A coisa julgada nas ações coletivas

Abstract

Modern society witnesses the emergence of a new class of rights: the rights and interests of the community. Healthiness environmental, conflicts arising from the mass consumer relations, fair competition in the markets, administrative fairness, inclusion and nondiscrimination of minorities are examples of this new class of rights, which belongs to nobody and everybody at the same time. The Consumer Defense Code constitutes the most important legal regulation of collective rights, divided and classified by that same law in three species: diffuse rights, collective rights and individual homogeneous rights. These collective rights, by their very nature, transcend the traditional schemes of individual rights and claims a different procedural protection, with new mechanisms of active legitimation, effects and extent of the sentence and res judicata. In Brazil is fueling discussion in doctrine and jurisprudence on the res judicata in class actions, their extent and erga omnes or ultra partes to third parties not involved in the class action, the influence of that action under the legitimate rights of individual and extent subjective beneficial effects of the individual to the collective verdict. It is also controversy over the territorial limitation of the effects of collective sentence dictated by Article 16 of the Law of Public Civil Action and Article 2-A ◦ of the Federal Law n. 9.494/97.