For 12 years now, Milaré Advogados – Environmental Consulting has successfully kept abreast of the developing trends in environmental law in Brazil.
Historically, interest in environment-related issues gained momentum with the advent of the National Environmental Policy of 1981 and the Federal Constitution of Brazil of 1988, both of which consolidated pioneering environmental work, not only in social movements and in political-administrative actions but also in litigation. The country’s much-needed economic growth, along with great technological and entrepreneurial surges, required legislation to better regulate activities that placed a heavy strain on natural environmental resources as well as the processing of these very resources, in such a way as to not aggravate existing public and environmental health-related problems.
It is well known that the state of São Paulo back then led the research into, as well as the development of, the technology to ensure that the environment is given due care and kept healthy and sustainable. Without a doubt, technological, economical, social and political resources, albeit insufficient, have been managed ever since by both public administration and private initiative. Universities at the time were beginning to place emphasis on the field of environment, and environmental education mobilised the teaching staff and non-governmental organisations alike. Nevertheless, efforts and resources often went to waste, without a clearly defined direction to follow and with political uncertainties and unwillingness. In fact, the country lacked political order to help consolidate so many projects, initiatives and proposals in respect of environmental policies and management.
It was in 1998 that Milaré Advogados decided to face up to the problem and set out to select and shape invaluable human talents, many of whom are still with us at the office, while others have gone on to pursue other environment-related careers with the public administration or as in-house counsels. That is how we have earned our reputation as a legal/environmental school of militancy. It must be noted, however, that Milaré Advogados does not aim to become a large organisation. Rather, its present size objectively reconciles efficiency, efficacy and highly specialised legal knowledge.
It is worth remembering that our legal/environmental militancy started out with a search for a body of law that could help decrease the areas of tension that existed between economic undertakings (especially those related to manufacturing, energy and agribusiness) and the ever-growing requirements of respect for the limits of a natural world and for environmental quality, so essential for social and economic well-being. It can be said that environmental law is positioned at the very border between these two fields. These days, environmental law also has to look further ahead towards the future of our country and our planet.
In this sense, it is essential that environmental law be inserted within the ambit of public policies and governmental policies. It must be concerned about new management elements, about strategic decisions and about socialenvironmental legislation compatible with our country’s nature and the day-to-day affairs of our nation. Evidently, that task is not incumbent on the law alone, let alone on the specialisation thereof. Good results are bound to arise insofar as environmental law starts to dialogue with other sciences, with management systems, with the political realm and, undeniably, with organised segments of society. It is quite an undertaking in terms of Brazil. In addition, and considering the growing unification of the world, it is important to make further advances in international environmental law, for noone ignores the role Brazil has to play in geopolitics in the coming years. Moreover, the environment’s biggest interests require an effective move of the nations beyond geopolitical borders. It is the planet’s ecosystem that is at stake.
That is how we envision environmental law in Brazil. In this context, Milaré Advogados – Environmental Consulting opens itself to a planet that is in search of a new model of sustainability.