Between Diktats and Duets: A Theoretical-Empirical Analysis of the Dialogue Through Precedents Between the I/A Court of Human Rights and the STF
Rules of precedent; Conventionality control; Inter-American standards; Res interpretata
The Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) is characterized by the interaction between the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I/A Court H.R.) and national courts, grounded in the concepts of conventionality control and res interpretata. This study aims to analyze this phenomenon through the lens of judicial dialogue through precedents, defined as the attribution of legal value to prior decisions by other courts in the decision-making process. Two methodological approaches were employed: a bibliographic-documentary approach, which critically examines the notion of rules of precedent in international law and their appropriation within the IAHRS, considering the tensions embedded in Inter-American standards; and an empirical, textual-discursive approach, which analyzes the use of national decisions in I/A Court H.R. advisory opinions and the incorporation of Inter-American decisions by the plenary of the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF). The study finds that the I/A Court H.R. employs national decisions in a heterogeneous and strategic manner, and there remains controversy regarding whether regional consensus should serve as the basis for expanding its mandate and the interpretative role of domestic courts within the framework of the Inter-American corpus juris. Meanwhile, the STF has consolidated conventionality control as an argumentative topos, though the role of Inter-American decisions and the scope of STF powers (along with their limitations) remain subjects of ongoing dispute. The study concludes that the very concept of dialogue through precedents is conflituous, serving both to reinforce and to challenge the binding nature of decisions from the opposing side of this interaction, creating a tension that both impairs and propels the development of the IAHRS.