Lewandowski was corporatist and authoritarian at the CNJ – 04/14/2023 – Frederico Vasconcelos

“Your Excellency is not going to lecture the presidency now regarding the reading of the regiment. The president has agenda power (…) I am president of this Council [Nacional de Justiça]president of the Federal Supreme Court and president of the Judiciary, nobody is going to teach me how I am going to conduct the hearings and guide the sessions of this Council”.

[Ricardo Lewandowski, questionado pelo então conselheiro do CNJ Gilberto Martins]

The most prominent aspect in the tributes to Ricardo Lewandowski, who retired from the Federal Supreme Court, was his guarantor vision. This emphasis overshadowed the minister’s corporatist and authoritarian bias.

He opened the doors of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) to the lobby of the judiciary’s class associations. Divided the board. Serious cases against judges were not heard.

Lewandowski defines himself as an independent judge; lawyers identify him as a courageous judge and against majority.

congested agenda

Lewandowski succeeded minister Joaquim Barbosa. As Barbosa anticipated retirement, he served for a short period as substitute president.

In the first session, still a substitute, he defended the immediate return to the jurisdiction of all magistrates who had been removed on a precautionary basis by the CNJ.

The proposal was rejected by a significant majority.

Neglected to adjudicate disciplinary proceedings. It suspended the administrative meetings of the collegiate, held since the founding of the CNJ.

Cut spending on trips for directors, claiming that expenses were high in 2013/2014. Barbosa confirmed that there was a drop in previous years.

Still as interim president, he suspended the electronic system, in force since the first composition of the body, which allowed directors to have prior access to peer votes.

This streamlined judgments by the plenary the next day.

The Association of Brazilian Magistrates (AMB) alleged that these “secret sessions” violated the ample defense. In 10 years, the agenda has never been so congested.

split collegiate

In November 2014, seven counselors filed a letter with Lewandowski, concerned about the reduction of judgments and the risk of emptying the CNJ.

The document was signed by directors Luiza Cristina Fonseca Frischeisen, Guilherme Calmon, Rubens Curado Silveira, Gilberto Valente Martins, Saulo José Casali Bahia, Maria Cristina Peduzzi and Ana Maria Duarte Amarante Brito.

The CNJ judged 40 to 60 cases per session. The average dropped to 15 trials.

When he traveled, Lewandowski did not call sessions that should have been chaired by Cármen Lúcia. In the only session in which she replaced the president, she judged 50 cases. His average was five per session.

Nancy Andrighi left the Internal Affairs of the CNJ without the approximately 40 cases ready being brought to trial by Minister Lewandowski.

“It is necessary to put an end to the presidentialist imperialism in force today in the CNJ and in a good part of the courts”, stated the then counselor Rubens Curado da Silveira, in December 2015.

Curado warned of the risk of a setback with Lewandowki’s delay in putting the proposal of a working group on the regulation of the Law on Access to Information in the courts to trial.

“It is upside down democracy within the body that should set an example”, concludes Curado.

Interrupted investigations

In May 2014, Lewandowski nullified the removal – unanimously – of two judges from Pará, accused of negligence in a billionaire coup against Banco do Brasil.

In February 2016, the Second Panel of the STF maintained – unanimously – the decision of the CNJ that determined the compulsory retirement of the two judges.

The Panel followed the decision of Cármen Lúcia, who dismissed the injunction and revoked the injunction granted by Lewandowski.

In July 2014, during the recess of the judiciary, Lewandowski granted an injunction determining that judges Mário Hirs and Telma Britto return to the TJ of Bahia, from which they had been removed by decision of the CNJ collegiate.

The magistrates had filed a writ of mandamus on the eve of the recess. Six months earlier, the rapporteur, Minister Roberto Barroso, had rejected the request for them to return to court, given the risk of embarrassing witnesses and destroying evidence.

Correction carried out in 2013 identified irregularities and errors in the calculation of precatories that caused damage to the treasury valued at R$ 448 million.

In November 2017, by majority, the CNJ acquitted the judges. The then Corregidor João Otávio de Noronha stated “he did not find evidence that the magistrates acted in bad faith or voluntary misconduct, for their own benefit or that of third parties”.

House of Magistrates

Joaquim Barbosa was tough in dealing with the representatives of the judiciary entities. It was a reaction to the initiative of the AMB, Ajufe and Anamatra that filed a criminal complaint against the then Corregedora Eliana Calmon, on the allegation of illegal breach of bank and tax secrecy of judges and family members. The process has been archived.

In a meeting in the STF president’s office, the directors of the entities were treated as “union leaders”.

“You do not represent the CNJ. You do not represent the nation. You are class representatives,” said Barbosa.

In December 2011, the day before the recess, Lewandowski granted an injunction and interrupted inspections initiated by the CNJ based on information from COAF, to examine the evolution of the assets of judges and civil servants in 22 courts.

It was dispatched in the absence of Minister Joaquim Barbosa, to whom the injunction was issued. Associations of judges alleged illegal breach of bank and tax secrecy of more than 200,000 people.

