of state immunity and shifts Brazil into an ambiguous discursive zone within the international arena. This research is thus justified by its aim to go beyond legal dogmatics and critically examine the processes through which normative discourses are constructed in international law

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 2320110 - GEORGE RODRIGO BANDEIRA GALINDO
Externo à Instituição - JOÃO HENRIQUE RIBEIRO RORIZ - UFG
Externo à Instituição - Lucas Daniel Chaves de Freitas - MPF
Interno - 1549538 - OTHON DE AZEVEDO LOPES