Environmental Dispute Resolution in Brazil: New Paths and Lessons from the U.S. Legal Experience

Authors

Daniel Castelo Branco Ramos, Federal Court of the Sixth Region in Brazil

Abstract

This Article analyzes the Brazilian legal framework of Environmental Dispute Resolution ("EDR"), taking into account its ability to ensure the effectiveness of environmental protection and comparing it with the United States' legal mechanisms of Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR"), largely adopted by the U.S. in the 1980s.

The aim of this Article, in detailing these points of comparison, is to facilitate discussion about improvements to the Brazilian environmental legal system through ADR. First, this Article makes an incursion into the most relevant collaborative innovations introduced in the American legal system as of the 1980s, with the aim of expanding ADR. Second, this Article focuses on traditional Brazilian adversarial and consensual approaches to Environmental Dispute Resolution, such as regulations, prosecution enforcement, and judicial review, focusing on issues regarding enforcement inefficiency, legal practitioners, and official statistics. Third, this Article aims to resolve whether the innovations introduced by the American legal system can be useful as a basis to improve the effectiveness of Brazilian environmental law and how to best implement potential changes given the particular legal requirements for adoption in Brazil.

This Article concludes by discussing the possibility of innovation by legal instruments and techniques through a collaborative approach that would strengthen the effectiveness of Brazilian environmental law. This Article argues that the enhancement of Brazilian legal instruments to improve environmental law enforcement must not be a mere copy of U.S. experiments-they are only an inspirational starting point. The introduction of new ways to approach environmental conflicts must come along with the improvement of agencies' infrastructure and legal power, as well as educational programs to work on formal and adversarial legal Brazilian culture in order to demonstrate the advantages of a pragmatic and collaborative approach to dispute resolution.

Keywords

Dispute Resolution, Curriculum, Education (General), Environmental Law, Environmental Protection, Law Enforcement

Disciplines

Dispute Resolution and Arbitration | Environmental Law | Law | Law Enforcement and Corrections

Recommended Citation

Daniel C. Ramos, Environmental Dispute Resolution in Brazil: New Paths and Lessons from the U.S. Legal Experience, 24 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 63 (2022).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cjcr/vol24/iss1/5