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Case Study on Brazil. Reflections on the Social Function of Property in Brazil
By: Wagner Lenhart, Instituto Liberdade
INITIAL CONSIDERATIONS
The evolution of civilization is closely associated to the development of instruments and
institutions which make social interaction easier, create favorable environments and stimulate
exchange among individuals. In this sense, the most important institution perceived and improved by
man is private property. After all, the right of using, enjoying and disposing of their assets, ideas and
efforts, have the power of, at first, assuring freedom to man. To truly be free, man needs to assure
that all the spheres of his property will be guaranteed by the social organization. Also, the institution
of private property gives him the opportunity for economic prosperity, as it generates greater safety
and ease to invest, transact, interact and maximize the use of existing resources.
The importance of the analysis and continuous study of this institute is unquestionable and led
to the writing of the present article, which analyzes property rights in the Brazilian legal system. More
specifically, it analyzes one of the elements that characterize property right in Brazilian lands, namely,
the social function of property.
The Brazilian Constitution promulgated in 1988, when addressing the fundamental rights and
guarantees, sets forth the following1:
Article 5 All persons are equal before the law, without distinction of
any nature, assuring to Brazilians and foreigners resident in the
Country, the inviolability of the right to life, liberty, equality, safety and
property in the following terms […]
XXII - the property right is guaranteed;
XXIII - the property will accomplish its social function;
XXIV - the law will establish the procedure for expropriation for public
need or utility, or social interest against previous and fair
indemnification in cash, with exception of the cases foreseen in this
Constitution;
XXV - in case of imminent public threat, the competent authority can
use a private property, assured to the owner, ulterior indemnification
if there is damage;
XXVI - the small agricultural property, thus defined by law, since that
it is worked by the family, will be not object of attachment for payment
of debts from its productive activity, providing the law for the means
of financing its development;
1 Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988.
2
From the reading of the provisions above transcribed, it is possible to conclude that the
property right is considered a fundamental right guaranteed to the Brazilians and the foreigners
resident in the country. Furthermore, it is concluded that the Federal Constitution that enrolls the
property as a fundamental right, at the same time establishes provisions which weaken this right,
creating limitations and confusing conditions for its enjoyment.
Really, it is dominant among Brazilian scholars that the right to property is not an absolute
right and property should be limited and relativized. This is what the constitutional text signals when
it defines, for example, that property shall accomplish a social function and can be expropriated for
social interest2.
Within the institutes limiting or relativizing property rights in the Brazilian legal system, such
as administrative limitations, urban recording as historic sites, establishment of special zones of social
interest and compulsory subdivisions, constructions and uses, the present study intends to analyze the
denominated social function of property. For this purpose, it will be examined, at the first moment,
what is understood by social function of property in Brazilian law, and then, it will evaluated the impact
of such institute on the economic dynamics of the country.
1. The social function of property in the Brazilian law
As mentioned in the initial considerations, the right to property is not absolute in the Brazilian
legal system. In fact, there are several constitutional and legal provisions granting governmental bodies
the powers of intervention in private property and even discretionary mechanisms of expropriation,
as it is in the case of expropriation for non-accomplishment of the social function of property.
In this line Manoel Gonçalves Ferreira Filho3, featured Brazilian scholar, states:
Recognizing the social function of property, without denying it, the
Constitution does not deny the exclusive right of the owner on the
thing, but requires that the use of the thing is conditioned to the
general well-being. Therefore, the constituent was not far from
thomistic conception that the owner is an attorney of the community
for management of goods dedicated to serve everybody, although
they do not belong to everybody.
In Brazil, if property does not accomplish its social function, the State can impose punishment
to the owner and carry out the so-called expropriation-sanction, in which the owner’s will does not
2 LENZA, Pedro. Direito constitucional esquematizado – 11. ed. rev., atual. e ampl. São Paulo: Editora Método,
2007, p. 713. 3 FERREIRA FILHO, Manoel Gonçalves. Curso de Direito Constitucional – 36. ed. rev. e atual. São Paulo:
Saraiva, 2010, p. 387.
