O direito subjectivo ao ambiente: um artifício legislativo e jurisdicional

Résumé

The Portuguese Constitution includes the subjective right to environment (Section 66º/1). This right, «a right to something», is presented as a three-sided relationship, involving the individual who will get the benefits from this right, the one tied to that right and the aim of the right. Every citizen is simultaneously qualified in the Portuguese Constitution as beneficiary and obliged individual, as people have both the right to the environment and the duty to preserve environment. The essential idea is that the right to environment implies a fundamental task to defend environment, inherent to the responsible practice of citizenship. Furthermore, the limitation of the aim of the fundamental duty to defend environment to the protection on nature is the sole manner of finding an useful meaning to the Section 66º of the Portuguese Constitution, avoiding the mistakes provoked by a broadened notion of environment and
by a model of environmental protection related to the rights to personality, property and economic initiative.