Attended the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon where she graduated (1980) and finished her Master's degree (1986) and her PhD (2007). She has been teaching at the same Faculty since 1981, being at present Assistant Professor. During the years 1984, 1986 and 1999 she conducted academic research for several periods at the Max-Planck-Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht in Freiburg im Breisgau. She also visited Albert-Ludwigs- Universität Freibgurg im Breisgau in the same period and in 2016 and 2017.
She collaborated in an international Project at the Max-Planck Institut für internationales und ausländisches Strafrecht and received in 2017 an invitation to collaborate in a project in Brazil.
She was a researcher at the Private Law Center of the Lusíada University Law and is now a researcher at the Research Centre for Private Law (CIDP), at the Law Faculty of Lisbon. From 1989 until the present, she has held several conferences in postgraduate courses, seminars, specialization courses and training courses in the areas of Penal and Civil law in Portugal, Spain, Germany and Mozambique. In 2018 she co-organized a postgraduate course in the area of Children, Family and Succession Law.
She has published several books and articles in Penal and Family Law.