Direito fundamental ao tempo razoável do processo judicial: limites e possibilidades de concretização no ordenamento jurídico pátrio

This dissertation aims to address the limits and possibilities of realizing the fundamental right to reasonable time of the Brazilian legal system process. From this perspective, we analyze a reasonable time concept for the process, consistent with the civil homeland process; the relationship between efficiency, effectiveness, legal security and reasonable time of adjudication; a formal recognition of the fundamental right to reasonable time of the procedure in the Constitution of 1988; and the immediate applicability of this fundamental right. As indicated, the crisis of the Judiciary and procedural delay are problems directly related to the limits and possibilities of realization of the fundamental right under study. Moreover, we also present some mechanisms that can be used to overcome these problems. The subject was developed based on constitutional interpretation of fundamental rights, an approach that will always have this concern to be based on a methodology which includes the normative and empirical-dogmatic fields, realizing the fundamental right to reasonable time of the process. We adopted as methodological approach the study of this issue in judicial aspect, more specifically in the field of civil procedure. Finally, we weave through a critical and analytical view, our conclusions, which demonstrate the possibilities of overcoming the limits imposed to immediate implementation of the fundamental right to reasonable time of the process in our legal system

O município brasileiro e o direito fundamental do acesso à justiça: a prestação da assistência jurídica municipal ao necessitado

This scholarly work aims to investigate the feasibility and constitutionality of access to justice through the provision of full and free legal assistance by the Brazilian municipalities. Investigates the historical aspects of federalism in a global context, emphasizing the contributions left by American federalism. In the Brazilian context, emphasizing the importance of municipalities as federal entities and their outstanding characteristics, while addressing regional issues of federalism. Leanings to the more detailed analysis of the Brazilian municipalities, contextualizing its legal status, its independence and its constitutional powers. It is emphasized in the same way, the relevant transformations of Brazilian municipalities over the last twenty years of this Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil in 1988, especially the various constitutional amendments that affected the local autonomy and budgetary aspects, fiscal and skills, bringing significant changes to the municipalities. It is an approach to the concept of justice and deepening the studies on the fundamental right of access to justice in its various connotations. In this vein, it is a study on the legal advice provided in Brazil, especially the powers of the Public Defender of the States and Union, as well as the provision of such public service by Brazilian municipalities and its relevance to citizens in need. At this point, it deepens the relevance of the theme of this dissertation earning the implications of municipal performance in the provision of legal assistance provided to the needy, and the activity of the Municipal Attorney or legal counsel in conducting such a task and its implications for legal and procedural especially on the constitutionality or otherwise of the conduct of such public service, confronting the constitutional articles that are correlated with the subject. Within this context, evaluates the municipal legal assistance under the test of constitutionality, in particular the assistance given by the Executive, through the Municipal Attorney or specialized secretariats and that provided by the Legislature, although it only has the typical functions of legislating and control the municipal accounts, comes in a few municipalities in Brazil deploying sectors with the performance of legal services to the needy. At this point the thesis, one wonders if some important aspects of this activity such as political influence and patronage, very common in day-to-day municipal prosecutors and legal advisers, public employees or occupying commissioned positions within the municipal administrative structure in several municipalities throughout Brazil. Finally, there will be a conclusion as to the constitutionality of the service being done by presenting proposals and recommendations that may improve the municipal legal aid, allowing a constitutional backing to this important service is being provided in capital cities and municipalities throughout the length of Brazil

O serviço público de fornecimento de água nas regiões metropolitanas: cooperação entre entes da federação e desenvolvimento

This work aims to study the material conflict of jurisdiction as to the ownership of public water supply, between the municipalities and the Member States, in metropolitan areas. One of the important points of analysis is the realization of the fundamental right of access to water, a right that is implicit in the Constitution of 1988, being prevented from having their achievement considering the lack of definition of the ownership of the service. Knowing discussed the essential public service, in all its stages, it will realize it is a complex activity that depends for its operation, joint activities of federal entities and the society. In its pursuit of development (understood as better conditions of life), that in view of the Federal Law nº 11.445 of 2007 is the universal access to service, require the adoption of popular participation and the positive benefits of the state, such as planning. Moreover, it will find cooperation between federal entities (after the study of Brazilian federalism) peaceful solution to the conflict through the adoption of joint management or shared, depending on the factual situation and legal

