Fundamental Rights

Code:

D502

Acronym:

DFUND

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Legal Sciences

Instance: 2004/2005 - 1S

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	108	Official Study Plan - LD	5	-	7	-

Objectives

· To provide a more specific preparation, theory and practical, in the political-legal sphere, now with the advantage of a prior consideration throughout the course.
. To encourage individual (or, exceptionally, small group) “creativity”, with a view to fostering a deep scientific understanding and, as far as possible, to motivate research, with a tendency to autonomous results.

Program

Chapter I - The concept of fundamental rights
§ 1. The idea
§ 2. Historical Experience
§ 3. The Portuguese Context
§ 4. The meaning of the 1976 Constitution

Chapter II - Theory of the Constitution and Fundamental Rights
§ 1. Fundamental Rights and the Constitution
§ 2. The idea of limitation
§ 3. The opening of a list of fundamental rights
§ 4. Legal protection without loopholes

Chapter III - General theory of fundamental rights
§ 1. Need for and possibility of a general objective theory of fundamental rights
§ 2. Purpose and functions
§ 3. Its place in the framework of so-called “theories of fundamental rights”

Chapter IV - The concept of a norm of a fundamental right
§ 1. Norm and formulation of a norm of fundamental rights
§ 2. Enumerated rights and unenumerated rights
§ 3. The recognition of the “dual character” of fundamental rights
§ 4. The general principle of equality

Chapter V - The structure of the norms of fundamental rights
§ 1. Open system and closed system
§ 2. The model of rules and principles proposed by Dworkin
§ 3. Its development into the tripartite model proposed by Alexy and Gomes Canotilho
3.1. The pure rules model
3.2. The rules/principles model
3.3. The rules/principles/procedures model

Chapter VI - The structure of the norms of fundamental rights (cont.)
§ 1. The “social” function of fundamental rights
§ 2. Economic, social and cultural rights
§ 3. The social State
§ 4. The opening of “new” fundamental rights

Chapter VII - The application of fundamental rights
§ 1. Interpretation and application of fundamental rights
§ 2. The concept of consolidation
§ 3. The legal application

Chapter VIII - Restriction and configuration of fundamental rights
§ 1. The concepts of restriction and configuration
§ 2. Types of restriction
2.1. Restrictions directly authorised by the Constitution
2.2. Restrictions indirectly authorised by the Constitution
§ 4. The principle of the “reservation of a restrictive law"
§ 3. The guarantee of the “essential content” as the limit of limits or ultimate barrier to consolidation

Chapter IX - The constitutionalisation of “new” fundamental rights
§ 1. Rights and claims
§ 2. Legal and institutional recognition
§ 3. The guarantee of public powers
§ 4. Realisation through the intervention of judicial authority

Chapter X - Delimitation of fundamental rights in a concrete situation
§ 1. The terms of the problem
§ 2. Counterweight of values and counterweight of goods in a concrete situation
§ 3. The inevitability of counterweight
§ 4. Ordering of goods in a concrete situation
4.1. Individual rights
4.2. Collective goods
Chapter XI - The “expansive force” of fundamental rights
§ 1. Definition of the concept
§ 2. The constitutionalisation of the private right
§ 3. Its expression in the State/citizens relation and in the citizens/citizens relation

Chapter XII - The future of fundamental rights
§ 1. Could there be a public-legal theory of fundamental rights?
§ 2. The irreplaceable action of the Courts

Main Bibliography

ALEXY, Robert, Theorie der Grundrechte, Frankfurt am Main, 1986 (there is a Spanish translation: “Teoria de los Derechos Fundamentales”, CEC, Madrid, 1993).

ANDRADE, J. C. Vieira de, Os Direitos Fundamentais na Consti-tuição de 1976, Coimbra, 1983.

BALDASSARRE, Antonio, Diritti della Personna e Valori Costituzionali, Turin, 1997.

