Interesse de quem? Uma discussão sobre a inversão dos conceitos jurídicos de público e privado pela mineração

Abstract

The implementation of mining projects in areas of great environmental, landscape, social or historical relevance generates conflicts that are a constant in several communities where there are mineral deposits. In this scenario, even in the face of mere speculation of judicialization, mining companies often invoke the idea that the activity is in the public interest. In this work, it is investigated how mining inverts legal principles of a public nature as a way of establishing the private activity that it carries out as an interest of the community, and thus, as an activity that should be a priority even in spaces with socially or environmentally relevant characteristics. In order to do so, a bibliographic and documentary analysis is made on the legal construction of public interest in Brazil, in order to investigate the current legislation and understanding of the Courts on the subject. It is clear in the study how the mining activity was gradually capturing the legal institutes, in an inversion of public and private that seeks to include and naturalize private exploration as an interest of the whole community. It was evident that it is necessary and possible, with the analysis of the movements that sought to say no to mining in their territories, the resumption of the idea of public interest so that it actually meets the interests of that collectivity directly affected by the implementation of mining projects.