A intervenção estatal no domínio econômico privado através da nova lei de recuperação de empresas e falências (lei 11.101/05)

Analysis of the elements of the Constitutional Order of the letter 1988 politics, with emphasis in the principles of this, a study on the intervention of the State in the private initiative by means of the Law of Recovery of Companies and Bankruptcies (law 11.101/05). New enterprise vision is admitted, over all in the interdependence between economic and social factors. Study on the globalization and the interdependence of economic and legal sciences in the construction of a legal optics in the search for the economic and social development, with the recognition of the interference of the Economy in the Right and its uneven importance. Still, we delineate the state intervention in the economic scope, of company and in the judicial recovery, as well as the consequences of such intervention in the involved credits in the judicial recovery and patrimony of the debtor in recovery. For such task, the elements of the Judicial Recovery, its principles and adequacy of these to the related ones in the chapter had been analyzed that turns on the national economic Order, describing the formal procedure for concession of the benefit of the Judicial Recovery and the principles in existing them. The forms of intervention of the State in the private economy were not disrespected, relating its direct and indirect performance as half of preservation of interests writings in the constitutional scope as public interest and preservation of the National economic Order. The regulating agencies as of direct state intervention were half not disrespected of the study for the relevance of the subject. It is revised national bibliography with incursions in French, Portuguese and North American comparative jurisprudence. One contributes in the aspect of the paper of the Judiciary Power in the protection of the companies in crisis and the social and economic impacts, over all in relation to the rights of the worked ones, credit and enterprise

DEVIDO PROCESSO LEGAL E PROCESSO ADMINISTRATIVO SANCIONADOR NAS AGÊNCIAS REGULADORAS

This paper discusses the growing attention that, over the last decades, has been given to the administrative procedure in Administrative Law, as it also highlights the procedures which are in tune with the new trappings of this legal field. It focuses on the sanctioning competence of regulatory agencies, notably what concerns the procedural guide that conditions its exercise. It aims at gathering varied elements, many times dispersed over the legal system, so it is possible to list, with a satisfactory degree of detail, the procedural constitutional guidelines which are indispensable to the sanctioning of private entities through punitive action by regulatory agencies. It highlights the due legal process clause, for the abundance of the protective set there is around it, as a guiding constitutional principle for the application of sanctions by regulatory agencies. It examines the repercussion of the constitutional principle of the due legal process on Administrative Law, focusing on the most relevant principles on which the first unfolds itself. It analyzes, in light of the due legal process principle, the sanctioning administrative procedure developed in regulatory agencies. In conclusion, it is asserted that there is no room, in the Brazilian legal system as a whole, for sanctions to be applied summarily; that there reigns, in our system, an absolute presumption, dictated by the Constitution, that only through regular procedures can the best and fairest decision, concerning cases in which the rights of private parties could be affected, be taken by the public administration; that, respecting the principle of the right to a fair hearing, it is indispensable that there be motivation of a decision that imposes a sanction; that there should be, in homage to the principle of full defense and for the need to preserve the autonomy of the regulatory party, an appeal court in every agency; that the principles listed in the federal law No. 9.784/1999 should be mandatorily monitored by the agencies, for this is the only alternative consistent with the Constitution

