Limites da autonomia das instituições jurídicas indígenas no Brasil (Limits to the Autonomy of Indigenous Legal Institutions in Brazil)

This paper discusses the tension between the constitutional framework that acknowledges the cultural autonomy of indigenous peoples in Brazil and the effective exercise of self-determination of communities with the possibility of creating indigenous legal institutions. Unlike the constitution of other Latin American countries, the Brazilian Constitution neither adopted plurinationality nor acknowledged the political autonomy of the indigenous communities. The country’s territorial and political unity, present in the ideal of sovereignty traditionally incorporated in the Brazilian constitutionalism and provided for in the Constitution, conflicts with the equally constitutional provision for cultural autonomy of indigenous social organization, habits, languages, and beliefs. Thus, based on the observation of diverse sources and the discourses pertaining to the state’s duty to demarcate lands and protect of the rights of Brazilian native peoples and the claims for greater autonomy of the indigenous communities, the text assesses whether the coordination between the indigenous and the national justice systems is feasible in the country’s current institutional scenario.