Law of Portugal
The Law of Portugal is part of the family of what in English-speaking countries are sometimes called the "civil law" legal systems, referring to legal systems that developed at least in conversation or close ties with systems influenced by the ius commune medieval European tradition of Roman law. As such, it has many common features with the legal systems found in most of the countries in Continental Europe. Along its history, the law practiced in Portugal started to be based in the customary law of the indigenous peoples that initially occupied the region, that was later influenced by the Roman and Visigothic laws. From the 13th until the 18th centuries, the main influence was the Justinian and Canon laws. In the 18th century, the main influence started to be the natural law. In the 19th century, the French civil law was the main influence in the Law of Portugal. However, since the early 20th century, the major influence has been the German civil law. This growing of the Germanistic influence was mainly driven by works on civil law developed by legal theorists of the University of Coimbra under the leadership of professor Guilherme Alves Moreira, who published his decisive Instituições de Direito Civil from 1906 to 1916. European Union law is now a major driving force in many respects, such as corporate law, administrative law and civil procedure. The Law of Portugal is the basis or, at least, influences more or less sharply the legal systems of the several countries of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and of some other territories that were once part of the Portuguese Empire. Therefore, these legal systems share many common features which, occasionally, makes them to be considered as a separate branch in the scope of the wider family of civil law legal systems. The main Portuguese laws include the Constitution, the Civil Code, the Penal Code, the Labor Code and the Commercial Societies Code. The Commercial Code and the Administrative Code used to have a high importance in the past, but are now largely obsolete and partially replaced by new legislation.
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