A investigação criminal e a vedação ao anonimato no sistema jurídico brasileiro

The thesis, prepared with basis on deductive reasoning (through the utilization of general concepts of the fundamental rights theory) and on inductive logic (by means of the consideration of particular situations in which the theme has been approached) deals with the criminal investigation and the prohibition of anonymity in the Brazilian law system. The state criminal investigation activity presents not only a substantial constitutional basis, due to the objective dimension of fundamental rights (which imposes an obligation to protect these essential values), but also a formal constitutional basis, arising from the administrative principles of rule of law, morality and efficiency, referred to in article 37 of the Constitution. The criminal investigation, however, is not an unlimited pursuit, being restrained by the duty to consider fundamental rights that oppose to its realization. One of the limits of the state investigation activity, in the Brazilian law system, is the prohibition of anonymity, referred to in article 5°, IV, of the Constitution. This prohibition is a direct constitutional restriction to the freedom of expression that aims to ensure the credibility of the diffusion of ideas and prevent the abusive exercise of this fundamental right, which could harm both persons and the state, with no possibility of punishment to the offending party. Generally, based on this prohibition, it is affirmed that a criminal investigation cannot begin and progress founded on anonymous communication of crimes. Informations about crimes to the investigative authorities require the correct identification of the stakeholders. Therefore, it is sustained that the prohibition of anonymity also comprehends the prohibition of utilization of pseudonyms and heteronyms. The main purpose of this essay is to recognize the limits and possibilities in starting and conducting criminal investigations based on communication of crimes made by unidentified persons, behind the veil of anonymity or hidden by pseudonyms or heteronyms. Although the prohibition of article 5°, IV, of the Constitution is not submitted to direct or indirect constitutional restrictions, this impediment can be object of mitigation in certain cases, in attention to the constitutional values that support state investigation. The pertinence analysis of the restrictions to the constitutional anonymity prohibition must consider the proportionality, integrated by the partial elements of adequacy, necessity and strict sense proportionality. The criminal investigation is a means to achieve a purpose, the protection of fundamental rights, because the disclosure of facts, through the investigatory activity, gives rise to the accomplishment of measures in order to prevent or punish the violations eventually verified. So, the start and the development of the state criminal investigation activity, based on a crime communication carried out by an unidentified person, will depend on the demonstration that the setting up and continuity of an investigation procedure, in each case, are an adequate, necessary and (in a strict sense) proportional means to the protection of fundamental rights

A eficácia, no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, da responsabilização penal da pessoa jurídica pela prática de crimes ambientais

The environment, which fundamental importance has already been recognized in all the world, is an actual national and international discussion subject, whose interest grows for the society, and consequently to the Law, in order to prevent the natural resources to the present and future generations. The 1988 Brazilian Constitution, recognizing the importance of the environment, treated about it in many of its parts, even dedicating a specific chapter (Chapter V About Environment, inserted in Title VIII About Social Order). The brazilian constitutional text established to everyone the fundamental right of enjoying an equilibrated environment, obligating the State and all society to defend and preserve the environment to the present and future generations. The economic growing process, that predominated and still persist in the big majority of the countries, where is practiced the capitalist system, has in the enterprises (legal persons) one of its main actors. Many times, these enterprises, especially in the actual globalized world in where we live, where the gain of money is priorized, ends, at the moment they act, making damages to the environment. These damages are, many times, considered by the law. crimes against the environment. The 1988 Brazilian Constitution, according to the Modern Criminal Law, realizing that many crimes were being committed by the enterprises, established in article 225, §3rd, the criminal responsibility of the legal persons. Almost ten years after the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, was published the Law number 9.605/98, in which third article established the penal responsibility of the legal persons that practice crimes against the environment, without excluding the individual responsibility

A questão do petróleo em terras indígenas: uma análise constitucional à luz do desenvolvimento sustentável

Recognizing the need to preserve a national ethnic minority, the Constitution, inspired by the pluralistic values of the Constitutional Law State, stipulated a series of rights and guarantees for the conservation of indigenous cultural singularity, disciplining in article 231 the Indians right to maintain their social organization, customs, languages, beliefs and traditions, as well as safeguarding the rights to the lands they traditionally occupy, and the exclusive use of the wealth existing in them, premise of ensuring their physical and cultural continuity, breaking decisively with the paradigm the assimilation of the Indian national civilization. However, despite the Indian policy of ethnic and cultural preservation, the Constitution allowed the exploitation of minerals in aboriginal territory, incorporated herein hydrocarbons, provided they meet certain predetermined requirements, leaving it to the legislature the discipline of ordinary matter. However, this law has not yet been published, with some projects in the National Congress, leaving thus precluding the indigenous subsurface oil exploration until the enactment of enabling legislation. Meanwhile, this paper carries out an integrated analysis of the constitutional protection of ethnic and cultural uniqueness of indigenous peoples, Convention Nº 169 of the International Labour Organization and the bill presented by Deputy Eduardo Valverde, in an attempt to consolidate sustainable development practices in the sector, through developing a system of social and environmental responsible oil exploration, aligning with national energy needs to maintain a balanced environment and preservation of socio-cultural organization of a minority so weakened and beaten over five centuries of domination

