HABEAS CORPUS AS A INSTRUMENT FOR EFFECTIVENESS OF LEGAL PROTECTION OF NON-HUMAN ANIMALS

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the aspects of animal rights within the legal sphere, in light of the 1988 Federal Constitution. The study aims to understand the historical aspects of the emergence of animal rights worldwide by analyzing the main currents of animal advocacy, with the aim of better understanding the reality to which animals are subjected within today's society, in contrast to the rights guaranteed to them but rarely enforced. The bibliographic research will be conducted through current legislation, as well as through an analysis of the doctrine relevant to this topic, using the deductive and monographic methods. Therefore, documents and works by authors with expertise on the subject were used. Furthermore, it is historical in that it analyzes the origins of the emergence of animal rights in Brazil and in comparative law. The research technique is indirect documentary, as the research is based on primary and secondary sources. The text addresses the description of animal rights and social anthropocentrism. Next, the historical and philosophical aspects of the emergence of animal rights were addressed, as well as the predominance of primary anthropocentrism and the inferiorization of animals, and the first laws created relativizing them as rights holders. Following this, a study of the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights was conducted, providing a brief analysis of the first actions in which animals were considered rights holders. A brief reflection was also made on the laws that protect animals in Brazil and in comparative law, in addition to conducting a study on the possibility of filing habeas corpus as a mechanism capable of guaranteeing animal freedom, as subjects of rights, through an analysis of the case law of the higher courts. Finally, the possibility of using habeas corpus, previously intended for humans, in defense of animal freedom was demonstrated.