Stability and coherence arising from the effective creation and application of the binding judicial precedents established in the Civil Process Code of 2015: study of legal action 4070 and of ADPF 402

Abstract

In addition to the decisions handed down in concentrated control of constitutionality, there were no concrete forms of seeking uniformity in the interpretation of the law in judicial decisions until the advent of the Brazilian Civil Process Code of 2015. This situation tends to be resolved through the implementation of the binding judicial precedents contained in this new legal document, in order to create parameters for judging matters of law. The new Brazilian Code of Civil Process, in addition to providing a list of precedents, establishes, in its art. 926, that "the courts must standardize their jurisprudence and keep it stable, complete and consistent". However, this mere legal provision will not be able to guarantee the stability, integrity and coherence in Brazilian Courts' understandings, and it is also necessary to change the deliberative procedure for obtaining decisions that effectively result in institutional understanding on the subject, with the consequent respect to collegiality and identification of the reason for deciding the decision generating the precedent, and the example must be given by the Brazilian Supreme Court. In order to demonstrate the desired results, the Brazilian Supreme Court's cases AP 470 (Eduardo Cunha) and ADPF 402 (Renan Calheiros) will be studied.