O direito à saúde e a política nacional de atenção oncológica: uma análise a partir da crescente judicialização dos medicamentos antineoplásicos

The 1988 Federal Constitution of Brazil by presenting the catalog of fundamental rights and guarantees (Title II) provides expressly that such rights reach the social, economic and cultural rights (art. 6 of CF/88) as a means not only to ratify the civil and political rights, but also to make them effective and practical in the life of the Brazilian people, particularly in the prediction of immediate application of those rights and guarantees. In this sense, health goes through condition of universal right and duty of the State, which should be guaranteed by social and economic policies aimed at reducing the risk of disease and other hazards, in addition to ensuring universal and equal access to actions and services for its promotion, protection and recovery (Article 196 by CF/88). Achieving the purposes aimed by the constituent to the area of health is the great challenge that requires the Health System and its managers. To this end, several policies have been structured in an attempt to establish actions and services for the promotion, protection and rehabilitation of diseases and disorders to health. In the mid-90s, in order to meet the guidelines and principles established by the SUS, it was established the Política Nacional de Atenção Oncológica PNAO, in an attempt to sketch out a public policy that sought to achieve maximum efficiency and to be able to give answers integral to effective care for patients with cancer, with emphasis on prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. However, many lawsuits have been proposed with applications for anticancer drugs. These actions have become very complex, both in the procedural aspects and in all material ones, especially due to the highcost drugs more requested these demands, as well as need to be buoyed by the scientific evidence of these drugs in relation to proposed treatments. The jurisprudence in this area, although the orientations as outlined by the Parliament of Supreme Court is still in the process of construction, this study is thus placed in the perspective of contributing to the effective and efficient adjudication in these actions, with focus on achieving the fundamental social rights. Given this scenario and using research explanatory literature and documents were examined 108 lawsuits pending in the Federal Court in Rio Grande do Norte, trying to identify the organs of the Judiciary behave in the face of lawsuits that seeking oncology drugs (or antineoplastic), seeking to reconcile the principles and constitutional laws and infra constitutional involving the theme in an attempt to contribute to a rationalization of this judicial practice. Finally, considering the Rational Use of health demands and the idea of belonging to the Brazilian people SUS, it is concluded that the judicial power requires ballast parameters of their decisions on evidence-based medicine, aligning these decisions housing constitutional principles that the right to health and the scientific conclusions of efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency in oncology drugs, when compared to the treatments offered by SUS

Aplicação dos royalties de petróleo e a garantia constitucional do desenvolvimento sustentável

This paper aims to demonstrate the connection between the application of revenues from oil royalties, exhaustible, even if the long term, and the importance of attempting to the constitutional goal of ensuring the sustainable development, including proposals of regulation. It aims to clarify the constitutional goal of ensure that national development, pointing out its relationship with the right to an ecologically balanced environment, also constitutional provision, demonstrating its important role as a mandatory vector to the Brazilian government. Search the legal nature of the oil royalties and analyzes the regulatory framework of oil royalties, which included extensive legislation, sparse and controversial, a fact that hinders the work of hermeneutist. Pays attention to some international experiences about the application of oil royalties, aiming to establish parameters of other models that can be followed. Exposes the oil royalties as a revenue differentiated, because of its exhaustible character, so that, imperatively, should be used in productive investments, according to intergenerational equity and sustainable development. Proposes a special regulation for revenues from oil royalties with clear criteria for the use of resources, restrictions for its application, as well as controls and sanctions

O princípio da vedação ao retrocesso social e o papel dos poderes públicos na efetivação dos direitos fundamentais sociais

