The president of the Superior Military Court (STM), Maria Elizabeth Rocha, declared this Monday 15 that there is a consensus between the five presidents of the higher courts for the establishment of a specific code of ethics for magistrates who work in these instances and which, currently, is not reached by the Code of Ethics of the Judiciary.
The creation of a code of conduct for members of higher courts is a program taken up by the President of the Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin. “He (Fachin) is surrounded by us, presidents, who also share the same values as him,” he declared.
The judge consulted his colleagues in recent conversations and, according to Rocha, he also had the support of Presidents Herman Benjamin (Higher Court of Justice), Luiz Phillipe Vieira de Mello (Higher Labor Court) and Cármen Lúcia (Higher Electoral Court).
“We are five presidents aligned,” Rocha said in a conversation with reporters. “We are all in favor (of the code of ethics). We have a guideline that we think the judiciary should respect,” he continued.
According to the president of the STM, the objective of the code of ethics is not to punish ministers for deviant behavior, but rather to define limits on the exercise of judicial power. The code of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, which Fachin draws inspiration from, does not provide for sanctions for judges who break the rules. The German court only determines what can or cannot be done by its members.
In the opinion of the minister, it is not necessary to establish sanctions through the code of ethics since sanctions are already provided for in the penal code, such as corruption. “It’s not about punishing ministers. It’s about regulating the justice system in a transparent, democratic, civil and correct way,” he said.
“It is important, yes, that there is a code which specifies very clearly what conduct we must adopt in the exercise of our profession. It is not a question of us being the vestal virgins of democracy or purity, but that we honor the toga that we wear and the profession that we exercise,” he declared. “There is no worse corruption than that of the judge, who is the last refuge of the citizen.”
According to the president of the STM, Fachin sent a translated version of the German code, informing his colleagues that he wanted to move the agenda forward.
Rocha believes that the code must be proposed via the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and that there are conditions for it to be approved by the collegiate body, but the institution does not have jurisdiction over the members of the STF. As revealed by Estadão, Fachin must transmit a proposal to the CNJ and another to the Supreme Court itself.
However, according to the president, “the Supreme Court must set an example” and be subject to the same rules as other courts. “The Supreme Court must set an example for all the judiciary below it,” he said.
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