Constitutional Law

Code:

D103

Acronym:

DCONST

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Legal Sciences

Instance: 2006/2007 - A

Active?	Yes
Course/CS Responsible:	Law

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
D	187	Official Study Plan - LD	1	-	13	-

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

The discipline of Constitutional Law aims at offering a general survey of the salient elements of the discipline at university level, attentive to the most important advances in this field of knowledge. This implies a generalist point of view, inclusive of more universal and formative concepts, together with some issues centring upon the Portuguese Constitution, in both theory and practice.

Combining theoretical and empirical methods, this discipline requires students to understand the basic aspects of the Constitutional Law episteme by familiarising themselves with many of its main questions. They are asked to situate this understanding within the contexts of science, history, and society. They should know the essential concepts of Constitutional Law, its theory and the authors thereof, plus a comparative appreciation of alternative systems and models. They will be supposed to know the Portuguese Constitution, methods of interpretation, and have general but well-founded ideas on the fundamental rights and political institutions of our Constitutional State, as well as the basic principles of unconstitutionality and the machinery of constitutional justice (e.g. constitutional garantee). They will also have some preliminary ideas about the relations between the Portuguese and "European Constitution", and other questions of relevance to the contemporary constitutional debates.

Program

I. Theory and History of Constitution and State

A. Foundations

1. Constitutional law as Reality and Science

Constitutional Phenomena and Epistemology. ?Scientific? evolution of Constitutional Law and its relations with other "epistemai", both juridical and non juridical. Concept, idea, and notion of Constitution and Constitutional Law.

2. Foundation, Being, and Sense in Constitutional Law

Legitimacy, constituent power, material constitution, normative pyramid, constitutional values, ethics and constitution and other relations and founding paradigms.

3. Constitutional Law around the World and within Society

Constitutional Geography and Sociology: Comparative Constitutional Law, constitutional reality and ?real constitution?, balance-constitution and program-constitution, myth-constitution and utopian-constitution.

B. Constitutional History and Theory of State

4. History of Constitutional Law - Roots of Constitutionalism. The great constitutional revolutions. From the political Law in ?Ordinances? to the Constitution of 1976.

5. Theory of State and Constitution - Basic concepts, evolution and challenges

II. Living Portuguese Constitutional Law

1.Knowledge and method in Constitutional Law - Hermeneutic questions and juridical methodology in extant Portuguese Constitutional Law (recurrent topic during all this part of the program, from 2 to 6).
2.Values, principles, rules, and fundamental rights and duties.
3. Constitutional Institutions ? Sources of Law, structures, functions, procedures.
4.The present Portuguese Constitutional State.
5.Constitutional Justice ? general overview and the present Portuguese system.
6.Portuguese Constitutionalism and European Constitutionalism. The constitutional problem of the European Constitution (introduction to Constitutional European Law / Institutional Communitarian Law)
7.Some theoretical and practical challenges. Recent developments and some contemporary constitutional questions.

Main Bibliography

textbooks:

CANOTILHO, José Joaquim Gomes ? Direito Constitucional e Teoria da Constituição, Coimbra, Almedina, última ed.
MIRANDA, Jorge ? Teoria do Estado e da Constituição, Coimbra, Coimbra Editora, 2002
CUNHA, Paulo Ferreira da ? Raízes da República. Introdução Histórica ao Direito Constitucional, Coimbra, Almedina, 2006; Idem - Direito Constitucional, no prelo.

Complementary Bibliography

General Bibliography:

Portuguese General Constitutional Law doctrine, where copious complementary sources may be found:

AMARAL, Maria Lúcia ? A Forma da República. Uma Introdução ao Estudo do Direito Constitucional, Coimbra, Coimbra Editora, 2005
CAETANO, Marcelo ? Direito Constitucional, I. Direito Comparado. Teoria Geral do Estado e da Constituição. As Constituições do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Forense, 1977
CANOTILHO, José Joaquim Gomes ? Direito Constitucional e Teoria da Constituição, Coimbra, Almedina, última ed.; Idem ? Estudos sobre Direitos Fundamentais, Coimbra, Coimbra Editora, 2004; Idem ? ?Brancosos e Interconstitucionalidade. Itinerários dos Discursos sobre a Historicidade Constitucional, Coimbra, Almedina, 2006
CANOTILHO, José Joaquim Gomes / MOREIRA, Vital ? Fundamentos da Constituição, Coimbra, Coimbra Editora, 1991
CUNHA, Paulo Ferreira da ? Teoria da Constituição, Lisboa / São Paulo, Verbo, 2000 ? 2002, 2 vols.; Idem ? Novo Direito Constitucional Europeu, Coimbra, Almedina, 2005; Idem ? Raízes da República. Introdução Histórica ao Direito Constitucional, Coimbra, Almedina, 2006
GOUVEIA, Jorge Bacelar ? Manual de Direito Constitucional, Coimbra, Almedina, 2005, 2 vols.
MIRANDA, Jorge ? Manual de Direito Constitucional, Coimbra, Coimbra Editora, vv. vols, última ed.; Idem ? Teoria do Estado e da Constituição, Coimbra, Coimbra Editora, 2002; Idem ? Textos Históricos de Direito Constitucional, 2.ª ed., Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1990
SOARES, Rogério Ehrarhdt ? Lições de Direito Constitucional, Coimbra, 1971 (policóp.), parcialmente recolhidas in Direito Constitucional: Introdução. O Ser e a Ordenação Jurídica do Estado, in Instituições de Direito. II. Enciclopédia Jurídica, org. de Paulo Ferreira da Cunha, Coimbra, Almedina, 2000, p. 29 ss.; Idem ? Direito Público e Sociedade Técnica, Coimbra, Atlântida, 1969
SOUSA, Marcelo Rebelo de ? Direito Constitucional I. Introdução à Teoria da Constituição, Braga, Livraria Cruz, 1979

Constitutional books written by the Professor:

CUNHA, Paulo Ferreira da ? A Constituição Viva, no prelo; Constituição, Direito e Utopia. Do Jurídico-Constitucional nas Utopias Políticas, Coimbra, 'Studia Iuridica', Boletim da Faculdade de Direito, Universidade de Coimbra / Coimbra Editora, 1996; Novo Direito Constitucional Europeu, Coimbra, Almedina, 2005; Per-Curso Constitucional. Pensar o Direito Constitucional e o seu Ensino, Prefácio de Manoel Gonçalves Ferreira Filho, São Paulo, Escola Superior de Direito Constitucional et al., 2006; Raízes da República. Introdução Histórica ao Direito Constitucional, Coimbra, Almedina, 2006

Constitutions: Gomes Canotilho /Vital Moreira; Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa / José de Mello Alexandrino; Jorge Miranda / Rui Medeiros

Selected Judicial decisions: org. de Jorge Miranda (ed. Universidade Católica Portuguesa).
Métodos de Ensino

Teaching methods and learning activities

All the "canonic" ones at the University.

Software

none for the moment

Evaluation Type

Eligibility for exams

please, see Comments

Calculation formula of final grade

Obtained as a result of the rules enforced in FDUP.

Examinations or Special Assignments

please, see Comments

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Rules enforced in FDUP.

Classification improvement

Obtained as a result of the rules enforced in FDUP.

Observations

Rules enforced in FDUP. Final decision about evaluation depending on coordination in course...