Vladimir Freitas

Immediate Past President and Advisory Council Chair

Vladimir Freitas

 

VLADIMIR PASSOS DE FREITAS is Professor at the Master and Ph.D. course of study at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, in Curitiba, PR, Brazil.  He also serves as an Environmental Law Consultant and as President of the Instituto Brasileiro de Administração do Sistema Judiciário – (IBRAJUS).  Earlier in his career, he was appointed as a Federal Judge and served in Brazil’s Federal Judiciary for 26 years, completing his service as President of the Court of Appeal of the 4th Circuit, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from 2003-2005.  Prior to his judicial appointment, he was a Prosecutor in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. 

As a judge, he served as President of the Brazilian Federal Judges Association, Vice-President of the Brazilian Judges Association and Co-Chair of the National Judicial School. He earned his Master and Doctor in Law degrees at the Universidade Federal do Paraná. 

His publications include several books:  Crimes against nature which he co-authored with his brother Justice Gilberto Passos de Freitas (9th ed.); “Administrative Law and the Environment” (4rd ed.); The Constitution and the effectiveness of the Environmental Statutes” (3rd ed.); “Water – legal and environmental aspects (co-author, 2nd ed.); and Environmental Law in Evolution, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (co-author and coordinator).  

Judge Passos de Freitas has lectured in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, Portugal, Mexico, Honduras, Paraguay, Panama, Nicaragua, United States, Kenya, Morocco, Thailand, Italy, South Africa, Philippines and China. He represented the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), established in Nairobi, Kenya, for capacity building courses for judges in South America.  He also is a member of the Judiciary Specialist Group of the Commission on Environmental Law of the World Conservation Union - IUCN, established in Bonn, Germany.