Interview with Francisco Rezek, former Minister of the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF)

Abstract

Francisco Rezek was born in Cristina, in the south of Minas Gerais, on January 18, 1944, to a family originating from the province of Baalbek, Lebanon. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at UFMG (FDUFMG), being the valedictorian of the class of 1966, and obtained his doctorate from the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1970. He was a professor at FDUFMG, the University of Brasília, and the Rio Branco Institute. As a prosecutor from the first public contest in 1972, he was already Deputy Attorney General when he was appointed Minister of the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) in 1983, at the age of 39. In 1990, he resigned from the judiciary to take over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, returning to the STF in 1992. To date, he is the only minister to have joined the Supreme Court twice. After retiring from the STF in 1997, he was elected by the United Nations for a term as a judge of the International Court of Justice, remaining in The Hague until 2006. Since his return, he has been practicing advisory law in São Paulo. In this interview, Rezek recalls his time at Vetusta, highlights milestones of his remarkable career as a public servant, and shares reflections on law and justice in Brazil and the world.