PROTECTING POLITICAL RIGHTS OR INTERFERING IN THE POLITICAL ARENA?

Abstract

The interactions between legal and political system has been strengthened in recent years, especially through judicial review, with the transference to Courts of themes that define and divide a political system. In brazilian case, in the absence of legislative deliberation some of these discussions are forwarded Brazilian courts, who gave controversial decisions about “mega politics”. So, the research´s question “” is the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (re) building electoral legislation, as a manifestation of judicial activism, interfering in mega politics?The study starts from a theoretical approach, with the deductive method, combined with a qualitative case analysis about courts´s decisions regarding party loyalty, coalition verticalizations, threshold clauses and the rights of legislative minorities, and political donations. Therefore, the research is supported by a bibliographical and documentary survey. Based on the methodological approach of Judicial Politcs, the legal protection of fundamental political rights and the structure of the Brazilian strong judicial system are described (Normative Theory), and evaluated the motivations of legal decisions, taking into account judicialization as exercise of a political activity (Positive Theory).