The democratic criminal process and the institute of amicus curiae: a third interested in the protection of fundamental law to the balanced environment

The research seeks to problematize the institute of the amicus curiae in the scope of environmental criminal proceedings, in order to investigate if this institute consubstantiates in a true space of popular participation in the search for the protection of the right to the healthy environment to the quality of life. The central scope is to investigate whether, in the Democratic State of Law, the amicus curiae presents itself as an instrument capable of fostering participation and social oversight in the context of environmental criminal proceedings. The juridical-theoretical approach and deductive reasoning were used in the execution of this research, using a bibliographic research technique. At the end of the investigation it was possible to show that the amicus curiae presents itself as a partially adequate instrument to enable democratic participation and oversight in environmental criminal proceedings.