Fachin Moves to Craft Binding Ethics Code for Brazil’s Top Courts Through CNJ

Overview

• The initiative, led by STF president Edson Fachin, shifts from an internal STF effort to a CNJ-based process so the rules cover the STF, STJ, TST and STM.
• The Observatório defined four work priorities on Nov. 24: transparency of judges’ remuneration; ethics, lobbying and conflicts of interest; data transparency; and integrity systems, technology and governance.
• The blueprint draws on Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court code, featuring limits on paid speeches and event participation, disclosure of outside earnings, media restraint and post-term cooling-off restrictions.
• Brazil lacks a specific enforceable code for superior-court ministers, despite widespread sponsored travel and paid lectures that experts say risk unequal access and conflicts of interest.
• Fachin has consulted peers but faces resistance within superior courts, while public scrutiny has grown with cases such as Dias Toffoli’s jet trip and foreign precedents like the U.S. Supreme Court’s adoption of a code; former minister Celso de Mello endorsed the plan as urgent.