Vice-President of the Council of Ethics for Life Sciences
President of Direction of the Centre for Biomedical Law;
President of the Institutional Review Board of AIBILI;
Member of the Ethics Committee of the National Institute of Legal and Forensic Medicine.
Member of the Ethics Committee of the University of Coimbra
International Associate of the Brazilian Institute of Civil Liability Studies;
Fellow of ECTIL (European Centre on Tort and Insurance Law - Vienna, Austria);
Chair of the Education Committee of the World Association for Medical Law.
See: https://www.cienciavitae.pt/portal/en/951E-7E45-3E7F
Orcid: 0000-0001-9871-5298
Academic Titles:
January 2014 - PhD - "Medical Liability and Patient's Rights" - Approved Suma cum laude
June 2003 - Master's Thesis: "Informed Consent in Patient-Doctor Relationship" - Approved - Very Good - Prize Manuel de Andrade II for best Master Thesis in Civil Law in 2003
Post-graduation in Civil Law (2002)
Post-graduation in Medical Law (1999)
Attended courses of law in Goettingen (1996), Utrecht (1999) and Helsinki (2000).
February 1998 - Graduated in Law at the University of Coimbra: awarded Prof. Manuel de Andrade for best student (1992-1997).
Professor:
Associate Professor of Law - Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra (Civil Law: General Theory of Civil Law, Medical Law)
André Pereira also taught, during his career, Family Law, Law of Successions, Law of Obligations, Property Law, Contract Law, Warranty Law and Criminal Law.
Scientific Associations:
President of the Direction of the Centre for Biomedical Law
Treasurer and Member of the Executive Committee of the World Association for Medical Law (2012-2016)
Fellow of ECTIL (European Centre on Tort and Insurance Law - Vienna, Austria),
Invited Professor in Europe:
Invited Professor at the Summer School on European Private Law (Salzburg, Austria);
Invited Professor at the Summer School on Medical Law (Toulouse, France)
Invited Professor at the Summer School on Medical Law (Salerno, Italy)
Narrative CV
André Pereira is a leader and international reference in the field of Health Law. He has been President of the Board of the Centre for Biomedical Law (since 2014); President of the Ethics Committee of the Association for Innovation and Biomedical Research on Light and Image (AIBILI, since 2017); and Vice-Chairman of the National Council of Ethics for Life Sciences (CNECV, since 2021).
Pereira has a very substantial publication record, having authored and co-authored articles for both Portuguese and international journals, as well as contributed with numerous book chapters, in prestigious publishers, such as Oxford University Press, Springer and Wolters Kluwer International, Dykinson and La Ley. He has also coordinated several collective books and acted as guest editor for periodicals (such as Medicine and Law, 2022). He is also a member of scientific committees and frequently invited as peer reviewer for several journals.
He has had the opportunity to be part of several relevant national and international research projects, both as principal researcher (such as the WHO sponsored project Responsibility for Public Health in the Lusophone World: Doing Justice in and Beyond the Covid Emergency) and active participant. He is currently a member of Horizon Europe project CHANGER (ID 101131683), the Erasmus + project BriGRETE, and several research projects funded by Spanish Authorities.
Currently, Pereira is member of the General Council of the University of Coimbra (since 2020), Associate Professor at Faculty of Law and Researcher at UCILeR. After completing his PhD in 2014, he has obtained an International Post-Doctorate in New Technologies and Law, by Mediterranea Internacional Centre for Human Rights (Italy) in 2021. He is invited Professor at the University Paris Lodron in Salzburg, in the Summer Course on European Private Law since 2003, and works as evaluator of the Polish, Estonian, Servian and the Portuguese Scientific National entities.
André Pereira’s contribution to science has focused on areas of the Law that raise pertinent questions regarding the way recent developments in Medicine, Technology and AI impact the current legal system, and how legislation should be able to respond. André’s approach to these subjects has had the primary objective of guaranteeing the protection of Human Rights and addressing the need to preserve of the dignity of the human being. The examples that showcase these elements are:
Convenção para a Proteção dos Direitos do Homem e da Dignidade do Ser Humano Face as Aplicações da Biologia e da Medicina – 20 Anos de Vigência em Portugal, 2022 => This book celebrates the 20th anniversary of the entry into force in the Portuguese legal system of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, otherwise known as the European Convention on Bioethics. As coordinator of the publication, Pereira contributes not only to knowledge production but to stablish health law as a scientific area in Portugal. Based on his leadership position, he was able to gather an extensive list of collaborators who offered different legal perspectives on this subject.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a fertile source of research problems and project funding opportunities. Focused on the impacts of COVID in the health system, doctor-patient relations, and other related issues Pereira is collaborating as a researcher in many projects nationally funded projects from Spain (SOCUPER, CODISEMED, SALUDPYR, PEIBAS, NDPM), Italy (I medici di medicina generale nel rilancio del servizio sanitario nazionale).
