Judge sees risk of elitism in court competitions – 07/12/2023 – Frederico Vasconcelos

Under the heading “‘Insights'” by the CNJ on the possible risk of elitism in the public tender of the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo“, the following article is authored by retired federal judge Artur César de Souza.

The national justice inspector, Minister Luis Felipe Salomão, notified the São Paulo Court of Justice to inform the real reasons that led to the nullity of the written phase of the Public Judiciary Contest.

In Minister Salomão’s administrative act, among others, attention is drawn to the request for information on “the reasons why the second stage of the event is divided into three different weekends”.

It is important to point out that the same phase of the tender process, on three different weekends, also took place in the 12th Contest for Notaries and Registrars of the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo, which is still in progress. This fact has already been communicated to Minister Salomão, in the same procedure opened in relation to the judiciary contest. [intuição] It seems that His Excellency, Minister Salomão, had an ‘insights’

that this position of the TJSP, in addition to breaking the isonomy between candidates, may entail a risk of elitism.

Did Minister Salomão realize that carrying out tests, in the same phase of the contest, on three consecutive weekends, generates “odious” discrimination in relation to the less favored and those with a disability, going against the policy of the National Council of Justice that aims at the “inclusion” and not the “exclusion” of the less favored, either economically or due to a disability.

The sacrifice of economically “hypo-sufficient” or disabled candidates to participate in the 12th Contest of Notaries and Registrars, on three consecutive weekends, with expenses for airfare or bus tickets, food and accommodation, is exponentially greater than those economically wealthy or residing in São Paulo.

For the elite, in fact, there are no material obstacles to participating in three or more weekends in a row.

The less economically favored candidate, coming from poor families or with few resources, or even with a disability, was extremely impaired in his “performance” in the test, either because he was unable to attend the event, or because of the exponential sacrifice to carry out the displacement on three consecutive weekends.

This stance taken by the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo, whether in the judiciary contest or in the contest for notaries and registrars, favors, directly or indirectly, candidates who are not low-income and candidates residing in the State of São Paulo.

There is no plausible, or even operational, justification (since we are talking about the Capital of São Paulo) for such a position in a competition contest, since nothing prevents or prevented the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo from carrying out a single written test, in a single final of the week, to select the best candidates, just as he did with the objective test.

Therefore, it is necessary that the control bodies, as is the case of the CNJ, carefully assess and with the necessary rigor possible social and economic mismatch that occurred in the judiciary contest and in the 12th contest of notaries and registrars.

It is insufficient for the control bodies to find a solution only for the future, because in the face of the serious circumstance of a possible breach of isonomy, or possible elitism, a decision cannot be accepted, at least in a Democratic State of Law, which modulates its effects only into the future, abandoning thousands of candidates who were rejected or even approved with a low rating, to their fate, with the feeling that there is no longer social justice in Brazil.

It does not compromise with the fundamental guarantees provided for in the Federal Constitution.He is the author, among others, of the book “

The Judge’s Decision and the Influence of the Media
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