THE FEDERAL SUPREME COURT IN THE BRAZILIAN FEDERATION: THE COVID-10 PANDEMIC AS A TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT OF CENTRALISM ON FEDERATIVE RELATIONS IN BRAZIL
Federalism; democracy; constitutional jurisdiction; decentralization.
Federalism has a resistant democratic element, in which it is a way of sharing the power of the State among several entities in a given space, territory. It had its birth in the historical experience of the archaic English Colonies of North America, and was used in the first Brazilian Constitution of the Republic of 1889. Federalism as a form of State must be perceived as a process, due to its continuous improvement. Brazilian Federalism has a great centralizing aspect, as the powers of the Union provided for in the Federal Constitution are evident, in contrast to the inferiority of autonomy employed by States and Municipalities. The Federal Supreme Court is the jurisdictional body that has the competence to decide on matters related to conflicts of competence, as well as, it is the entity responsible for examining constitutional amendments and deciding whether or not they distort the essential core of federalism. The jurisprudence of the Federal Supreme Court is predominant for a centralization of power around the Union (as a sovereign entity), in the face of other federative entities. However, it is also necessary to take a deeper look at the judgments handed down in the supreme court regarding COVID-19, so that there was a possibility of inverting this model, thus having decentralizing decisions in favor of States and Municipalities, going against the will of the Unity. For this, the method used in the work was the hypotheticaldeductive one, starting from an analysis of jurisprudence and doctrine. The undoubted purpose is crystallized in the appreciation that we may be facing the beginning of a new model of federation.