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matter or is of little importance. The indemnification is paid in public debt securities4 or agrarian debt
bonds for cases in which the Federal Government expropriates with the aim to promote the agrarian
reform5. The reasons and procedures of punishment for non-accomplishment of the social function,
as well as the own understanding of the said social function, differs depending on the nature of the
property: whether it is urban or rural.
When the property is urban, non-accomplishment of the social function as set forth by the
Federal Constitution and the Federal Act no. 10.257, of 07.10.2001, can result in the following
penalties: a) procedure of compulsory subdivision, building or use, in which the Public Power can
impose to the property owner, an obligation to do, establishing conditions and terms for the
implementation of such obligation; b) imposition of progressive IPTU (Municipal Real State Tax) in
which the Public Power imposes an increased tax rate over the term of five consecutive years and c)
expropriation-sanction, when the owner does not accomplish the obligation to parcel, build or use the
property and after the five years term of the progressive tax collection the Public Power can
expropriate the property, indemnifying the owner with public debt securities, redeemed within the
term of 10 years in annual installments, equal and successive. In these cases, the Municipal Public
Power has the prerogative to impose such sanctions if it understands that the urban land is not being
used in an appropriate manner.
What would be the social function of urban property? When is urban land not used in a suitable
manner? In the terms of the Federal Constitution, urban property accomplishes its social function
when it meets the fundamental requirements of the city order established in the respective land-use
4 Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988. Article 182. The urban development policy, performed
by the municipal Public Power, according to general guidelines established in the Law, aims to order the full
development of the social functions of the city and ensure the well-being of its inhabitants.
Paragraph 1 The urban master plan, approved by the Municipal Council, compulsory for cities with more than
twenty thousand inhabitants, is the basic instrument of the development and urban expansion policy.
Paragraph 2 The urban property accomplishes its social function when meets the fundamental requirements of
order of the city expressed in the urban master plan.
Paragraph 3 The expropriations of urban properties will be made with previous and fair indemnification in cash.
Paragraph 4 The municipal Public Power has, by means of an act specific for an area included in the urban master
plan, the right to require, in the terms of the federal law, the owner of the urban land not built, sub-used or not
used, to promote its suitable exploitation, under penalty of, successively:
I - compulsory subdivision or building;
II – municipal real state tax progressive over time;
III - expropriation with payment by means of public debt securities with issuance previously approved by the
Federal Senate, with redemption term of until ten years, in annual installments equal and successive, assured the
real value of the indemnification and legal interest. 5 Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988. Article 184. It is up to the Federal Government to
expropriate for social interest, for agrarian reform purposes, the rural property that does not accomplish its social
function, by means of previous and fair indemnification in agrarian debt bonds, with a clause for real value
preservation, callable in the term of until twenty years, from the second year of their issuance and of which use
will be defined in the law.
Paragraph 1 The useful and necessary improvements will be indemnified in cash.
Paragraph 2 The decree declaring the property as of social interest, for agrarian reform purposes, authorizes the
Federal Government to propose the expropriation action.
Paragraph 3 It is up to a supplementary law to establish a special contradictory procedure, by fast track, for the
legal expropriation proceedings.
Paragraph 4 The budget will set annually the total volume of agrarian debt bonds, as well as the amount of
resources to meet the agrarian reform program in the current fiscal year.
Paragraph 5 It is exempted of federal, state and municipal taxes the operations of transfer of properties expropriated
for agrarian reform purposes.
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planning. Each Brazilian city gifted by a land-use planning, therefore, has its own provisions about the
social function of urban property. Anyway, the doctrine points the general lines and highlights that
property accomplishes its social function in an urban environment when it does not generates social
disorder, lack of housing, unemployment, disordered modifications in the land occupation and radical
transformations of the urban overview.
