Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

23In Canada as in Portugal, disputes that are resolved before the courts can dealwith a multitude of areas of human concern reflected in the many specialized areas oflaw. Judges are given jurisdiction over certain areas of the law that depend on theorganization of the nation‘s system of courts and law. For example, criminal law suitstend to be resolved in specialized courts or court divisions. Figure 4 illustrates theprogression of a law suit according to the Brazilian Criminal Proceedings which aresimilar to the Portuguese Criminal Proceedings (Figure 4).Figure 4. Progression of a law suit according to the Brazilian CriminalProceedings (Fuzer and Barros 2009)Initiating a law suit is often the last resort when two parties fail to come to anagreement, or when one party feels wronged by the other. Fuzer and Barros (2009)