Acesso à justiça e proteção dos vulneráveis: Uma análise da atuação da Defensoria Pública como custos vulnerabilis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of the Public Defender's Office as custos vulnerabilis in the realization of the right to access to justice. The discussion on this topic is of great importance, as it is a fundamental guarantee for the protection and defense of the needy. With this in mind, it analyzes the evolution of this concept and its construction as a fundamental right within the Brazilian legal framework. Therefore, it performs an analysis of the main obstacles to effective access to justice, contemporaneously, in the Brazilian judicial system. It makes a historical review of the models of legal assistance applied in Brazil. Finally, it analyzes the institutional development of the Public Defender's Office, and its role in defending the vulnerable, as custos vulnerabilis. A bibliographical and documental research was carried out for its accomplishment, through the hypothetical deductive method, using the legal norms that dispose of the matter, the jurisprudential understanding of the courts and the doctrinal positions. From the results obtained, it appears that the custos vulnerabilis institute has been accepted by the judicial system.