Regarding rural property, the non-accomplishment of the social function of property can result
in property expropriation. In this case, the Federal Government, under the foundation of social
interest, for the purpose of agrarian reform, can, by means of indemnification in agrarian debt bonds
redeemable in a term of 20 years, expropriate the property.
In case of rural property, accomplishing the social function of property, according to the
Constitution (Article 186), presupposes the simultaneous meeting of four requirements of variable
measurement, namely: a) rational and suitable use; b) suitable use of the available natural resources
and environment preservation; c) observance of the provisions regulating the labor relationships; and
d) exploration that favors the well-being of owners and workers6.
In this sense, it is interesting to transcribe the word of Celso de Mello, Minister of the Supreme
Federal Court, in a vote released in the Specific Appeal in Mandamus no. 32.752, which is about the
social function of rural property 7:
The access to the land, the solution of social conflicts, the rational and
suitable use of the rural property, the appropriate use of the available
natural resources and the preservation of the environment constitute,
undeniably, elements of the accomplishment of the social function of
property. The expropriation, in this context – while constitutional
sanction to the non-accomplishment of the social function of property
(JOSÉ AFONSO DA SILVA, “Curso de Direito Constitucional Positivo”, p.
281, item n. 13, 32ª ed., 2009, Malheiros) –, reflects important
instrument dedicated to give consequence to the commitments
undertaken by the State in the economic and social order.
This means that the land owner is tasked of the legal-social obligation
of properly cultivate and explore it, under the penalty of incur in the
constitutional and legal provisions which sanction to the owners of
idle, non-cultivated and/or unproductive properties, because it is only
met the social function which conditions the exercise of the property
right, when the owner of the domain accomplishes the obligation (1)
of favoring the well-being of those working there; (2) of keeping
satisfactory productivity levels; (3) of assuring preservation of the
6 HORTA, Raul Machado. Direito Constitucional – 5. ed. rev. e atual. Belo Horizonte: Del Rey, 2010, p. 233. 7 SUPREMO TRIBUNAL FEDERAL. Agravo Regimental em Mandado de Segurança nº 32.752, Relator
Ministro Celso de Mello, julgado em 17 de junho de 2015.
Available at: <http://redir.stf.jus.br/paginadorpub/paginador.jsp?docTP=TP&docID=9077755>. Access on:
September 23, 2015.
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natural resources, and (4) of observing the legal provisions which
regulate the fair labor relationships between those possessing the
domain and those cultivating the property.
It is important to reaffirm that the property right is not covered of
absolute character, as it weighs on it a serious social mortgage, which
means that, not accomplished the social function which is inherent to
it (CF, Article 5, XXIII), the state intervention will gain legitimacy in the
private domain sphere; nevertheless, observed for this effect, the
limits, the forms and the procedures provided for in the Republic
Constitution itself.
As you can see, in the social function of both urban and rural property, in the Brazilian legal
system, the start is always from the premise that the Government should ensure that the exercise of
the propriety right is limited by the community’s interest, or in other terms, that the enjoyment of this
right brings advantages not only for the owner, but for the society as a whole8. The problem here is
not the purpose that the property right benefits the society in general. This, all righteous people wants,
and the existence itself of the property right, already ensures. The problem lies in giving to the
government the power to impose sanctions and expropriate the private property based on vague,
dubious or opened concepts, like the social function of property.
Indeed, the social function of property lacks a clear and objective definition and is based on
inaccurate concepts which leave room for the most diverse lines of interpretation, generating the
undesirable effect of legal insecurity. In the manner that is provided in the Brazilian legal system, the
definition of the social function is entirely at the discretion of the rule applicator and his/her ideological
conceptions or particular interests, which leaves room for distinct interpretations and thence legal
insecurity, represented by the high number of lawsuits.
