ELEMENTS FOR THE COMPREHENSION OF THE THEORY OF PRECEDENTES ON PANDEMIC TIMES: DISTINGUISHING AND PROSPECTION

This article seeks to answer how the legal relationships affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are linked to the precedents available in the Brazilian legal system. To do so, it starts with an investigation of the theoretical understanding of the problem, in the sense that the pandemic transforms easy cases into hard ones. Then, the article demonstrates that the difference between common and pandemic cases is factual, so that the technique to be used for not applying precedents is the distinguishing. In the end, it is proposed that the courts carefully substantiate their decisions to avoid misuse of these precedents.