Lewandowski changed the treatment given by the presidency of the CNJ to the judiciary entities.

When greeting the then president of the TJ-SP, judge Paulo Dimas Mascaretti, during a session, Lewandowski said that the CNJ “today is the home of magistrates”.

“Feel free to consider it your home. Your requests will be well received”, he said to Mascaretti, whom he referred to as “the great associative leader” and “an old classmate”.

In April 2015, Lewandowski was criticized for the draft of the new Organic Law on the Judiciary (Loman) that he presented to colleagues.

“In the most bizarre suggestion, due to arrogance and corporatism, a magistrate could only be questioned by another magistrate of equivalent or higher authority”, stated the Sheet in editorial.

Lewandowski recalled that in the military career hierarchy is also respected.

“There is no idea or news ever in the history of our Armed Forces of a sergeant interrogating a colonel,” he said.

corporate agenda

Without submitting the decision to the Plenary, Lewandowski created two advisory councils to advise his management. One brought together presidents of the judiciary’s class associations; the other, Presidents of Courts of Justice (a private entity).

Lawyer Gisela Gondim, a former CNJ counselor appointed by the OAB, wrote: “In practice, and with due respect, the president has brought into his management the direct lobbying of judges, who will be able to put pressure on the agenda and remove it from the agenda. the topics that interest them”.

“The CNJ belongs to Brazil, not its judges”, concluded Gondim. Cármen Lúcia said that “the CNJ is the citizen’s home, a state body”.

In editorial, the Sheet he considered the creation of the councils a setback: “Not only does the body created to supervise magistrates run the risk of losing its powers to do so, but judges can also gain powers to supervise this same body”.

“It would be hard for a union leader to act with such ease”, he concluded.

During Joaquim Barbosa’s management, the sessions started in the morning and ended in the early evening (as is the case today). With Lewandowski, they were held only in the afternoon.

In the first session as president of the CNJ, Cármen Lúcia announced that she would publish the agendas of all sessions one month in advance, to facilitate the displacement of lawyers and the preparation of votes.

“Here there will be nothing without exposure to the citizen. Everything that is done will be done with open doors”, he said.

Pirouettes and convescotts

On Lewandowski’s recommendation, the CNJ decided to make confidential the fees paid to magistrates for lectures given at the invitation of state administrations, associations and private companies.

This activity was equated with teaching, “in an interpretative pirouette”, a manifestation of “explicit corporatism and a non-republican practice”, as defined by the Sheetin editorial.

Judge of the TJ-SP, Lewandowski was a founding partner of Jurisul (Inter-American Institute of Legal Studies on Mercosur), an entity created by businessman Mario Garnero, from the Brasilinvest group.

In 1998, Garnero hosted a caravan of magistrates to Argentina. He was the target of criminal action annulled by the STF the following year. “You are not going to ask if someone eventually has a lawsuit,” said the minister.

Edson Vidigal, then minister of the STJ, rapporteur of a civil action against Garnero, traveled to Argentina with his wife. Vidigal said he only found out who was promoting the meeting when Garnero spoke.

In November 2011, Lewandowski and other superior court ministers participated in a seminar at a five-star hotel in Guarujá, at the invitation of the Confederação Nacional de Seguros, a private institution. The event started on a Thursday and lasted until Sunday.

Lewandowski participates in caravans for seminars in Portugal promoted by IDP, minister Gilmar Mendes’ institute.

In July 2019, a report by Mateus Coutinho, in Crusoé, revealed that Lewandowski is a frequent presence at the events of Ipeja (Institute for Research and Advanced Legal Studies), chaired by Rubens Lopes da Cruz.

In 2014, at the closing ceremony of a seminar in Coimbra, Lewandowski stated:

“I would like to thank Ipeja, on behalf of Professor Rubens Lopes, which has barely begun its activities, but which already promises to be one of the great scientific centers of our country, Brazil”.

the good fight

At the end of his presidency of the STF and CNJ, Lewandowski was greeted by then Dean Celso de Mello, who saluted on behalf of the collegiate.

Mello said that Lewandowski’s performance in both bodies was “firm, competent and motivated by superior reasons of public interest”.

Lewandowski stated that he considers the expansion of communication channels with members of the Court and CNJ, with the Legislative and Executive, lawyers, Public Prosecutor’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, judges of all branches and degrees to be one of the most important milestones of his administration. of jurisdiction, associations and unions of servers.

“If there is one mark I would like to be remembered for, it is having carried out an inclusive, democratic and participative management”, he said.

“I have the intimate conviction that I fought what I considered to be the good fight. I concluded my mission and, despite all the setbacks, I kept faith in people and institutions”.

The blog asked prosecutor Gilberto Martins, former attorney general of Pará and one of the biggest critics of the Lewandowski administration, how was his relationship with the minister.

“The relationship is very respectful. We differ in the field of theory and opinions. At no time was there any type of disrespectful or hostile treatment. This respect does not prevent me, in any way, from diverging from your opinions and ideas. The President is an extremely polite person.”