A defensoria pública como garantia constitucional processual de acesso à justiça na América do Sul

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Public Legal Defense as a constitutional and procedural guarantee stated to enforce the access to justice. From an approach according to the Law and the Public Policies, the paper assays the consideration of procedural guarantees in Constitutions, especially in the Latin American context. It pursues to demonstrate the importance of the Public Legal Defense in Brazil as a constitutional guarantee statued to enforce the access to justice, especially in South America. Methodologically, the paper explores the hypothetical-deductive method, in a qualitative research, and explanatory literature and documents, especially the Constitutions from South America’s countries and other normative acts involving similar organizations or resembling services. As a result, the paper establishes a strong influence of the Public Legal Defense model adopted in Brazil towards other countries of South America, some of them including it as a constitutional guarantee stated to ensure equality and to enforce the access to justice.