Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

We meet yet again, in this Noble Hall, to celebrate the Opening of the Judicial Year.

Instituted several years ago, and consecrated by law, this ceremony must not become a senseless ritual.

More than a solemn act addressed to the internal organization of the judicial system, this meeting has to be guided towards the Country, towards the People, in whose name Justice is administered.

It is to the citizens – the receivers of the courts’ decisions – that the protagonists of our Justice must speak out.

It is thus of great import that this Ceremony of the Opening of the Judicial year is a real expression of the opening of Justice to the community of citizens, to all the affairs of the Public.

Citizens, companies and institutions have the right to know how Justice is administered in their Country.

Justice is a nuclear State activity and, due to its intrinsic nature, must be exercised with discretion and be guided by a deep sense of responsibility and containment. As such, only very rarely may those who have the highest level of responsibility for the judicial system have the opportunity to render accounts to the people and, jointly, serenely and high minded, stride towards a deep reflection concerning Justice in our Country.

The Opening of the Judicial Year is a privileged moment for Justice to speak out to the Portuguese, analysing its issues and expressing its concerns, but equally, and constructively, proposing solutions and pointing out the pathways.

In this year of 2013, a reinforced need arises to act with drive, with a sense of State, with reflection and, above all, considering the national interest and that of the citizens to whom we must all, without exception, be accountable.

Justice must be, in itself, an element of integration and a factor of cohesion in the midst of Portuguese society, through a timely settlement of lawsuits and a permanent assertion of democratic authority in the defence of citizens’ rights.

Nobody has the right to stand on the side of the collective challenges that the Country is facing and which call upon the responsible actions of all the Portuguese. And, amongst these, stand out, due to their dignified and demanding mission, those whose duties are the day-to-day dispensing of Justice.

The judicial system is the grantor of the State’s authority, in the sense that it is the latter’s duty to ensure the effective exercise of all the citizens’ rights.

Contrary to what some suppose or presume to be true, democratic authority and civic freedom are not incompatible. These are convergent values in a consolidated democracy, such as that we have built and where we are proud to live. It is the judicial power that must ultimately ensure convergence between authority and freedom.

It is thus imperative that we have a clear view of the current situation in our Country, of the extraordinary size of the effort we must carry out and of the mission to which each one is duty bound.

The time we are living in is a time for hard work and sacrifice, but it must be a time of justice and equity. The greater the size of the demanded sacrifice, the greater has to be the concern in the application of justice in its sharing.

From respect for the principles of justice and equity depends the preservation of a supreme value, to which I have referred on several occasions. And this is national cohesion, the cohesion amongst the Portuguese. While contributing towards the guarantee of social cohesion and intergenerational cohesion, Justice is a determining factor for stability and social peace.

On another hand, the judicial system must provide an active contribution in order that Portugal overcomes its current difficulties. As I had the occasion to underline recently, to invert the negative trend in national production and in employment is the great challenge we must face in 2013. This has to be our first priority.

In the current environment, Justice must more than ever excel in efficiency and in the swiftness in the settlement of lawsuits with economic incidence. As such, the judicial system will render a vital contribution towards the improvement of a climate of confidence and towards the growth of our economy.
Recent studies carried out by independent bodies, confirm that slowness in the courts is considered, by both national and foreign economic agents, as one of the foremost hurdles to company’s’ activities.

There is a general understanding – and I want to underline this point – that our magistrates are highly competent professionals and the judicial decisions, as a rule, are well founded and just.

However, at the same time, there is a very common conviction that there are hindrances and inefficiencies in several systemic features inherent to the functioning of Portuguese Justice.

The legislation produced must be distinguished by its quality and stability, since only thus may a coherent jurisprudence be developed that will be an element of juridical safety and a factor of confidence in the certitude of the Law.

For economic agents and particularly for national and foreign investors, that require planning their decisions and strategies, confidence in juridical organization, especially in the stability of the juridical-fiscal system, is a determining element.

An entrepreneur will not take a decision on an investment of millions of euros if he considers that the fiscal regime with which he can count on in the future is unpredictable.

Apart from this, considering the international mobility of production factors, a country for which the capture of investment is decisive for its economic growth and creation of employment cannot allow itself the ignore its fiscal competitiveness as compared to its contenders.

