BRAZILIAN COURT RECOGNIZES THE STANDING FOR ANIMALS

Abstract

It deals with the historic precedent of the Paraná’s State Court of Justice (2021),
which recognized that animals can be plaintiffs of lawsuits, as they have standing.
For this exposition, it introduces propaedeutic notes on Brazilian Animal Law and
answers the previous logical question about whether animals have rights to be
defended through the lawsuit. Based on this, it comments on the main grounds of
the decision, understanding that, if animals have rights, their ability to be a party
becomes unavoidable, given the constitutional guarantee of access to justice (art. 5,
XXXV, Brazilian Federal Constitution). Presents the art. 2, § 3 of Decree
24.645/1934, still in force, as the normative basis that establishes, in Brazil, the
ability to be in judgment of animals, through representation.