OBJECTIVE:To analyze decisions from the legal system concerning the population's access to medicines within the Brazilian Public Health System through judicial channels, with regard to decision-making criteria and possible political and economic pressure. METHODS:This was a descriptive retrospective study on documents with a quantitative and qualitative approach. Data were gathered from the State of Pernambuco Superintendency for Pharmaceutical Care, and the data sources used were 105 lawsuits and administrative reports between January and June 2009. It was ascertained which medications have a patent or patent request in the database of the Brazilian Patent Offi ce (INPI), in order to identify the frequency with which patents feature in lawsuits. The data obtained were classifi ed according to Anatomical and Therapeutic Chemical System. To analyze the judicial decisions, the theory of autopoietic social systems was used. RESULTS:There were lawsuits involving 134 medications, with an estimated value of R$ 4.5 million for attending the treatments requested. 70.9% of the medications had a patent or a patent request and they were concentrated in three therapeutic classes: antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents; digestive tract and metabolism; and sensory organs. Six central ideas within judges' decision-making criteria were identifi ed (the federal constitution and medical prescriptions), along with pressure between the legal, economic and political systems concerning access to medications. CONCLUSIONS:The analysis on judicial decisions based on the theory of autopoietic social systems made it possible to identify mutual stimulation (dependency) between the legal system and other social systems in relation to the issue of citizens' access to medications. This dependency was represented by the federal constitution and intellectual property. The federal constitution and medical prescription were identifi ed as decision-making criteria in lawsuits. Intellectual property represented possible political and economic pressure, especially in cases of launching medications into the market.

Resumo:Pesquisar a decisão jurídica requer mais que estudar a teoria da interpretação e a teoria da argumentação, envolve o estudo da vida cotidiana da comunidade forense. É que as decisões não são mera aplicação das normas jurídicas, nem da racionalidade argumentativa, elas são fruto de processos comunicativos desenvolvidos na comunidade forense. Para tratar do tema relacionamos a visão semântica de Niklas Luhmann com a etnometodologia de Harold Garfinkel, o que nos proporciona uma explicação sociológica da construção do Direito a partir da comunidade forense adicionada à identificação de etnométodos forenses.Palavras-chave: Norma jurídica. Processos comunicativos. Etnometodologia. Abstract:To research the juridical decision requests more than to study the theory of the interpretation and the theory of the argument, it involve the study of the juridical community's daily life. The decisions are not mere application of the rules of law, nor of the argumentative rationality, they are fruit of communicative processes developed in the juridical community. To treat of the theme we related Niklas Luhmann's semantic vision with Harold GarfinkeFs ethnomethodology, what provides us a sociological explanation of the construction of the right starting from the juridical community added to the identification of juridical ethnomethods.