Entre o mercado e a fazenda pública: o regime de execução das dívidas judiciais nas sociedades de economia mista de saneamento no território nacional à luz da jurisprudência do Supremo Tribunal Federal

Abstract

This paper analyzes the legal regime for the execution of judicial debts of mixed-capital companies providing basic sanitation services in Brazil, investigating the conflict between their private law nature and the need to protect the prerogatives of the Public Treasury. Given the essentiality of water and sewage services, the monograph covers the overview of state-owned companies in all federal units, mapping the shareholding composition and the management model adopted throughout the national territory. The central objective is to investigate the understanding of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which moved beyond a purely formal analysis of legal personality to adopt a functional and material criterion. It was found that the Court extends the precatório regime to entities operating in a non-competitive environment and without a primary profit motive, aiming to ensure service continuity and budgetary security. However, the research highlights the SABESP case as a watershed moment, where the market profile and the public offering of shares remove such protections. Finally, the analysis reveals intense litigation resulting from a legislative vacuum, concluding that the absence of a precise normative delimitation regarding which state-owned companies enjoy these prerogatives forces the Judiciary to act in the pacification of a sector vital for public health.