Yet, the best example in this category is the “Responsibility for public health in the Lusophone World: doing justice in and beyond the COVID emergency” funded by the World Health Organisation (WHO), having André Pereira as PI.
The Project was designed to gather experiences and data regarding the preparedness and response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal and the Macao SAR. Launched in November 2020, it combined the in-depth analysis of the most recent legislation and bibliography on the matter with data obtained through a survey, addressed to healthcare workers, academics and NGOs. The research team included academics, lawyers and attorneys, as well as Bioethics and Biolaw specialists. The main output of the project was a White Book, available in open access (doi 10.47907/livro2021_01en). The book has individual analysis from all perspectives that composed the research team, and a collaborative part combining all interdisciplinary knowledge to offer set of recommendations to respond to public health emergency situations.
Pereira’s master’s dissertation (O Consentimento informado na relação médico-paciente. Estudo de Direito Civil) focus on the subject of informed consent on a doctor-patient relationship, and it was selected to be published in 2004. It is a highly regarded work, having had great importance during the revision of the Portuguese Medical Association Code of Ethics and having laid down the foundation for the Law that regulates advanced directives (Lei n.º 25/2012, de 16 de julho). It is also abundantly mentioned in jurisprudence in Portugal and Brazil, thus guaranteeing the protection of patients, and has radically changed the practice in Portugal.
Pereira’s doctoral thesis was also published as book (Direitos dos pacientes e responsabilidade médica, 2015) and it impacted on the understanding of tort and contractual responsibility deriving from medical intervention. The open access version available at the University repository has been downloaded over 34040 times, being in the top 1% for number of download and top 1% for number of visualisations. This work has been cited in several courts’ decisions (including the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice and Supreme Administrative Court), thus actively impacting medical liability cases and also in Brazil, notably by the Superior Tribunal de Justiça.
While heavily grounded in the legal research, Pereira has been able to work collaboratively with life sciences researchers, creating interdisciplinary bridges materialized in funded project partnerships such as “Capacitação da Região Centro para a Medicina Personalizada/de Precisão, de base genómica” (ID CENTRO-08-5864-FSE-000039), and invitations as guest speaker in events or trainings in Faculties of Medicine in Portugal and abroad, such as the 27th World Congress on Medical Law (August 2023).
As a way to exert a leadership role in the field, Pereira understand the importance to be continuously disseminating his research through participation as a speaker in international and national scientific conferences, knowledge transfer activities with practitioners, lifelong training, post-graduate courses, and supervising Master’s and Doctoral students.
Apart from the great number of supervised theses (at Masters and Doctoral level), André Pereira is committed to promote opportunities in research among younger academics. He has endeavored to integrate researchers with different levels of experience in research projects (like the WHO funded project, in which he included a Master’s student as Junior Researcher) as well as in activities of the Centre for Biomedical Law. At the Centre, he has welcomed and supervised international doctoral, post-doctoral and masters’ students who are participating in research stays, as well as promoting work for interns and organizing an annual summer course on Health Law and Bioethics since 2020. It is unique in Portugal, attracting participants from all Lusophone countries and Spain.
Another leadership example of incorporating younger researchers has been the Projeto de Capacitação da Região Centro para a Medicina Personalizada/de Precisão, de base genómica, a Project which ran between 2021-2023, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), where he was Ethics and Juridical Issues’ Team Coordinator. This project was able to hire a Master’s in Law graduate, who worked under his guidance, researching the legal implications of Personalized Medicine and knowledge of the human genome.
Pereira is a member of numerous international research networks, such as the World Association on Medical Law, the European Association of Health Law, and the International Association of Comparative Law, among many others. His international recognition earned invitations to the Summer Course on European Private Law at University of Salzburg (regularly since 2003); Summer Course on Medical Law and Bioethics at Université Toulouse III (2009~2012); Summer School on Medical Law, at University of Salerno (2014). He participated in several PhD juris in Austria, Estonia, Brazil and Spain, as well in more than 30 PhD juris in Portugal, in several Universities.
