Watching the Watchmen: Brazilian Supreme Court's Chief Justice Role in Checking Lower Court's Judicial Activism

The tension between political branches of government derives from checks and balances institutions in constitutional regimes, providing points of judicial activism in relevant political issues, in a phenomena that we got used to call judicialization of politics. In Brazilian legal system, the increasing application of the writ of suspension - a procedural instrument created to guarantee policy and legal stability and to block all divergent judicial decisions in lower court level - appears as a reaction to the judicialization of political issues favouring Executive branch interests. Such institutional tool empowers Court's Chief Justice to guarantee that public policies that reflect Executive's political preferences remain unaffected despite divergent judicial decisions from lower courts, basically arguing plausible violations from judicial acts to public order, economy, health or security. Consists in a reverse judicial review exercise in which judicial organs are object of institutional checks, in order to prevent private benefits from public policies damages. This research focuses on the analysis of Brazilian Supreme Court's Chief Justice decisions on writ of suspension, showing her role in stopping or preserving public policies.

http://ipsa.org/sites/default/files/ipsa-events/madrid2012/papers/paper-6512-2012-05-23-1442.pdf