OUR HISTORY

Legal studies have existed in Portugal dates since the foundation of the University during the reign of King Dinis. The precise date lies between 1288 and 1290. According to tradition (although this is controversial), the Studium Generale was established by a Royal Charter on the 1st March 1290. However, the decisive moment in the eyes of educated circles in Europe is generally taken to be the 9th August 1290, when confirmation came from Pope Nicholas IV in the form of a Papal Bull. The Bull De statu regni Portugaliae contained an explicit reference to the teaching of Canon Law and Roman Law. Graduates would have ubique, sine alia examinatione, regendi liberam potestatem, and would be thus qualified to teach in any part of the Christian world.

Following the transfer of the University from its initial seat in Lisbon to Coimbra in 1308, a ‘charter of privileges’ from the so-called Peasant King, dated 15th February 1309, established the post of Doctor in Decretis and Master in Decretalibus, and a Professorship in Laws. At that time, the University was organised according to subject or ‘Chairs’, rather than Faculties in the modern sense. As far as is known, the method adopted in the lessons of Law followed the Bolognese model. This was based upon an explanatory lecture branching out into textual analysis, and made use of three types of exercises, lectiones, repetitiones and disputationes.

Unusually, the Portuguese University continued to transfer back and forth between Lisbon and Coimbra until the 16th Century. From the outset, legal studies occupied a privileged position within the General Studies programme: it attracted the greatest number of students, and the tutors were much more highly paid than their colleagues of other subjects. This was because a degree in legal studies conferred great power and social prestige, and opened the doors to activities that were even more lucrative than medicine.

However, the teaching of Law in Portugal did little to diminish the attraction of the famous foreign universities. Medieval universalism, with its doctrine of Western unity (respublica christiana), encouraged the mobility of university teachers and students in this golden age of common law.

Kings João II and Manuel I tried, without much success, to valorise higher education. The latter granted statutes to the University, consisting essentially of a systematic reformulation of precepts that were already in force by the end of the 15th century. Three remunerated Chairs of Canons, and many more in Laws, were sanctioned. But the same monarch would later create a new Chair of Canons (known as Sext).

A document of 1431 refers already to the university degrees of bachelor, licentiate and doctor. The texts and methods adopted in teaching were the same as those which, under Italian inspiration everywhere, served as the basis for mediaeval Romanistic and canonical studies.

King João III placed his faith in the enrichment of the University teaching body by bringing over prestigious foreign scholars. Prominent names of this time included the canon law scholar Martín de Azpilcueta, whose fame and salary were unrivalled, and the civil law scholars, Fábio Arcas de Narni and Ascânio Escoro. Famous Portuguese scholars who had gained their degrees abroad were also attracted. This was the case of Manuel da Costa and Aires Pinhel, who had studied at Salamanca and had made their names as jurists and poets; Heitor Rodrigues, also an alumnus Salmanticensis, and the canonist Bartolomeu Filipe. This was the gleam of legal humanism that fleetingly rayed through the teaching of law.

After King Manuel I, despite some amendments and modification of the university legislation during the reigns of Kings João III, Sebastião and Filipe I, there were no significant alterations until the Filipino Statutes of 1598. These were reviewed and sanctioned by King Filipe II (1612) and ratified again by King João IV in 1653, and they remained in force until the Pombaline Reform. Thereafter, they became known as the 'Old Statutes', contrasting with the 'New Statutes' of 1772. It was during this time that Coimbra academic life was dignified by the presence of Francisco Suárez. ln Coimbra, he wrote his De Legibus, which was held to be the highest exponent of Catholic thought of that time, in the field of theological, philosophical, political and legal reflection, and which had been strongly influenced by the studies of two other Coimbra scholars, the Theologian Francisco Rodrigues, and Canonist Francisco Dias.

The 'Old Statutes' had divided the teaching of Law between the two existing faculties of Law, the Faculty of Canons, where the Corpus Iuris Canonici was taught, and the Faculty of Laws, which was dedicated to the Corpus Iuris Civilis. The Faculty of Canons comprised seven Chairs, which gave particular importance to the study of the Decretals. ln the Faculty of Laws, there were eight Chairs, reflecting exactly the systematization of the Justinian compilation by the Glossators. The teaching methods of both legal faculties also revealed the influence of the Bartolist School. Certain passages of the Corpus Iuris Civilis or the Corpus Iuris Canonici were read, analysed and commented upon, with much attention given to the opinions of the most respected scholars. This was undoubtedly a period that enshrined the 'principle of authority'.

