A AMAZÔNIA COMO OBJETO HERMENÊUTICO: O LEGADO DA ADPF 760 PARA O CONSTITUCIONALISMO AMBIENTAL BRASILEIRO

Abstract

This study examines Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental (ADPF) No. 760, decided by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court in 2024, which addressed the State’s structural omission in the protection of the Amazon. The research aims to critically analyze the reasoning developed in Justice Cármen Lúcia’s opinion, in which she proposed the recognition of an Unconstitutional State of Affairs in environmental matters, based on the identification of massive, systematic, and persistent violations of fundamental rights. The study demonstrates how the argumentation set forth in the opinion articulates empirical data, constitutional foundations, and judicial precedents to support the judicial enforceability of the right to an ecologically balanced environment, thereby rejecting its interpretation as a merely programmatic norm. It also examines the contrast between the solution proposed by the reporting Justice and the majority ruling adopted by the Court—referred to as a “Significant Commitment”—discussing the limits and potential of structural judicial responses in contexts of environmental crisis. The conclusion is that, although the formal declaration of an Unconstitutional State of Affairs did not prevail, the reasoning developed in the examined opinion consolidates an important interpretive paradigm for Brazilian environmental constitutionalism, by recognizing the protection of the Amazon as an immediate legal duty of the State and an indispensable condition for the effectiveness of multiple fundamental rights, including those of future generations.