A RELEVÂNCIA DA QUESTÃO DE DIREITO FEDERAL NO RECURSO ESPECIAL

Abstract

Since the Constitutional Amendment No. 125/2022, a new requirement has been instituted for the special appeal to Superior Court of Justice: the need to demonstrate the relevance of the matter of federal non-constitutional law. The relevance argument filter proposed parameters related to the value of the dispute, its nature, and even conferred on non-constitutional legislation the ability to consider other circumstances, representing a significant change in the Brazilian appeals system and making the direct access to the court known as the Citizenship Tribunal increasingly difficult. From this, an academic debate aroused about the new appeals filter, questioning its constitutionality, the cases in which it applies, what will be provided for in the legislation that will regulate it, and especially whether there will be a change in the role of the Superior Court of Justice or in the essence of the special appeal, directly affecting the jurisdiction. In this context, this paper examines the relevance argument and its nuances under the lens of the constitutional text, non-constitutional, of the draft bills presented so far aimed at regulating it, and of the main points discussed in doctrine, to elucidate its functioning and trace some of the possible practical consequences from its application. As a means to this end, an analysis of the function of the Superior Court of Justice and the current operation of the special appeal is first made; then, the socalled crisis of exceptional appeals and the appeal filters of general repercussion and transcendence are addressed; and finally, a detailed analysis of the relevance filter and its most controversial aspects is made, concluding that it will emulate the experience of general repercussion in the Federal Supreme Court.