Constitutional control in Brazilian law: systematic exposition of doctrine and critical analysis of jurisprudence

Since redemocratization, Brazilian constitutional law has undergone a silent revolution: the norms of the Constitution have gained effectiveness, principles have gained normativity, and new interpretive categories—neoconstitutionalism, post-positivism, legal argumentation—have occupied the debate. In this scenario, constitutional jurisdiction and constitutional control return to the center as the instrument that realizes human dignity, fundamental rights, and democratic participation. The Constitution has ceased to have only formal supremacy to assume material and axiological supremacy, becoming the lens through which all infraconstitutional law must be read. Hence the conclusion that all legal interpretation is also constitutional interpretation—direct, when the claim is based on the Charter; indirect, when it requires assessing compatibility and orienting the norm to constitutional ends. The path from unimportance to apex in less than one generation is a triumph that should be celebrated with humility: to be a window, not a mirror.