Carlos Filipe Fernandes de Andrade Costa

Principle of party disposition; principle of self-responsibility of the parties; subject-matter of the dispute; principle of cooperation; duty of case management; substantive case management.

After more than a decade of the entry into force of the 2013 Portuguese Civil Procedure Code, we propose to critically assess whether – and, if so, to what extent, taking into account the (broadly understood) inquisitorial principle and the principle of officiality – Portuguese civil procedure is still shaped by the principle of self-responsibility of the parties, as a corollary of the principle of party disposition, in its dimension of the principle of controversy. Likewise, we propose to assess whether – and if so, to what extent, taking into account the principles of request and impartiality of the judge – Portuguese civil procedure should incorporate a power/duty of substantive case management, similar to § 139 of the German ZPO, thereby compressing the principle of party disposition in its proper sense, specifically with regard to the parties' freedom to define the subject-matter of the dispute, giving priority to the principles of effective judicial protection and substantive equality between claimant and defendant, as suggested by leading national doctrine and recent national and CJEU case law, particularly in the field of consumer law.

María del Pilar Mesa Torres

Sharenting; minors; personality rights; privacy; image rights; parental responsibility; child protection.

The phenomenon of sharenting constitutes an emerging practice that raises significant legal challenges concerning the protection of minors’ personality rights. The dissemination by parents of images, videos, or personal data of their children on social media platforms generates a conflict between freedom of expression and the exercise of parental responsibility, vis-à-vis the child’s rights to privacy, honour, and personal image. The growing digital exposure of children highlights the need for a coherent normative response capable of reconciling these interests within the framework of the best interests of the child. This study addresses the issue from a comparative perspective between the legal systems of Spain and Portugal, given their cultural and juridical affinity.

Fernando Silva Pereira

Electronic evidence; electronic document; digital signature; probative value.

Decree-Law No. 12/2021, of 9 February, ensures the implementation in Portuguese law of Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. This decree repealed Decree-Law No. 290-D/99 of 2 August, which approved the legal regime for electronic documents and digital signatures (RJDEAD). Article 3(5) to (10) regulates the probative value of electronic documents. This matter is intrinsically related to the type of (digital) signature on the document. Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 of 23 July 2014 distinguishes between three types of electronic signature: simple electronic signature, advanced electronic signature, and digital electronic signature.

Nuno Abranches Pinto

Conflict of interest; employment contract; representation; voluntary representation; dealing with oneself; duty of loyalty.

The objective of the analysis is to examine the relevance of the concept of conflict of interest in the context of labor law. Initially, we seek to identify a concept of conflict of interest by examining the relevant legal references, particularly in the administrative, civil, corporate, and associative domains. After isolating the concept, the aim is to verify its relevance in the context of the employment contract, assuming that, despite the lack of explicit legal references, the concept may also be relevant in this context for the purposes of protecting the interests of the employer and their company. The assessment is made with reference to the possibility of representation of the employer by the employee (problematizing the forms of representation) and the obligation incumbent on the employee to remain loyal to the employer.

Ronaldo Duarte Rodrigues Silva / José de Campos Amorim

State aid; EU Tax Harmonisation; Transfer Pricing; Arm’s Length Principle; Aggressive Tax Planning; BEFIT Directive.

This article analyses the Amazon case to assess the European Union’s approach to combating aggressive tax planning by multinational enterprises. It examines the interaction between EU State aid law, transfer pricing rules, and the arm’s length principle, highlighting tensions between national tax sovereignty and competition enforcement within the internal market. the analysis focuses on the European Commission’s use of State aid control to challenge advance pricing agreements and on the judicial responses of the General Court and the Court of Justice, which clarified the limits of relying on OECD-based methodologies absent EU tax harmonisation. The Amazon judgements reveal the shortcomings of the current framework.

Alexandra S. A. Sousa

Platform economy; digital platform work; microtasking; labour protection; Directive (EU) 2024/2831; Article 12-A of the Portuguese Labour Code.

The microtasking model, defined by the fragmentation of projects into simple and autonomous tasks that take no more than a few minutes to complete, represents an extreme form of outsourcing. Work ceases to be organized around stable jobs and defined functions, becoming instead dispersed into microtasks assigned through digital platforms to a globally scattered and highly heterogeneous crowd of anonymous workers. Operating within an ultra-flexible labour market, these workers perform essential yet invisible tasks, without clear legal ties and deprived of effective legal and social protection.

Tiago Azevedo Ramalho

Civil Law; Property rights; Comparative Law.

A Review of Jan Felix Hoffmann, Sachbegriff und Eigentumsordnung, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2025