The reflection written by Bernardo Santoro9 is interesting:
Focusing the idea common to all definitions, social function of
property is the institute which legalizes the government intervention
in the private property under the argument of a relevant public
interest, suppressing or extinguishing the power of the individual over
the property earlier fully private. Therefore, the philosophical basis of
this intervention is the public interest. Public interest, according to the
classic administrative law doctrine, is the achievement of the common
good. Then the government can suppress or extinguish the private
property of the people, in view of the common good, and the idea of
8 DEBONI, Giuliano. Propriedade privada: do caráter absoluto à função social e ambiental: sistemas jurídicos
italiano e brasileiro. Porto Alegre: Verbo Jurídico, 2011, p. 117 e 118. 9 SANTORO, Bernardo. Por que não existe propriedade privada de imóveis no Brasil.
Disponível em: <http://www.mises.org.br/Article.aspx?id=965>. Access on: September 22, 2015.
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common good changes according to the politic and economic
philosophy of a government. Some governments can think that a given
property aims the common good only if it reaches certain amount of
rice produced, or if that property is dedicated to commerce and not
for housing. [...]
When the Constitution provides that a man can only exert the
ownership if he meets the common good, which is a fluid concept, it is
being effectively denied this man’s right to possess a private property.
The legal system itself defines ownership the right to use, enjoy and
dispose of the thing, besides the right to recover it from who unfairly
possesses or holds it. If this use, fruition and disposal of the property
are subject to the will and approval of government bureaucrats, under
the argument of a common good volatile and indefinable, so in fact
the property owner is the state, and the individual is a mere holder of
the thing (not even a possessor he/she is, as he/she ends up exerting
in fact the power on the property on behalf of the state and in its
terms).
It is true that the property right, as already referred to, is listed as a fundamental right in the
Brazilian Constitution. It is also true that the homeland courts, as a rule, reject the illegitimate
employment of the expropriator instruments and value the “due process of law”10. However, the
institute of the social function of property, understood in a dominating manner by the doctrine and
the national courts, as an advance with regards to rights in rem, generates for its own nature and its
intrinsic conceptual scope, a culture of devaluation and disrespect to the private assets. More, it
generates legal insecurity, repeated cases of arbitrary conduct by the public administration and, as a
logic corollary, negative impacts on the country’s economy, as it will be highlighted as follows.
2. Impact of the social function of property on the Brazilian economy
In Brazil, it is understood that the property right has undergone an evolutionary process which
comes from the individualist and absolute conception of property, to that covered by a social and
environmental character11. According to this understanding, the institute of the social function of
10 “Nothing justifies, however, the illegitimate employment of the expropriatory instrument when used by the state
power with evident transgression of the principles and rules which direct and discipline the relationships between
the people and the State. It is essential not to lose the sight that, no matter how relevant it may be the foundations
of the expropriatory action of the State, it cannot – and also should not – disrespect the “due process of law” clause,
which conditions any activity of the State tending to affect, among other rights, that regarding the private property.”
(Supremo Tribunal Federal. Agravo Regimental em Mandado de Segurança nº 32.752, Relator Ministro Celso de
Mello, julgado em 17 de junho de 2015) 11 DEBONI, Giuliano. Propriedade privada: do caráter absoluto à função social e ambiental: sistemas jurídicos
italiano e brasileiro. Porto Alegre: Verbo Jurídico, 2011, p. 106.
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property, dealt with in the previous paragraphs, would be a welcome advance which would bring
beneficial results to Brazilian society. However, such a position can and should be questioned.
Firstly, it is important to make some considerations, even briefly, about the private property.
It is well known that the private property concept precedes the Modern State and its theoreticians.
The notion of property dates back to unmemorable times. Indeed, as states Richard Pipes, in his
precious study called Property and Freedom, the idea that the human race lived without the notions
of ‘mine’ and ‘yours’ is part of mystical past or, in his own words, “the vision of real world without
property should not be founded in the collective memory but in a kind of collective nostalgia. It is
inspired by the belief that status and richness inequities are not natural.”12 The own biblical
commandments are living-together rules which aim at better social cooperation and in this sense, in
the case of the eighth commandment, it already sharply pointed to the importance of private property
when imposing the negative right: not steal.
