The Supremo Tribunal Federal on the frontiers of law: deliberative performance and constitutional reasoning

Abstract

The Supremo Tribunal Federal has assumed an increasingly important role in the Brazilian political-legal system. The legal vocabulary incorporated expressions a "judicial activism" and "judicialization of politics," which, in fact, are reflections of specific conceptions of what the law is and what is it function in a democratic regime. The naturalization of institutional grammars paralyzes the analytical capacity of lawyers and, based on a preconceived notion of constitutionalism and the separation of powers, prevents the transformation of political institutions. This project assumes that constitutional courts have much to gain and to contribute to interaction between the powers if they become deliberative institutions. Much has been said in abstract about the advantages and potential of having a constitutional court. However, how courts perform their role? How materializes the deliberative ideal in the practice of constitutional courts? STF's important aspects were left in the background. The interaction with the public sphere, the internal deliberations between justices and the form of issuing its decisions are important to assess how the court plays its role and effectively fulfills the promises that justify its presence in the Brazilian institutional design. From this, this research intends to focus in the debate on deliberative performance of constitutional courts, with their practices, procedures and institutional culture, as well it aims to diagnose and to evaluate the performance of the STF in specific cases related to the reform of the political system. (AU)