FGV DIREITO RIO
GRADUAÇÃO
Coordenação de Ensino
DISCIPLINA: BRAZILIAN ENVIRONMENTAL AND URBAN LAW AND POLICY
PROFESSOR: RÔMULO S. R. SAMPAIO
CARGA HORÁRIA: 30h
DISCIPLINA ELETIVA
EMENTA
Sustainable Cities in Brazil. The “Right to the City” in Brazil. Federal Environmental
Laws and Tools Applied to Local Governance in Brazil. Local Environmental Case
Studies of Brazilian cities (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Porto Alegre). Local
Environmental Governance and Climate Change in Brazil.
OBJETIVOS GERAIS
This is a course about the policymaking and regulatory process of those environmental
aspects of metropolitan growth management in Brazil. Cities are currently the home to
more than half of the world’s population. An estimate of the United Nations Population
Fund is expecting that approximately 5 billion people will be living in cities in 2030.
Large demographic concentrations impose on urban areas pressure upon and
competition over natural resources. From waste management, effective and inclusive
sewage systems, access to potable water to sustainable land-use policies are some of
the environmental challenges facing metropolitan growth management.
Drawing from international recognized principles of sustainable policies at the local
level, this course aims at sharing some of the Brazilian examples of challenges and
successes in dealing with the environmental aspects of metropolitan growth
management processes. Useful experiences and case studies regarding the
environmental aspects challenging large and rich metropolitan areas like São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro, alongside with creative policy approaches to less developed
metropolitan regions like Curitiba and Porto Alegre, for instance, are instrumental in
construing an effective environmental lawmaking process to address the
abovementioned natural obstacles.
Brazil provides an interesting case study in light of its socioeconomic reality. Brazil is
one of the world’s most important economies but also one of the most unequal
societies. As a result, the country’s metropolitan areas mix extreme wealthy
neighborhoods with extreme poor areas. In the design of local policies or norms of local
impact, environmental justice issues are just beginning to be introduced firmly into the
policymaking debates. Delineating competencies and jurisdiction over the
environmental lawmaking process is another unsettled issue that, in practice, often
jeopardizes effective protective and conservation measures at all levels: Federal, State
and Municipal. Since municipalities in Brazil are autonomous in relation to the State
and Federal governments and enjoy concurrent authority over environmental
legislative and management processes, often conflicts of powers arise challenging the
implementation of local policies or laws and regulations of local impact.
Furthermore, in a time of global environmental problems, like the climate change
threat and considering most of the carbon footprint will be concentrated in
metropolitan areas in the near future, addressing sustainability at the local level
becomes increasingly more important and crucial. In that regard, the design of laws
and regulations concerning metropolitan growth must take into consideration the
interconnectivity of local sustainability problems within the urban area and with
regional and global environmental threats. Only a holistic approach, one that also pays
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FGV DIREITO RIO
GRADUAÇÃO
Coordenação de Ensino
attention to enforcement and compliance strategies, is able to address effectively the
environmental aspects of metropolitan growth management.
OBJETIVOS ESPECÍFICOS
The course is divided into 5 sessions. The first session is dedicated to identifying some
of the main environmental challenges facing metropolitan growth management in
Brazil. Thus, a brief panorama of the Brazilian history, socioeconomic indicators,
geographic and demographic patterns along with an overview of the country’s
environmental legal framework constitute useful background information to deepen
into the specifics of environmental challenges facing metropolitan growth management
in Brazil.
The second session focuses on the legal aspects of developing the “right to the city” in
Brazil, mainly on its sustainability component. This session also introduces the 2001
Brazilian Statute of the City and discusses some of the conflicts arising from the
environmental concurrent authority enjoyed by the Federal, State and Municipal
governments.
The third session aims at introducing the interaction between the 2001 Statute of the
City and some general federal environmental law provisions conflicting with and
applicable to municipalities in Brazil. This section also covers environment policy tools
related to biodiversity conservation, sustainable land-use management and
conservationist practices available to local policymakers in Brazil.
The fourth session delves into case studies related to large metropolitan areas in Brazil
from selected environmental issues and creative local policy approaches of each of
those regions: pollution control in São Paulo; poverty and environment in Rio de
Janeiro; green urbanism in Curitiba; and participatory budget in Porto Alegre.
The last session is devoted to the understanding of the role of local environmental
governance in light of the global climate change problem. Utilizing the Brazilian case
study, the main objective of this last session is to link socioeconomic indicators,
vulnerability and promotion of local environmental policies with mitigation and
adaptation strategies to address global warming.
METODOLOGIA
Discussion of the reading materials assigned for each class.
