José Engrácia Antunes

Money; Cash; E-Money; E-Cash; Payment; Monetary Obligations.

The present paper aims at analyzing electronic money, or e-money, both as an economic and a legal phenomenon. From an economic perspective, electronic money is a new type of money, alternative to the traditional physical money (notes and coins) and bank money (transfers between bank accounts). In spite of its youth, e-money has already become a popular instrument of payment, especially in the area of micropayment, retail market and ecommerce (e.g., “Pay Pal”, “Worldpay”, “Revolut”, “Alipay”, “E-Gold”, “Mondex”, “Visa Cash”, “Google Wallets”, “Digicash”, etc.).

Patrícia Alexandra Paiva Duarte

Payment initiation services; third party providers; open banking; data protection; consent; unauthorized payment transactions; strong authentication.

Traditional payment services have been replaced by the use of mobile devices and by new solutions developed by FinTechs that spread the idea of safer and faster payments among consumers. Along with these innovations, the new Portuguese payment services act has extended its scope to include new activities regarding payment services, namely payment initiation services, on which we will focus our attention.

Martim Farinha

Digital Content; Digital Service; Modifications; Updates; Conformity.

In 2019, the EU approved a package of legislation aimed at modernizing many aspects of consumer law, to face the challenges of the Digital Single Market. Among them, the Directive (EU) 2019/770 takes the task of creating a legal framework to ensure the protection of consumers in contracts on the supply of digital services and content – addressing conformity requirements, the remedies available to consumers and the subject of modifications made on those services and content by the trader. The provisions on the latter will be scrutinized and developed, with the goal of fully comprehending the legal framework on modifications and attempting to answer the questions surrounding it.

Simone Menezes Gantois

Vesting Contract; Innovation; Startups; Trading company; Stock-option; Corporate law.

The objective of this article is the comprehension of the innovation environment, its behavior and its objectives. Therefore, to recognize it as way to the construction of legal relationships capable of being used by the contractual models, including the Vesting Contract. Thus, from the perspective of Innovation, to know the origin of the institute, define and highlight an overview of this agreement in Brazil, seeking to demonstrate its use for this purpose within this environment. In addition, we aim in this paper to present the reader with the multiplicity of clauses that can be inserted in this agreement, allowing its customization in order to fulfill the variety of concrete situations which should be presented.

Marisa Ramos Gomes / José de Campos Amorim

Treaty Shopping; Schemes; Evasion; Abusive Tax Planning; General Anti-abuse Clause.

The fight against tax evasion and avoidance has been a constant concern for States, which have adopted a set of measures to prevent unjustified tax reductions, situations of double non-taxation between States or even illegal or abusive tax planning operations. The abusive use of double taxation treaties - treaty shopping - based on loopholes in the law, has been recurrent in competitive trade relations and has contravened domestic laws and international recommendations.

Martín González-Orús Charro

Insolvency; contract; resolution.

On September 1, 2020, the new Consolidated Text of the Bankruptcy Law entered into force. This rule has introduced some new features in the regime applicable to contracts in bankruptcy proceedings. The objective of this work is to analyze the legal regulation of this matter, combining it with the inclusion of recent jurisprudence and to incorporate some comparison with the Portuguese insolvency legislation.

Jorge Manuel Leitão Leal

AECOP; Set-off; Counterclaim; Case management; Formal adequacy.

The Portuguese Code of Civil Procedure 2013 provides, in Article 266(2)(c), a rule which constitutes a novelty in relation to the previous Code of Civil Procedure, about the way set-off (compensação) must be implemented in court. Differently from the previous CPC, this rule extends the scope of the counterclaim procedure (reconvenção) to the invocation of counter-credit, even if only as legal defense (exceção), aiming mere reduction or extinction of the plaintiff´s claim.

Inês Camarinha Lopes

Drones; I&D; privacy; personal data protection; 1/2005 Act, from the 10th of January; GDPR.

Drones are an emerging technology. Its growth has taken place in a wide range of areas and brought significant economic reflexes. Some of the economic benefits of this innovation are the creation of new jobs and the investment in I&D on different drones’ related areas. Besides these benefits, the [inflated] introduction of drones into the daily lives of citizens can be threatening to their rights. In particular, the rights to privacy and private life, image, word and the protection of personal data, as well as the freedoms of movement and expression.

Deolinda Meira / Tiago Pimenta Fernandes

Collaborative work platform; subordinate work provider; independent work provider; worker protection; labour platform cooperative.

This paper reflects on the disruptions that collaborative labour platforms introduce in the context of work relationships. The work providers are engaged as independent contractors and considered freelancers, allowing companies' owners of digital platforms to exonerate themselves from their responsibilities as employers. Labour platforms radicalise the practice of outsourcing. This phenomenon raises the relevant question of whether these providers should be considered dependent and subordinate workers or mere autonomous providers of the digital platform, in which case labour rules shall not apply, therefore leaving the provider less protected.

Fernando Silva Pereira / Tiago Azevedo Ramalho

Res judicata; change of circumstances; modification; temporal limits of res judicata; preclusion; civil procedure.

The object of this article is the modification, by alteration of the factual circumstances, of civil court decisions which constitute material res judicata (a possibility which is generically foreseen in article 619, no. 2 of the CPC). Starting from the analysis of this rule, we will try to identify which sentences may be, under the terms of the same, modified (object of the modification), and which are the grounds for the modification - which raises the problem of the relationship between the "new facts" and the object of the sentence being modified.

Vítor Borba Shnaiderman

Normative power of the facts; Constitutionalization of the Law; Rights of personality; Digital Era.

Considering the relation of dependence between law and reality, the legal sphere was hugely modified by recent social transformations, such as science innovations and the universalization of social media. Even in the civil law, considered to be a conservative field, insensitive to legislative trends, several transformations can be observed, specially in the direction of limiting the private autonomy, not only due to the legislator’s labor, but also because of the interpreters’ activity.

Maria Miguel Oliveira da Silva

Textile sector; forced labour; child exploitation; the right to information; buycotting and boycotting; sustainability.

This article aims to make an analysis of the intersection between consumer law and human rights in the textile sector. By exposing the phenomenon of global labour exploitation in the clothing and footwear sector, it simultaneously seeks to understand whether the consumer has the right to be informed about the conditions under which the good he purchases is produced. Considering the current legislative background, specifically in consumer law, article 8 of the Portuguese Consumer Protection Act and the unfair commercial practices legal regime are analysed.

David López Jiménez

Law; regulation; responsibility; robots; technology. 

Book review of Rogel Vide, Carlos (Coord.): Los Robots y el Derecho, Editorial Reus, Madrid, 2018, 121 pp. (ISBN 9788429020878)