Public defender’s office custos vulnerabilis intervention: normative and jurisprudential aspects

Abstract

This work dealt with the theme of the custos vulnerabilis intervention of the Public Defender’s
Office according to its normative aspects and its receptivity in the jurisprudence of national courts. Before the lack of expressive normative forecast on the part of the Institute in question, this study sought to verify its legitimacy to act procedurally in the condition of custos vulnerabilis, as well as its degree of receptivity in the national courts through
jurisprudential research. To this end, a descriptive and qualitative approach was adopted,
based on bibliographic and documentary research (normative, doctrinal and jurisprudential).
More specifically, this work sought to understand the institutional attributions of the Public Defender’s Office in the 1988 Constitution, especially regarding the essentiality of its function for justice and the protection it provides for the needy or vulnerable; as well as to unveil its vocation to intervene as custos vulnerabilis according to the 1988 Federal
Constitution – the legislation regulating this intervention and the role played by the national
courts in consolidating this powerful instrument for the realization of the rights of the needy. The results indicate that the Federal Constitution and the infraconstitutional norms that govern the Public Defender’s Office institutional attributions are part of a defensive legal microsystem that provide the normative substrate necessary for the role of  guardian of the vulnerable, which has been gradually recognized by the Judiciary.