The public prosecution’s office in facing the reflections of the covid-19 crisis: an analysis about its judicial and extrajudicial action in the state of Rio Grande do Norte

This study aimed to understand the role of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Rio Grande do Norte in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and September 2020. Therefore, a survey of Parquet activities was carried out based on the portal of MPRN news, considering, in the analysis, the period of operation;the classification of the measure;the theme;the territorial cut of the performance;involved actors and the stage of public policy of each measure analyzed. Then, the activities of the MPRN were classified based on the typologies pointed out by Goulart;Coelho and Kozicki;Silva and Da Ros. The results obtained evidenced, on the one hand, the preference for dialogue regarding public policies and extrajudicial action in a context of sanitary crisis and, on the other, the existence of internal conflicts that explained the discretion that characterizes the performance of the Public Ministry in the Brazil. It is noteworthy that the data refer to the performance reported by the institution itself, not covering the entire effort made by the MPRN during the research period. © 2021 Centro Universitario de Brasilia. All rights reserved.

Agenda and conflicts in the context of COVID-19 pandemic: A view from the reality of Rio Grande do Norte

This article aimed to understand how the federative model contributed to the judicialization of the crisis and influenced the responses to combat the pandemic, as well as the role of the Judiciary in the context of crisis. For this purpose, 931 lawsuits filed in Federal and State Courts were analyzed. The results demonstrate problems of coordination and cooperation between federated entities and the need for constant action by the Judiciary in confronting the pandemic and as a key player in conflicts involving public and private actors. In the end, there was a growing trend in judicial action related to COVID-19, with the extension of restrictive measures, revealing multiple crises from a diversity of agendas recurrently brought to the Judiciary. It is concluded that, despite the identification of Rio Grande do Norte (Potiguar) Judiciary power's relevant role with quick responses, health and federative crises cannot be analyzed separately.