LEGAL PRAGMATISM AND CRIMINAL LAW FOCUSED ON CONSEQUENCES

CONSEQUÊNCIAS DECISÓRIAS SOB A PERSPECTIVA CONSTITUCIONAL DO RESPEITO À DIGNIDADE HUMANA

Abstract

This article analyzes the contemporary challenges of judicial activity within the scope of Criminal Law, whose complexity has expanded with modernity. Starting from the recognition of the insufficiency of criminal and criminal procedural legislation in light of the diversity of current legal phenomena, it examines the tension between the need for a more flexible interpretative activity and the preservation of legal certainty. In this context, consequence-oriented legal pragmatism is discussed as a possible interpretative instrument for overcoming the technical and ethical dilemmas faced by criminal judges, without disregarding the risks of decisionism and the weakening of legality. The article proposes a critical reflection on the limits and possibilities of this approach, highlighting the role of the criminal judge in modernity and the need for integration between legal norms, rationality, and the restraint of the State’s punitive power, from the constitutional perspective of human dignity.