The reforming spirit of the Enlightenment in the 18th Century encouraged the development of a new mentality, and this was largely achieved with the 1772 University Statutes. This remarkable legal document was the result of a process that had been launched by the Junta de Providência Literaria in 1770, a committee that had been charged with the task of investigating the causes of the calamitous decline of the University and indicate possible solutions.

The results of this investigation were published in the Historical Compendium of the Situation of the University of Coimbra (Compêndio Histórico do Estado da Universidade de Coimbra), which made use of criticisms and suggestions from the work of Verney.

The Pombaline legislation was based upon the assumption that a radical break with tradition was necessary in order to overcome the engrained prejudices of the old scholastic system. These Statutes were presented as a Masterplan, and, in order to prevent contagion from the old mentality, not one of the old scholars was reappointed. The division between the legal faculties was maintained, but the range of subjects offered was altered.

From 1772, the courses began with a series of introductory subjects which emphasised history and philosophy. According to the Statutes, Law could not be understood without a clear prior knowledge of 'Natural Law' and 'the Civil History of Nations and the Laws established by them', and these preliminary notions were considered essential for a true understanding of laws and their real meaning. This legislation also established a compulsory course in Portuguese Law for final-year students of both faculties (a daringly progressive move at the time), and sharply criticised the shameful fact that the subject had been shrouded in silence until then.

Nevertheless, the core courses in Laws and Canons remained closely connected with the Corpus Iuris Civilis and the Corpus Iuris Canonici respectively, although the handling of these texts was significantly different from the traditional approach.

The 18^th Century reforms implemented a strict attendance and examination regime for students, and unusually, regulated closely the conduct of lecturers in lessons. The old analytical teaching method was flatly overturned, surviving only in two final-year subjects so that the students could wrangle over the interpretation of norms. In its place, there appeared a new method taken from the German system, which was called the 'synthetic demonstrative compendium' method. The teacher should provide an overview of the subject by reducing the material to an ordered and systematic doctrinal whole, and there would be a gradual increase in complexity at the expense of presentational development. This method was supported in the text-books, which had to be officially approved. Mello Freire was one of the most notable writers of text-books at this time.

However, the revolution introduced into the teaching of Law by the Pombaline reforms also involved the imposition of a particular doctrinal perspective in certain subjects. The inexorable Statutes not only detailed the syllabus of the different disciplines, they also controlled the school of jurisprudence considered preferable. the method of the Bartolist School was banned for anything connected with Roman and Canon Law, and at one time, the reputation of the Cujacian Scool was overvalued as far as methodology was concerned. With regards to the application of Roman Law as subsidiary, the adoption of the current of Usus Modernus Pandectarum was decreed. Such was the confidence in the results of the reforms that, in 1775, it was determined that the holders of Bachelor's, Licentiate or Doctorate degrees from the Faculties of Laws and Canons would be qualified to occupy any position in the area of Letters without any further examination.

The subject of Legal Studies that had been inherited from the 1772 Statutes underwent some alterations, with slight improvements, at the beginning of the 19^th Century. However, these changes had scarcely been implemented when the country was plunged into a period of great instability, resulting in the suspension of higher education at one point.

The triumph of Liberalism brought a considerable reform to the legal courses, namely the foundation of the modem Faculty of Law, created from an amalgam of the two traditional faculties of Laws and Canons. The first step towards this unification had been taken by the Pombaline Statutes, when the core of common subjects between the two courses was established (naturally, the consequences of this move were not anticipated at that time). Within the context of the liberal política] climate, the effect was to devalue the teaching of Canon and Church Law.

The notion of the amalgamation of the Faculties of Laws and Canons, first aired in 1833, was put off many times before it was finally consummated during the September Dictatorship of Passos Manuel, by the Decree of 5^th December 1836. The study of Portuguese Law then became the almost exclusive focus of the final three years, expanding into Public Law, Civil Law (two courses), Commercial Law and Criminal Law. Political Economics opened at the Faculty of Law, and Legal Medicine became compulsory for fifth-year students. Before the end of the 19th century, chairs were also established in Administrative Law, Principles of Administration and Finance.

Special mention needs to be made of the fact that it was the Faculty of Law in Coimbra that generated the Portuguese Kantian-Krausist movement, opening up a new period of philosophical and legal reflection in Portugal. The current of thought, which originated in the teaching of Vicente Ferrer Neto Paiva (1843) and was developed and broadened by Dias Ferreira, Levy Maria Jordão and Costa Lobo, eventually carne to be adopted by the Viscount of Seabra in the Civil Code of 1867, an important landmark for the Coimbra School.

