Decoding the Judicialization of Indigenous Territories in Brazil: A QCA-Based Approach

Abstract Why are Indigenous Territories judicialized? To answer this question, we employed Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) approach in its crisp-set modality, using a dataset of 74 cases of Indigenous Territories, comprising 57 cases that were in litigation before the Supreme Court and 17 cases that were not judicialized. We tested the following causal conditions: 1. the occurrence of economic and land conflicts; 2. state inefficiency; 3. the institutional design of the policy for recognizing traditional lands; and 4. the application of the temporal milestone thesis. We hypothesize that the occurrence of economic and land conflicts is the main explanatory factor for the phenomenon under investigation. We conclude by pointing out that the elements that explain judicialization are structural in the formation of the Brazilian state and are therefore complex to resolve.