CIDP - Centro de Investigação de Direito Privado

Artificial Intelligence, Technology and Private Law

The advent of the Digital Era has changed social, economic and legal structures. The world we now live requires the Law to pay special attention to new issues, not previously encountered. The social relevance of personal data raises questions in the field of personality law, automation and artificial intelligence require the workings of civil liability to be reconsidered and the wide use of e-commerce demands study of online consumer rights. The new reality extends into finance, with a direct impact on investor rights and business funding models.

In addition, automation and artificial intelligence are both tools and challenges in courts. On the one hand, they promise to speed up and facilitate procedural acts, relieving judges, bailiffs and lawyers of repetitive and time-consuming tasks. But at the same time, insofar as they provide autonomous means of decision-making, they raise fundamental questions about the future meaning and nature of adjudication.

Finally, generative artificial intelligence raises relevant challenges in intellectual property law, namely as regards the protection of copyright and even the identity or nature of the author.

These trends and demands are not new. They were the subject of the last research line called Private Law in the Digital Era (PLDE). The current research line arises in the continuation of the work carried out at PLDE, integrating and focusing on the latest technological developments.

New Perspectives of Corporate Governance

The last few years have been marked by profound reforms in Commercial Company and Capital Market Law, especially at the level of European normative instruments.

Following on from the work conducted within the previous line of research called Modernization of Corporate Law, the current line New Perspectives of Corporate Governance will focus its attention on three topics: (i) the impact of technology on company law; (ii) the reformulation of corporate law structures as a result of the new centrality of stakeholder interests; (iii) the impact of ex contractu governance on the company and the limits of of private autonomy in shareholder agreements.

Diversity, Harmonization and Unification of Private Law

The study of Comparative Law studies, including its methodological foundations, is a central theme of CIDP's research activity. The diversity of modern Private Law coexists with a growing effort towards its harmonization and unification, which transcends the European space and is instrumental to the free flow of people, goods, services and capital across borders in a globalised economy.

This research line pays special attention to international instruments, particularly the CISG (which came into force in Portugal at the end of 2021), the UNIDROIT Principles on International Commercial Contracts, the Principles of European Contract Law and other relevant normative acts from the European Parliament and from the Council, which aim to approximate national legal systems in the field of Private Law.

The processes of harmonisation and unification of Private International Law – taken here as the discipline that regulates the international jurisdiction of courts, the determination of the law applicable to cross-border relationships, international judicial cooperation and the recognition of foreign judgments – are also a subject matter of this research line. In Europe and worldwide, Private International Law has known an intense movement towards its harmonisation over the past decades, which has been carried out in particular through European regulations and international conventions, such as the Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, in force since 2023.

This research line seeks to study these processes in depth, and in particular their impact over the Portuguese legal system, where rules of Private International Law from domestic, European and international sources coexist, which are not always easy to combine.

In the context of this research line, particular attention will also be devoted to the legal systems of other Portuguese-speaking countries, which maintain a fundamental unity with Portuguese law. To this end, a permanent Lusophone Law Observatory will be set up, and the results of its work will be published internationally.

Foundations of Private Law

This line of research is devoted to the study of the historical, dogmatic and axiological foundations of Private Law, always seeking a deeper understanding of legal systems and their evolution.

The research projects to be developed cover the core areas of common and commercial Private Law, as well as its immediate foundations and instruments (Philosophy of Law and Methodology). It also involves studying the models of adjudication (specially linked with new morphologies of conflicts) including alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

This research line also includes the critical analysis of judicial activity (including its social and economic impact), as well as the survey and systematization of empirical data on that activity.

New Perspectives on Regulation, Compliance and Private Enforcement

The emergence of independent authorities has subverted the classic separation of powers model, which is why they have been endowed with three types of traditionally separate public powers: normative, executive and (para)judicial. Modern independent authorities issue regulations of a general and abstract nature, monitor and inspect the activity of businesses and, finally, impose financial penalties (fines) and ancillary sanctions if they detect offences. In this regard, it is difficult to sustain the classic opposition between administrative law and criminal law, especially since the European Court of Human Rights has consistently held that administrative offences and other typically administrative offences should be considered criminal offences for the purpose of applying Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence. The social context of regulatory law requires a paradigm shift in the application of law and interaction with economic agents. Experience generally points to the advantages of an approach based on the principles of responsive regulation and regulated self-regulation. The balance between the two, however, requires a delicate balance between the requirements of effective regulation and the advantages of collaboration with businesses in the performance of this public law mission. In fact, the risks of this combination are immense and can only be minimised by establishing mechanisms to guarantee the independence and accountability of regulators and to prevent them from being captured by a wide range of interests, from party interests to business interests, which also involves transparency in the revolving doors between the exercise of regulatory functions, government functions and management functions of public, mixed or private companies. A virtuous articulation of responsive regulation with regulated self-regulation cannot ignore another pillar, which is the private enforcement of the law through actions for damages and collective redress brought by consumer representatives and others interested in promoting competition. Damages actions and collective redress often act as natural allies of more effective economic regulation and more efficient self-regulation, reinforcing the attitude of compliance on the part of companies by encouraging the prevention of legal risks that may arise from non-compliance. Any reflection on the intersecting themes of regulation, regulatory compliance and actions for damages and collective protection must value the experience of law in action, calling on the critical mass that accompanies matters of economic regulation and competition defence, adding national experience to the experience of other European countries and the European Union itself, but also to that of other reference legal systems, especially Anglo-Saxon ones, whose practice is inspiring for the European context. This line of research also includes the research project that has been developed in the field of judicial evidence, considering that evidential problems take on new dimensions in the context of the passage of information between regulators, intelligence agencies, criminal police agencies and criminal investigation holders, at the domestic level, but also at the cross-border level and not only in the European context. The research project encompasses the most general aspects of the theory of evidence and the dogmatic aspects of judicial evidence in the various regulated areas of economic activity, thus aiming to contribute to the development of an area of legal thought and practice that suffers from a lack of attention in civil law legal systems, compared to common law countries. It is a research project that involves ongoing articulations and partnerships with foreign research centres, which have already produced results in terms of national and foreign publications and scientific meetings in Portugal and abroad.

