The thesis presented deals with International Adoption from the perspective of the best interest
of the child and his/her fundamental right to family life confronting its subsidiarity in Brazilian
legislation. The problem raised in this research was: “to what extent does the subsidiarity of
international adoption in Brazil affect the realization of the child's right to family life in the
perspective of child’s best interest?”. The objective was: “to investigate the obstacles to
international adoption and obstacles to effective family life in the perspective of the principle
of subsidiarity”. The method used was the deductive one and the techniques were bibliographic
research; jurisprudential, via decisions of the Third Panel of the STJ; and the field, where visits
and semi-structured interviews were carried out with the Federal Central Administrative
Authority, State Judicial Commissions of International Adoption in the states of Pará, Ceará,
Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, and Mato Grosso do Sul, and also, forms
were applied, via e-mail, to the State Judicial Commissions for International Adoption from all
over Brazil, to ACAF, in Courts of Childhood and Youth, State Prosecutor's Office, as well as
in bodies accredited to act in international adoption. The main results found were: that the
current Brazilian legislation puts international adoption as the last resort and, thus, does not
guarantee the effectiveness of the child’s right to family life in a situation of adoptability; that
from the analysis of the decisions of the STJ, the best interest of the child is family life, with its
institutionalization being the last resort; and that from the analysis of the interviews and applied
forms, it was found that most professionals do not consider subsidiarity to be an obstacle;
however, it was identified that professionals with longer experience in international adoption
understand differently, arguing that subsidiarity “runs against time” and delays the child's
adoption process. The conclusion reached was that insofar as the subsidiarity principle places
international adoption as a last resort, the fundamental right of the child to family coexistence
is not taken into account in view of his/her best interest in being raised and developed in the
midst of a family that cares and loves the child.
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