But it is with the Modern State creation the property right arises, in the legal sense of the word
or, as is referred to by Pipes when conceptualizing property such as we known13:
Property refers to the right of the owner or owners, formally
recognized by a public authority, both for exploring goods by excluding
any other people and in order to have them for sale and other
commercial purposes. ‘What distinguishes ownership of a mere
transient possession is that the ownership is a claim which shall be
reinforced by the society, the State, the customs, the conventions and
the law.
So, the state entity, holder of the coercion power, received the task to make accomplished the
property rights, thus generating greater safety for the owners and consequently greater social peace
and stimulation of human interaction. However, over time, schools of thought criticizing the property
right arose, some of which propose its immediate abolition, others defend the State limiting it through
institutes like the social function of property.
As previously seen, the Brazilian Constitutional Charter recognizes the property right as a
fundamental right but does it with exceptions, setting a series of gaps in order for the public power to
deconstitute it. It happens that this position weakens the right protected, in this case the property,
resulting in a series of detrimental effects, such as the complacency with land invasion acts and crimes
against property and increase of the legal insecurity.
In fact, when a right is relativized, as occurred with the property right in the Brazilian legal
system, the culture of invasions performed by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), vandalism
done by groups of delinquents and crimes related to property ends up in a certain way, being accepted
by governmental authorities and the society.
12 PIPES, Richard. Propriedade e Liberdade. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2001, p. 25. 13 PIPES, Richard. Propriedade e Liberdade. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2001, p. 19.
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Rulers’ complacency and the sympathy from part of the society with groups that still disrespect
the property right demonstrate with remarkable clarity the damage that institutes relativizing the
private property, like the exigency to meet an imprecise social function, can cause. They prove the
hard truth that the property in Brazilian lands is seen by a considerable portion of the society as an
instrument of oppression favoring the richer classes and not as what it really is: the most important
bastion for freedom, prosperity and human dignity.
What worries most, in this sense, is that the Brazilian society seems to have arrived to
something very near a consensus which naturally accepts a heavy intervention of the State in the
individuals’ life, either by compulsory expropriation (taxation) or the limits imposed to the property
right and the contract autonomy.
In this tone, Silvio de Salvo Venosa, a renowned Brazilian jurist, states that14:
All the property, even if respected the owner’s right, should
accomplish a social function [...] It is up to the State also to regulate its
intervention whenever the riches are not well used or relegated to
abandonment, redistributing them to those interested and capable to
do it.
The State appears like a universal panacea. It is up always to well-intentioned state entity to
define what means to use well the property or define who is able to use it in the most suitable way for
the society. This common sense which puts the State, its servants and politic agents on the top of a
pedestal of reasonability and impartiality, makes worry all those seeing in the private property not only
the most extraordinary institution for building a prosperous society, but also the main safeguard for
maintenance of individual freedom.
The belief that it is up to the State to establish and ensure that the properties accomplish a
determinate social function ignores two basic issues. First, it does not realize that governments do not
easily correct occasional market “failures”, instead, its bureaucratic and intervening structures tend to
worsen the problems. This occurs because the information and incentives making the markets so
dynamic and effective are not available for the governmental bureaucracy, so that the so extolled
public interest ends up not being reached and some interest groups end up receiving illegitimate
privileges15. In the same way, it is worth remembering that the politic agents have their own interests
and invariably represent specific groups, which allows them to make decisions and use government
resources for offering benefits to whom elected them. Second, they forget that the best way that
private property performs its social function is through unequivocal respect to the owner’s rights,
namely, the property by itself accomplishes the most relevant social function. Its existence and its
respect are, as already referred to, the fertile terrain which offers to the society the best opportunities
of economic and social development.
