The Brazilian National Judicial School for Formation and Development (Enfam) is the official institution, with a national scope, in charge of training judges. The School has the authority to regulate, authorize and oversee courses pertaining to entrance, tenure acquisition and promotion in the judicial career.
Mission
Promoting, regulating, and supervising the formation and development of Brazilian judges, in order to align the provision of Justice with societal demands.
Vision
Being the national reference for other judicial schools in teaching and researching matters related to judges’ activities.
History
The history of judicial education in Brazil can be confounded with the trajectory of a magistrate that was, above all, agreat professor. In over than forty years of work for the Brazilian judicial branch, Justice Sálvio de Figueiredo Teixeira made judge qualification one of his stated goals. His great dream came true when Enfam was set up. The institution holds his name in honor to that devotion.
Constitutional Mission
Created by Constitutional Amendment n. 45/2004 and established by Administrative Resolution n. 3/2006 of the Superior Court of Justice – STJ (the highest jurisdiction on federal law in Brazil), Enfam builds its actions on the following pillars:
- Training of trainers, which allows for standardized contents to be passed on to judges attending the courses;
- Coordination and Supervision, to follow up the fulfilment of pedagogical guidelines laid down by Enfam, as determined by Administrative Resolution n. 159 of the National Council of Justice (CNJ); and
- Provision of other courses of initial and continuous training.
The Superior Court of Justice also approved Enfam’s Rules of Procedure, according to which the Director-General has the authority to draft and enforce ordinances referred to course accreditation and the establishment of working groups.
By means of accreditation, Enfam analyzes to what extent the pedagogical planning by other judicial or magistracy institutions – at federal or state levels – is compatible with the appropriate general rules and criteria set out by Enfam.
In 2016, Enfam enacted Resolution n. 6/2016, thus entrusting its accreditation unit with the function of reviewing whether interested schools or institutions have the required capacity to offer courses on judicial mediation, in light of the general guidelines issued by the National Council of Justice, Enfam itself or other judicial schools attached to other high Courts.
According to Enfam’s Rules of Procedures, the Superior Council of the School is also responsible to set out norms and resolutions regarding the institution’s functioning.
Enfam and the Structure of the Judiciary Branch
Among its functions and duties, Enfam is responsible for:
- planning, executing and coordinating educational actions;
- elaborating norms and guidelines regarding the judicial training and development;
- accrediting and monitoring official courses offered by other judicial schools.
Beyond those, Enfam is also charged with:
- setting the guidelines for judicial training and development;
- encouraging studies, researches and debates for the enhancement of adjudication;
- accrediting and monitoring the official courses for different stages of the judicial career (entrance, tenure
- acquisition, promotion);
- establishing the basis for a humanistic and professional vision for judicial education;
- coordinating the judicial educational system of 5 Federal Schools, 27 State Schools and 8 Associative Schools
- reaching around 13,000 judges in Brazil.