Research Centre for Private Law

Research, development, production and dissemination of scientific knowledge in the field of Private Law.

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A Research Unit of the Institute of Private Law (IDP)

Founded in 2014, CIDP is an autonomous R&D Unit dedicated to the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge in the field of Private Law.

 

Its activity is predominantly developed along two fundamental axes: the individual and collective research carried out by its members, and the organization of courses, seminars, conferences and workshops on current themes in Private Law.

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Research

Research Lines

CIDP has decided to structure its activities for the period 2024-2028 according to five research lines, which will act as the basis for research projects to be developed, involving teams of researchers from all areas working collaboratively in an articulated manner.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Researchers

Meet the researchers

CIDP’s team of researchers currently comprises 56 Integrated Researchers who hold a PhD, 59 Integrated Researchers who do not hold a PhD and 5 Collaborating Researchers.
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Diogo Costa Gonçalves

Graduated (2003), Master (2008) and Doctor (2014)at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he has been teaching since 2004, currently as Assistant Professor. He was a member of the executive committee of the Annotated Commercial Companies Code (CSC Clássica) and of the editorial board of theRevista de Direito das Sociedades(RDS).In 2010, 2012 and 2013, he carried out several periods of research at the Max-Planck-Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Privatrecht in Hamburg. During the same period, he also visited the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He is a member of the association Friends of the Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, the Luso-German Association of Jurists (Deutsch-Lusitanische Juristenvereinigung), the Portuguese Arbitration Association and the Governance Lab, a group for legal research and critical reflection on topics related to the governance of organizations. Hetakes partin the Permanent Seminar of Young Scientists at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and is a member of the Scientific Society of the Portuguese Catholic University. He is also a member of the board of the Institute for Private Law – IDP and a researcher at the Research Centre for Private Law (CIDP).In 2008, he took part in the commissionresponsible for the preparation of the Guinea-Bissau Commercial Companies Code Project, as well as the diplomas adapting Guinean domestic law to OHADA. In 2013, he collaborated in the drafting of several legislative projects relating to the capital market, upon request by the Angolan Capital Market Commission. In 2015, he also collaborated in the preparation of a Draft Commercial Companies Code for Cape Verde. He is a jurisconsult and arbitrator.

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Madalena Perestrelo de Oliveira

Invited Assistant Lecturer at the University of Lisbon School of Law since 2011 and also at the Catholic School of Business and Economics in 2015. Of Counsel at PLMJ focused on the Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A and Private Equity areas of practice. Currently working on her PhD Dissertation concerning civil liability on the Financial Markets. Researcher at CIDP and Coordinator of the Advanced Postgraduate Course in Corporate Finance & Governance, the Advanced Postgraduate Course in Insolvency and Business Recovery Law, the Specialization Intensive Course on Investment Funds and the Intensive Course on Breach of Contract. Also coordinates several other scientific Conferences in the areas of Venture Capital, Securities and Capital Markets. Secretary of the Board at Novabase’s General Meeting. Lectures on a regular basis at Postgraduate Courses, Intensive Courses.Also lectures on scientific Conferences and has authored numerous scientific articles on Corporate Law, Civil Law, Capital Markets Law and Insolvency Law, amounting to more than 20 publications, namely the bookLimites da autonomia dos credores na recuperação da empresa insolvente(Almedina) and articles such as “Direito de voto nas sociedades cotadas: da admissibilidade de categorias de ações com direito de voto plural às L-shares” and “Going dark: deliberação da assembleia geral e direito de exoneração”.

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Francisco Mendes Correia

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and an Invited Professor in the Law and Business Master’s at the Portuguese Catholic University. Francisco earned his Doctoral Degree in 2015 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he teaches since 2006. Francisco is also a Post-Graduate in European Union Law at King’s College London. He is a member of Governance Lab and a researcher at theResearch Centre for Private Law (CIDP). His main research areas are Banking Law, Financial Law, Private Law, Insolvency Law, and European Union Private Law.

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Guilherme Dray

Lawyerwith a PhD in Law from the University of Lisbon. Guilherme lectures at the University of Lisbon School of Law, in Post-Graduate Programs at the New University of Lisbon and at the Catholic University of Porto, and in several seminars at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and at the Porto Alegre Board of Attorneys, in Brazil. He has also lectured as a Professor of Law at the Guinea-Bissau Law School. He was Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA. He wrote several juridical papers and books published in Portugal and Brazil. He also co-founded the Institute of Labour Law, the Institute of Consumer Law, both part of the University of Lisbon, and the Portuguese Speaking Countries Jurists Community. He is currently member of the board of the Institute of Labour Law. Guilherme was Head of the Portuguese Prime Minister´s Office during the XVIII Government (2009-2011) and Head of the Cabinet of the Minister for Public Works, Transport and Communications of the XVII Government of Portugal (2005-2009). He participated in several official and bilateral meetings in several countries of Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. During the Portuguese Presidency of the EU (2nd semester of 2007), Guilherme assisted the directorship of the Transport and Telecommunications Council. Guilherme is currently a Partner at the Law Firm Macedo Vitorino & Associados.