Fernando de Araújo

Full Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL). With Aggregation (2007) and Doctorate (1998) in Legal-Economic Sciences, Master's Degree in Historical-Legal Sciences (1990) and Degree in Law from the Portuguese Catholic University (1982), he has supervised numerous Master's and Doctorate theses,as well as Post-Doctoral internships in Portugal and Brazil. Lecturer and guest speaker at Faculties in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia, he participates in Conferences regularly and has published in the areas of Economic Analysis of Law, Philosophy of Law, History of Law, Law of Obligations, Contracts, Civil Law, Environmental Economics, Bioethics and Animal Law. He was a founding member of several institutes at the University of Lisbon and also of the Research Centre for Private Law, where hewas responsible for the Bioethics Law section. He chaired the Assessment and Accreditation Committees of Law Schools and Courses in Portugal (A3ES – Higher Education Assessment and Accreditation Agency) (2011-2016) and the FDUL Institute of Brazilian Law; he directed the Revista do Instituto do Direito Brasileiro, he was a member of the Ethics Committees of the Faculty of Medicine (2005-2007) and the Faculty of Pharmacy (2010-2017), was Deputy to the Office of the Minister of the Presidency (1990-95) and Advisor to the Office of the Secretary of State for National Defense ( 1995) and Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Securities Market Commission (1998).Between 2004 and 2005, he chaired the Scientific Council of the Centre for the Study of Animal Rights and also collaborated with the Centre for Biomedical Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra. His book "A Hora dos Direitos dos Animais" (2003) drove a change in legal thinking and stimulated the national debate in relation to animal issues. Two years after the release of this work, he wrote an article titled “Os recentes desenvolvimentos da Lei Portuguesa no domínio dos direitos dos animais” which was published in the Journal of Animal Law,whose editorial board he also integrates.He is Director of theRevista Jurídica Luso-Brasileira and co-coordinates Almedina's "Applied Ethics" collection.He has extensive experience in Arbitration, being an Arbitrator in tax and commercial cases, as well as a Legal Consultant and Advisor.

Postgraduate Courses

IV Curso de Pós-Graduação em Divórcio, Inventário e Partilha

Continuamente comprometido com a comunidade jurídica e empenhado em contribuir para a elevação do debate científico e da sua incidência prática destas matérias, o Centro de Investigação de Direito Privado da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa organiza oIII Curso de Pós-Graduação em Divórcio, Inventário e Partilha. Na sequência das alterações legislativas que o tema do divórcio tem vindo a sofrer, fruto da natural evolução social e dos desafios com que o Direito da Família se depara, fica clara a necessidade de uma nova abordagem formativa que ofereça, a um tempo, um balanço geral e uma avaliação das alterações legislativas realizadas e, a outro tempo, uma visão dos novos rumos da disciplina que se vão abrindo em resposta à emergência de novas realidades. Outros desafios que a própria Lei 61/2008, de 31 de outubro, impôs ao intérprete/aplicador, ao abrir caminhos próprios do atual direito da família, como é o caso da densificação do direito à igualdade de género, assunção dos novos riscos patrimoniais que a dissolução do casamento provoca, novas exigências em matéria de cuidado e tratamento do cônjuge que sobretudo se dedicou à vida familiar na constância do casamento, bem como da situação pessoal e patrimonial das crianças em contexto de divórcio dos seus progenitores. O Curso que se apresenta tenta implementar a ponte necessária entre o regime substantivo e o regime adjetivo do divórcio: trata de problemas clássicos do Divórcio – problemas como a atribuição da casa de morada de família, a partilha ou a regulação das responsabilidades parentais, o eventual enriquecimento de um cônjuge face ao outro na constância do casamento e por causa do casamento–mas assume-se o desafio de tratar de questões como a produção de prova em processo de divórcio, a configuração do direito ao divórcio, a prestação de contas ou o novo regime do inventário notarial e judicial. Apresentando um programa ajustado aos temas de vanguarda do Divórcio, Inventário e Partilha, o Curso dirige-se a licenciados em Direito e, igualmente, noutras áreas, que procuram efetuar um aprofundamento relevante destes temas, através de uma metodologia teórico-prática.