At the tum of the century, the University of Coimbra was considering a large-scale overhaul of its teaching. The Faculty of Law, not insensitive to the need for change, set up a committee consisting of three of its professors (Dias da Silva, Guilherme Moreira and Marnoco e Sousa), which was charged with preparing a report on the teaching of law. The result formed the basis of the so-called ‘1901 Reform’. For some time, positivist and sociological concepts had been gradually filtering into various subjects, and the 1901 reform merely sanctioned this perspective.

It began by instituting the teaching of general sociology, together with the philosophy of law in a single subject. The sociological analysis or crime was also introduced into the subject of Criminal Law. The history of law, for its part, was exalted as a vast laboratory for the observation and comparison of social faces. The subjects of International Law, Colonial Administration and Extra-judicial Practice were also instituted.

The 1901 reform immediately became the target of fierce criticism. The Faculty of Law quickly realised the need to make modifications, and Professors Marnoco e Sousa, José Alberto dos Reis, Guilherme Moreira, Machado Vilela and Ávila Lima studied this question. Minor alterations were made, and no time was lost in the presentation of a final reform project, in which Machado Vilela played an important part.

In the meantime, the Revolution of 25th April 1974 rook place. ln an attempt to keep up with the new social and political context and the drive for modernization, the Faculty of Law in Coimbra instigated various reforms in order to move towards pedagogic and academic autonomy.

Although the possibility of returning to the monolithic study programme of 1945 was now out of the question (although it was still in force for the final years of the course), improvements to the 1972 Reform seemed viable. Based upon a 'Report of the Restructuring Committee on the alterations to be introduced in 1975', the decision was taken to take measures to make the curriculum more flexible.

Thus, the course was divided into two cycles, or stages. The ‘basic cycle’ was designed to contextualise the practice of law within an economic, social, political, ideological and historical perspective, and offer all subjects deemed to be essential for a jurist, whatever his specialization. The ‘complementary cycle’ was to provide a more in-depth exploration of an area chosen by the student. This structure has remained until the present day, with the exception of an alteration introduced in 1979/80 which reduced the complementary cycle from two years (the 4th and 5th years) to one (5th year). The present study plan has been in operation since the academic year 1988/89, and all subjects are studied on annual basis (Ordinance nº 914/89 of 17^th October).

The Faculty of Law in Coimbra has always been actively involved in the legal and cultural life of the country.

Recent generations of lecturers have honoured the age and prestige of the multicentennial School, and many of them have also achieved international renown.

Although it has never lost the constructivist characteristic which has been its distinguishing feature, the Faculty of Law at Coimbra has participated in all the major methodological currents (often irreverently), ranging from the various natural laws and exegetic positivism, to anti-metaphysical sociologism (Duguit), materialist sociologism (Jèze), conceptualism, pure theory of law, jurisprudence of interest, Neo-Hegelianism, concrete ordinalism, existentialism, functionalism, institutionalism, Marxism, phenomenology, various neo-positivisms, argumentation theory, Heideggerianism, structuralism, etc.

Lecturers of the Coimbra Faculty of Law have also played a part in the most significant legislative reforms that have taken place in Portugal in recent years, and they stand alongside the illustrious jurists who have most deeply marked chis century. The Code of Civil Procedure (J. Alberto dos Reis), Civil Code (Vaz Serra, Pires de Lima and Antunes Varela), fiscal legislation (Teixeira Ribeiro), Criminal Code (Eduardo Correia), commercial legislation (Ferrer Correia) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Figueiredo Dias) are the most striking examples of this consistent dialogue between the institution and society.

Despite the constraints imposed by the political regime in force between 28th May 1926 and 25th April 1974, the Faculty of Law in Coimbra was perhaps the only Portuguese University College to recruit its teaching staff according to academic rather than political criteria; indeed, no one was rejected for their political ideas or for having acted against the regime of the Estado Novo.

Moreover, students from the the Faculty of Law have, throughout the generations, been in the forefront of the political, ideological and cultural movements that have marked the history of Portugal and bonded the collective consciousness of the people.

Naturally they have not always taken the same side. Some have supported Miguelist Absolutism, Portuguese integralism, corporatism, trade unionism, celebrated the centenary of F. Pessoa, and defended the Empire against the right to self-government of colonies. Others have supported liberalism, raised the 'Coimbra Question', celebrated the centenary of Camões, held the academic strike of 1907, been involved in the Republican revolution, enlivened the preswncw and neo-realism movements, committed themselves to the student movements that challenged Salazarism, contested the colonial war and participated in the 'Carnation Revolution'.

Today the faculty of Law at Coimbra continues to be a pluralistic institution, a seat of culture and freedom. There, free citizens may undertake research, receive teaching, and study, and the practice of 'freedom to learn and teach’ guaranteed by the Constitution to everybody.