AUTOMATIC CESSATION OF RES JUDICATA IN
TAX MATTERS: limits in light of legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectat
Name: RAMON HENRIQUE SANTOS FAVERO
Publication date: 25/05/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| GEOVANY CARDOSO JEVEAUX | Presidente |
| TAREK MOYSES MOUSSALLEM | Examinador Interno |
| VALTER DE SOUZA LOBATO | Examinador Externo |
Summary: The dissertation examines the automatic termination of tax res judicata in light of legal certainty
and the protection of legitimate expectations, with the aim of determining whether it is
constitutionally legitimate to automatically interrupt the effects of final judgments rendered
under diffuse constitutional review by subsequent decisions of the Brazilian Federal Supreme
Court issued under abstract review or within the framework of general repercussion, without the
use of the proper procedural mechanisms. The analysis is limited to tax procedure, especially
continuing legal relationships in which a final judicial decision projects effects onto the future
relationship between taxpayer and tax authority. The study adopts a qualitative and theoreticaldogmatic methodology, employing an inductive approach and relying on bibliographical,
normative and case-law research. It first reconstructs the relationship among the rule of law,
legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations, with emphasis on the static and
dynamic dimensions of legal certainty and on the structural elements of legitimate expectations.
It then examines res judicata as a technique of normative stabilization and protection of the
future, with special attention to its specific operation in tax matters. Next, it analyzes Themes
881 and 885 decided by the Federal Supreme Court, identifying the dogmatic problem of
automatism and its effects on the practical authority of res judicata, the calculability of the future
and the taxpayer’s legitimate expectations. Finally, it demonstrates the constitutional
insufficiency of automatism and the need to contain the automatic incidence of the supervening
precedent through dogmatic criteria grounded in legal certainty, the protection of legitimate
expectations and prospective justice. It concludes that tax res judicata in continuing legal
relationships is not absolutely immune to relevant supervening jurisprudential changes, but its
loss of effectiveness cannot occur automatically, indiscriminately and without sufficient
dogmatic mediation, requiring reinforced institutional justification, adequate temporal discipline
and consideration of the type of judicial protection involved.
