Constitutional Law I

Recommended Prerequisites

As part of a Master Programme in the legal and political area, students are assumed to be fairly acquainted with the basics of constitutional law, administrative law, public international law and tax law. Proficiency in foreign languages, like French, English, German, Spanish or Italian, proves critical to come into contact with legal scholarship and constitutional case law output in those languages.

Teaching Methods

Seminar-like classes are the best, most fruitful teaching method for the first part of the course. For the discussion of student work in the second part, the following method is adopted: brief presentation of the main topics in students' papers; selection by the instructor of the main issues for discussion and facilitation so that everyone's stand has a chance to be spelled out; response of the author to classmates' interventions; general closing remarks by the instructor on the work.

Learning Outcomes

1. Through knowledge of the Portuguese constitutional system.

2. Comparison with constitutional justice systems from some European countries, Brasil and Angola.

3. A contact with constitutional case law, in order to keep students informed about the (ever more varied and complex) issues submitted to the Constitutional Court and discussed through the (ever-evolving and ever-perfectioning) argumentative rhetoric of our supreme body of constitutional justice.

4. Enhancement of research and scientific writing skills, in the public law and, more specifically, in the constitutional law areas.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Constitutional justice

I. Introduction

II. Genesis, historical, legal and political antecedents, and legitimacy of constitutional justice

III. Characterization of the Constitutional Court

IV. Scope, object, and patterns of constitutional review

V. Moments, forms and procedural paths of constitutional review of legal standards

VI. Content, bindingness and temporal effects of Constitutional Court rulings

VII. The Constitutional Court as a critical body of political regulation

Head Lecturer(s)

Fernando Alves Correia

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Other: 20.0%
Research work: 80.0%

Bibliography

A obra fundamental é a seguinte: / The core source is:

 

Fernando Alves Correia, Justiça Constitucional, Coimbra, Almedina, 2016.

 

Bibliografia Complementar: / Additional bibliography

 

As obras citadas naquela obra. / The works referred in the core source.