A busca da verdade no processo civil brasileiro: a atuação do juiz e o processo ético

Abstract

It is a study on the search for truth in Brazilian civil suits, on ethical aspects of procedural relations and their influence on that search, and also on the judge s performance towards a more ethical and fair process, strengthening the idea of effectiveness of judicial services arising from a socially acceptable or required procedural conduct. It examines the historical evolution of the search for truth during procedures. It defines truth and procedural effectiveness, demonstrating that the existence of the former in the records is presupposed by the latter. It discusses the search for truth throughout the trial, drawing a distinction between formal truth, real truth, factual truth, verisimilitude and probability. It discourses upon the existing connection between search for truth, the dispositive principle and free evaluation of evidence. It explains the requirement of truthfulness in court and its relation to procedural integrity. It demonstrates the existing link between evidence and truth, examining the role of the judge and the enforcement of the burden of proof. It draws a parallel between factual truth, procedural swiftness, and quality of judicial defense. It explains the relation between truth, procedures and procedural techniques. It discusses the publicist conception of trials, the ethical obligation of those participating in the procedural relationship, and the judge s ethical powers, and, at the end, proposes a new critical viewpoint on procedural acts which violate the requirement of truthfulness and, therefore, procedural integrity; and a new interpretive stand on the rules which govern these two themes - requirement of truthfulness and procedural integrity