Os Estatutos do Visconde da Cachoeira e o modelo de Coimbra no debate inicial sobre a organização do ensino jurídico brasileiro (1825)

Since the period of colonial Brazil, the establishment of higher education institutions in the country has been an objective. Until the arrival of the royal family in Brazil, the policy of the Portuguese metropolis was the same as that adopted by other European countries (except Spain and England): not to offer higher education in overseas territories. With the declaration of Brazil's independence, the intention was to overcome the colonial past; thus, the result of the first educational reforms of independent Brazil is manifested in the Legal statute of August 11, 1827, which defined the beginning of higher legal education in Brazil, doing so by using an earlier text, the Statute of the Viscount of Cachoeira, of March 2, 1825. The objective of founding law courses in Brazil was similar to that which existed in Portugal: to form a bureaucratic body of lawyers, magistrates and civil servants. With this, one can consider the proximity between the two Statutes, that of Coimbra and that of Cachoeira, which were used at the time.