BOBBIO, Norberto, L’ Età dei diritti, 1990-1992, Turin, 1992.

CABRILLAC/FRISON-ROCHE/REVET (dir.), Droits et libertés fon-damentaux, 6th ed., Paris: Dalloz, 2000.

CANOTILHO, J. J. Gomes, Direitos Fundamentais, Procedimento, Processo e Organização, Boletim da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra, 1990.
— Direito Constitucional e Teoria da Constituição, 4th ed., Coimbra, 2000.

DWORKIN, Ronald M., Taking Rights Seriously, 4th ed., London, 1984.
¾ Unenumerated Rights: Whether or How Roe Should Be Overruled, in: STONE/EPSTEIN/SUNSTEIN (eds.), "The Bill of Rights in the Modern State", Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992, pp. 381 ff.
— Freedom's Law. The Moral Reading of the American Constitution, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 72, 147 ff.
— Sovereign Virtue. The Theory and Practice of Equality, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000.

FERRAJOLI, Luigi, Diritti fondamentali, Bari, 2001.

HÄBERLE, Peter, Die Wesengehaltsgarantie des Art. 9 Abs 2 Grundgesetz (trad. it. "Le libertà fondamentali nello Stato costituzionale"), Rome, 1993.

ISENSEE/KIRCHOF (eds.), Handbuch des Staatsrechts der Bundes-republik Deutschland, V, 2nd ed., Heidelberga, 2000.

MIRANDA, Jorge, Manual de Direito Constitucional, IV, 3rd ed., Coimbra, 2000.
¾ Direitos do Homem. Principais textos internacionais, 2ª ed., Lisboa, 1989.

MODUGNO, Franco, I “nuovi diritti” nella giurisprudenza costitu-zionale, Turin, 1995.

QUEIROZ, Cristina M. M., Interpretação Constitucional e Poder Judicial. Sobre a epistemologia da construção constitucional, Coimbra, 2000.
¾ Relatório. Direitos Fundamentais, cyclostyled., Porto, 2000.

PÉREZ LUNO, Antonio E., Derechos Humanos, Estado de Derecho y Constitución, 3rd ed., Madrid, 1990.
¾ (coord.), Derechos Humanos y Constitucionalismo ante el Tercer Milenio, Madrid, 1996.

PERRY, Michael J., The Idea of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, 1998.

RAWLS, John, A Theory of Justice (Castilian transl. "Teoría de la Justicia"), México, Madrid, 1979.
— Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
— The Idea of Public Reason Revisited, in: J. RAWLS, "The Law of Peoples", Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999, pp. 131 ff.

SANDEL, Michael J., Democracy's Discontent. America in Search of a Public Philosophy, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.

STERN, Klaus, Das Staatsrecht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, III, 1 ("Allgemeine Lehren der Grundrechte"), Munich, 1988.

SEMINAR: Il principio di ragionevolezza nella giurisprudenza della Corte costituzionale. Riferimenti comparatistici. Proceedings of the Rome Seminar, 13-14 October 1992, Milan, 1994.

TRIBE, Laurence H., American Constitutional Law, 3rd ed., Mineola, New York: The Foundation Press, 2000, 2 vols.

WACHSMAN, Patrick, Libertés Publiques, 3rd ed., Paris: Dalloz, 2000.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Theoretical classes: Exposition of the contents of the discipline, use of case-studies
Practical classes: The students have to solve pratical exercises and discuss topics related to the Program

Evaluation Type

Eligibility for exams

- Continuous assessment
- The marks the student must get have to be equal or higher than 10, in a scale of [0,20] in one of the following hypotheses:
A)Written final examination;
b)Oral final examination (if the student obtained in a) a mark between 7 and 9.

Calculation formula of final grade

Are the marks obtained in the examinations referred in “Frequency Attaining” or by the Continuous assessment method

Examinations or Special Assignments

None

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

General Law and rules enforced in FDUP.

Classification improvement

Is obtained by doing a written or an oral examination