Through the analyses of landmark cases, this article argues that one reason for the tendency by the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) to disregard judicial precedents is the difficulty to create a common ratio decidendi in Court decisions and prevent the emergence od Dworkin's chain of law. This is due, in part, to the court's own decision process. The lack of a decision pattern entails that each case is decided without refecenre to previous cases. This context might foster an atmosphere in which decisions are not transparent, something which risks creating a democratic deficit on the STF.
STF; precedents; decision process; interpretation; chain of law