Lewandowski reaffirms the Judiciary's "commitment to democracy."

247 - In an article, the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Ricardo Lewandowski, highlights the role of the National Council of Justice:

“In these turbulent times we are going through, marked by difficulties of all kinds, it is worth remembering that the Judiciary, assisted by the CNJ (National Council of Justice), is committed to strengthening our still fragile democratic rule of law, especially by seeking to guarantee, in each decision it makes, the effectiveness of the constitutional principle of the dignity of the human person,” he says.

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CNJ, transparency and dialogue

Recent events in our daily political and economic lives reveal the increasingly important role of the Judiciary as a kind of moderating power, cooperating through its activities to consolidate social peace.

Especially since the advent of the so-called Era of Rights, heralded by the Italian thinker Norberto Bobbio, the Judiciary has been increasingly demanded by ordinary people seeking the fulfillment of the promises of the 1988 Constitution.

In this context, Brazilian judges have been deepening their relationship with society, particularly through the CNJ (National Council of Justice), represented by two members elected by Parliament.

In its ten years of existence, the CNJ (National Council of Justice) has strengthened its inherent disciplinary competence and matured its vocation for strategic planning, emphasizing the improvement of judicial services through dialogue with judges, officials, and those subject to the law.

The Judiciary's annual productivity targets, for example, are set at periodic meetings attended by judges, staff, and lawyers, which has contributed to increasing commitment to the collectively established goals.

The disciplinary activity has received particular attention: in recent years, the CNJ (National Council of Justice) has preventively or permanently removed 83% of magistrates who were the subject of disciplinary proceedings for conduct incompatible with the high ethical standards required.

Among other changes, noteworthy are the normative instruction that encourages the use of videoconferencing and the delegation of responsibilities, aiming to reduce expenses related to per diem allowances, transportation, and lodging.

Another important innovation, in terms of transparency, consisted of the disclosure, through the courts' websites, of the teaching activities of judges, whether regular classes or lectures, so that interested parties can challenge their impartiality or bias if they perceive any conflict of interest with the contracting institutions.

The auditing of the amounts received is done through the annual declarations of assets and income, submitted to the competent oversight bodies, including the judiciary itself.

In the field of strategic management, the expansion of the Electronic Judicial Process deserves special mention, as its objective is to expedite the processing of cases.

To further expedite the processing of the nearly 100 million cases clogging the judicial system, the CNJ (National Council of Justice) launched the Digital Mediation system in May of this year. This system promotes conflict resolution through agreements reached in a virtual environment, enabling the resolution of disputes remotely, in a more agile, cheaper, and, above all, amicable way.

It is worth highlighting the development of the Unified Electronic Execution System, an attempt to improve the supervision of sentence compliance and contribute to solving the chronic problem of prison overcrowding.

Furthermore, the CNJ promoted the implementation of custody hearings – the presentation of any person arrested in the act to a judge within 24 hours, so that the judge can analyze the legality of the arrest and maintain custody only of those who truly pose a risk to the public.

This initiative has halved the number of pretrial detentions, which still stigmatize around 240 people today. Launched in February 2015, the hearings have already saved more than R$ 4 billion in public funds by preventing wrongful detentions. These advances led the Federal Senate to recently approve, in the first round, a bill on the subject.

In these turbulent times we are experiencing, marked by difficulties of all kinds, it is worth remembering that the Judiciary, supported by the CNJ (National Council of Justice), is committed to strengthening our still fragile democratic rule of law, especially by seeking to guarantee, in each decision it makes, the effective implementation of the constitutional principle of the dignity of the human person.