Learning Results
The curricular unit aims at developing an advanced reflection on the matter of the fundamental
rights. Beginning with the historical and philosophical conceptions that founded the birth of the citizens’
individual rights, the students should understand the emergency of the several generations of fundamental
rights and project that knowledge into the Portuguese Constitutional History and, above all, into the 1976
Constitution and the decisions of the Constitutional Court. Considering also the openness of our Basic
Law, which receives the fundamental rights established by international and European sources, the
students should analyze the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human
Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Program
Part I – The historical and philosophical dimensions of fundamental rights
Part II – The fundamental rights on the Portuguese Constitution
1. The national constitutionalism and the fundamental rights
2. The 1976 Constitution
a. The summa division between rights, liberties and guarantees and economic, social and cultural rights:
context and substantial characterization
b. General legal regime of fundamental rights
c. Specific legal regime of rights, liberties and guarantees
d. Legal regime of social rights
Part III – The international openness
1. International law; specially, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and European Convention on Human
Rights
2. European law: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
Internship(s)
NAO
Bibliography
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CANOTILHO, José Joaquim Gomes/MOREIRA, Vital, Constituição da República Portuguesa Anotada, vol. I,
Coimbra, 2004.
DEMURO, Gianmario (ed.), Human Rights in Europe, Durham, 2010.
MIRANDA, Jorge, Manual de Direito Constitucional, tomo IV, Coimbra, 2012.
MIRANDA, Jorge/MEDEIROS, Rui, Constituição Portuguesa Anotada, tomo I, Coimbra, 2010.
NOVAIS, Jorge Reis, Direitos Fundamentais e Justiça Constitucional em Estado de Direito Democrático,
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