The normalization of illicit activities combines power and money, time and persistence. It is a normalized illicit.
Financed by invisible money and protected by a very visible power structure, your organization has plenty of time to lead the country’s deinstitutionalization effort. It goes above supervision or accountability and converts jurisdiction into negotiation without constraints. It could even be “Nobody gets rid of a crazy person’s stone or a donkey’s kick”.
Reporting the illicit in a normal way needs to face the force of inertia. In an unequal game, the illegal one tends to win through fatigue. The public effort to denormalize the practice requires persistence, memory of violated norms, and willingness to face intimidation.
In 2026, the Forum had a counterpoint. On the same days, the “International Meeting on the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct” took place at the TJ in Rio de Janeiro. Then, in Brasília, “International Congress: Rule of Law and Judicial Ethics”. Superior court judges from Germany, Portugal, Holland, Spain, Italy, together with some Brazilian ministers, discussed challenges facing the profession. They talked about the norms that Lisbon violates.
What standards? The Bangalore Principles, for starters. An initiative of global jurists who, under the auspices of the UN, approved global guidelines on judicial ethics, the document condenses rules of impartiality and decorum: “A judge must ensure that his conduct inside and outside the court maintains public confidence”; “A judge should minimize the occasions on which it will be necessary to determine his suspicion”; “A judge must not make a comment that could affect the outcome of the case”; “A judge must accept personal restrictions that may be burdensome to the average citizen.”
Violates the Judicial Code. This defines an impartial judge as one who values the “equivalent distance between the parties” and avoids “behavior that may reflect favoritism, predisposition or prejudice”. Norms present in any other code of judicial ethics in the world.
Society did not participate in the Forum. But dozens of companies (such as Uber, Superbet, , OpenAI, , Vale) and business entities (such as Fiesp, Associação de Criptoeconomia, Febraban, Instituto de Mineração) participated.
What standards do companies violate? All rudiments of compliance that prohibit paying for “hospitality” for public agents who may favor your business, and that attempt to neutralize risks arising from the Anti-Corruption Law.
What rules do lawyers violate? In addition to the Code of Ethics, which prohibits “using undue influence, for your benefit or that of your client”, legal compliance manuals recommend managing conflicts of interest and avoiding interactions that give the impression of “influence trafficking” or facilitated access to judges outside of the case file.
What is relevant is not in the auditoriums and on the stages. The illusionist facade hides a project for Brazil. It is not about sovereignty and republic, democracy and diversity, freedom and equality. It has more affinity with a plan that, centuries ago, was discussed in the same city.
“In football, the worst kind of blind person is the one who only sees the ball”, said Nelson Rodrigues. At the Lisbon Forum, the worst type of blind person is the one who only sees lectures.
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
