Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Caught in an authoritarian trap of its own making? Brazil’s Lava Jato anti-corruption investigation and the politics of prosecutorial overreach

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Meszaros, George (2020) Caught in an authoritarian trap of its own making? Brazil’s Lava Jato anti-corruption investigation and the politics of prosecutorial overreach. Journal of Law and Society, 47 (S1). S54-S73. doi:10.1111/jols.12245

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP-Caught-authoritarian-trap-Brazil-anti-corruption-investigation-Meszaros-2020.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer.
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0.

Download (122Kb) | Preview
[img] PDF
WRAP-Caught-authoritarian-trap-Brazil-anti-corruption-investigation-Meszaros-2020.pdf - Accepted Version
Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (1029Kb)
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12245

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

The negative and corrosive impacts of corruption in the fields of economics, politics, and law are widely discussed. Less understood are the potentially negative impacts of anti‐corruption struggles and strategies themselves. This article presents a case study of Brazil's ‘Car Wash’ (‘Lava Jato’) scandal from a legal and political perspective. Although the subsequent Operation Car Wash investigation was widely regarded as remarkably successful, supposedly buttressing the rule of law through high‐profile prosecutions of leading politicians and businesspersons, the article argues that legal due process, wider constitutional law, and the political process were undermined. While the use of media leaks to strengthen the investigation proved tactically successful, when coupled with new legal instruments it undermined the presumption of innocence and contributed to a climate in which political and legal debates themselves became increasingly subordinated to simplistic polarizing anti‐corruption discourses, thereby undermining an already fragile political and institutional environment.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: K Law [Moys] > KS Latin America
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Money laundering -- Brazil, Political corruption -- Brazil, Leaks (Disclosure of information) --Brazil, Corruption investigation -- Brazil, Trials (Political crimes and offenses) -- Brazil
Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Law and Society
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN: 0263-323X
Official Date: October 2020
Dates:
DateEvent
October 2020Published
20 September 2020Available
15 June 2020Accepted
Volume: 47
Number: S1
Page Range: S54-S73
DOI: 10.1111/jols.12245
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Open Access
Copyright Holders: © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Law and Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cardiff University (CU).
Related URLs:
  • Publisher

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item
twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us