Poder Judiciário e Reforma Agrária: uma reflexão a partir dos conflitos no Norte fluminense

Abstract

Access to the Judiciary Power by a substantial portion of the population has transformed that space into a new arena of contention, which can contribute to the expansion of democratic ideals. The choice of this arena is based upon the perceived ability to reclaim what is Fair against the letter of the Law. We join this debate through an analysis of the workings of the Judiciary Power in the implementation of Agrarian Reform, particularly with respect to the judicial conflicts surrounding the settlements of Novo Horizonte and Oziel Alves I. This work aims at the following goals: to evaluate how far the legal advances foreseen in the 1988 Constitution influenced the heightening of the local land conflicts, as well the acquisition and distribution of the land by INCRA; to explain the role of the diverse actors involved in the process of Agrarian Reform and the Judiciary Power s perception of such actors; to establish the relation between the debates over the judicialization of politics and the judicial practices regarding Agrarian Reform; to reflect upon the role of the Judiciary Power within the structure of the Brazilian State and how it can be used as an instrument for the social advancement of the working class. Our intention is to analyze such issues within the proceedings of the law suits selected for fieldwork, following Carlo Ginsburg s indicial method for the analysis of court proceedings and their content. We thus seek to examine the evidence, the signs, and decipher the social structure hidden by the economic structure of the region in question. Our hypothesis is that the judicialization of politics, particularly in the case of Agrarian Reform, has not facilitated the application of public policy. In fact it has made it more difficult for the settlement of the families, due to the emphasis on private property of the judicial interpretations, which were not able to incorporate the concept of the social function of property nor the achievement of fundamental rights through Agrarian Reform.