Strategic judicial behavior: the case of the Brazilian Supreme Court

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that orthodox legal materials are just one of the factors that influence judicial behavior, and not necessarily the most important, especially in emblematic cases. The paper presents three principal models of judicial behavior: the legalistic model, the ideological model and the strategic model. It explores the strategic model, addressing its main characteristics and the principal criticisms made of it, and develops a case study of the decisions handed down by the Brazilian Supreme Court in light of this model. The work concludes that extralegal factors also interfere in the decision-making process of the courts. Therefore, an adequate understanding on how the courts actually decide in real life is essential for understanding the law itself.