DISASTERS AND THE LAW: THE BRAZILIAN CONTEXT AND A PERSPECTIVE

As a result of many factors (climate change, technological change, land use decisions, economics, population growth and demographic trends, among other factors), disasters have increased in the last decades. Reflecting the worldwide pattern, Brazil has and is facing the increase in floods, landslides and droughts. My purpose in Part I is to examine the disasters in the Brazilian context, their main features, numbers, trends, and their relation to the global context. It describes climate change and the increased occurrence of disasters around the world and specifically in Brazil. Part II describes and details the Brazilian Disaster Legal Framework, presenting the legal strategies as well as best practices in terms of prevention and mitigation, preparedness and response, compensation, and reconstruction. In response to recent major disasters, the Brazilian Government and Congress have passed new statutes, not least of which are: Federal Decree 7.257/2010 and Federal Law 12.340/2010.This legislation focused on response and recovery, paying relatively little attention to addressing prevention and mitigation. It was only with the issuance of Federal Law 12.608/2012 that disaster prevention and mitigation started to be seen as the main goal of the National Policy of Civil Protection and Defense. The aim of Part II is to show that the current legal system seems to adopt a systemic approach to dealing with disasters and their different phases to be described in more detail Part II is divided into three main subjects and functions of Disaster Law: Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Compensation