Portugal / Constitutional Jurisprudence / Jurisprudence constitutionnelle 2007

Jurisprudence

Constitutional / Constitutionnelle

2007

Portugal

Ana Maria Guerra Martins

Judge at the Portuguese Constitutional Court /
Associate Professor at the Law School of the University of Lisbon  

Miguel Prata Roque

Advisor at the Portuguese Constitutional Court /
Assistant at the Law School of the University of Lisbon

This chronicle concerns the jurisprudence of the Portuguese Constitutional Court in 2007. It starts with an introduction where the authors refer to, on the one hand, the composition and the main competences of the Court and, on the other hand, some official statistics showing the annual number of pleas presented before it, with a special focus on the year 2007. It continues with an analysis of the decisions taken to guarantee the constitutionality and legality of the provisions. It draws attention to the fact that, in abstract control procedures, a rather impressive number of them related to Regional Law and in the control of constitutionality in judicial cases, the defence of the fundamental rights is the main purpose. Finally, it con­cludes by enumerating some decisions taken beyond the control of constitutional­ity, such as on electoral procedures, political parties proceedings, national, regional and local referenda, and declarations of income and assets of holders of public of­fice as well as declaration of incompatibility and impediment of holders of political office, which prove the extended competences of the Court.