Estudo comparado da responsabilidade penal da pessoa jurídica por crimes ambientais no Brasil e em Portugal

Abstract

The relations between Brazil and Portugal date back centuries of history. The two countries, until the present times, are linked by a language and by economic, social, cultural and legal aspects. In this sense, the Portuguese and Brazilian legal systems maintain converging and diverging points. Thus, this paper aims to point out the main similarities and differences between the criminal liability system of legal entities in force in Brazil and in Portugal, in the context of environmental crime. For this purpose, the operation of such a system in both legal systems is approached and, based on the elements gathered during the investigation, a comparative synthesis between them is elaborated. Initially, it explains what the doctrine currently understands by supra-individual legal assets, what are the environmental legal assets and how criminal law protects these assets. Then, it goes into the system in force in Portugal and its fundamentals, as well as in the models of imputation of criminal facts to the legal person and the current Portuguese sanctioning system. Subsequently, the system currently adopted by Brazil is analyzed, taking an approach to the way doctrine and jurisprudence see the penal punishment of legal entities in environmental crimes and what are the sanctions that can be applied to collective entities in the national territory. Finally, a summary is elaborated highlighting the main positive and negative points, which deserved praise and criticism in relation to the analyzed legal systems.