Constitutional Court of Portugal

2 ARTICLE 1 (Portuguese Republic) Portugal is a sovereign Republic, based on the dignity of the human person and the will of the people and committed to building a free, just and solidary society. The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic The Constitution is the supreme or “fundamental” law – the law that legitimates and organises political power and guarantees citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms. The current Constitution of the Portuguese Republic was passed by a Constituent Assembly on 2 April 1976. The Constitution gives the Assembly of the Republic (the Portuguese Parliament) powers to revise the Constitution itself, subject to certain material and temporal limits. The 1976 Constitution of the Portuguese Republic has been the object of seven such revisions (in 1982, 1989, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2005). Some of them were quite small, but others were more extensive. THE CONSTITUTION CONTAINS 296 ARTICLES, WHICH ARE DIVIDED INTO THE FOLLOWING PARTS: – Fundamental Principles – PART I Fundamental Rights and Duties – PART II Organisation of the Economy – PART III Organisation of Political Power – PART IV Guaranteeing and Revision of the Constitution Photograph of the front cover of a Constitution