Those same independent studies signal corruption, parallel economy and fiscal fraud as realities that scare away investment and corrode the bases of economic growth. They must be firmly combated, preventively to start with, in order to avoid the arising of such phenomena and to favour their early detection.

As I referred above, judicial swiftness is considered by economic agents as one of the main conditioning factors in the development of their activities. Whether corresponding or not to the reality of judicial life, it happens that this perception exists and this could mean a serious hurdle in the capturing of investment.

It happens that investment, allow me to emphasize this, showed a cumulative 36 per cent decrease in the Portuguese economy, between 2009 and 2012, and it is urgent that we recover this.

The recently created courts covering issues of competition, regulation, supervision and intellectual property are essential to a specialized Justice with direct incidence in the economic field. It is important that these courts can have available the human and material means adequate to ensure a swift performance in deciding the issues that justified their creation.

The judicial system will also contribute to the overcoming by Portugal of the economic and financial difficulties it is going through if the procedural legislation, namely in the civil procedural field, contains legislative solutions that guarantee, without failure of fundamental principles, simple and expedite means for the obtaining of judicial decisions within reasonable delays.

Without placing in question the right to the compulsory collection of credits we have, as a community, to ask ourselves whether it is legitimate, in some business areas, to systematically place the onus of such collections on the courts.

If many of the issues of executive action could be settled a stage above this, promoting the simplifying of the inherent substantive regime of some duties, it could avoid the courts being flooded by infinity of lawsuits, some of which with very small values, that often persist, almost without practical use.

Ladies and gentlemen,
The need is generally accepted for changes in the Justice system that answer the new challenges required by the economic and social situation, implying the adoption of innovative legislative solutions, the creation of institutions specialized in the settling of disputes, as well as the modernization of juridical structures and the specialized training of judiciary agents. In this context, it is worth while recording the singular effort that the Government has been carrying out to answer the demands for changes in the field of Justice.

As already recognized, this is a field where the projected reforms or those under way must be carried out by obtaining party political consensus and the hearing of the main judiciary agents, it equally being vital to ensure a permanent follow up of the results obtained.

The active involvement of the officers of the Law and inter-party dialogue are of great relevance in order to ensure the stability required for the reforms to be materialized and assessed within a minimally reasonable delay.

Reforming Justice is not just changing what we believe negative. Reforming Justice is also finding out what is in order, stabilizing the system as a whole and quickening procedure.

It is in effect important to remain conscious that there are positive components in our Justice system, components that must be lauded, preserved and serve as examples.

In several fields, especially in laws concerning economic and taxation areas, action must be taken with great care, adopting clear and coherent legislative solutions, considering that these are fields in which juridical certitude and prescience are determining factors in the decisions of entrepreneurs and investors.

Laws, however impeccable they may be, depend upon instruments that ensure their materialization. If not, such laws become an additional factor of inefficiency, or even the cause of a breakdown of the system.

Independently from the efficiency gains that may be obtained by the rationalization of resources employed in the area of Justice, the legislator, when introducing changes in juridical legislation, should consider up to what measure there are sufficient human and technical means for these to be materialized.

We should, in short, guarantee the quality and reliability of the laws, either from the technical and juridical point of view, or that of the political consensus that must support them, or even, from the conditions of their faithful application, considering the already existing structure of the judicial mechanism and of the Public Administration in general.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the current crisis situation, all officers of the law will probably be called upon to battle with a greater volume of procedures. I want, on this occasion, to express my appreciation and emphasize how essential it is that magistrates, attorneys, solicitors and law officers witness the judiciary means duly strengthened for a more than ever demanding exercise of their duties.

I am certain that a sense of responsibility will be the ruling factor, either from political leaders or from judiciary officers.

I believe the Country’s current situation generates, in some way, a stimulus effect, alerting all those responsible for Portuguese Justice for the need of a culture of responsibility, in which prevail the principles of independence, exemption and the defence of citizens’ rights.

We live in times when demands are made from the whole of the judicial power for an additional drive, within the legal framework of democracy, to contribute towards the resolution of economic issues and to strengthen social cohesion and justice.

Portugal is proud to be, for almost 40 years a law abiding democratic State.

In order that the Rule of Law becomes, for the common citizen, a palpable reality, it is crucial that institutions function properly and that each one complies with his duty.

I am certain, absolutely certain, that the Portuguese magistracy and the remaining judicial officers will know how to be at the height of their responsibilities.

Thank you very much.