THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW FOR LEGAL CERTAINTY IN THE BRAZILIAN LEGAL SYSTEM

Abstract

This article examines the contribution of judicial review to the realization of legal certainty within the Brazilian legal order. The premise is that legal certainty, understood in its dimensions of normative cognoscibility, stability, and calculability, constitutes a fundamental value of the Democratic Rule of Law, whose implementation depends largely on the existence of effective mechanisms for controlling the validity of norms against the Federal Constitution. The article analyzes the Brazilian system of constitutional review in its diffuse and concentrated modalities, highlighting the functions performed by the Federal Supreme Court in preserving the normative hierarchy and uniformizing constitutional interpretation. It further examines the principle of legal certainty in its constitutional dimension, its doctrinal foundations, and its expression in the institutes of acquired rights, the perfect legal act, and res judicata. Finally, the article discusses contemporary challenges of constitutional review, with emphasis on the phenomena of constitutional mutation, judicial activism, and the temporal modulation of effects of declarations of unconstitutionality as an instrument for reconciling constitutional supremacy with the protection of the legitimate expectations of those subject to the law. The methodology employed is bibliographic and documentary research, with analysis of doctrine, legislation, and case law. It is concluded that constitutional review is indispensable to the realization of legal certainty, but only when exercised with coherence, rational justification, and attention to the impact of its decisions on the stability of the legal order.