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António Menezes Cordeiro

Law degree (1975), PhD (1985) with aggregation (1996) in Law, Full Professorat the Lisbon University School of Law and Dean of the Legal Sciences Group. Held several academic positions, namely as President of the Directive Council (1989-1991) and as President of the Scientific Council (1998-2001) of the Lisbon University School of Law. In the graduation course he has taught or is teaching the disciplines Theory of Law, Rights in rem, Law of Obligations, Introduction to the Study of Law, General Theory of Civil Law, Philosophy of Law, Law of Economics, Labour Law, Banking Law and Commercial Law. Author of more than three hundred publications. Among these works stand out Da boa fé (1984, seven reprints), Tratado de Direito Civil (11 volumes), Direito do trabalho, Direito Bancário, Direito Comercial, Direito das Sociedades, Direito dos Seguros and Tratado da Arbitragem. Director of Revista de Direito das Sociedades and of Revista de Direito Civil, Deputy Director of Revista O Direito and member of theEditorial Board of Revista da Ordem dos Advogados, of which he was Deputy Director from 1990 to 2010. Legal consultant, national and international arbitrator and lawyer, being a founding member of the law firm António Menezes Cordeiro & Associados. President of CIDP and IDP (2014-2023). Effective partner of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences (Academia das Ciências de Lisboa). President of the Arbitration Centreof the Portuguese Chamber ofCommerceand Industry (since 2016).

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Maria Raquel Rei

Law degree (1992), Masters degree (1998) and PhD (2011). Auxiliary Professor within the Legal Science Group of the Lisbon University Law School. Former member of the Pedagogic Council and substitute member of the Scientific Council. Current substitute member of the Pedagogic Council. During one year, held a position at Bissau’s Law School, pursuant to a cooperation agreement between the Portuguese Republic and Guinea-Bissau and was responsible for International Private Law and Political Economy. Taught Civil Law Principles, Obligations Law, Insolvency Law – both in the law degree and in the masters and PhD studies. Author of studies and articles published on Civil Law and Sports Law. Lawyer and member of CIDP.

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Paula Costa e Silva

Graduate, Master, Doctor with Aggregation in Law at the University of Lisbon School of Law, with a specialisation in Legal Sciences, Paula Costa e Silva is Full Professor of the University of Lisbon School of Law. She is also a Member of the Editorial Board of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation;Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Commercial Arbitration Center of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry; President of the Institute of Brazilian Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon; Chairman of the Board of the Portuguese Securities Institute; Referee (HKIAC, SCIA, CAM-CCBC) andJurisconsult and Lawyer registered with the Portuguese and Brazilian Bar Association.

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Nuno Andrade Pissarra

Law Degree (1999), Master’s Degree in Private Law (2006) and Doctorate in Private Law (2019) by the Law School of the University of Lisbon (Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa). Assistant Professor at the Law School of the University of Lisbon (Legal Sciences Group). Curriculum units taught: Civil Procedure Law I, Civil Procedure Law II, Civil Procedure Law IV, Private International Law I, Private International Law II, Law of Contracts I, Law of Contracts II, Property Law I, Property Law II, Criminal Law III, European Law I, International Law and Comparative Law. Author of several publications. Lawyer and law consultant.

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A. Barreto Menezes Cordeiro

António Manuel Barreto Espadinha de Menezes Cordeiro, who also signs A. Barreto Menezes Cordeiro, was born in Lisbon in 1985. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (2008), received an LLM from King’s College London (2009) and a PhD from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (2014). He is a Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon since 2013, where he has taught in the areas of Civil Law, Banking Law, Securities Law, Comparative Law and Commercial Company Law, and at the European University (Laureate Group) since 2015, where he has taught in the areas of Civil Law. He has authored more than 40 publications, includingDa simulação no Direito civil (2014),Do trust no Direito civil (2014),Direito dos valores mobiliários, Vol. I (2015),Manual de Direito dos valores mobiliários (2016) andDireito inglês dos contratos, Vol. I (2017). He is a founder and member of the editorial board of the Revista de Direito Civil (2014) and member of the editorial board of the Revista de Direito das Sociedades (2014). He is Vice-President of the Consumer Law Institute, since 2016, and was Vice-President of the Brazilian Law Institute in 2016 and 2017. Arbitrator and Jurisconsult.

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Hugo Ramos Alves

Bachelor of Law (2004), Master in Legal Sciences (2009) and PhD in Legal Sciences (2015). Assistant Professor of the School of Law of the University of Lisbon. Teaches Law of Obligations, Commercial Law, Maritime Law, Contract Law and Labour Law. Lecturer of Air (Aviation) Law and Terrestrial Transport Law in the Career-focused Master’s programme. Author of several monographs and articles, namely Do penhor (Master's Thesis, 2010) and Dação em cumprimento (PhD Thesis, 2017). Legal advisor in the fields of Banking Law, Commercial Contracts and Transport Law. Lawyer, with suspended membership as per his request, since 30 July 2013. Particular focus on the fields of practice of Banking Law, Project Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, Transport Law and Insurance Law.

