President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into law on Friday (4) the bill creating Brazil's Justice System Fund (Fundo do Sistema de Justiça). The ceremony took place at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasília, with Supreme Federal Court (STF) Chief Justice Edson Fachin and Superior Court of Justice (STJ) President Luis Felipe Salomão in attendance, according to G1 and the STJ itself.
In practice, the fund will work as a single account that pools money collected by the institutions of the justice system, including court fees (custas) and charges paid on lawsuits. According to G1, the money will finance efforts to widen access to justice, such as case-clearing campaigns (mutirões) and itinerant justice programs that bring court services to hard-to-reach regions. It may also pay for infrastructure and operational improvements across justice system bodies.
The law aims above all to strengthen the federal public defender's office (DPU), which provides free legal counsel to Brazilians who cannot afford a lawyer. The fund's balance will be adjusted every year by the Selic rate, Brazil's benchmark interest rate, in what the government describes as an effort to secure a permanent funding source. Congress approved the bill in August.
Ceremony amid the Supreme Court crisis
The STJ said the new law also updates the court fee rules for federal courts and for the STJ itself, a model in place for more than two decades. At the ceremony, Fachin praised dialogue among institutions and said that channeling money to the justice system should make the judiciary more efficient and improve services to the public. He then addressed the crisis involving the Supreme Court, the Attorney General's office (PGR) and the Federal Police over investigations tied to Banco Master, saying the facts are being investigated and that institutions must be preserved.
"What is right will be done, in the time and in the manner that the legal order requires. No authority is above the Constitution, no branch of government is above the law, and no passing interest can override the democratic rule of law"
Fachin added that the gravity of the facts allows no shortcuts and promised a firm, proportional and rigorous institutional response. In recent days he took control of the proceedings related to requests filed by Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça, decisions that remain pending. The signing comes about one month before the presidential election, in which Lula is running for reelection, according to G1.