This article aims to test the applicability of the prevailing theories in the Law and Development field in a specific aspect of the judicial reform: the disciplinary control in the National Justice Council (CNJ). First of all, we explore the dominant literature of institutional reforms, to clarify its main theoretical assumptions, which is followed by the exposure of critical approaches about them. The main changes introduced by the CNJ are then described, and some of their effects are shown, effects that can already be felt. This path allows us to start the answer to the main question of the article, which is the relevance of the dominant theoretical frameworks to the problem of the disciplinary function of the council, assessing, thereby, the adhesion of these theories to the Brazilian reality. The work was done by describing commonly used arguments on institutional reforms' approaches in the field in order to verify their responsiveness to the main debates that arose at the time of the creation of the CNJ. Having established that these theoretical frameworks are not sufficient, we suggest ways to combine approaches of Law and Development to concrete situations, considering the relevant local variations often relegated by the dominant theories.
Law and Development; prevailing theories; institutional reforms; National Justice Council (CNJ)