PROGRAMA
CLASSES 1 & 2:
Sustainable Cities in Brazil
Reading: (1) Arlindo Daibert, Historical Views on Environment and
Environmental Law in Brazil, 40 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. 779 (2009)
[Westlaw];
(2) Excerpts from The Civil Law Tradition by John Henry Merryman & Rogelio
Pérez-Perdomo (Stanford University Press, 3rd edition, 2007 #ISBN: 978-08047-5568-9 / 978-0-8047-5569-6): p. 1-6 / 20-38;
(3) Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988, article 225. English version
available from Georgetown University’s Political Database of the Americas,
http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Brazil/brazil.html;
(4) Excerpts from Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems Principles and Practice by
Peter Newman & Isabella Jennings (Island Press, 2008 #ISBN-13: 978-1-
Praia de Botafogo, 190 | 8º andar | Rio de Janeiro | RJ | CEP: 22250-900 | Brasil
Tel.: (55 21) 3799-4608 | Fax: (55 21) 3799-5335 | www.fgv.br/direitorio
FGV DIREITO RIO
GRADUAÇÃO
Coordenação de Ensino
59726-188-3): p. 1-30.
CLASSES 3 & 4:
The “Right to the City” in Brazil
Reading: (1) The 2001 Brazilian Statute of the City. On CD;
(2) Edésio Fernandes, Constructing the ´Right to the City´ in Brazil, available
at http://sls.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/16/2/2001.
CLASSES 5 &6: Federal Environmental Laws and Tools Applied to Local Governance in
Brazil
Reading: (1) Luiz Fernando Henry Sant’Anna, General Overview of Brazilian
Environmental Law, 15-SPG, Int’l L. Practicum 22 (2002) [Westlaw];
(2) Excerpts from Colin Crawford & Guilherme Pignataro, The Insistent (And
Unrelenting) Challenges Of Protecting Biodiversity in Brazil: Finding “The Law
That Sticks”, 39 U. MIAMI INTER-AM. L. REV. 1, (2007) [Westlaw]: p. 13-65.
CLASSES 7 & 8: Local Environmental Case Studies of Brazilian cities (São Paulo, Rio de
Janeiro, Curitiba and Porto Alegre)
Reading: (1) Curitiba Case Study, Orienting Urban Planning to Sustainability
in Brazil, International Council for Local Council Initiatives, available at
http://www3.iclei.org/localstrategies/summary/curitiba2.html;
(2) Excerpts from Roger W. Findley, Pollution Control in Brazil, 15 Ecol. L.Q. 1
(1988); p. 52-64 [Westlaw];
(3) Excerpts from Brian Wampler, Expanding Accountability Through
Participatory Institutions: Mayors, Citizens, and Budgeting in Three Brazilian
Municipalities, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Center for Latin
American Studies at the University of Miami (2009), available at
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3177175: p. 73-79; 81-90;
(3) Excerpts from Marta Harnecker, Delegating Power to the People –
Participatory Budget in Porto Alegre, available at
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/44242/harnecker.pdf;
(4) Odete M. Viero, Water Supply and Sanitation in Porto Alegre/Brazil,
(2003) available at http://prinwass.ncl.ac.uk/PDFs/DMAE.PDF.
(5) Excerpts from Humberto Dalla Bernardina de Pinho, The Role of the
Department of Public Prosecutions in Protecting the Environment Under
Brazilian Law: The Case of “Favelas” in the City of Rio de Janeiro, 24 GA. ST. U.
L. REV. 735 (2008) [Westlaw]: p. 773-778;
(6) Excerpts from Ngai Pindell, Finding a Right to the City: Exploring Property
and Community in Brazil and in the United States, 39 VAND. J. TRANSNAT´L L.
435 (2006) [Westlaw]: p. 445-458.
CLASS 9:
Local Environmental Governance and Climate Change in Brazil
Reading: (1) Excerpts from Working Party on Global and Structural Policies,
Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Urban City Centres: Initial
Findings, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
(2007), by Alistair Hunt, University of Bath, United Kingdom and Paul
Praia de Botafogo, 190 | 8º andar | Rio de Janeiro | RJ | CEP: 22250-900 | Brasil
Tel.: (55 21) 3799-4608 | Fax: (55 21) 3799-5335 | www.fgv.br/direitorio
FGV DIREITO RIO
GRADUAÇÃO
Coordenação de Ensino
Watkiss, Paul Watkiss Associates, United Kingdom, available at
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/50/39760257.pdf: p. 13-37;
(2) Colin Crawford, Our Bandit Future? Cities, Shantytowns and Climate
Change Governance, 36 FORDHAM. URB. L.J. 211, (2009) [Westlaw].
CRITÉRIOS DE AVALIAÇÃO
Your final grade for this course is composed of a 1 class presentation of a selected case
study, 1 question exam and class participation. Class participation includes coming to
class prepared (i.e., having done the required readings) and participating insightfully in
the class discussions (both when volunteering and when called upon to contribute).
BIBLIOGRAFIA OBRIGATÓRIA
As indicated in the program above.
BIBLIOGRAFIA COMPLEMENTAR
N/A
Praia de Botafogo, 190 | 8º andar | Rio de Janeiro | RJ | CEP: 22250-900 | Brasil
Tel.: (55 21) 3799-4608 | Fax: (55 21) 3799-5335 | www.fgv.br/direitorio