It’s All Civil in Brazil

For months, we’ve been writing about the differences between Brazilian law and US law. Yet ironically, we haven’t even mentioned the biggest difference: common law versus civil law.

The United States is a common law country. It’s a system we inherited from England whereby rules are both created and applied by courts. Emphasis is placed on following case law or precedent, particularly when a higher court has previously ruled on the issue.

In contrast, Brazil is a civil law country and draws from the legal system of Portugal. There’s a significant focus on statutes. If you have a legal question, there’s likely a written law that spells out the answer. You just have to find it.

Nowhere is the difference more apparent than in the classroom. Law students in Brazil spend their time learning and memorizing the various codes. Law students in the US, on the other hand, focus on legal reasoning and applying court decisions to different fact patterns.

This isn’t to say that Brazilian courts don’t look to precedent or that courts in the US ignore statutes. To the contrary. But the importance and application of these methods of interpretation vary dramatically between the two countries.

We share all of this not to bore you with history. In fact, we’ll spare you the details. Instead, we tell you this so you can better understand why our two legal systems are so different. After all, the impact is real, and it affects anyone doing business in Brazil.