The congress "Da Ditadura à Democracia - 50 anos de evolução do Direito português" (From Dictatorship to Democracy - 50 years in the evolution of Portuguese law) will be held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL) from March 19 to 21. The event was conceived by Eduardo Paz Ferreira, retired full professor and president of FDUL's Institute of Economic, Financial and Tax Law, to mark the official commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the 1974 revolution. A "global reflection" on the construction of the Rule of Law in Portugal after April 25 is the aim of the congress "50 years of Law in Portugal: anatomy of a system in transition", which will take place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL) between March 19 and 21, as part of the official commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the April 25 revolution in 1974. There will be more than sixty speeches by jurists, experts in the legal profession, in teaching, in politics and in various institutional positions, covering the different branches of law (see below Congress program). Conceived by Eduardo Paz Ferreira, retired full professor at FDUL and president of FDUL's Institute of Economic, Financial and Tax Law (IDEFF), the congress aims to "outline a broad vision of law in action" and reflect not only on the profound changes that have taken place over half a century of democratic process, but also on "those that continue to be required 50 years after the April revolution", says the professor (see below Presentation note for the congress). "The blockages and perversions that exist today in some areas of law, particularly criminal law, should not distract us from the profound transformation that has taken place in all branches of law over the last 50 years and which has made Portugal a freer country, with more rights and a more modern state," adds Eduardo Paz Ferreira. And he observes: "The country arrived in 1974 with a very backward, very conservative Law, which suppressed basic freedoms and rights, particularly for women, and which from an economic point of view was averse to competition and based on a corporate system that blocked development." As part of the official commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the revolution, the congress "Da Ditadura à Democracia - 50 anos de evolução do Direito português" will bring together more than sixty jurists: Cunha Rodrigues, Henriques Gaspar, Leonor Beleza, Nazaré Costa Cabral, Correia de Campos, Pinto Ribeiro, Agostinho Miranda, among others. "The blockages and perversions that exist, particularly in the criminal area, should not distract us from the profound transformation that has made Portugal freer, with more rights and a more modern state," says the professor who thought up the event. Over the course of three days, many branches of law will be analyzed, with particular attention to those that didn't exist, or weren't developed, when April 25 took place - such as family law and employment law, as it exists today. The profound changes to the Constitution and the system of rights, freedoms and guarantees, the democratic justice system, Portugal's entry into the European Communities and European law, have structurally transformed the country's legal life: the evolution of the right to health and social security will be studied, as will the current economic system - the affirmation of a law based on regulation and competition. There is also much to note in tax and public finance law, in the control of public money "The construction of the rule of law in Portugal is a successful process which, however, has not followed a completely coherent line," diagnoses Eduardo Paz Ferreira. "There have been advances and setbacks, there have been changes of direction, but, in general, the evolution has been towards modernizing the state," he adds. Just tributes Speakers at the opening session will include the former attorney general of the Republic, Cunha Rodrigues, the former president of the Supreme Court of Justice, António Henriques Gaspar, the ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, the director of FDUL, Eduardo Vera Cruz, and Eduardo Paz Ferreira. The session will also pay tribute to Jorge Miranda, the law professor that the Portuguese most associate with the 1976 Constitution of the Portuguese Republic. There will be other tributes throughout the congress: to Isabel Magalhães Colaço, the first woman with a doctorate in law in Portugal - and the only one until almost two decades after April 25 - who was responsible for changing the family law regime; to Odete Santos, the late PCP MP and a pioneer in the defense of workers' rights and the development of alternative dispute resolution; and to Paulo de Pitta e Cunha, for his work on Portugal's European integration, having founded FDUL's European Institute. Emerging legal areas - such as European law, digital law or immigration law - will have their own panels. The last session will be dedicated to "New Challenges": in addition to two veteran lawyers - former Minister of Culture José António Pinto Ribeiro and oil specialist José Pereira de Miranda - young lawyers will take part, including the president of FDUL's Academic Association, Pedro Fortuna. *** CONGRESS PROGRAM From Dictatorship to Democracy. 