Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to analyze the judge conservator action in the Conservatórias do Comércio (as one instance of Casa da Suplicação), taking into account the tensions between the attempts of its regulation by public authorities and the autonomist practices related to the mercantile tradition.

Paper long abstract:

Although it is possible to conceive the law of merchants, ius mercatorum, as a product of special jurisdiction based on rules, rights and specific courts, and also as independent of the institutionalized forms of control of modern States, it is suitable to proceed with caution. Despite their attempts of autonomy, and the consequent tensions therefrom derived, it cannot be sustained that it has existed totally separate from the institutions created by the public powers of monarchies whose enlightened projects of reform and great intervention in the privileged legal spaces, were a turning point in the 18th century Ibero-American history. Then was created, in the Portuguese Empire, a specific instance in the scope of the Court's resources (Casa da Suplicação), called Conservatórias de Comércio, for the resolution of trade issues and with the election of a judge conservator. This privileged jurisdiction was carried to Brazil with the Royal Family in 1808 and would carry on after its Independence in 1822. This paper aims to analyze the formation of the judge conservator action, taking into account the tensions between the attempts of its regulation by public authorities and the autonomist practices related to the mercantile tradition. We will argue that, despite the attempts for a great standardization of laws, the commercial jurisprudence remained linked to traditional moral values of trade.