Public Prosecution Service: Historical and Normative Evolution in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the historical and normative evolution of the Public Prosecution Service in Brazil. The methodology consists of a bibliographic review of normative acts, supplemented by doctrinal references on the subject. The earliest normative acts in force in Brazilian territory did not mention the Public Prosecution Service. Likewise, the first Constitutions—both the Imperial Constitution and the first Republican Constitution—referred only to agents responsible for safeguarding the interests of the Crown and fiscal matters. With the emergence of the figure of the “Public Prosecutor,” a state agent arose with the role of protecting the interests of the administration of justice. This agent constituted the foundation for the later development of the Public Prosecution Service as an institution. From the Criminal Code of 1890 onward, explicit references to the term “Public Prosecution Service” appeared, as well as in Decree No. 848/1890, which established and organized the Federal Judiciary and the Federal Supreme Court. The recognition of the Public Prosecution Service as an essential institution to the administration of justice stemmed from the need for a body operating alongside the Judiciary. This institutional development reached its peak with the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution. Constitutional provisions, further regulated by the statutes governing the Federal Public Prosecution Service and the National Organic Law of the Public Prosecution Service (both enacted in 1993), established the prerogatives, guarantees, duties, and restrictions necessary for the exercise of its institutional functions.