Brazil's top judge announces Latin American judicial network to defend democracy

Brazil's Supreme Court President Edson Fachin described the court's immense caseload as a "Herculean task" during a visit to the Supreme Court of Angola. He announced plans to establish a network of constitutional courts spanning Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula.

This new network aims to defend democracy and judicial independence, particularly in light of increasing threats to judicial autonomy and rising attacks against magistrates in various Latin American countries. Fachin highlighted that Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) functions as both the nation's constitutional court and the final court of appeal, processing around a thousand new cases each month.

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This leads to a court that has an immense procedural volume. Each of the judges who make up the STF receives approximately a thousand new cases per month.

Fachin noted that the Brazilian judiciary faces a staggering 75 million pending cases, with approximately 40 million resolved in 2025 but another 40 million entering the system in the same period. He emphasized the need to address the root causes of this high volume of litigation, not just its symptoms.

The initiative comes as democratic recessions in Latin America coincide with growing challenges to the judiciary's independence. The proposed network seeks to create transnational mechanisms to protect the independence of the judiciary against disinformation campaigns, direct attacks on judges, and efforts to undermine its legitimacy.

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It seemed relevant to us, therefore, to start articulating a transnational inter-institutional network between supreme courts and constitutional courts for the defense of the independence of the exercise of the magistracy in the face of a set of external factors that affect us, such as disinformation campaigns, direct aggressions against magistrates and an attempt to dilute the legitimacy that the exercise of the Judiciary holds.