14 VENOSA, Silvio de Salvo. Direito Civil – Direitos Reais – Volume 5. 3.ed. São Paulo: Editora Atlas, 2003. p.
156 e 157. 15 MITCHELL, William C. Para Além da Política. Rio de Janeiro: Topbooks, 2004. p. 99.
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The illusion that granting to the government powers of limitation and intervention on property
will serve as a catalyst for social progress is just that: an illusion. After all, for the imperfections inherent
to governmental action, the coercive power of the State will end up being used as a function of
individual or corporative interests or, in case the public entity reaches a rare sense of impartiality, by
the lack of stimuli and suitable information, will end up distorting the economic logic and generating
more inefficiency and less prosperity.
The truth is that property, even unproductive, should not be an object of State coercion. When
granting to the State the power to define who will have its property protected or not, the society is, in
first place, putting in the hands of the rulers an excessive power and limiting its own freedom.
Secondly, it is authorizing the government to strongly intervene in economic progress, which
traditionally generates distortions and damages. In this sense, we must take this opportunity to
mention a valuable Adam Smith’s teaching16:
The statesman who tried to guide private individuals for the way they
should apply their capitals, would not only be required to have the
most unnecessary care but also would assume an authority that would
not be wise to entrust to not only one person but even to any council
or senate, an authority that could not be deposited in a place more
dangerous than on the hands of a man fool and presumptuous enough
to imagine himself able to exert it.
Thus, the institute of the social function of property negatively impacts the economy in three
ways. First, it weakens the importance and value of private property, which stimulates, even
unintentionally, its disrespect and a generalized complacency with those violating it. A recent example
proving this situation and the damage it caused, is the invasion on March 5, 2015, of a paper and
cellulose factory located in the city of Itapetininga, in the State of São Paulo, by around one thousand
people, which destroyed thousands of transgenic seedlings, as well as part of the unit facilities17.
Second, it allows the government authority, naturally unfit to this activity, through
mechanisms of penalties for not accomplishing the social function of property, to intervene in the
market dynamics, generating distortions and thence economic damage.
Third, it generates for its evident imprecision and conceptual scope, a significant legal
insecurity, as the owner is always in some doubt whether he/she is accomplishing the social function
that the government authority expects from him/her and at which time, under which circumstances
and in which extension such an authority can impose the sanctions foreseen in the legal system.
Uncertainties from this nature strongly contribute for the enormous number of proceedings of all
matters conducted in the Brazilian Judicial Power. According to data collected by the National Justice
Council (CNJ), disclosed in September 15, 2015, Brazil reached the mark of 100 million proceedings in
16 SMITH, Adam. A Riqueza das Nações – Volume I. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2003. p. 568. 17 G1 - Globo. MST invade fábrica e destrói milhares de mudas geneticamente modificadas.
Available at: <http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/itapetininga-regiao/noticia/2015/03/mst-invade-fabrica-e-destroi-
milhares-de-mudas-geneticamente-modificadas.html>. Access on: September 22, 2015.
10
progress, summed up all proceedings of all courts, which represents one proceeding for each two
Brazilian citizens18.
Thus, the relativization of the private property institute, adopted by the Brazilian legal system,
clearly has a negative impact on the economic dynamics of the country, especially through the
requirement of accomplishing a social function by the property. The weakening of this institute, the
state intervention and the legal insecurity crowd out the investments, leading to a less efficient
allocation of available resources and even to a destruction of existing goods.
Final considerations
As seen in the present study, Brazil recognizes the property right as a fundamental right.
However, such recognition is made with exceptions and the right is relativized by several mechanisms
of state intervention in the private domain. It is true that these intervention mechanisms are founded
on constitutional and legal rules and are subject to the due process of law. It is also true that the
homeland Courts, when examining cases which involve property right limitation, tend as a rule to reject
unreasonable or arbitrary conducts practiced by government entities.
