ENVIRONMENTAL EXPROPRIATION AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH OF THE STF´S AND THE STJ´S JURISPRUDENCE

Abstract

The article analyzes the jurisprudence of the STF and the STJ on environmental expropriation and on compensation for conservation units´ creation. The 1988 Brazil´s Constitution introduced an ecological approach on property, which contributed to the conservation units´ implementation. Through bibliographic and jurisprudential review, 24 STF´s decisions and 199 STJ´s were analyzed. The research concluded that the STJ defends the distinction between expropriation and administrative limitation. In the last case, the duty to indemnify for the creation of new conservation units is removed, considering the absence of effective administrative possession of the private property. Of 76 decisions, 24 recognize indirect expropriation. 64% of the conservation units constitute public domain lands, understood as an administrative limitation, since the Public Power, after the creation of the UCs, does not take possession of the areas. The STF, in 8 decisions, demonstrated that in all cases of administrative limitation, compensation would be due, whether the land is considered public or private domain. This research concludes that the STF´s and the STJ´s understanding of the subject does not seem to meet the ecological approach on property defended in this paper.