50 Years of Evolution in Portuguese Law FDUL AUDITORIUM | 19-21 MARCH 2024 Day 1- March 19 Opening Ceremony Ruptures and continuities (10h) Eduardo Vera-Cruz Pinto - Director of FDUL Eduardo Paz Ferreira - Retired Professor at FDUL; President of IDEFF Maria Lúcia Amaral - Ombudsman José Cunha Rodrigues - Former Attorney General of the Republic; former Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities (now CJEU) Henriques Gaspar - Former President of the Supreme Court of Justice Tribute to General Ramalho Eanes Tribute to Professor Jorge Miranda Fundamental Rights (11h30) Jorge Reis Novais - Professor at FDUL Maria José Rangel Mesquita - Professor at FDUL Miguel Prata Roque - Professor at FDUL ____________pausa ___________ Judicial Organization, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure (14h30) Maria Fernanda Palma - Professor at FDUL José de Faria Costa - Director of the Lusófona University Faculty of Law; former Ombudsman Frederico da Costa Pinto - Professor at FDUNL Rui Patrício - Lawyer; Criminal Lawyer Inês Ferreira Leite - Professor at FDUL Alternative means of dispute resolution (16h) Vítor Gonçalves Gomes - President of the Council of Justices of the Peace and former President of the Constitutional Court Nuno Villa-Lobos - President of CAAD Joana Campos Carvalho - Professor at FDUNL Sofia Martins - President of the Portuguese Arbitration Association Family Law (17h30) Leonor Beleza - President of the Champalimaud Foundation Isabel Moreira - Member of the Portuguese Parliament Sofia Henriques - Professor at FDUL; Notary Jorge Duarte Pinheiro - Professor at FDUL Tribute to Professor Isabel Magalhães Colaço Day 2 - March 20th Tax and Public Finance Law (10h) José Tavares - President of the Court of Auditors Eduardo Paz Ferreira - Emeritus Professor at FDUL; President of IDEFF Nazaré Costa Cabral - President of the Public Finance Council; Professor at FDUL Maria Oliveira Martins - Professor at the UCP Faculty of Law Clotilde Celorico Palma - Tax expert; Professor at ISCAL Carlos Lobo - Professor at FDUL; Lawyer Regulation and Competition Law (11h30) Miguel Moura e Silva - Member of the Competition Authority; Professor at FDUL José Renato Gonçalves - Professor at FDUL Paula Vaz Freire - Professor at FDUL ____________pausa ____________ Employment Law (14h30) António Monteiro Fernandes - Retired Professor at ISCTE§ Maria do Rosário Ramalho - Professor at FDUL Margarida Seixas - Professor at FDUL David Carvalho Martins - Lawyer Carmo Afonso - Lawyer Tribute to Odete Santos Digital Law (16h) Eduardo Vera-Cruz Pinto - Professor and Director of FDUL Pedro Verdelho - Public Prosecutor Paulo de Sousa Mendes - Professor at FDUL Manuel Lopes Rocha - Lawyer Consumer Law (17h30) Luís Silveira Rodrigues - President of DECO João Alves - Public Prosecutor Elsa Dias Oliveira - Professor at FDUL Paulo Fonseca - DECO lawyer Day 3 - March 21st Health and social security law (11am) António Correia de Campos - Former Minister of Health; Professor at ENSP NOVA Paula Lobato Faria - Professor at ENSP NOVA Jorge Simões - Professor at the IHMT of UNL and at the University of Aveiro Pedro Caridade Freitas - Professor at FDUL; Legal Director of APIFARMA Cláudia Monge - Professor at FDUL ____________pausa ____________ Immigration Law (14h) Constança Urbano de Sousa - Professor at the Autonomous University of Lisbon Ana Rita Gil - Professor at FDUL Wladimir Brito - Professor at the University of Minho Law School Sofia Pinto Oliveira - Professor at the University of Minho Law School (to be confirmed) Gonçalo Matias - Professor at UCP Law School European Law (15h30) Nuno Cunha Rodrigues - President of the Competition Authority; Professor at FDUL Pedro Gonçalves - Professor at FDUC António Goucha Soares - Professor at ISEG Alessandra Silveira - Professor at the University of Minho School of Law Carlos Botelho Moniz - President of the Portuguese Association of European Law; Lawyer specializing in European and Competition Law Tribute to Professor Paulo de Pitta e Cunha Closing - New challenges - April 25: past and future (5pm) José António Pinto Ribeiro - Lawyer Agostinho Miranda - Lawyer André Marçalo - Guest Lecturer at FDUL Patrícia Bastos - Guest Lecturer at FDUL Pedro Fortuna - President of AAFDL *** CONGRESS From Dictatorship to Democracy. 