Environmental Damage and Liability in the 21st Century

Abstract

The technological capacity of humans to exploit natural resources is increasingly developed and is intrinsically linked to the planet’s ability to absorb the harmful consequences of such interventions. This paper seeks to shed light on how Law, Politics, and Economics interrelate to prevent or minimize the damage caused to the planet. In this endeavor, it analyzes the protection of natural heritage from a historical perspective and proposes a classification of environmental damage according to its cause and the temporal extent of its effects.

It also suggests the primacy or priority of administrative and civil liability over criminal liability, aiming to justify the use of penal sanctions only as a **ultima ratio** for state enforcement against ecological damage. In this regard, the work is grounded in the perspective of avoiding both eco-centric and anthropocentric excesses or radicalism in the protection of environmental assets. To this end, it examines legislative activity in Brazil and Portugal, seeking to demonstrate the need to harmonize the components of risk, damage, and environmental safety, with the goal of accurately assessing the first, minimizing the second, and ensuring the third.