O ethos da formação da cultura do conflito na educação jurídica maranhense e os meios adequados de resolução de conflitos

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between the culture of conflict and legal education in Brazil, focusing empirically on the curricula of Law schools in the state of Maranhão. The research problem arises from the observation that the traditional model of legal education,strongly centered on litigation and the “culture of the sentence”, contributes to the reproduction of professional practices primarily oriented toward judicial proceedings, to the detriment of the Appropriate Dispute Resolution Methods (ADR). The guiding hypothesis is that legal education, by remaining captive to a contentious and state-centered paradigm, reproduces in the academic sphere the same adversarial logic that dominates the justice system, thereby hindering the advancement of a culture of social pacification and genuine access to justice. Methodologically, the study adopts a juridical-propositional approach, combining bibliographic review and documentary research. The first part of the investigation examines the theoretical foundations of the culture of conflict, tracing its sociological roots in Simmel and Coser, and its juridical elaboration in Chiovenda, Taruffo, and Boaventura de Sousa Santos. The second part focuses on the empirical analysis of the curricula of Maranhão’s law schools, collected from institutional websites and complemented by data from the e-MEC system, following the documentary research parameters proposed by Fonseca (2009) and Gustin (2020). Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the curricular content were conducted in light of the National Curriculum Guidelines (2018 and 2021) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 16, which calls for the promotion of peaceful, just, and inclusive societies. The findings confirm the initial hypothesis: although ADR mechanisms are institutionally recognized and normatively established, their inclusion in legal education remains marginal, with reduced workload, terminological imprecision, and a lack of curricular integration. The study further reveals that the marginalization of consensual methods within legal education mirrors the same pattern observed in forensic practice, indicating a structural resistance to the culture of consensus. This scenario demonstrates that transforming the justice system requires, above all, a pedagogical reconfiguration capable of integrating technical training with ethical and communicative education, grounded in values such as empathy, cooperation, and dialogue. It is concluded that strengthening appropriate dispute resolution methods demands an educational policy committed to building a culture of peace and social responsibility, aligned with the goals of the 2030 Agenda. Balanced legal education, both technical and humanistic, critical and empathetic, thus emerges as a necessary condition for the realization of broad access to justice and the consolidation of a more participatory, inclusive, and plural Democratic Rule of Law.