TURNING POINT FOR BRAZILIAN DEMOCRACY: FROM THE STF IN THE 2016 IMPEACHMENT TO THE BILL 1,388/23

Abstract

The impeachment process generated in Brazil a deep clash regarding the use of the device and its socio-legal implications. At the same time, the STF has been playing a prominent role during the institutional design, in order to present conditions for relevant influences in the political sphere. In view of the judicialization of the impeachment process of 2016, as well as the influences of the STF on the proposition of Law 1.388/23, it is intended to answer the following question: what is the role played by the Federal Supreme Court during the impeachment process? Objective: Discuss the influences of the STF during the 2016 impeachment process, as well as the innovations intended by Law 1.388/23, which seeks to review the provisions of Law 1.079/50. Methodology: This article proposes to carry out a historical-legal analysis on the performance of the Federal Supreme Court during the impeachment process of 2016, which removed the then president Dilma Rousseff. This analysis will be carried out taking into account that Brazil is inserted in a global context of continuous attacks on the liberal democratic paradigm, which is in progressive deterioration and discredit. Therefore, based on the hypothetical-deductive methodological approach, as well as literature review procedures, mapping and qualitative empirical analysis of the main decisions taken by the Supreme Court during the impeachment process. Results: The article provides a description of the global crisis of democracy, focusing on national particularities, then analyzes the impeachment process as a turning point of the democratic crisis and the performance of the STF, and then proceeds to a dialogue with views and doctrinal positions about the impeachment process and the role of the Supreme Court in this context. Finally, a reflection is drawn on the experience of 2016 with Bill 1.388/23, which aims to reformulate Law 1.079/50. Contributions: Through the analysis of the STF's performance during the impeachment process perpetrated in 2016, it is possible to identify a self-restraint strategy aimed at ensuring its centrality in the institutional design. Subsequently, the conceptions and decisions materialized by the court strongly influenced Bill 1,388/23, reaffirming the relevance of the STF in the political sphere.