André Pereira has been Member of the Editorial Board of several journals, such as: the Lex Medicinae (since 2014), Cadernos Ibero-americanos de Direito Sanitário (since 2016), Global Health Law Journal (since 2022) and Medicine and Law (from 2016). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Portuguese Law Review (2017) and was the national correspondent for the European Journal of Health Law (between 2010 and 2013). He has peer reviewed articles for Medicine and Law, Review of European and Comparative Law, Cadernos Ibero-Americanos de Direito Sanitário, International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Brazilian Journal of Forensic Sciences, among others. He is also an evaluator of the Polish, Estonian, Servian and the Portuguese Scientific National entities.
Not only has André been extensively involved in various seminars and conferences as member of the scientific committee (such as for the I Congreso Internacional sobre Derecho de Familia y técnicas de reproducción assistida, Artificial Intelligence in Life Sciences: Ethical Paths, 26th Annual WAML World Congress, to name a few), he has also participated in hundreds of seminars, workshops and conferences as a speaker.
He has been involved in the training and evaluation of the next generation of lawyers and judges. He has taught multiple courses at both the Portuguese and Brazilian Bar Associations, and collaborated with the magistrate school in training and as jury of several curricula and oral examinations.
From the knowledge and experience acquired in his research, André Pereira has provided his legal expertise in regulatory contexts. Most notably, he has written multiple legal opinions for National Council of Ethics for Life Sciences (CNECV), where he sits as Vice-President, elect by his peers. Created in 1990 and operating in the Portuguese Parliament since 2009, CNECV is an independent consultative body whose mission is to analyse the ethical issues raised by scientific progress in the fields of biology, medicine or health.
Knowledge transfer is one of the main activities in the Centre for Biomedical Law in partnership with UCILeR. The agenda is full of events joining researchers from Law and Medicine with high-level judicial representatives, government members and other health practitioners, for example: the Biennials of Medical Law Jurisprudence (already 4 sessions (2017, 2019, 2021, 2024), where Judges (including from High Courts) Advocates and Professors from Portugal, Spain and Brazil share experiences from concrete cases.
In addition to the previous activities mentioned, Pereira is also committed to contributing to society in the following way: i) Curator of the Foundation “
A Comunidade Contra a SIDA”
(since 2005); Member of the Board of Directors (from 2010 to 2014); ii) Founder and Member of the Board of the Association
“O Emigrante”
. The Association is responsible for long term continuous care to people in situations of vulnerability due to illness and old age; iii) Member of the Scientific Council of the Portuguese League Against Cancer (since 2016).
4 publications were selected to describe Andre’s activities in the period:
1. PEREIRA, A. “Gene Editing: Portuguese Constitutional, Legal and Bioethical Framework”, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-59028-7_14 => This book chapter should be highlighted due to the prestigious publication in which it is included, published by Springer, in Germany. The article is an integral part of an edition authored by Jochen Taupitz, who invited André Pereira to write this chapter, a fact that highlights his good relationship with his peers, in Germany and other European countries, where he maintains research networks in the areas of law that he has privileged in his career.
This article was a pioneer in the legal assessment of problems caused by gene editing techniques and, in particular, the molecular technique known as “CRISPR/Cas9”, as well as other controversial techniques, such as mitochondrial replacement therapy. After its publication, more than 10 students (master's, doctoral and post-doctoral levels) requested André as advisor and developed their research on specific problems of gene editing. Thus, this article opened doors of research and knowledge.
2. OLIVEIRA, N. & PEREIRA, A. Tort Law in Portugal, Kluwer Law International, 2020 => Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this book provides ready access to how the legal dimension of prevention against harm and loss allocation is treated in Portugal. The book present, in a systematized way, how matters of Tort are dealt with in Portugal, in both the legislature and the courts, being useful for academics and practioners.
3. PEREIRA, A. “Gene Editing: Portuguese Constitutional, Legal and Bioethical Framework”, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-59028-7_14 Showing Andre’s capacity to be updated in current transformations, the author faces the implications of genetics around health.
4. PEREIRA, A. “A União de Facto em Portugal”, 2021 => This publication present cases from 9 countries in 3 continents, and André’s chapter describes the regulatory and practical aspects of de facto unions in Portugal. It is a bilingual text (Portuguese/ Spanish), displaying the partnerships with Spanish universities, and illustrates the international reach of Andre’s work to Ibero-American countries.