BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

6 Democracy and the Rule of Law: Judicial Activism in Brazil as a Challenge for Fundamental Social Rights

Lenio Luiz Streck 1

1. Preliminary considerations: the copernican revolution of the law wrought by a new constitutionalism In these post-positivist times, the conditions under which a law may become valid have become an increasingly important topic of discussion, especially if predatory discourses stemming from the fields of politics, economics and ethics seek to undermine this validity. Ultimately, post-positivism is about discussing the role, the limits and the normative force of the law in democracies. This also appears to be the case in the context of fundamental social rights. In other words, at this point in history, a law that is not legitimized by the indelible stamp of democracy cannot be considered valid. Thus, I contend that the law should preserve its primary achievement since the second post-war period: its degree of autonomy. Jorge Miranda describes the new role of the law as the “Copernican Revolution of Public Law.” This concept refers to the new role played by the constitutions of the second post-war period and, likewise, the new role exerted by the constitutional courts, chiefly in continental Europe. Therefore, it is important to remember that within this context, theorists from a variety of social science fields – especially the sectors related to sociology, political science and law – have begun to address phenomena such as the judicialization of politics and judicial activism. Both issues address the problem of interpreting the law and the type of argument that can legitimately comprise a judicial decision. In other words, what are the conditions of possibility for making decisions via legal arguments? Under what circumstances can one assert that a court is not replacing the legislature and delivering political or moral arguments while interpreting the constitution? On this note, we must mention studies such as The global expansion of Judicial Power: the judicialization of politics (Chester Neal Tate and Torbjörn Vallinder), 2 1 Pós-doutor em Direito pela Universidade de Lisboa; Mestre e Doutor em Direito pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; Professor Titular do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito (Mestrado e Doutorado) da Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos; Professor visitante/colaborador da Universidade Estácio de Sá, Università degli Studi Roma Tre e Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra; Ex-Procurador de Justiça do Rio Grande do Sul; Advogado; Avenida Unisinos, 950, Cristo Rei, Caixa postal 275, 93022-000, São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil; lenio.streck@globo.com. 2 TATE, N. C.; VALLINDER, T.: (eds.). The global expansion of Judicial Power . New York: New York University Press, 1995.

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