After four administrations, a recent analysis of the work by the Brazilian National Council of Justice concludes that "the glass dome has cracked, since the inertia has been broken and taboos have been challenged", thereby injecting new energy into the judiciary system's leading role through its integration into the public arena. This break developed from an institutional design built under Constitutional Amendment 45/2004, which assigns an external oversight role to the Council, the contours of which have been constructed through its agenda-building, the composition of its membership, and the possibilities in its decision-making process. These three dimensions help explain the Council's role in the current architecture of the Brazilian judiciary and shed light on the debates over its scope of action.
National Council of Justice; external control; judges; institutional design; agenda-building; decision-making process
