The Supreme Court as guarantor of the rule of environmental law in the government of president Jair Bolsonaro

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the performance of the Supreme Federal Court (Brazil) in the judgments of environmental matters originating from international obligations assumed by Brazil and the posture of the government of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, which oscillates between populism and denialism. The rhetorical strategy of the heads of the federal Executive is not a recent novelty in Brazil, the last President of the Republic, following the modus operandi of other counterparts, intensified the use of populism in an attack on the international legal order and its institutions. In its functions, the Brazilian Federal Legislative was held in a mere supporting role, without a clear defense of the internationally binding legal ties to Brazil or a posture of interpellation to the Executive for the maintenance and enhancement of domestic law in the face of the law arising from outside its territory. Thus, the Supreme Federal Court assumed the condition of guarantor of transnational legal claims and international law as a brake on this negationist populism against the International Law, contemplating the prevalence of the protection of Human Rights, Democracy, the Environment Law and the Rule of Law. For the development of this research, the inductive method was used, operationalized by the operational concept techniques, bibliographic research and jurisprudential analysis.