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Luís Gonçalves da Silva

PhD in Law and Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he has been teaching for approximately 20 years, with special emphasis in recent years - since 2013 - on Labour Law I, II (degree) and III (Master's Degree in Law and Legal Practice). CIDP and IDT researcher.He has held several academic roles, including member of the Assembly of Representatives (1998/2002), the Pedagogical Council (1999/2002), the Board of Directors (2001/2002), the Scientific Council (2015/2017) and the School Council (2018/2019) of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.Regular speaker at conferences and postgraduate courses, namely at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto) and the Universidade Nova, as well as the Institute of Labour Law of the Faculty of Law of Lisbon (IDT), the Research Centre for Private Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (CIDP), and the National Labour Law Congresses; he is also executive coordinator of the IDT postgraduate course. He is the author of several dozen books and articles, especially in the area of Labour Law.Since 2015, he has been a member of the Scientific Committee for Collective Negotiation of the Labour Relations Centre as a specialist.Deputy director of theRevista Jurídica Luso-Brasileira (CIDP), since 2015.Lawyer and Consultant at Abreu Advogados (since 2013).Member of the list of presiding arbitrators of the Economic and Social Council (since 2012).He participated in the drafting of several diplomas, namely the one relating to the 2003 Labour Code and its complementary legislation, having monitored, as Advisor to the Secretary of State for Labour of the XV Constitutional Government, the negotiation of these and other diplomas, in the Permanent Committee for Social Coordination.

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José Luís Bonifácio Ramos

Bachelor (1983), Master (1994), Doctor (2007), Aggregation (2020) in Law. He is Associate Professor with Aggregation of the Legal Sciences Group at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. He held several academic roles, including member of the Scientific Council (2008-2011); Pedagogical Council (2011-13); School Council (2013-2015 and 2015-2017). He also served on the Postgraduate Studies Committee and the Brazilian Law Institute, as its Vice-President, between 2012 and 2015. He has taught the subjects of Real Rights, Civil Procedural Law I, II and III, Contract Law I, Graduation; Registration and Notary Law, Probation Law and Real Rights II, in the Master's Degree in Legal Practice; Environmental Law and Civil Procedural Law, in the Scientific Master's degree, and Introduction to Law, in the Doctorate. He is the author of monographs, book chapters and legal articles in the areas of Real Rights, Civil Procedural Law, Culture and Cultural Heritage Law, Insurance Law and Animal Rights. He is a Member of the Luso-German Association of Jurists (DJLV), the Brazilian Institute of Cultural Heritage Law (IBDPC) and the Brazilian Association of Procedural Law (ABDpro). He was a lawyer, Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic (1985-1991), Head of the Office of the Secretary of State for Culture (2002-2004) and Member of the Superior Council of the Public Ministry (2011-2014).

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Tiago Soares da Fonseca

Law degree (1998), master's degree (2007) and PhD (2018) in Legal Sciences from the University of Lisbon School of Law. AssistantProfessor within the Legal Science Group of the Lisbon University Law School. At this School of Law, has taught several disciplines, namely General Theory of Civil Law, Law of Obligations, Commercial Law, Property Law and Contract Law. He has held other functions in the same Law School, namely as a member of the Pedagogical Board (2001-2002), and held a position at Bissau’s Law School, pursuant to a cooperation agreement between the Portuguese Republic and Guinea-Bissau, and was responsible for General Theory of Civil Law and Commercial Law (2000-2001). Author ofseveral publications, among others O Direito de Exoneração do Sócio no Código das Sociedades Comerciais (2008) and A transação civil na litigância judicial e extrajudicial (2018). Lawyer, legal advisor and arbitrator.​

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Francisco Rodrigues Rocha

Holds a Degree in Law (2010), a Master's Degree in Law (2014; Insurance Law) and a PhDin Law (2021; Roman Law). He is an Invited GuestLecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.He is a researcher at CIDP – Research Centre for Private Law and IVRIS – Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, and is part of RIIDJ – International Network of Researchers in Law and Justice.He is a Lawyer (2014), Member of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Section of AIDA (2018), Vice-President of IDC – Association for the Study of Consumer Law (2014), Member of the Editorial Committee of theRevista da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa (2020), Member of the Editorial Committee ofInterpretatio Prudentium – Direito romano e tradição romanista em revista (2016) and Deputy Director of theRevista de Direito Financeiro e dos Mercados de Capitais (2021).His areas of research are Roman Law and Romanistic Tradition, History of Law, Maritime and Port Law, Insurance Law, Banking Law, Transport Law, Commercial and Company Law, Data Protection Law and Consumer Law.

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João de Oliveira Geraldes

Bachelor of Law and Master ´s degree in Legal Sciences at the University of Lisbon. Assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, with teaching experience in private law. Professor in different graduate courses, postgraduate courses and Master's degrees. Published the book "Tipicidade contratual e condicionalidade suspensiva: contributo para o estudo da exterioridade condicional" and several articles in national and international legal journals. Lawyer and legal consultant. Legal advisor to the Minister of Defence (1999) and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000–2001) and Vice-Chairman of the Portuguese Committee for the review of the Concordat signed with the Vatican (2000–2001); legal advisor to the President of the Parliament (2005–2007).

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