THE supreme court in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: a look at the limits of judicial discretionary activity

Abstract

The theme of this article is to study the judicial discretion of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. The general objective is to outline a propaedeutic guide on the judicial attributions of the STF, as well as the limits of the use of judicial discretion by constitutional judges in pandemic times. The specific objective is to demonstrate, at least superficially, that the exercise of judicial discretion, which takes into account the application of hermeneutic-interpretative methods, even if used under the allegations of the “open texture of law”, “pamprinciologismo” and the enforcement of guarantees constitutional individual, find limits in the normative text. Justifies the wording of this article, as the exercise of discretion is inherent to the jurisdictional activity. Nevertheless, it is important to delimit its use, so that there is no disrespect for the tripartite system of power, the usurpation of competence, illegitimacy of decisions, even in pandemic times. The methodology to be observed will be the bibliographic procedure, through the deductive method, with a qualitative approach.