Judicial control of public policies

structural dialogical judicial decisions and public health

Abstract

This research addresses the issue of judicial control of public policies through the so-called structuring dialogical rulings in structural processes that have as their object the social right to public health. The study sought to answer whether these structuring decisions are effective in making this right a reality in the face of specific structural problems in the Brazilian public health system (SUS), such as the lack of hospital beds, the long waiting lines for surgery and the high demand for medicines, treatments and therapies that are not standardized in the SUS. Despite the challenges of these complex and multiple demands, some points have been made about each of these problems in order to support the possibility of using this legal tool in the Brazilian procedural system. Although these decisions are in the process of maturing in the Judiciary, there is a regulatory framework in the national legal system capable of supporting structural claims, which does not rule out the need for a broad legislative discussion on the subject, with a view to systematizing it. Although the aim of this research is not to present a definitive solution on the subject, the structuring dialogical decisions open the way for debate and the realization of fundamental rights in structural litigation related to the social right to public health.