— I haven’t changed and I won’t change the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court hasn’t changed me either — said Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Cármen Lúcia today, using the phrase to end a lecture. — I continue to be who my mother and father raised.
Chosen by the president of the court, Edson Fachin, to report on the project for a code of conduct, the minister avoided talking directly about the matter and left without speaking to the press. During the presentation, she spoke only between the lines of the isolated position in which she and her colleague believe they find themselves now.
The theme of the lecture, given to the FHC Foundation, in the center of São Paulo, was “Brazil in the Vision of Public Leadership”. His presentation dealt with a variety of topics, but essentially focused on the culture of compulsive litigation that led the STF to have to deal with an avalanche of cases.
With the exception of a brief mention of Fachin, Cármen Lúcia did not mention the name of any other Supreme Court minister still in office, and after a technical legal presentation (filled with jokes and stories) he sought to talk about his qualifications for the choice made.
— I only speak for myself as a public servant, because the president of the Supreme Court is the one who speaks for the Supreme Court — she said. — There is not a line written by me that was not based on the law. I even voted against my father, who was still alive, in the case of savers. I informed him that I could not fail to participate in the trial because I only had eight ministers, and that my understanding was contrary to what he had already gained judgment on. I sided with the Constitution and was against him in that case. This has nothing to do with love or lack of love, and he told me on the day: ‘my daughter, the judge doesn’t have a family, you have commitments’.
When talking extensively about the issue of procedural structure that gives lawyers from all over the country access to the STF today, Cármen Lúcia said that issues of ethics and procedural volume are related. The minister’s presentation is one of her rare appearances at a time when cases of suspected conflict of interest are being pointed out against colleagues such as Alexandre de Moraes, Dias Tóffoli and Kassio Nunes Marques, especially in the trial of the Banco Master case.
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The minister generally defended that there be some type of external supervision at the Court, but asked for caution.
— For those who are living in the whirlwind of questions and the avalanche of activities that we have, it is extremely difficult to evaluate a proposition that needs to be based on external movements, but with the understanding of what it means to perform the role of judge in Brazil, much more that of a constitutional judge — he said.
The minister said she believes that the flood of cases that exist today at the highest level of the judiciary is a cultural issue that is difficult to change, partly due to the culture of lawyers in Brazil and partly due to the culture of society itself, especially public sector agents who have more access to the judicial system.
Cármen Lúcia argued, however, that there had been some progress on the agenda to deal with the problem.
— This morning I looked, and I have 1,056 cases under my report. The Supreme Court has just over 20 thousand, in an unprecedented case — he said. — When I arrived, the president of the court was Minister Ellen Gracie, and I received 17,100 cases to report. The Supreme Court had more than 100 thousand cases in progress.
Cármen Lúcia, however, says that even with the reduction in load, it is difficult to maintain the schedule and meet all demands.
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— Last night I turned on the computer and saw that I have 183 requests for hearings from lawyers — he said. — In other words, it is an avalanche that really needs to be rethought.
The minister also commented sideways on recent opinion polls that show a drop in the reliability of the Supreme Court, stating that part of this phenomenon follows a global crisis in the popularity of the institutions as a whole. According to her, however, the excessive demand on the judiciary shows that this crisis of reliability is not reflected in the hope that people have of obtaining justice.
For her, however, the reliability of the Judiciary helps to establish people’s trust in politics as well.
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— Democracy is based on the trust you have in people, in institutions, much more today in the figure of judges — he said. — This applies to the judge in my city, Espinosa (MG), and this applies to the Supreme Court, which, of course, has a much greater repercussion and reverberation. It applies everywhere.
The minister also spoke of proposals that exist to change the STF’s decision format to a model in which there is less individual exposure of judges in the court, with one judge reporting the sentence and the others just adhering to it or not, resulting in a single final institutional text. It is unclear whether this would strengthen the court’s legitimacy, however.
— This is part of American history and culture, not ours — he said, showing some skepticism. — You may want to achieve this in order to have perhaps greater stability of the solutions. I don’t know if it will.
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