Precautionary Measures in Civil Environmental Public Actions and the Importance of the Principle of Proportionality

Abstract

I - Law 83/95, of 31 August, which regulates the right of public action aimed at preventing or halting infringements against public health and environmental protection as well as quality of life, granted by Article 52(3) of the Constitution to all individuals, either personally or through associations, does not provide for any special precautionary procedures. Therefore, ordinary procedures must be applied, in accordance with the principle of proportionality between the right and the action intended to assert it (Article 2(2) of the Civil Procedure Code).

II - When protective measures are intended to safeguard diffuse interests related to the environment and quality of life, applicants cannot seek exclusive protection of their individual legal situations, since the interests at stake are of a general nature, belonging to the community as a whole.

III - Only in extreme cases of serious and intolerable degradation of the environment and quality of life, properly documented and without disregarding the prevailing sentiment within the social community, can the exercise of preventive and repressive measures involving disproportionate social costs be admitted.