Why are Brazilian courts so unpredictable?

“I’m embarrassed for having tired you all out so much,” joked Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber, 81 minutes into declaring her vote on a crucial case to decide whether defendants may be sent to jail before exhausting all appeals routes.

Ten minutes later, she finally reached the end of her 60-page, 19,000-word statement. Her monologue opened with a quote from Voltaire, mixed Portuguese, English, French, Italian and Latin, and ended with a poem from Constantine Cavafy.

Dias Toffoli, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, before calling a much-needed 15-minute bathroom break for his colleagues, gushed: “That was beautiful…”

The trial in question—despite only requiring the court’s 11 justices to declare whether they agree or disagree with imprisonment after a single failed appeal—has already taken up three full-day sessions in the Supreme Court and will require one or two more.

To say the trial has only taken three days, however, would be incorrect. The cases in question have actually been ready for a decision since September 2018, with the trial date initially slated for April 10.

The issue is emblematic of the nightmarish inner-workings of Brazil’s highest court, where cases can take years to conclude and justices are criticized for...