Barra Mansa, Rio de Janeiro, 1911–1918: A BriefHistory of Judging, or How Judicial DecisionsChanged Over Time
Keywords:
Judging, Decisions, 1911–1918, Rio de JaneiroAbstract
This paper investigates how a Brazilian judge in Barra Mansa, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, adjudicated cases in the early 20th century. It focuses on how Judge Torres made decisions and engaged with legal writings, judicial precedents, and laws. The study seeks to uncover the interrelated lines he drew between the legal framework governing adjudication and the normative rules he applied in concrete cases. Since jury trials were an exception in the Brazilian legal system and none occurred in Barra Mansa during the research period, Torres’s rulings played a central role in shaping local concepts of justice. Analyzing judicial decision-making in a specific town and time frame sheds light on the broader dynamics of legal practice in early 20th-century Brazil.
References
1
Volta Redonda was the forensic district of Barra Mansa until 1955, when the state judiciary system created the First Court of Volta Redonda.
2
Antonio Figueira de Almeida, Barra Mansa: Memória Comemorativa do Primeiro Centenário (Câmara Municipal: Barra Mansa, 1932), 141.
3
The value at the time would buy a thousand bricks. See Decree No. 2597 of the State of São Paulo of September 1, 1915. Today, a thousand bricks cost U$ 50 in Brazil.
4
Thomas Duve and Tamar Herzog, The Cambridge History of Latin American Law in Global Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 14.
5
Thomas Duve and Tamar Herzog, The Cambridge History of Latin American Law in Global Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 5.
6
https://bndigital.bn.gov.br/hemeroteca-digital/
7
See: Luís Fernando Pereira and Vanessa Massuchetto, “O rei como dispensador da graça: autor de livramento crime e cultura jurídica criminal em Curitiba (1777-1800),” Revista Tempo 26, no. 1 (2020): 124–42.
8
See: Rodrigo Mazzei, “Breve história (ou estória) do Direito processual civil brasileiro: das Ordenações até a derrocada do Código de Processo Civil de 1973,” Revista do Instituto de Hermenêutica Jurídica no. 12 (2014): 177–204.
9
See: Arno Wehling, Do antigo regime ao constitucionalismo: a Casa da Suplicação do Brasil, 1808-1829/1833 (Rio de Janeiro: Processo, 2024) and Andréa Sleminan, “As monarquias constitucionais e a justiça, de Cádis ao Novo Mundo: o caso da motivação das sentenças no Império do Brasil (c.1822-1850),” Dimensões - Revista de História da Ufes. 39 (2017): 17–52.
10
Carlos Garriga and Andréa Slemian, ““Em trajes brasileiros”: justiça e constituição na América Ibérica (c.1750-1850),” Revista de História, no. 169 (2013): 181–221.
11
See: Gustavo Siqueira, “O Direito Civil antes do Código de 1916: a ausência das ordenações Filipinas e as expectativas na imprensa e na doutrina nacional.” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro 178 (2017): 545–62.
12
See: Julio Cesar Manoel Costa, A judicialização da emancipação em Barra Mansa: ações de liberdade, Lei do Ventre Livre e mediações institucionais no arquivo fazenda da Posse (1854–1887). Phd Thesis, Programa de Pós-graduação em Direito, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 2026).
13
The court cases have been cataloged and organized by an agreement between the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and the Barra Mansa City Hall. The archive contains cases tried in the city between the beginning of the 19th century and the end of the 20th century. Never researched or cataloged, it was only in 2024 that the first work based on the archive began. The city council kept the archive closed until an agreement with the university allowed researchers access to the material. The project website with more information: http://www.fazendadaposse.com.br.
14
Ultimately, the research project aims to analyze all the judicial decisions up to 1983, as well as to map all the judges who have passed through the city.
15
António Manuel Hespanha, História das Instituições: épocas medieval e moderna (Imprensa: Coimbra, Almedina, 1982).
16
António Manuel Hespanha, Como os juristas viam o mundo (Coimbra: Createspace Independent Pub, 2015).
17
Thomas Duve and Tamar Herzog, The Cambridge History of Latin American Law in Global Perspective. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 01–18.
18
A EPOCA, September 12, 1917, 5. This is how the newspaper described Torres in the month of his birthday: “an integral judge of law,” “descendant of the important and honorable Nogueira Ramos de Bananal Family,” who had won “deep sympathy for the upright, judicious, dignified and elevated manner in which he has always carried himself. We send our congratulations to the illustrious magistrate, one of the true glories of Rio de Janeiro’s magistracy.”
19
Jornal do Commercio, May 4, 1893, 2.
20
Correio Paulistano, May 29, 1879, 3.
21
Gazeta de Notícias, August 27, 1887, 2.
22
Ibidem.
23
Gazeta de Notícias, January 5, 1888, 2.
24
Jornal do Commercio, January 24, 1892, 2.
25
O Paiz, January 5, 1892, 2.
26
Here, he was already a judge of law, see: Gazeta de Notícias, July 17, 1893, 1, and Jornal do Commercio, June 16, 1895, 3.
27
O Fluminense, May 23, 1896, 3.
28
A União, March 20, 1919, 2.
29
Poder Judiciário do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Catálogo de Desembargadores, República, Parte I, 92.
30
Jornal do Commerio, June 3, 1919, 12.
