Environmental risk and strict liability in the Santos Basin: legal challenges in oil exploration in ecologically sensitive areas

Abstract

This study analyzes the effectiveness of the legal regime of environmental strict liability as applied to oil exploration in the Santos Basin, considering the environmental impacts associated with such activity and the normative and institutional weaknesses that compromise the protection of ecologically sensitive areas. The objective of the research is to assess the capacity of the current legal system to prevent and remedy environmental damage resulting from offshore operations, identifying technical, procedural, and structural limitations in holding economic agents accountable. The methodology is qualitative and is based on documentary research and normative analysis, grounded in the deductive method and supported by empirical data on episodes of contamination, oil spills, and environmental degradation in the region. The investigation departs from the constitutional principle that environmental strict liability, although formally established in law, has proven ineffective in the face of the multiplicity of collective harms, procedural delays, and deficiencies in enforcement and oversight structures. Based on its findings, the study proposes the strengthening of civil sanctions, the expansion of administrative action, and the enhancement of environmental governance through technical regulation mechanisms, the use of monitoring technologies, inspection practices, and mandatory preventive instruments. The research concludes that the current legal model, while formally advanced, requires a reconfiguration of its enforcement mechanisms in order to achieve concrete results in the protection of the marine environment. In this context, civil liability should be integrated into a broader, preventive legal policy committed to environmental justice and to the full protection of diffuse rights.