Judicial policies in Brazil: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Improving judicial governance is a central concern in contemporary constitutional states and is embedded in the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goal 16, which seeks to promote effective institutions. Within this context, judicial public policy plays a strategic role in the organization and functioning of the Judiciary. Given the lack of conceptual consensus in the literature and the relevance of this topic to the interdisciplinary field of Law and Public Policy, this study aims to identify the characteristics of Brazilian judicial public policy as reflected in the national scientific literature. Methodologically, a qualitative Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA protocol. The search was performed in the CAPES Journal Portal, covering the period from 2014 to 2024, using the combined descriptors “Public Policy,” “Judiciary,” and “CNJ,” with Boolean operators. Initially, 19 studies were identified, of which 11 comprised the final corpus after the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The findings reveal a predominance of qualitative research, including theoretical (4) and empirical (7) approaches, primarily focused on judicial policies formulated by the Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ), particularly in the areas of appropriate dispute resolution and the digital transformation of the justice system. The review also identified conceptual fragility regarding the definition of judicial policy and limited methodological diversity in the literature. It is concluded that the field of judicial public policy in Brazil is still in the process of consolidation and requires greater theoretical depth, broader empirical approaches, and the development of analytical and evaluative models capable of supporting evidence-based policymaking.