Constitutional justice and structural litigation in Brazil
the example of rights
Keywords:
social security rights, structural litigation, judicial control of public policies, incident of resolution of repetitive demandsAbstract
This article aims to provide a brief overview of the work of the Brazilian constitutional courts (better known to us by the term constitutional jurisdiction) in the area of structural litigation. The discussion of structural litigation appears in the courts much more as judicial intervention or control over public policies or public interest litigation. These are more common expressions in our country, but they have a common meaning with what US constitutional doctrine calls structural litigation. It should also be noted that in Brazilian law, although there is a long tradition of expressly providing for class actions3 (incorporating class actions from the US model), structural litigation, or as we have indicated, litigation relating to public policies or matters of public interest, does not, as a rule, take the form of class action litigation. As a result, millions of lawsuits are filed every year, often with similar or even identical legal issues, resulting in an overwhelming number of lawsuits in Brazil, currently close to 100,000,000 (one hundred million lawsuits). This volume of lawsuits causes the inevitable congestion of judicial bodies. As a response to this, various mechanisms have been created in recent years in an attempt to resolve this situation. Firstly, there has been the focus on alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (ADRs, from US law), especially since the publication of Resolution 125/2010 of the National Council of Justice, the body responsible for administrative management and oversight of the Judiciary. In the background, now in 2016, a new Code of Civil Procedure (Law No. 13.105/2015) has come into force, which brings with it the promise of speedy procedural solutions, but, above all, incorporates many procedural mechanisms for the collective resolution of demands, such as the incident for the resolution of repetitive demands (art. 976 et seq.), as well as the mechanism for the resolution of repetitive appeals (art. 1.036). This is the general picture of the subject, in brief. Next, we will discuss the strategic reciprocal relationships between the Judiciary and the structuring of public policies in Brazil, based on the example of public social security policies, which will allow us to examine the role of constitutional jurisdiction (constitutional justice) more broadly in matters of structural litigation and the realization of fundamental rights.
References
BERWANGER, Jane Lucia Wilhelm. Segurado especial: o conceito jurídico para além da sobrevivência individual. 2. ed., rev. e atual. Curitiba:
Juruá, 2014.
BERWANGER, Jane Lucia Wilhelm. Previdência rural – inclusão social. 2. ed. Curitiba: Juruá, 2010.
DEUTSCH, Morton. The resolution of conflict – constructive and destructive processes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973.
FISS, Owen. Um novo processo civil. Estudos norte-americanos sobre jurisdição, constituição e sociedade. Trad. Daniel Porto Godinho da Silva;
Melina de Medeiros Rós. São Paulo: Revista dos Tribunais, 2004.
FRANÇA, Giselle de Amaro e. O Poder Judiciário e as políticas públicas previdenciárias. São Paulo: LTr, 2011.
GALANTER, Marc. La justice ne se trouve pas seulement dans les décisions des tribunaux. In: CAPPELLETTI, Mauro (Coord.). Accès a la justice
et État-Providence. Paris: Economica, 1984.
LUHMANN, Niklas. La sociedade de la sociedad. Ciudad de México: Herder, 2007.
MANCUSO, Rodolfo Camargo. Acesso à justiça: condicionantes legítimas e ilegítimas. São Paulo: Revista dos Tribunais, 2011.
McCANN, Michael W. Poder Judiciário e mobilização do direito: uma perspectiva dos “usuários”. Revista da EMARF. Rio de Janeiro, p. 175-196,
dez. 2010.
MIRANDA ROSA, F.A. de; CÂNDIDO, Odila D. de Alagão. Jurisprudência e mudança social. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editor, 1988.
SADEK, Maria Teresa. Judiciário e arena pública: um olhar a partir da Ciência Política. In: GRINOVER, Ada Pellegrini; WATANABE, Kazuo
(Coords.). O controle jurisdicional de políticas públicas. 2. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Forense, 2012.
SALLES, Carlos Alberto de. Processo civil de interesse público. In: SALLES, Carlos Alberto de (Org.). Processo civil e interesse público – o processo como instrumento de defesa social. São Paulo: Revista dos Tribunais, 2003.
SANTOS, Boaventura de Sousa. Para uma revolução democrática da justiça. 3. ed. São Paulo: Cortez, 2011.
SAVARIS, José Antonio. Uma teoria da decisão judicial da previdência social: contributo para a superação da prática utilitarista. São Paulo: Conceito, 2011.
SERAU JR., Marco Aurélio. Resolução do conflito previdenciário e direitos fundamentais. São Paulo: LTr, 2015.
SCHEINGOLD, Stuart. The politics of rights. Lawyers, public policy and political change. Michigan: Michigan Press, 2004.
THEODORO JÚNIOR, Humberto; NUNES, Dierle; BAHIA, Alexandre Melo Franco; PEDRO, Flávio Quinaud. Novo CPC – fundamentos e sistematização. 2. ed. rev., atual. e ampl. Rio de Janeiro: Forense, 2015.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By submitting the academic text to the Journal of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (Revista do Tribunal Regional Federal da 3ª Região), the authors declare to be the holders of the copyright, responding exclusively for any claims related to such rights; as well as guaranteeing the non-existence of any breach of academic ethics.
The authors retain the copyright and grant the Journal of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region the right of publication, without encumbrance and without limitations as to term, territory, or any other.
The concepts and opinions expressed in the signed works are the sole responsibility of their authors, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this Journal, nor of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region.
