Os avanços da judicialização terciária do Direito Animal no Brasil

Abstract

This article addresses the very recent sociological and legal phenomenon, termed by animalist doctrine as the tertiary or strict judicialization of animal rights, which consists of the possibility of nonhuman animals demanding their own subjective rights in court, since the Federal Constitution itself, in its article 225, §1, VII, recognizes them as legal subjects. This phenomenon began in 2020, when the Brazilian judiciary began to receive this new demand for lawsuits, which gained the attention of the national mainstream media due to their unprecedented procedural nature. Given the novelty of the lawsuits, judges generally did not recognize animals' capacity to be part of the animal, even with an existing legal framework, notably Decree No. 24,645 of 1934, in addition to the Federal Constitution. Fortunately, in September 2021, a ruling by the 7th Civil Chamber of Paraná inaugurated a new era, with the first precedent recognizing animals' capacity to be part of the animal. Following this groundbreaking decision, new lawsuits have been recognizing animals as plaintiffs in lawsuits, signaling the success of the tertiary judicialization of animal rights and a path of hope for justice and liberation for all beings. This article will be presented with bibliographical and documentary research, including books by leading experts on the subject, websites, and legal journals. The objective of this paper is to highlight the relevance of the topic, addressing, albeit briefly, what can be called the advancement of the tertiary judicialization of animal rights in Brazil.