A (in)viabilidade da interpretação judicial criativa pro reo em direito penal : limites e desafios

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the creative judicial interpretation made by criminal court judges when solving cases. Due to complex changes in society, these decisions are no longer aligned with the positive norm and quite often sound rather unfair. This research also analyzes the limits of such interpretation, be them intrinsic - imposed by the core principles of criminal law - or extrinsic - arising from the Brazilian constitutional order, which determines the separation of Powers. Therefore, following an introduction to the rationalist parameter of current legal science, we study, in the first part, the current sources and principles that inform and limit the Brazilian criminal law, which are essential to understand both its purpose and function. The second part analyzes the complex character of contemporary society, which contributes to the increase in various forms of violence. This complexity poses some questions regarding the existence and viability of legal certainty, which becomes a volatile concept in a scenario where social acceleration lends great speed to the phenomena of life. In the third and last part, we focus on the position occupied by creative judges in the Brazilian constitutional system, deepening the debate on the democratic nature of their role as protagonists rather than a "mouth of the law". Still, we scrutinize the way magistrates must act before this reality and, having at hand the sources studied, exercise their creativity in order not to lose sight of the real purpose of criminal law, expressed in its principles, which is to protect the defendant's constitutional guarantees. Finally, we present a brief practical analysis of five precedents of the Supreme Court in which non-traditional methods of interpretation and application of the criminal standard norm were adopted, for the benefit of the accused.