Alexandra Vilela is a Professor at Universidade Lusófona, teaching at the University Centers of Porto and Lisbon in the areas of Criminal and Administrative Sanctionary Law, in the three study cycles: bachelor, master's and doctorate. She is the director of the master’s in legal and criminal sciences, at the Faculty of Law of CUP Porto. She is a member of the Disciplinary Council and the Electoral Commission of the Universidade Lusófona.
She holds a master's in criminal legal sciences from FDUC and a doctorate in the same area from the same institution, with the thesis «O Direito de Mera Ordenação Social: entre a ideia de “recorrência” e a “erosão” do Direito Penal Clássico» («The Administrative Sanctionary Law: between the idea of “recurrence” and “erosion” of Classical Criminal Law "). The master's dissertation, «The Principle of the Presumption of Innocence in Criminal Procedural Law» and the doctoral thesis were both published in Portugal and the doctoral thesis was republished by Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, coming out as a second edition. She has two postgraduate degrees, in Biomedical Law and European Studies, both from FDUC, and has professional training in Administrative Law.
She taught at the International University of Figueira da Foz and the Escola Superior de Gestão of the Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco. She was the director of the ULP Review, where she publishes regularly and is a member of its Editorial Board. She has co-organized several books and has published chapters and articles in Portuguese and international magazines, journals and books. Alexandra Vilela supervises several master's and doctoral students in Legal and Criminal Sciences. She participates in master's and PhD juries and advises students to obtain academic degrees. She was an integrated member of the Research Center for Criminal Law and Criminal Sciences at FDUL, and from that date onwards, she became a collaborating researcher. She is a researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies in Law-Francisco Suárez, at Universidade Lusófona. She organizes and participates in scientific events in the area of her studies, both in Portugal and abroad (the last of which on March 24, 2024). She has been a lawyer since 1994 and was a Deontology Council member of the Coimbra Regional, Council of the Portuguese Bar Association from 2008-2010 and 2011-13. Between 2007 and 2011, she was a trainer in the Insolvency Process Course, aimed at trainee lawyers who are in the 2nd phase of the internship at the Coimbra Regional Council of the Portuguese Bar Association and, between March 2011 and December 2016, she was a member of a jury of the Regional Council of Coimbra, for the oral exams of the final evaluation and aggregation exam to the Portuguese Bar Association. In the three years from 2017 to 2019, she was a member of the National Internship and Training Commission (CNEF) and the National Evaluation Commission of the Portuguese Bar Association. She is also a member of the Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults from the Diocese of Coimbra, established by His Holiness Pope Francis. 27 January 2024