SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION AS A COLLECTIVE ACTION REPERTOIRE: THE USES OF LAW IN A MEGA-MINING PROJECT AT MINIMAL DEMOCRACY CONTEXT

Abstract

The article deals with a socio-environmental conflict’ judicialization that occurred in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre around the largest open-pit coal mining project in Latin America. Despite the strong political-institutional cooperation in favor of the enterprise, motivated by the promise of economic growth in a context of recession, the prior license procedure was interrupted by a court decision. Associated entities in the name of socioenvironmental protection and the defense of traditional peoples organized to denounce the company’s minimization or ostensible omission regarding water, atmospheric and social impacts. The proposal deals with the uses of law in view of the ambiguities and contradictions of the normative construction on the environment, as well as the logics in dispute.