Judiciary of Portugal
The judiciary of Portugal is a system of courts that together constitute one of the four organs of Sovereignty as defined by the Portuguese Constitution. The courts are independent from the other three Portuguese organs of Sovereignty.
The Portuguese courts are divided by four independent orders, each of which corresponds to the separate Constitutional, Judicial, Administrative and Auditors jurisdictions.
The public prosecution and the representation of the State before the courts is assured by an independent body of magistrates, known as Public Ministry.
The Ministry of Justice is the Government department responsible for the administration of the Judiciary system.
Orders of courts
The Portuguese judiciary system is not unitary, but it is instead divided in four independent categories or orders of courts: Constitutional, Judicial, Administrative and Auditors. Each order contains their own structure of courts. The Constitutional and Auditors orders include a single court each one, while the other two orders include a plurality of hierarchical organized courts. Until 2003, a fifth order of courts existed, this being the Military Jurisdiction.A higher court of appeal exists to appreciate and judge the conflicts of jurisdiction between the Judicial and Administrative orders of courts, this being the Conflicts Court. The Conflicts Court is headed by the president of the Supreme Administrative Court, including also other three judges of this court and three judges of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Constitutional Court
The Constitutional Court is the sole court in the Constitutional jurisdiction. It is a special court, mainly tasked with reviewing the constitutionality of newly approved laws, but it also has important powers related to the President of the Republic, the political parties and referendums. The judges of the Constitutional Court are independent from the other branches of government, such as the executive or the legislature, and cannot be impeached. The court is installed in the Ratton Palace in Lisbon.Judicial courts
The Judicial order is the first category of common courts, forming a proper hierarchical structure that has the Supreme Court of Justice in Lisbon as its superior body. This order also includes the five intermediate level courts called Relação and the judicial courts of first instance. The judicial courts of first instance can be courts of generic competence or courts of specific competence.For the purpose of the Judicial order, until 2014, Portugal was divided in 231 uneven comarcas, constituting the territorial areas of jurisdiction of the courts of first instance. With some adjustments carried away over the years, that division was essentiality the one established in the judiciary reform of 1835. Depending on the size of its population, each comarca could have from a single court of general jurisdiction with just a single judge to a complex structure of diverse courts of special jurisdiction, each of which, by itself, could include several specialized sections and judgeships. The comarcas were grouped in 57 judicial circles and these in four judicial districts.
Following the judiciary organization reform of 2014, the country is now divided in 23 larger comarcas, all of them having, each one, a single judicial court of first instance, with general jurisdiction. Each judicial court is divided in judgeships, with the following types existing: central civil, local civil, central criminal, local criminal, local minor crimes, criminal procedure, labor, family and juvenile, commercial, execution, general jurisdiction and proximity.
The comarca courts are typically installed in monumental courthouses, called palácios da Justiça, many of them built between the 1940s and the 1960s. Before the reduction of the number of comarcas due to the 2014 reform, each palace of Justice was usually a seat of a court, but now most of them are only seats of judgeships of larger courts.
Besides the 23 generic competence judicial courts of each comarca, there are also some subject-matter jurisdiction courts of first instance that have territorial jurisdiction over several comarcas. These include the penal supervisory courts of Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon and Évora, the Maritime Court at Lisbon, the Intellectual Property Court at Lisbon, the Concurrency, Regulation and Supervision Court at Santarém and the Central Criminal Procedure Court at Lisbon.
The judges of the Supreme Court of Justice have the title of conselheiros, those of the Relações have the title of desembargadores and those of the courts of first instance have the title of juízes de direito.
As Justice of first instance, there are also the judges of peace and the arbitral tribunals. The judges of peace have competence to appreciate and to judge small actions regarding values that do not exceed the ceiling below which it is not possible to appeal from a court of first instance.
