Inflationary purges: comments on the homologation of agreement under ADPF 165 by the Supreme Court of Brazil

Abstract

The Economic Plans were monetary policies applied during the Brazilian governments from 1980 to 1990/2000, aiming at stabilizing the national currency, then markedly inflated. The absence of monetary correction for the appropriate inflation indexes in the period generated the “inflationary purges” that led thousands of consumers to the Brazilian Judiciary. Finally, when the final decision about the constitutionality reached the Constitutional Court, through an Action for Non-compliance with a Fundamental Precept and "about 70% of cases were suspend to be solved by the leading case, Brasilian Federal Supreme Court did not consider the merits of the action, ratifying an agreement between economic agents involved in the controversy. The paper intends to understand the decision based on the consequentialism applied to judicial techniques and criticism when it is used only based on Posner's Law and Economics school, especially when it replaces the structure of normative and legal logic.