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the role of Public Powers in the enforcement of fundamental social rights, according to the principle of prohibition to social regression. The Federal Constitution of Brazil, situated in a position normative hierarchical superior, disciplines the legal and political process of the country, determining how Public Powers (Legislative, Executive and Judiciary) should act to enforce fundamental rights (social). Thus, features a cast of fundamental rights that aim to ensure social justice, highlighting the concern to ensure social values aimed at reducing social inequalities. The will of the state should be prevented by controlling the constitutionality of measures which restrict fundamental social rights, assuming the principle of human dignity, pillar of Social and Democratic State of Right, a dual role in the brazilian legal system, acting as the presupposition of jurisdictional control of the constitutionality of restrictive acts and as supervisory of omission or insufficient action of the State in the fulfillment of their fundamental duties. The constitutional determinations remove from the legislator the option to create or not the law that prints effectiveness to the social rights, as well as from the Executive the option of to execute or not rules directed at realization of the constitutional parameters, and Judiciary to behave or not in accordance with the Constitution, being given to the Powers only the arbitrariness of "how" to do, so that all functions performed by public actors to use the Constitution as a repository of the foundational values of the collectivity. Any situation that does not conform the principle of proportionality in relation to the enforcement of fundamental rights, especially the social, represents an unacceptable social regression unconstitutional. The constitutional rules and principles postulated by the realization of the rights, freedoms and guarantees of the human person, acting the principle of prohibition to social regression to regulate a concrete situation, whenever it is intended to change, reducing or deleting, the content of a social right. This paper of limit of state action serves to provide to the society legal security and protection of trust, ensuring the core of every social right. This should be effected to be sheltered the existential minimum, as a guarantee of the inviolability of human life, respecting the constitutional will, not falling into social regression

A tutela constitucional da exploração de petróleo em águas internacionais em face do princípio do desenvolvimento sustentável: a possibilidade de responsabilização civil do dano futuro

The demands brought by a society doomed to the constant production of global risks, which whose effects are not immediately noticed effects are not perceived immediately, claim from the Law a new Theory about the Risk, that would offer a broad environmental protection, at the same time it would still be compatible with the idea of economic efficiency, required by the Modern Industry. The expansion of the methods and technologies regarding the exploitation and production of oil causes the constant expansion of the exploitable boundaries, especially in ultra-deep waters with the Pre-salt layer, in Brazil, or the still incipient research about the polymetallic nodules and other mineral sources in international waters, like the Atlântico Sudoeste, by the Programme on Ocean Science in Relation do Non Living Resources (OSNLR), a global study performed in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, from UNESCO (IOC UNESCO) and also with the Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS). Thus, we aim to analyze the correlation, and possible collisions between the right to a balanced environment and the free exercise of economic activity and the occurrence of environmental damages from the perspective of the exploitation activities of oil and other natural resources in international waters, specifically in the Area, from the constitutional principle of sustainable development and its legitimacy by the environmental international protection. Therefore, this study also aims to evaluate the legal framework for exploration and production of oil in international waters, particularly in the Area, and appraise how the constitutional instruments and mechanisms for environmental protection can impact on the international environmental protection system in order to ensure the present and future generations an ecologically balanced environment, laid down in Article 225 of the Brazilian Constitution, even with so many risks posed by the activities of exploitation and production of oil in international waters. In the meantime, we intend to also intend to investigate the possibility of future liability for environmental damage in order to ensure that constitutional principle and, consequently, and try to define the concept of environmental damage and its implications on the constitutional principle of environmental protection. Given all that was in summary, this work aims to contribute to the evolution of the new Theory of Environmental Risk, turning the law into something more than a punitive or corrective element in this society, but into a legal risk management, that may be triggered even before the consolidation of the damage

Animais não humanos: a construção da titularidade jurídica como novos sujeitos de direito

This work has the main goal on the recognition of the inherent value of nonhuman animals, under the constitutional framework. It is presented the main philosophical formulations of the current pattern of behavior that rules the relationship between man and animals: first those that have excluded animals from moral consideration and then the thinkers which do have included, in some way, in order to elucidate the origin of the anthropocentric thought over the natural world. In this way, the analysis these thinkers that have included animals in moral consideration will contribute to a paradigm change from the anthropocentric view, initiating legal debates. It will be made a simplified analysis of different philosophical and legal points of view that have been demonstrating the posture in which the human beings have been dealing with the environment, with the replacement of the anthropocentric thinking for the biocentric view, in which life becomes the center of existence. Life is life, no matter whether it is human or not, has a value in itself, and must be protected and respected by the legal system. Then, it will be analized the constitutionalization of the nonhuman animal dignity in comparative law; the infraconstitutional legislation which concerning the intrinsic value of all life forms and, finally, the 1988 Constitution. It will be advocated for non-human animals the condition of subjects, presenting some cases that the Habeas Corpus was used in animal defense. In this new Brazilian Habeas Corpus theory of for apes the argument of genetic proximity was used in order to overcome the literal meaning of natural person to achieve hominids in order to assure the fundamental right of physical freedom. It is realized that the fact that the great apes being recognized as a person does not preclude the possibility of other living beings be recognized as subjects of law. In this way, animals can be considered non-human subjects of law, according to the theory of depersonalized entities and may enjoy a legal category that allows a respect for existential minimum, and can hold constitutional fundamental rights

