Fundamentos e realidade da defensoria pública em Goiás: paradoxos constitucionais frente às necessidades sociais

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the main historical, social and political determinants that influenced the creation of the Public Defender's Office in the states and its strengthening as a state body responsible for legal assistance in accordance with the model established by the Federal Constitution of 1988. To explain the relationship between social context in which the Office of the Public Defender is inserted and the factors that led to the delay in its implementation constituted the great challenge of this dissertation. Several elements provoked the postponement of its structuring, such as the protectionism of the Public Prosecutor's Office with its constitutional attributions, the game of political interest between the legal class and the local Public Power that nominated lawyers in commissioned positions, reiterating the practice of " employment, "as well as liberal spending-reducing legislative measures that hinder medium- and long-term investment in the expansion of the Public Defender's Office to all districts in the state. The Public Defender's Office, in addition to its constitutional functions, has as institutional objectives, among them, the reduction of social inequality, the prevalence and effectiveness of human rights and the affirmation of the Democratic Rule of Law. These objectives are consistent with the democratic and social spirit of the Federal Constitution of 1988, which, in turn, is based on the foundations of the Welfare State. However, legal aid is inserted in a context of contradiction, in that it is characterized as a positive provision of the State that seeks to guarantee the fundamental right of every human being to trigger the Judiciary in the face of an injury or threat to the right, while that from the 1970s public policies became the target of neo-liberal measures of privatization, downsizing of the administrative machinery, and budget cuts aimed at reducing public expenditures in response to the demands of the market economy. In view of the paradox in which the Public Defender's Office is inserted, it is intended to understand the current situation of these organ in the state of Goiás, given the importance of its constitutional function as an instrument of social justice