The Rule of Law Threatened by Environmental Governance: A Reading Applied to Environmental Policy of Minas Gerais

Purpose: This article recalls and analyzes social events that took place between 2012 and 2017 and that marked the daily life of environmental policy in the state of Minas Gerais. Theoretical Framework: Identified with the critical construction of Political Ecology and collated with empirical elements, it explores the notions of field and environmental injustice to argue that the logic of Environmental Governance in Minas Gerais constituted a threat to the Rule of Law. Design/Methodology/Approach: The methodological procedures consist of bibliographical and documentary research, as well as direct observation of thematic events held at the time. Findings: To support the hypothesis, the foundations of the Environmental Rule of Law are presented, and then it is argued how the main existing territorial-environmental management instruments, as a rule, have contributed to the constitution of an Environmental Rule of Law of appearance. Implications: The focus is on Latin American methodologies and research that map conflicts and communicate them on the World Wide Web, allowing free access to details of the environmental conflicts identified, from a perspective that raises issues of our time and place.