The proposal for reform of the Judiciary presented by the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) complements the project of the president of the court, to create a code of ethics for the Supreme Court, without rivaling it, in the evaluation of transparency entities and the legal profession.
However, the implementation of even part of those on Monday (20) depends on approval from Congress and the Executive, which creates more complex obstacles than the approval of the code of ethics — a set of rules to be obeyed by members of the Supreme Court and which would have repercussions on the rest of the Judiciary.
Fachin presented his plan to create a code of ethics for the STF in February, at the opening of the Judiciary year, after the Banco Master scandal hit, at the end of 2025, ministers and . Dino’s proposal, outlined in an article on the ICL Notícias website, came a week after Toffoli, Moraes and were mentioned in a list of requests for indictments at the Organized Crime CPI. The report that called for the indictments was blocked in the commission itself and criticized by .
Dino’s article did not directly quote Fachin, but it is critical of certain positions taken by the president of the STF, such as the need for “self-restraint” by court ministers.
“There is no necessary contradiction between the proposals”, says Guilherme France, Research and Advocacy manager at the NGO Transparency International in Brazil. “In fact, the presentation of these proposals appears to signal a growing consensus, even among STF ministers, on the need for reforms that promote ethics and integrity in the Supreme Court.”
In this sense, France assessed as positive Dino’s proposal to consider punishments for both judges and lawyers who received as fees resources that did not come from their activities.
“In view of the multiple corruption scandals and recent conflicts of interest involving law firms, including the receipt of income without apparent support for corresponding work, it is extremely healthy to also include law, which constitutes an essential function for the Justice system, in the package of reforms to be considered”, he said.
Master’s payments to the law firm of Viviane Barci, Alexandre de Moraes’ wife, are at the center of the crisis that has enveloped the court. The office denies irregularities and stated that the contract with the bank was for the provision of a series of consultancy activities to the now liquidated financial entity.
The expert, however, points out that the path to making Dino’s proposal viable, which involves changes to the Constitution, is more complex. “This is not a package of proposals that can be quickly processed in a powerful instance and implemented,” he said, defending that the discussion involves civil society and academia.
The executive director of the NGO Transparência Brasil, Juliana Sakai, also understands that the two proposals are not opposed to each other. “They start from a similar diagnosis of the need for changes in the Judiciary”, he states.
She also makes the distinction that Fachin’s proposal can be implemented more quickly, given that Dino’s reform needs to go through Congress in an election year.
“A quick response from the Judiciary is opportune in this time of crisis. But, as we are seeing, this is not so simple to adopt, because it would address a series of conflicts of interest among ministers, who have barely given transparency to their agendas — an elementary measure in a democratic country,” he stated.
Sakai highlights, however, that an eventual reform of the Judiciary would have to overcome the powerful lobby of members of legal careers in Brazil, a category that receives trinkets and that managed to contain the same Dino’s initiative, in February, to reduce super salaries.
“The minister himself had to retreat from his correct initial decision of February this year regarding penduricalhos, which defined compensation funds as reimbursements for service expenses, to create the super salary ceiling of 170%, with the thesis approved by the STF plenary. If even a STF minister has to give in to these corporatist forces, it is certain that Congress’s ability to capture is much greater”, he assesses.
The (Brazilian Bar Association) had created a commission to deal with reform of the Justice system on the 14th.
“The OAB has already approved in plenary its support for fundamental items of Judiciary reform, such as the adoption of fixed terms of office for STF ministers, limiting monocratic decisions and establishing rules for the role of judges’ relatives in the legal profession”, said the entity’s national president, Beto Simonetti.
But the president of the Order demands social participation in the process. “Any discussion about reform of the Judiciary will only be legitimate, however, if it involves the legal profession, which is the profession that brings the demands of citizens to the State.”
The president of the São Paulo section of the Order, Leonardo Sica, stated, in a note to Sheetthat “the proposal presented by Minister Flávio Dino strengthens this issue at the center of the national debate” and that “the Brazilian Justice system faces challenges known as slowness, excessive litigation and the need for greater administrative efficiency”.
Although he evaluates Dino’s proposal as “welcome”, Sica makes the counterpoint that it “cannot exclude the immediate need for equally relevant measures, such as the adoption of a code of conduct, mechanisms of institutional self-restraint, discussion on the mandate for STF ministers, review of the court’s criminal jurisdiction and reduction of the so-called privileged forum”.
The AMB (Association of Brazilian Magistrates) states that judges need to participate in discussions and that it is also necessary to “take care that the electoral period does not contaminate a debate that needs to be technical and carried out calmly”.