50 Years of Evolution in Portuguese Law Presentation On April 25, 1974, risking their lives and careers, hundreds of soldiers, joined by the Portuguese people, set out on a revolution to end the longest dictatorship in Western Europe. A dictatorship that had originated in a military uprising in which various inspirations were mixed, from monarchy to more or less authoritarian conservatism. The regime, which had asserted itself after several quarrels, even between the inspirers and perpetrators of the May 28 coup, would eventually lead to the rise to power of Oliveira Salazar. Salazar held power until 1968, followed by Marcello Caetano, who created expectations of democratization that never materialized. The dictatorship was based on the suppression of civil and political rights and was supported by a series of institutions designed to guarantee order and "gentle customs", in particular the PIDE - the political police -, the Plenary Courts, which were totally aligned with the will of the police, and the Portuguese Legion. In the context of the Estado Novo (New State), as it would come to be known, there was a ban on freedom of expression and any political demonstration, with the exception of those promoted by the União Nacional (National Union) - the single party - or the Mocidade Portuguesa (Portuguese Youth) - a youth organization modeled on institutions of Italian fascism. It was a state and a society marked by profound inequality between men and women, the latter having a subordinate place in political and social life. The main ideological and political references came from fascism in Italy, Hitler's Germany, Franco's Spain and Catholic doctrines such as those of Charles Mauras. The first military intervention to restore democracy took place in Portugal and was the work of a group of soldiers determined not to allow the colonial war to continue. Like the coup d'état of May 28, there were also various sensitivities among the April military, but they all ruled out dictatorial solutions. It was in this context that the Program of the Movement of the Armed Forces emerged, a founding document of the democratic regime that pointed to a set of political, economic and social measures aimed at consolidating democracy, without forgetting the need to combat poverty and social inequality. Especially relevant is the fact that the Program of the Armed Forces Movement announced that, after a short period of transition and the urgent measures needed to pave the way for the rule of law, and as soon as the Legislative Assembly and the new President of the Republic were elected by the nation, the Junta de Salvação Nacional would be dissolved and the action of the armed forces would be restricted to their specific mission of defending national sovereignty. If the motto that marked the Estado Novo was "God, Homeland, Family", the motto of the regime that emerged from the 25th of April was the "three dos", as José Medeiros Ferreira had pointed out: decolonize, democratize and develop. Within the armed forces, different sensitivities persisted, requiring agreements that were often difficult to maintain, in a context in which several conflicts occurred between 1974 and 1976. But the new regime asserted its openness to democracy in terms of future decisions and this solution implied an open debate, with a view to defining the basis of a legal transition defined by the majority of the Portuguese, through their representatives. The democratic transition required a profound transformation in all branches of the law and this transformation has not yet been the subject of global reflection. The aim of these days is to critically analyze and discuss the extent to which the law has accompanied and envisaged these changes throughout the 50 years of democracy that are now being celebrated. Over the course of three days, we will examine, in particular, the profound changes to the Constitution and the system of rights, freedoms and guarantees, the justice system of democracy, Portugal's entry into the European Communities and the Community law that came into force in Portugal, the evolution of labor law, the right to health and social security, the current economic system - with the removal of corporate barriers and the affirmation of a law based on regulation and competition - tax law and public finances and the control of public money. In order to bring the project to a successful conclusion, we are counting on a qualified team of jurists, professors and researchers from different areas of law, whom we would like to thank for their association with this initiative, allowing us to draw up a broad vision of the law in action and to reflect on the changes that have taken place and those that are still required 50 years after the April Revolution. Three fascinating days lie ahead of us. We will surely conclude that unanimity was rare, but that many avenues were opened up and paths taken. This debate will certainly run through the various sessions. Lícinio Lima