Methods for the interpretation of law: an opening for judicial activism

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the use of interpretation methods and judicial activism. To demonstrate this relationship, we seek to explore the modus operandi of Brazilian legal dogmatics, based on an approach that places interpretive methods in the position of guarantors for correct interpretations. In this sense, in the first part, we seek to present - in a general way - the doctrinal development that is being done in Brazil around these methods, in addition to the criticisms received by those authors who indiscriminately adopt a set of methods from other realities. In the second part, we seek to demonstrate, based on judicial decisions, the relationship between interpretive methods and judicial activism. Finally, we conclude that the choice of an interpretive method, in itself, is a discretionary choice.