Although the existence of legislative provision and judicial review, there is no way to ignore
that the existence of the institute of the social function of property, for its own nature and its wide
and imprecise concept, results in negative effects like a culture of devaluation and disrespect to private
property, legal insecurity and arbitrary acts by the public administration.
Such negative effects, of course, affect the Brazilian economy, which is harmed by the lack of
a more solid protection of the property right. These harms are represented, for example, by the
insecurity that should be accounted at the time to make investments in the country and by the
distortions created by state intervention in the economic domain.
The institute of the social function of property, with the argument to benefit the society and
stimulate economic progress, ends up generating results opposite to those intended and damages the
Brazilian society and economic development. It is essential for us, that the property right in Brazil
should be really considered a fundamental right, defended with conviction and left free of
relativization.
It is difficult to imagine at this moment, given the majority understanding of the Brazilian
politicians and jurists, a constitutional reform excluding the institute of the social function of property
from the homeland legal system; however, it is possible to state with conviction that the abolition of
such an institution would bring great benefits to the country, the economy and its people. After all,
this would strengthen the culture of valuating the private property, limit state intervention in the
economic dynamics and move away the legal insecurity, attracting and stimulating investments and all
the positive deployments that the private property, when rigorously respected, offers to the society
that adopts it.
18 CONJUR – Consultor Jurídico. Justiça em número: Brasil atinge a marca de 100 milhões de processos em
tramitação na Justiça.
Available at: <http://www.conjur.com.br/2015-set-15/brasil-atinge-marca-100-milhoes-processos-tramitacao>.
Access on: September 22, 2015.
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REFERENCES
BRASIL. Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988.
Available at: <http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Constituicao/Constituicao.htm >. Access on:
September 23, 2015.
CONJUR – Consultor Jurídico. Justiça em número: Brasil atinge a marca de 100 milhões de processos
em tramitação na Justiça.
Available at: <http://www.conjur.com.br/2015-set-15/brasil-atinge-marca-100-milhoes-processos-
tramitacao>. Access on: September 22, 2015.
DEBONI, Giuliano. Propriedade privada: do caráter absoluto à função social e ambiental: sistemas
jurídicos italiano e brasileiro. Porto Alegre: Verbo Jurídico, 2011.
FERREIRA FILHO, Manoel Gonçalves. Curso de Direito Constitucional – 36. ed. rev. e atual. São Paulo:
Saraiva, 2010.
G1 - Globo. MST invade fábrica e destrói milhares de mudas geneticamente modificadas.
Available at: <http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/itapetininga-regiao/noticia/2015/03/mst-invade-
fabrica-e-destroi-milhares-de-mudas-geneticamente-modificadas.html>. Access in: September 22,
2015.
HORTA, Raul Machado. Direito Constitucional – 5. ed. rev. e atual. Belo Horizonte: Del Rey, 2010.
LENZA, Pedro. Direito constitucional esquematizado – 11. ed. rev., atual. e ampl. São Paulo: Editora
Método, 2007.
MITCHELL, William C. Para Além da Política. Rio de Janeiro: Topbooks, 2004.
PIPES, Richard. Propriedade e Liberdade. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2001.
SANTORO, Bernardo. Por que não existe propriedade privada de imóveis no Brasil.
Available at: <http://www.mises.org.br/Article.aspx?id=965>. Access on: September 22, 2015.
SMITH, Adam. A Riqueza das Nações – Volume I. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2003.
12
SUPREMO TRIBUNAL FEDERAL. Agravo Regimental em Mandado de Segurança nº 32.752, Relator
Ministro Celso de Mello, julgado em 17 de junho de 2015.
Available at: <http://redir.stf.jus.br/paginadorpub/paginador.jsp?docTP=TP&docID= 9077755>.
Access on: September 23, 2015.
VENOSA, Silvio de Salvo. Direito Civil – Direitos Reais – Volume 5. 3.ed. São Paulo: Editora Atlas,
2003.