This paper analyzes the difficulties of evaluating publications in the field of Law, such as books, book chapters, edited volumes and scientific journals. The first part presents a brief explanation of the evaluation process in other countries. The second part presents the results of a field survey of 169 theses and dissertations from graduate programs in Brazil with the evaluation grades of 3, 4, 5 and 6. The paper demonstrates the impact of the evaluation criteria in the graduate programs and indicates what were the results of the assessment for 2007-2009 triennium. Finally, it offers some suggestions to improve the evaluation system.