Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Judging Poverty and Inequality in Brazil offers an unprecedented empirical analysis of the judicialization of poverty in Brazil, examining how equality law has been mobilized to address this socio-economic challenge. Focusing on a postcolonial state deeply marked by a long history of slavery and its enduring legacies, the book explores the intricate relationship between poverty and inequality and advances critical debates on how law can more effectively respond to entrenched socio-economic exclusion. Its analysis centres on the case law of two prominent courts with jurisdiction over the Brazilian State: the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). The book unfolds in two parts. Part I analyses the interconnections between poverty and inequality in theory, drawing on perspectives from law, sociology, and political science. Part II turns to the Brazilian case. It tracks the evolution of monetary and multidimensional poverty in the country from 1988 to 2023 and, in light of this political and socio-economic context, examines how the two courts have addressed poverty and its interconnections with inequality. It identifies the judicial strategies developed by the STF and the IACtHR to address the multidimensional oppressions associated with poverty through the right to equality and non-discrimination, and examines their impact on poverty reduction in Brazil throughout the twenty-first century.</jats:p>