Institutional Conflict Settlement Field in Brazil: Four Levels of Justice System

The paper proposes an interpretation of the operation of the State conflict settlement field in Brazil. It takes the perspective of disputes among corporations, knowledge and practices that take part of this field. A reflection on the Brazilian case proposes the coexistence of at least four conflict settlement logics (or four interaction levels) to which correspond hierarchies of rituals, proceedings, persons, types of conflict and places. The study is based on eight years of ethnographic approach in courts and State informal services of justice. The observation on ordinary courts proceedings, informal courts, extra-judicial techniques, formal and informal police proceedings (including illegal ones) leads to an analysis of the coexistence and disputes in a field that produces unequal treatment of the citizens.