Overview
- On Thursday at the 16th Symposium of Constitutional Law in Curitiba, Justice Luiz Fux defended the Supreme Federal Court’s practice of ruling on public-policy disputes by saying the Court is obliged to decide when cases are brought before it.
- Fux blamed a deeply divided Congresso Nacional for shifting politically costly choices to the judiciary so legislators can avoid paying a ‘social price’ with voters.
- He linked the growth of judicial intervention to the 1988 Constitution’s broadening of rights, which increased the number and scope of disputes that citizens take to court.
- Fux acknowledged the Court can be ‘effectively invasive’ when it resolves matters that belong to the legislature and said those issues should, when possible, be returned to Parliament.
- He warned that ongoing legislative omission and institutional unpredictability undermine legal certainty, harm competitiveness, and could deter investment unless lawmakers resume responsibility for contested policy choices.