AUTOMATED ADMINISTRATIVE DENIALS AND THE DUTY TO EXPLAIN IN BRAZIL'S DIGITAL STATE

Abstract

The study examines the duty to explain administrative denials produced or materially influenced by automated systems in the digital transformation of the Brazilian State, adopting theoretical, bibliographic and documentary qualitative research based on the Federal Constitution, administrative and data protection legislation, official artificial intelligence governance documents and specialized legal literature. It seeks to identify a minimum standard of intelligibility capable of reconciling technological efficiency, administrative reasoning, data protection and an effective possibility of contestation by citizens, considering that Article 20 of the Brazilian General Data Protection Law does not exhaust the matter when a formally human decision depends substantially on automated recommendations, classifications or inferences. The results indicate that the administrative duty to provide reasons follows the act regardless of the technology employed and that an explanation must reconstruct the decisive elements of the decision path to a degree proportionate to its impact. As an analytical contribution, the article proposes a matrix composed of identification of automation, factual basis, legal basis, decision criterion, contestability and institutional traceability, concluding that legitimate digitalization depends on preserving concrete conditions for understanding and reviewing State decisions.