Superior Court of Justice (Brazil)

The Superior Court of Justice of Brazil, known by its Portuguese name Superior Tribunal de Justica and the initials STJ, is the highest appellate court in Brazil for non-constitutional issues regarding federal law. Its jurisdiction is set out in Article 105 of the Brazilian Constitution. A Special Appeal can reach it when a judgement of an appellate court goes against a federal statute or when courts have interpreted the same federal statute differently. By rule it decides only questions of law and does not reexamine the facts of a case, and its justices are called ministers. It arose from the constitutional assembly that began in 1987, to relieve the Supreme Federal Court, which had been the only court of last resort for nearly all appeals, and the former ministers of the Federal Court of Appeals became its first justices.