The Regional Federal Courts (in Portuguese, ''Tribunais Regionais Federais'', commonly called TRFs) are the courts of appeal of . They represent the second instance courts of the Brazilian Federal Justice system and are responsible not only for appeal processes against

trial court A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually made by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). Mos ...

decisions, but also for writs of security,

Habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

, and

Habeas data ''Habeas data'' is a writ and constitutional remedy available in certain nations. The literal translation from Latin of ''habeas data'' is “ e commandyou have the data,” or "you he data subjecthave the data." The remedy varies from country t ...

against acts by federal judges, motions to set aside judgments, criminal revisions, and conflicts of jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of the Federal Regional Courts is defined in Article 108 of the

Brazilian Constitution The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil) is the supreme law of Brazil. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of Brazil and the feder ...

. The Federal Regional Courts have a varied composition, with the number of judges defined by law, where one fifth are chosen by lawyers with 10 years experience or more, as well as by members of the

Public Prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

’s Office with 10 years experience or more. The rest of the judges are appointed through the promotion of federal judges with over five years experience, by longest service time and by merit, alternately. In each tribunal, there is an Internal Affairs of the Federal Justice office, responsible for corrections, inspections, and investigations at first instance. The internal affairs offices are also in charge of hiring processes, and instruction towards a uniformization of jurisdictional activity and forensic service. They are each run by a Regional Director, with a possible Vice-Director.

Federal Justice Regions

The Brazilian Federal Justice system is divided nationally into five geographically defined regions, each served by an appellate court: * Regional Federal Court of the 1st Region — '' Tribunal Regional Federal da 1ª Região'' (TRF-1) :: Seated in Brasília, Federal District, this appellate court covers the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas,

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goi ...

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, Mato Grosso,

Pará Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana ...

, Piauí, Rondônia, Roraima and

Tocantins Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 20 ...

, as well as the Brazilian Federal District. * Regional Federal Court of the 2nd Region — '' Tribunal Regional Federal da 2ª Região'' (TRF-2) :: Seated in Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, this appellate court covers the states of

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...

and

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. * Regional Federal Court of the 3rd Region — '' Tribunal Regional Federal da 3ª Região'' (TRF-3) :: Seated in

São Paulo, São Paulo SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S. ...

, this appellate court covers the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

. * Regional Federal Court of the 4th Region — '' Tribunal Regional Federal da 4ª Região'' (TRF-4) : Seated in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, this appellate court covers the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. * Regional Federal Court of the 5th Region — '' Tribunal Regional Federal da 5ª Região'' (TRF-5) :: Seated in Recife, Pernambuco, this appellate court covers the states of

Alagoas Alagoas (, ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is the city of Maceió. ...

, Ceará, Paraíba,

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, forming the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. The name literally translates as "Great Northern River", re ...

and

Sergipe Sergipe (), officially State of Sergipe, is a state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region along the Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geographical area at , larger only than the Federal District. Serg ...

New courts

The creation of four new courts was approved by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

by Constitutional Amendment number 73/2013. However, the National Association of Federal Prosecutors proposed a direct action of unconstitutionality against the creation of new courts; The former president of the Supreme Federal Court, Minister Joaquim Barbosa, suspended the constitutional amendment until the fore-mentioned direct action is judged. The new tribunals, whose installations have been suspended by the Supreme Federal Court, are planned as: * TRF for the 6th Region – headquartered in

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in Brazil's South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area ...

: would entail the jurisdictions of the following states: Santa Catarina and Paraná, currently linked to the TRF for the 4th Region, and Mato Grosso do Sul, previously linked to the TRF for the 3rd Region. * TRF for the 7th Region - headquartered in Belo Horizonte: would entail the jurisdiction of

, previously linked to the TRF for the 1st Region. * TRF for the 8th Region - headquartered in Salvador: would entail the jurisdiction of

, previously linked to the TRF for the 1st Region, and

, previously linked to the TRF for the 5th Region. * TRF for the 9th Region - headquartered in Manaus: would entail the jurisdictions of the following states: Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia and Roraima, all previously linked to the TRF for the 1st Region.

External links

* http://www.trf1.jus.br * http://www.trf2.jus.br * http://www.trf3.jus.br * http://www.trf4.jus.br * http://www.trf5.jus.br Judiciary of Brazil {{Brazil-law-stub

Federal Justice Regions

New courts

See also

External links