Luís Roberto Barroso

His Excellency
Luís Roberto Barroso
His Excellency Luís Roberto Barroso
	Barroso in 2014
Justice of the Supreme Federal Court
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 26 June 2013
Appointed by	Dilma Rousseff
Preceded by	Ayres Britto
President of the Supreme Federal Court
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 28 September 2023
Vice President	Luiz Edson Fachin
Preceded by	Rosa Weber
Personal details
Born	11 March 1958 (age 66); Vassouras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Spouse	Tereza Cristina van Brussel (died 2023)
Children	2
Alma mater	Rio de Janeiro State University (LL.B., PhD); Yale University (LL.M.);
	Other judicial positions 2022–2023: Vice President, Supreme Federal Court ; 2020–2022: President, Superior Electoral Court ; 2018–2020: Vice President, Superior Electoral Court ; 2018–2022: Effective Justice, Superior Electoral Court ; 2014–2018: Substitute Justice, Superior Electoral Court ;

Luís Roberto Barroso (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɫwis, ɫwiʃ ʁoˈbeɾtu baˈʁɔzu]; born 11 March 1958) is a Brazilian law professor, jurist, Justice and President of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, having been nominated to the position by President Dilma Rousseff in 2013. Between 2020 and 2022, Barroso also served as President of the Superior Electoral Court.^[1]

Barroso graduated in law from the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), holds a Master's Degree in law from Yale University, and a PhD from UERJ. He has done post-doctoral studies at Harvard Law School and he is a professor of Constitutional Law at UERJ.

He is considered a liberal and progressive Justice,^[2]^[3] providing landmark votes on the legalization of abortion in pregnancies originated from rape^[4] and the criminalization of homophobia and transphobia in Brazil.^[5]

Life and career

Born in the city of Vassouras, Barroso received a bachelor's degree in law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) in 1980, and an LL.M. from Yale Law School in 1987. He received a doctorate in public law from UERJ in 2008 and is a tenured professor of constitutional law at the university.^[6]^[7] In 2011, Barroso was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, and while in the United States published the paper "Here, there and everywhere: human dignity in contemporary law and in the transnational discourse".^[8]

At 2011, Barroso became nationally known for being the lawyer of the militant Cesare Battisti in Brazil. Barroso implemented a defense that argued that his client's actions were justified because the actions were part of Battisti's fight against an authoritarian Italian regime.^[9]

Barroso owned the law firm Luís Roberto Barroso & Associados in Rio de Janeiro, which specialized in public law and Supreme Court litigation.^[8] Prior to being nominated to the Supreme Federal Court by Dilma Rousseff in May 2013 to replace Justice Carlos Ayres Britto, Barroso served as a state attorney in Rio de Janeiro state. He was the fourth Supreme Court nominee of Rousseff, who had previously nominated the justices Luiz Fux, Rosa Weber and Teori Zavascki.^[10] He was confirmed by the Federal Senate in early June, and was sworn into office on 26 June 2013.^[11]

Barroso has been invited to lecture in various universities around the world, including the prestigious New York University School of Law, in the United States, and London School of Economics and Oxford University, in England.^[12]^[13]

Barroso is an advocate for drug legalization, starting with decriminalizing the possession of marijuana for private consumption.^[14] His judicial views have been described as progressive.^[15]

References

^ Teixeira, Matheus; Fernandes, Talita (24 May 2020). "Barroso assume TSE em meio a ações que miram chapa Bolsonaro-Mourão" (in Portuguese). Folha de S. Paulo. Archived from the original on 26 May 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
^ "Um progressista no Supremo". Valor Econômico (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
^ "10 opiniões que fazem de Barroso o liberal mais poderoso do Brasil". Instituto Mercado Popular. 10 September 2017. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
^ "Turma do STF decide que aborto nos três primeiros meses de gravidez não é crime". Agência Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). 29 November 2016. Archived from the original on 30 October 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
^ "Julgamento da ADO 26 e do MI 4733 – omissão legislativa em criminalizar a homofobia e a transfobia". Luís Roberto Barroso (in Brazilian Portuguese). 25 February 2019. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
^ "Composição Atual". STF. 1 July 2013. Archived from the original on 30 January 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
^ "Luís Roberto Barroso", Supremo Tribunal Federal. Archived 26 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine.
^ ^a ^b "Prof. Luís Roberto Barroso '89 LLM to Discuss Brazil's Unbalanced Democracy". Yale Law School. 14 February 2011. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
^ Haidar, Rodrigo (10 June 2011). "O advogado que garantiu a liberdade de Battisti". Consultor Jurídico. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
^ Mendes, Priscilla; Oliveira, Mariana (23 May 2013). "Dilma indica constitucionalista Luís Roberto Barroso para o STF". G1 Política. Archived from the original on 2 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
^ Oliveira, Mariana; Passarinho, Nathalia (26 June 2013). "Luís Roberto Barroso toma posse como ministro do Supremo". G1 Política. Archived from the original on 2 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
^ "Brazil: Looking Beyond the Crisis". NYU School of Law. Archived from the original on 7 May 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
^ "Brazil Forum UK". brazilforum.org. Archived from the original on 7 May 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
^ "Brazil must legalise drugs, existing policy destroys lives". TheGuardian.com. 15 November 2017. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
^ "Um progressista no Supremo". Archived from the original on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.

Legal offices
Preceded by Ayres Britto	Justice of the Supreme Federal Court 2013–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Rosa Weber	Vice President of the Superior Electoral Court 2018–2020	Succeeded by Luiz Edson Fachin
	President of the Superior Electoral Court 2020–2022
	Vice President of the Supreme Federal Court 2022–2023
	President of the Supreme Federal Court 2023–present	Incumbent
Lines of succession
Preceded by Rodrigo Pacheco as President of the Federal Senate	Brazilian presidential line of succession 3rd in line as President of the Supreme Federal Court	Last
Order of precedence
Preceded by Arthur Lira as President of the Chamber of Deputies	Brazilian order of precedence 7th in line as President of the Supreme Federal Court	Followed by Former Presidents of Brazil