Judiciary of Portugal

The Judiciary of Portugal is a system of courts that together constitute one of the four organs of Sovereignty as defined by the Portuguese Constitution. The courts are independent from the other three Portuguese organs of Sovereignty (President of the Republic, Government and Assembly of the Republic).

The Portuguese courts are divided by four independent orders, each of which corresponds to the separate Constitutional, Judicial, Administrative and Auditors jurisdictions.

The public prosecution and the representation of the State before the courts is assured by the Public Ministry, an independent body of magistrates.

The Ministry of Justice is the Government department responsible for the administration of the Judiciary system.

The Portuguese judiciary system is not unitary, but it is instead divided in four independent categories or orders of courts: Constitutional, Judicial, Administrative and Auditors. Each order contains their own structure of courts. The Constitutional and Auditors orders include a single court each one, while the other two orders include a plurality of hierarchical organized courts. Until 2003, a fifth order of courts existed, this being the Military Jurisdiction.

An higher court of appeal exists to appreciate and judge the conflicts of jurisdiction between the Judicial and Administrative orders of courts, this being the Conflicts Court (Portuguese: Tribunal de Conflitos). The Conflicts Court is headed by the president of the Supreme Administrative Court, including also other three judges of this court and three judges of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional) is the sole court in the Constitutional jurisdiction. It is a special court, mainly tasked with reviewing the constitutionality of newly approved laws, but it also has important powers related to the President of the Republic, the political parties and referenda. The judges of the Constitutional Court are independent the other branches of government, such as the executive or the legislature, and cannot be impeached. The court is installed in the Ratton Palace in Lisbon.

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