Publicising the Court’s decisions
The Court’s sessions are not held in public, except when decisions are read and in the exceptional cases involving the exercise of the responsibilities laid down by Articles 9f and 10 of the LTC.
The Court’s decisions are notified to the parties in writing and are posted in the atrium of the building as soon as the session in question ends. They are also given to the press and to
any interested party who asks for them. Decisions that declare the unconstitutionality or illegality of a legal rule are registered in a special book, and a copy, which must be authenticated by the secretary, is filed in the Court archive (Article 81 of the LTC).
In addition, the most important of the Constitutional Court’s decisions are published in the Diário da República. The Constitution requires any decision which possesses generally binding force to be published in this way [Article 119(1)g].
Amongst other things, all decisions that declare the unconstitutionality or illegality of any legal rule or the existence of any unconstitutionality by omission, or that assess the constitutionality and legality of draft referenda, must be published in Series I of the Diário da República (Article 33 of Law no. 15-A/98 of 3 April 1998).
The other decisions are published in Series II, except those that are merely interlocutory or simply repetitive of other, earlier ones, when publication is not necessary [Article 3(2) of the LTC]. The Court’s decisions on political parties’ annual accounts are also published in Series II [Article 13(3) of Law no. 56/98 of 18 August 1998].
Constitutional Court decisions on the registration of political parties and their articles of association must also be published in the Diário da República [Article 16(1) of Organizational Law no. 2/2003 of 22 August 2003].
The Court also organizes and publishes on a quarterly basis a collection of those of its decisions that are of academic interest, more than one hundred volumes of which have already appeared under the title Acórdãos do Tribunal Constitucional.
The Court also publicizes its jurisprudence on its website (www.tribunalconstitucional.pt), and those of its decisions that have transited in rem judicatam can be consulted at the Court’s Seat.