O drible continental: a margem de apreciação nacional na decisão de convencionalidade do crime de desacato pelo Superior Tribunal de Justiça

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the grounds of the decision of the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (STJ) in Habeas Corpus 270,269-MS, regarding the conventionality of the crime of “ desacato ” (contempt of a public official), specifically in relation to the use of the Margin of Appreciation technique to relativize the linkage with international human rights standards. Initially, the work demonstrates the relationship between freedom of expression, democracy and the crime of contempt. It then goes on to present the decision of the STJ. After that, it starts to study the Margin of Appreciation. With these data, the work examines the decision of the STJ and criticizes the validity of the application of the technique by the Brazilian Court. The work points to a critical dimension regarding the use of the technique in the decision examined, pointing that the structure of the institute itself, as well as the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, was disregarded. It also notes that judicial decisions that restrict freedom of speech by validating the punishment of the crime of contempt may contribute to increasing distrust of the democratic role of the Brazilian Judiciary.