Direito à moradia em cidades sustentáveis: parâmetros de políticas públicas habitacionais Natal 2013

The right to housing is included in several international human rights instruments and in Brazilian legal system integrates the constitutional catalog of fundamental social rights (art. 6) and urban development policy (art. 182 and 183). Besides, it is for all federative governments its effectiveness by building programs and improvement of housing conditions and sanitation (art. 23, IX), which justifies the investment in urban planning and public policy of housing affordability because they are tools for achieving this right. Newer strategies in this area have been based on tax incentives, combined with the mortgage as a way to induce the construction of new housing units or reform those in a precarious situation. However, there is still a deficit households and environmental soundness, compounded with the formation of informal settlements. Consequently, we need constant reflections on the issue, in order to identify parameters that actually guide their housing policies in order to meet the constitutional social functions of the city and ensure well-begins of its citizens (art. 182). On the other hand, the intervention of the government in this segment can not only see the availability of the home itself, but also the quality of your extension or surroundings, observing aspects related to environmental sanitation, urban mobility, leisure and services essential health, education and social assistance. It appears that the smoothness and efficiency of a housing policy condition to the concept of adequate housing, in other words, structurally safe, comfortable and environmentally legally legitimate, viable from the extensive coordination with other public policies. Only to compliance with this guideline, it is possible to realize the right to housing in sustainable cities

A função social do contrato como concretização de direitos fundamentais nas relações privadas

This dissertation deals with the social function of the contract, based on constitutional principles, especially those relating to fundamental rights. The social function of the contract (general clause) is described in the Civil Code so intentionally generic, no precise criteria to define it. Because of the fluidity of this principle, it is justified its closer study, seeking to assess its various meanings and looking away from the legal uncertainty that an unlimited conceptual vagueness can cause. The social function of the contract arises from a transformation experienced in private law from the inflows received from the Constitutional Law, the result of an evolutionary process by which it became the state structure, leaving the foundations of the classical liberal state and moving toward a vision guided by existential human values that give the keynote of the Welfare State. Arose, then the concern about the effectiveness of fundamental rights in relations between individuals, which is studied from the inapplicability of fundamental rights in private relations (U.S. doctrine of State action), passing to the analysis of the Theory of indirect horizontal effect of fundamental rights (of German creation and majority acceptance), reaching the right horizontal efficacy Theory of fundamental rights, prevailing Brazilian doctrine and jurisprudence. It has also been investigated the foundations of the social contract, pointing out that, apart from the provisions of the constitutional legislation, that base the principle on screen, there have also been noticed foundations in the Federal Constitution, in devices like the art. 1, III, the dignity of the human person is the north of the relationship between contractors. Also art. 3rd, I CF/88 bases the vision of social covenants, equipping it for the implementation of social solidarity, as one of the fundamental objectives of the Republic. Still on art. 170 of the Constitution it is seen as a locus of reasoning in the social function of the contract, the maintenance of the economic order. It is also studied the internal and external aspects of the social function of the contract, being the first part the one that considers the requirement of respect for contractual loyalty, through the objective good faith, as a result of the dignity of the hirer may not be offended by the other through the contract. On the other hand, the external facet of the social function of the contract, in line with the constitutional mandate of solidarity, indicates the need for contractors to respect the rights of society, namely the diffuse, collective and individual third party. In this external appearance, it is also pointed the notion of external credit protection, addressing the duty of society to respect the contract. There has been shown some notions of the social contract in comparative law. Then, there has been investigated the content of principle study, through their interrelationships with other provisions of private and constitutional law, namely equality, objective good faith, private autonomy and dignity of the human person. We study the application of the social contract in contractual networks as well as the guidance of conservation of contracts, especially those denominated long-term captive contracts, considering the theory of substantive due performance, concluding with an analysis of the social contract in code of Consumer Protection