18 Nov 2025 > 17 Mar 2026

Postgraduate Courses

IV Curso de Pós-Graduação em Processo Civil Executivo

Volvida uma década da reforma da ação executiva implementada com o atual Código de Processo Civil, há muito que o Processo Civil Executivo reclama uma abordagem formativa que ofereça, a um tempo, um balanço geral e uma avaliação das alterações legislativas realizadas e, a outro tempo, uma visão dos novos rumos da disciplina processual que se vão abrindo em resposta à emergência de novas realidades: novos bens penhoráveis, novas fronteiras e formas de pesquisa patrimonial, novas garantias do executado, novos riscos para os sujeitos da execução. Neste contexto, têm lugar especial a análise dos desafios trazidos pelo recurso crescente à tecnologia e à inteligência artificial no processo civil, e a aferição do seu impacto nas garantias do executado e na proteção dos dados pessoais dos sujeitos da execução. Merecem também destaque os obstáculos associados à apreensão e penhora de ativos digitais (como os criptoativos) e de ativos imateriais (como os dados pessoais, os direitos de propriedade intelectual ou o estabelecimento comercial digital). Paralelamente, importa manter o foco no estudo dos problemas clássicos do Processo Civil Executivo, que constituem ocoreda prática dos juristas desta área. Esse estudo deve, contudo, ser feito à luz de uma abordagem integrada (desenhada a partir do incumprimento e dos seus mecanismos de gestão), atual e crítica, que aponte problemas e insuficiências do regime, como os casos de ações executivas inúteis e de oportunismo, bem como cenários de simulação negocial e processual na constituição e execução de garantias. O Curso privilegia ainda a interseção da ação executiva com os regimes pré-insolvenciais e insolvenciais, bem como o tratamento de questões setoriais, explorando manifestações do processo executivo no direito da família e das sucessões, no procedimento especial de despejo, e no direito da arbitragem. Por sua vez, o plano internacional da ação executiva é abordado em módulo autónomo. Continuamente comprometido com a comunidade jurídica e empenhado em contribuir para a elevação do debate juscientífico destas matérias, o Centro de Investigação de Direito Privado da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa organiza a 4ª edição do Curso de Pós-Graduação em Processo Civil Executivo. Apresentando um programa criteriosamente ajustado aos temas de vanguarda do Processo Civil Executivo, o Curso dirige-se a advogados, magistrados, agentes de execução e outros profissionais familiarizados com a prática processual executiva que pretendam atualizar ou aprofundar os seus conhecimentos. Destina-se também a alunos de licenciatura, mestrado e doutoramento.

6 Jan > 30 Jun 2026

Postgraduate Courses

III Curso de Pós-Graduação em FinTech

A transformação digital no setor financeiro é uma realidade incontornável e em evolução contínua. O conhecimento dos novos modelos de negócio, das tecnologias emergentes e regulação aplicável tornou-se essencial para todos os profissionais que operam no setor financeiro. O Curso de pós-graduação em Fintech oferece uma oportunidade única para profissionais que desejam aprofundar os seus conhecimentos sobre as inovações tecnológicas no mundo financeiro e entender os desafios e oportunidades regulatórios que acompanham essa evolução. O Curso de pós-graduação em Fintech segue uma metodologia holística, simultaneamente económica, tecnológica e legal, de modo a permitir uma compreensão abrangente de todos os temas objeto dos diferentes seminários. O corpo docente do Curso integra os mais reputados especialistas sobre os temas objeto dos seminários, quer a nível nacional, quer internacional. As aulas ministradas por docentes estrangeiros terão lugar na língua inglesa.

8 Jan > 25 Jun 2026

Intensive Courses

I Curso Intensivo em Sucessão Testamentária

O domínio da sucessão testamentária assume particular relevância num campo que pretende estabelecer um adequado equilíbrio entre a proteção da última vontade do autor da sucessão e a tutela dos herdeiros legitimários. Perante os novos desafios sociais, económicos e culturais, torna-se evidente a necessidade de uma nova abordagem formativa que possa oferecer um balanço geral, atualização e consolidação dos temas clássicos, sem desconsiderar os novos rumos da disciplina que se vão abrindo em resposta à emergência de novas realidades: novas fronteiras e formas de contornar o tradicional Direito das Sucessões, novos riscos e virtualidades da era da globalização. Partindo das premissas estabelecidas, o I Curso Intensivo em Sucessão Testamentária oferece um programa de formação avançada e conta com um Corpo Docente de reconhecido mérito, constituído por Académicos e Magistrados. Num total de 14 sessões, o Curso dirige-se a licenciados em Direito e, igualmente, noutras áreas, que procurem efetuar um aprofundamento relevante destes temas, através de uma metodologia teórico-prática.