ADI 7775 (Law Against the Soy Moratorium in Rondônia)

In December, 2024, the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), the Sustainability Network, the Green Party, and the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) with a request for a preliminary injunction, filed by with the aim of declaring the unconstitutionality of Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Law 5,837/2024 of the State of Rondônia. The state law came into force on July 26, 2024, and aims to prevent the application of the sectoral agreement known as the “Soy Moratorium” within the state of Rondônia. The agreement, which is voluntary for companies in the soybean chain, was established in 2006 and has proven to be an important example of reconciliation between the interests of large-scale agricultural development and environmental and climate sustainability, as it establishes measures to prevent the purchase of soybeans from deforested areas of the Amazon after July 22, 2008. The plaintiffs allege that, in order to render it unworkable, the aforementioned state law, in the form of a tax penalty, prohibits the granting of tax incentives and public land to companies in the agro-industrial sector that have internal purchasing policies related to the terms of the Soy Moratorium. The plaintiffs allege that the rule is materially unconstitutional because it violates the principles of free enterprise, free competition, and equality, given that the law distorts the very logic of the market by punishing legal entities that adopt sustainable purchasing policies and do not promote the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. In contrast, it is argued that the multisectoral agreement has proven to promote rather than limit soybean production in the country. It is noteworthy that the state law violates acquired rights, perfect legal acts, the defense of the environment as a fundamental principle of the national tax system, the right to an ecologically balanced environment, the duty to protect the environment, and the principle of prohibition of regression in environmental protection. It should be noted that the law constitutes a setback in the fight against climate change, since tackling climate change is directly related to combating deforestation, also in view of the commitments made in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement. A preliminary injunction is requested to suspend the effects of the aforementioned articles of Law 5.837/2024 of the State of Rondônia. A final judgment is requested to uphold the ADI and declare the contested articles of State Law 5.837/2024 unconstitutional.