Administrative and tax courts
The administrative and tax order includes the courts that deal with the administrative law and with the tax law. They constitute a hierarchical system that has the Supreme Administrative Court in Lisbon as its superior body. This order also includes the second instance central administrative courts of North at Porto and of South at Lisbon, as well as the courts of first instance.For the purpose of the administrative and tax jurisdiction, the country is territorially divided in 16 circles. To each of the circles correspond a first instance administrative court of circle and a tributary court, being that both of which may be aggregated, in that case being unitarily designated "administrative and tax courts". At the present, only the Lisbon circle has a separate administrative and a tributary court, with the rest of the circles each having a single administrative and tax court.
The judges of the Supreme Administrative Court have the title of conselheiros, those of the central administrative courts have the title of desembargadores and those of the first instance courts have the title of juízes de direito.
Auditors Court
The Auditors Court is the single court of its order. It has both pure court functions and also advising functions.The judges of the Auditors Court are chosen through civil service examination and have the title of conselheiros.
Military courts
Until 2003, Portugal had a system of permanent military courts that dealt with the military justice, which constituted a separate jurisdiction. The superior body of this order of courts was the Supreme Military Court in Lisbon. As lower instance courts of military justice, several territorial military courts and the Naval Military Court also existed.With the approval of the new Portuguese Code of Military Justice on 15 November 2003, the permanent military courts were disbanded, ceasing to exist during the time of peace. In time of peace, the military crimes or the crimes committed by military personnel are now judged in the criminal sections of the common Judicial courts. For the propose of military justice, there are four military judges in each of the following courts: the Supreme Court of Justice, the Relação of Lisbon and the Relação of Porto.
However, in times of war, separate military courts can be re-established. These can be ordinary or extraordinary. The ordinary courts are the Supreme Military Court, the military courts of 2nd instance and the military courts of 1st instance. The military ordinary courts would be composed of the military judges that usually serve in the criminal sections of the common Judicial courts. The extraordinary military courts are non-permanent courts created, near military forces or installations outside the national territory or national waters, only to judge specific processes, being dissolved as soon as these are decided. Each of these courts would be composed by members of the military with a higher rank than the defendants and by a person with a degree in Law.
Public Ministry
The Public Ministry is the Judiciary body responsible for the public prosecution and the representation of the Portuguese State before the courts. It is an hierarchic organized body, composed of magistrates and headed by the Attorney-General of the Republic, being totally independent from the executive and other branches of Government.The superior body of the Public Ministry is the Procuradoria-Geral da República, headed by the Attorney-General. Besides directing the MP, the PGR also assures its representation in the four supreme courts: Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Justice, Supreme Administrative Court and Auditors Court. This representation is done directly by the Attorney-General, assisted by the Vice-Attorney-General and by deputy attorneys-general.
The intermediate level bodies of the MP are the four procuradorias-gerais distritais and the two procuradorias-gerais de coordenação. The first represent the MP in the relação courts, while the last represent it in the central administrative courts.
The first level bodies of the MP are the 23 procuradorias de comarca, which represent it in each of the judicial courts of comarca.
One of the main roles of the Public Ministry is to guide the criminal investigation in the country. For this role, the MP includes the departments of investigation and prosecution, composed of attorneys specially dedicated to the investigation of the most serious crimes. There is one central department in the PGR and one of such departments in each of the district attorneys-general's offices. For the criminal investigation, the MP also controls the activity of the Judiciary Police.
Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Justice is the department of the Government of Portugal responsible to conceive, conduct, execute and assess the Justice policy defined by the Assembly of the Republic and by the Government and to assure the relationship of the Government with the courts, the Public Ministry, the Higher Council of Magistrates and the Higher Council of the Administrative and Tax Courts. As part of its responsibilities, it administers the judiciary system, with functions that include the payment of salaries and the construction of courthouses.It is headed by the minister of Justice, who is a member of the Portuguese Cabinet.
On the contrary of what happens in other countries, the Portuguese minister of Justice is not the head of public prosecution, not having any kind of authority over the attorneys of the Public Ministry, who are independent magistrates.