<b> Tax Immunity of E-Books: an assessment of the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court and their relation with the fundamental rights to culture, to freedom of expression and to an ecologically balanced environment</b> <br> doi:10.5007/2177-7055.2011v3

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil faces regarding the tax immunity of e-books, focusing on the fundamental rights to an ecologically balanced environment, to culture and to freedom of expression. Methodology used is bibliographical, theoretical, descriptive, dialetic and case law-based, being also mainly inductive. The issue of the tax immunity of e-books must be examined taking into account that postpositivism and neoconstitutionalism are basic references in modern Law. Different to the limited and misguided interpretation used by the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil, and based upon systematic and teleological interpretation methods, the juridical notion of book should be the widest possible, rendering legitimate and necessary a constitutional mutation, which would affect Section 150, IV, “d”, of Brazilian Federal Constitution. The author concludes that extending tax immunity to e-books contributes to the protection of a healthier environment, as well as to the diffusion of culture and to the promotion of freedom of expression. Finally, the author expects that the Federal Supreme Court adopts a new position, favourable to Brazilian culture and to a more ecologically correct access to information