O exercício da cidadania ecológica, a partir do direito à informação ao consumidor, como instrumento de proteção do direito fundamental a um meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado.

Abstract

This research, sponsored by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), examines the consumer's fundamental right to information in line with the protection of the fundamental right to an ecologically balanced environment through sustainable consumption. In this sense, the research problem consists of analyzing whether the lack of information provided by the supplier regarding the life cycle and disposal of products violates the fundamental right to information by depriving consumers of the possibility of exercising their ecological citizenship. Consequently, the topic, as well as the general objective presented, are suited to the line of research in Contemporary Constitutionalism, conducted in the Postgraduate Program in Law, stricto sensu, at the University of Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC), as it recognizes and demonstrates the direct application of the fundamental rights to information and to an ecologically balanced environment, constitutionally provided for in consumer relations. In the same vein, since the rights to information and to an ecologically balanced environment, the latter of which is closely related to the exercise of ecological citizenship, are fundamental rights, the topic is clearly aligned with the research of the supervising professor, Dr. Clovis Gorczevski, which focuses on the area of human and fundamental rights, as well as with the research group he organizes, which aims to analyze the concept of citizenship from the perspective of the 1988 Federal Constitution. To achieve the proposed goal, the research will adopt the hypothetical-deductive approach, with the aim of validating or refuting the hypothesis about the relevance of the fundamental right to consumer information, relating to the life cycle of products, as a prerequisite for the exercise of ecological citizenship and consequent protection of the fundamental right to an ecologically balanced environment. In addition, the historical-analytical method will be used to analyze the fundamental rights to information and the environment, as well as consumer protection and the evolution of citizenship from a historical perspective, with the aim of underpinning this interpretation, using indirect documentary research as the research technique, making use of secondary sources, especially through bibliographic consultations. Ultimately, the research confirmed the hypothesis, demonstrating that the right to information is essential to the exercise of ecological citizenship. However, a new factor was found, prior to the right to information itself within the scope of consumer relations, as the prior essentiality of education for the formation of the ecological citizen was verified.