This article aims to analyze the principle of insignificance in Criminal Law and reflect on what is the best way to operationalize it dogmatically. After an introduction that briefly deals with the context of emergence of this principle, the text presents the main conceptions used by national doctrine and court decisions to apply it, in order to weigh on the systematic and political advantages and disadvantages inherent to each of them. At this point, the article discusses the conception advocated by the prevailing national doctrine - according to which the insignificance is to be understood as a clause of exclusion of the "material typicality" of a conduct -, and suggests that this conception can be the basis of serious misunderstandings committed by our courts at the time of determine whether a conduct is criminally insignificant or not. Finally the text tries to point out some general outlines of a dogmatic formulation more appropriate to this principle, aiming to overcome the various difficulties that arise from the adoption of the majority view on this subject in Brazil.
Insignificance principle; Ciminal Law doctrine; Application of Criminal Law principles by Brazilian judiciary