FROM A CULTURE OF LITIGATION TO A CULTURE OF CONSENSUS: THE ROLE OF MAJOR LITIGANTS IN THE TRANSITION OF BRAZILIAN LEGAL CULTURE

Abstract

The Brazilian justice system faces an overload, with more than 82 million pending cases, despite institutional and normative efforts to disseminate Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods (ADR). This article questions the dominant narrative that attributes the crisis to a “culture of litigation” among citizens and argues that judicial congestion stems primarily from the actions of habitual litigants, understood as public and private organizations that resort en masse to the Judiciary as a strategy for managing risks, debts, and contractual obligations. Based on data from the National Council of Justice and national and international literature, the role of these actors in the construction of Brazilian legal culture is discussed, especially regarding the effective implementation of ADRs. A research agenda is proposed with three axes: (i) mapping practical and symbolic barriers to the implementation of ADRs in Brazil; (ii) analyzing the strategic role of corporate legal departments and the legal profession in the formation of dispute management cultures; and (iii) conduct comparative studies on how other countries regulate habitual litigation and promote consensual justice. It is concluded that overcoming habitual litigation requires, in addition to legislative reforms, a transformation in the behavior of the most powerful actors.