Law School of Ribeirão Preto

Brazil is a Federative Republic that is administratively and politically divided into 27 federation units (26 States and one Federal District). The president, governors, mayors, senators, representatives and city councilmen are elected every four years through a direct election.

The country is located in South America. It is the fifth largest country in the world in area, with 8.514.876.599 km² and is also the fifth most populated country, with over 200 million inhabitants. Brazil is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean across all its coast, where most of the country’s population is concentrated.

Brazil is Latin America’s largest economy, and the sixth largest in the world in terms of exchange rates and the seventh when it comes to purchasing power parity (PPP), according to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Brazil economy is mixed with several natural resources. The State of São Paulo is the richest in the country and nowadays Brazil is among the world’s 20 largest exporters.

Brazilian topography is very diverse and includes mountains, plains, plateaus and savanna-like regions (“cerrado”). The country is also atop one of the planet’s largest underground freshwater reservoirs – the Aquífero Guarani, that is partially located underneath the city of Ribeirão Preto. Brazilian climate encompasses a wide range of climatic conditions throughout a large area of varied topographies, but most of the country is tropical. The southern region is an exception (including parts of the States of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul), with subtropical climate and reasonably well-defined seasons. Ribeirão Preto has a pleasant and warm climate, with high temperatures (an average of 26°C) throughout the entire year, with the exception of a few days during the winter season.

Brazilians are descendants from native peoples, Portuguese colonizers, Africans and from several different immigrant groups that settled in Brazil from 1820 to 1970. The majority of immigrants were from Italy and Portugal, but there was also a considerable amount of German, Spanish, Japanese and Syrian-Lebanese people. Racism is considered a felony by the Brazilian Constitution.

Due to its continental dimensions, Brazil is a very culturally diverse country that unites the Brazilian people’s different ethnicities. Because of this, a unique Brazilian culture doesn’t exist: it is a mosaic of various cultural sources that together form Brazilian culture. Due to the Portuguese cultural legacy, the various ethnicities that make Brazil are united by the same language and almost 90% of the population is Christian (either catholic or protestant). The country’s official language is Portuguese and Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country in America.

University of São Paulo Law School, Ribeirão Preto

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