Supreme agenda: interests in dispute in judicial review in Brazil

ABSTRACT

In this paper we discuss the roles that Brazil's Supreme Court (stf) has played while arbitrating interests in dispute in the constitutionality control of laws, through judicial review cases (adis). For this, we rely on quantitative analysis of adis judged by the court between the years 1988 and 2014, mapping the content of the Court's decision-making agenda and the scope of its decisions, determining to what extent the Supreme Court has made a difference in arenas of social and political conflict in the country. We conclude that despite taking part in important disputes in arenas of social and political conflict, Supreme Court's agenda has been taken by issues related to the delineation of public careers, deciding on expansion or restraint of state bureaucracy prerogatives. Among the different roles that the current literature on judicialization of politics has attributed to Supreme Courts around the world, in a scenario of expanding political power of the judiciary, we found out that in Brazil, more than a countermajoritarian institution, or an instance to advance social and collective rights, Supreme Court has played the role of a true corporate deliberation body.

Keywords:
Supreme Court; Decision-making agenda; Judicial review; Judicialization of politics; Civil servants