Possibilities and challenges on collective and enviromental claims by a legal clinic in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: de Avellar Mascarello, Marcela
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Eibs Cafrune, Marcelo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Estudos Empíricos em Direito
• Texto Completo: https://reedrevista.org/reed/article/view/745
• topic: environmental conflicts; popular legal assistance; environmental justice; conflitos ambientais; assessoria jurídica popular; justiça ambiental

This paper aims to understand the possibilities and challenges in the reception of collective demands, especially socio-environmental ones, by the Legal Clinic (EMAJ) of the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG). Based on the literature referring to the Brazilian experience of university legal practices and, anchored in the theoretical perspective of environmental justice, we proposed to analyze the faculty's perception of the theme. This is, therefore, a qualitative research in which the technique of semi-structured interviews was used, carried out with the effective professors linked to the EMAJ. The professors pointed out that EMAJ has a pedagogical and legal advisory role for vulnerable groups. In order to promote this role, in both directions, it is important that EMAJ meets collective demands, including socio-environmental ones. They also highlighted some challenges that must be overcome for this service to become a reality, such as: pedagogical; training; methodological; insertion in the communities; and multidisciplinary team. In this sense, we understand that this research has contributed as a first step towards problematizing and dialoguing about the reception of this kind of demand and for the EMAJ to go beyond its physical space and place itself increasingly alongside the social movements.