ABSTRACT
In the globalised world, legal scholars are facing manifold challenges, including those deriving from the possibility of reading legal reality from multiple standpoints. The present work is an attempt to investigate the circulation and the dissemination in the world map of the remedy of public interest litigation, starting from its widely perceived original ideals as elaborated in the United States, and its application to environmental disputes. Considering that the idea of an openness towards collective environmental remedies has spread by now, finding formal recognition in various constitutional charters and acknowledgement by the Judiciary, it is possible to try a comparison between two particular legal systems, namely those of India and Brazil. The issue of legal standing, by affecting the access to justice, can determine the effectiveness of environmental adjudication. Public interest litigation in India “has changed the judicial process from adversarial to polycentric and adjudicative to legislative”.
