Outlining the pertinent trajectory, characteristics and debates of subsoil property law throughout Brazilian history since European colonization is the purpose of this chapter. It considers intersections of the subsoil with other forms of property, with legal regulation and with political-economic ideology. Brazilian policymakers have continually faced the challenge of balancing ideological commitments to legal theory with the more pragmatic concerns of economic development. In the middle of the twentieth century, the state reintroduced principles of mineral law that originated from early colonial rule, but vastly transformed their scope and intent in order to accommodate the exigencies of modern economic and political reality. By doing so, the format of legal theory had proven sufficiently flexible to allow the predominance of economic goals over ideological commitments.

From the beginning of Portuguese rule, Roman law has formed the basis of the Brazilian legal system. Codification is one of the underpinnings of Roman law, rather than the accumulated and evolutionary fluidity of common law. The efficacy of Roman (or Napoleonic) legal systems for economic development is subject to debate. However, a codified legal system has the advantage for analysis of strictly delineating law, rather than relying on interpretations of ‘custom’. Codified law is important for three reasons. First, the legal system is an important institution that provides for the regulation of other institutions.