JUDICIAL DECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL RIGHTS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARGUMENTATION OF THE BRAZILIAN SUPREME COURT IN THE CASE OF OUTSOURCING LABOR RELATIONS

This article analyzes the recent shift in the Supremo Tribunal Federal's (STF) decisions regarding social rights, with a focus on labor relations and, in particular, outsourcing. Since 1988, the Court has upheld liberal constitutional reforms promoting fiscal austerity, primarily through legal or procedural lenses, without overtly aligning with neoliberal interpretations of the economic constitution. In the realm of social rights, while the Court occasionally employed consequentialist reasoning and expressed budgetary concerns, it generally maintained a moderate liberal stance, consistent with the Constitution's dialectical framework. However, in recent years, decisions that have weakened labor protections have been marked by the emergence of politically conservative arguments, which prioritize free market principles in labor relations. This shift is exemplified by the ruling in ADPF 324/DF, which permitted unrestricted outsourcing and signaled a broader adoption of a market-driven, commodified view of labor relations. The article posits that this jurisprudential shift could have far-reaching implications for the interpretation of other socioeconomic rights and, by extension, for the concept of social constitutionalism that the 1988 Constitution aimed to establish.