Housed in a modernist palace in Brasilia, Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal has long been something of a joke. It is the most overburdened court in the world, thanks to a plethora of rights and privileges entrenched in the country's 1988 constitution. These include an almost limitless right to appeal against any court ruling until the case reaches the 11 wise men and women in the supreme court. Every justice writes his own opinion in a case, and till recently the tribunal's decisions did not bind lower courts. The result was a court that is overstretched to the point of mutiny. The supreme court received 100,781 cases last year. Last month one of its members accused the court's president, Gilmar Mendes, of destroying justice, in a televised session (which promptly ended).
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