Portugal, like most countries in Europe, has a civil law legal system. Countries with civil law systems have extensive, frequently updated codes that make up their primary law. Important sources of Portuguese law include the Constitution, laws, legislative degrees, and regulations. Court decisions do not form binding precedent. 

Most laws and cases from Portugal will be in Portuguese. English translations of documents are sometimes available, but translations are provided solely for convenience. The official Portuguese versions have legal effect rather than any translated versions in other languages. 

The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic was adopted in 1976. The constitution was most recently amended in 2005.

All legislation appears in the Official Gazette (Diário da República Eletrónico - DRE). For information about the history of the gazette, please see the History of the Official Journal. This is a daily publication (Monday-Friday).

The judiciary consists of the following courts:

• Constitutional Court
• Supreme Court of Justice and lower judicial courts
• Supreme Administrative Court and lower administrative and tax courts
• Court of Audit (Court of Accounts)

Cases (in Portuguese) can be found through these resources:

Subject law collections provide access cases and legislation from Portugal and other countries pertaining to a specific subject area. Using a subject law collection is particularly helpful when you are comparing the laws of more than one country. 

For more suggestions on subject-specific collections of laws, please see GlobaLex's Foreign Law - Subject Law Collections on the Web research guide.