THE FIRM

Born in São Domingos de Rana. Graduated, Masters and PhD from the Faculty of Law in Lisbon and Complutense of Madrid.

He has been a Full Professor at the Faculty of Law of Lisbon since 1977 and Retired Professor since 2006. In 2008 he was elected Deputy Chairman of the Statutory Assembly of the Higher Institute for Social and Political Sciences. He was also Visiting Professor at Lourenço Marques University in 1972.

He was a scholarship student at the Institute for High Culture and at the Overseas Research Committee, being a member of the Committee for the Publishing of Treaties, Conventions and other International Public Acts related to Portugal and also the first Chairman of the Institute for the History of Law and Political Thinking of the Faculty of Law of Lisbon.

Called to the Portuguese Bar in 1968.

He has a large bookwork both in the area of the History of Law and Legal Thinking as well as in the strict area of Law, composed of about 180 publications, such as: Error Facti and Error Juris in Criminal Law, 1968; A Collection of Treaties and Public International Acts Relating to Portugal; Enforcement of Judgements in Portuguese Law, 1986; co-author of Equality – Introduction to Jurisprudence, Lisbon, 1993, with Professor Eduardo Vera-Cruz; Commercial Law, with Dr Alberto Xavier, 1964; The History of Law, with Dr Ruy de Albuquerque, 12th edition, 2005; Product Liability (Portugal), International Manual of Practice, London - N.Y., I.S.C.S., 1966-1973.

General Secretary and Legal Advisor to the Yellow Pages, at that time an ITT Company, 1969-1975 and Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation of Portugal, retained at Occidental Petroleum, 1974-1986. Member of the Commission for the Publication of Treaties and International Public Acts Relating to Portugal, A.C.P., 1967.

He is a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon (Arts, Legal Sciences Section), International Academy of Portuguese Culture, Académie Internationale d’Héraldique, Association d’Histoire du Droit Français, Association Juridique Henri Capitant and Portuguese-Brazilian Institute for Compared Law, as well as several other academic and scientific institutions in Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela and Spain.

He was awarded several prizes, such as the Prize for History and Legal Sciences of the Magazine of the Faculty of Law of Lisbon, at the time of the 50-Year Celebration of the same (Portugal and Iurisdictio Imperii), the Prize of Economic Sciences of said Magazine, also at the time of the 50-Year Celebration (Social Doctrine of the Church), the National History Prize 1967-1968 (The Political Power in the Portuguese Renascence), Gulbenkian History Prize, Presence of Portugal in the World, 1977 (Jean Bodin in the Iberian Peninsula (Ensayo de historia de las ideas políticas y de derecho), Laranjo Coelho Prize, 1981 (Bártolo and bartolism in the Portuguese Law History), the Gulbenkian History Prize, 1984 (Studies of Portuguese Culture), the Gulbenkian History Prize, History of Portugal from the 16th to the 20th Centuries, 1987 (The Expression of Power in Luís de Camões), the D. João de Castro Prize, from the Committee for the Celebrations of the Portuguese Discoveries 1990 (The Expression of Power in Luís de Camões) and the Gulbenkian History Prize, 1991 (The Tower of Tombo and its Treasures).

He has also worked with the National Commission for Commemorating the Portuguese Discoveries and participated in various colloquiums and national and international congresses on History and on Law, including those at the Henri Capitant Association. He was part of the Commission for Organizing the XVII International Heraldry Congress and the XVII World Congress on the History of Cartography. He has also been Director of the National Archives at the Torre do Tombo.

He also has the following degrees, honours and decorations: Bailio Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, in the category of Grand Master, Chairman and Chairman of Honour of the Portuguese Association of the same Order; Grand Cross of the Constantiniana Order of Saint George; Great Officer of the Order of Merit pro Merito Melitense and the Order of Infante D. Henrique of Portugal; Commander of the Orders of Saint Maurice, Saint Lazarus and Our Holy Lady of Conception of Vila Viçosa; Knight of the Royal Brotherhood of “Infanzones” of Our Lady of Charity of the Imperial Town of Illescas; He was awarded a medal for having practiced 35 years as a lawyer by the Bar Association.

His areas of practice include Commercial Law and Litigation and Arbitration, in both the domestic and the international spheres.