The Criminal Liability of Legal Entities for Environmental Crimes from the Perspective of the Brazilian Supreme Court

Abstract

The research analyzed the jurisprudence of the Federal Supreme Court in the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal No. 548.181, from the State of Paraná, which overcame the understanding signed by the Superior Court of Justice, in the judgment of Ordinary Appeal in Writ of Mandamus No. 27.593 from the State of São Paulo, which dealt with the criminal liability of legal entities due to the practice of environmental crimes. The objective was to verify whether the liability imposed on legal entities was effective or whether it was reduced to a merely symbolic aspect. The work was developed through the dialectic method, which allows the questioning of the certainties established up to that point, enabling us to deny them and, from this intellectual exercise, to extract secure knowledge. It was concluded that the imputation of criminal liability to legal entities reveals itself as symbolic legislation that translates into an illusory action of the State with the purpose of conferring a way of solution to the problems and challenges for the protection of the environment, making it necessary that the discussions advance searching for more efficient answers for ecological tutelage.