Portugal

1. Composition and structure

Number of members:

The President and 38 members.

Recruitment procedures and incompatibilities:

The members of the Supreme Administrative Court are appointed from the judges of the first instance administrative and fiscal, tribunals from the magistrates of  the department of public prosecutions and from jurists of acknowledged merit. The members of the Court elect their president for a renewable mandate of three years.
Total incompatibility with any other activity, public or private, with the exception of the function of teacher and researcher.

Internal organization:

Plenary section: President, vice-presidents, 7 senior judges of each section (in order to solve the contradictions between the sections and to settle the conflicts of jurisdiction between the administrative tribunals, the administration and the fiscal courts).
Section of administrative contentions: this section is qualified to take knowledge of the decisions of administrative courts and of appeals against some administrative acts.
Section of fiscal contentions: this section is to take knowledge of the decisions of fiscal tribunals and of appeals against some administrative decisions regarding fiscal and customs matter.

Publications:

The decisions of the Court are published in the Official Bulletin.

2. Jurisdictional attributions and advice

Court functions

Jurisdiction:

- Appeals against decisions in administrative, fiscal and customs matters;
- Declaration of illegality of regulation norms;
- Disputes concerning administrative contracts and civil liability;
- Enforcement of judgments.

Organization of the courts system:

The Court is entitled to decide:
- in first and last resort the actions against administrative acts of national scope and against regulation norms issued by regional authorities;
- in appeal the actions against the decisions of the district administrative tribunals (if the tribunal of second instance is not qualified to take knowledge of these decisions );
- in cassation the appeals against the decisions of the fiscal tribunals of first instance (if their object is a matter of law) and of the tribunal of second instance.

Powers of the judge:

Annulment, declaration of illegality, injunctions, enforcement of judgments and compensation.

Advisory functions

The Supreme Administrative court has no advisory functions.