PRISON BEFORE RES JUDICATA: A PRAGMATICS OF MEANING

• Main Authors: Cecília Caballero Lois, Quintino Lopes Castro Tavares
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria 2019-03-01
• Series: Revista Eletrônica do Curso de Direito da UFSM
• Subjects: hermenêutica constitucional; habeas corpus 126.292/sp; interpretação jurídica; pragmática textual; semiótica
• Online Access: https://periodicos.ufsm.br/revistadireito/article/view/34869

In this paper we analyze the construction formed by the Brazilian Supreme Court in the judgment of Great Writ Nº 126.292/SP according to which the principle of the presumption of innocence provided in article 5º, LVII, of the Brazilian Constitution does not prohibit the early enforcement of the criminal condemnation by the appellate court, before the force of res judicata. We argue that that resultant interpretation is legitimately possible according to a textual pragmatics. But that understanding needs to conform to some conditions in order to secure the integrity of the legal system, considering that it’s based on the encyclopedia, within a sociological and historical framework. In order hand, the text itself enables an unlimited number of interpretations, but the Constitution, as a public text, in which the meaning is configured by the circumstances of annunciation and enunciation, demands an interpretation that magnifies its creation and finality. Lastly, the constitutional interpretation only is possible on the systematic interpretation of the Law, and the outcome of which cannot ignore the meanings produced by the whole system.