Prof. Murillo Gutier | murillo@gutier.adv.br
Abstract
This article examines judicial activism in the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) through the metaphorical image of the Procrustean bed. Drawing on Georges Abboud’s classification, it employs mythological figures — Echo, the Oracle of Delphi, Procrustes, Prometheus, Pygmalion, the Bacchants, the Erinyes, Daedalus, Endymion, and Cronos — to illuminate the different modalities of activism that produce fractures in the constitutional order and fissures in the democratic structure.
The central thesis holds that judicial activism must be understood as a process of transition between fissure and fracture: the fissure emerges when the decision begins to drift from the Constitution, statutes, and due process, even under seemingly noble justifications; the fracture occurs when this practice solidifies into a decisional method, compromising the structure of constitutional democracy. Judicial self-restraint, therefore, is not institutional cowardice but rather the mast of Ulysses — the mechanism through which the Court binds itself to law so as not to succumb to seductions external to the Constitution.
The article concludes that the countermajoritarian role of the STF, though indispensable, presupposes rigorous fidelity to the Constitution, statutes, and the procedural framework. Without these bonds, constitutional adjudication ceases to protect the Constitution and begins to replace it with judicial power. The Court may hear the Sirens; it may not follow their music.
Keywords: Judicial Activism; Procrustean Bed; Constitutional Fractures; Constitutional Democracy; Judicial Self-Restraint; Supreme Federal Court (STF); Separation of Powers; Performative Activism; Democratic Fissures.
The Procrustean Bed in the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court – Murillo Gutier (2 downloads )