Lisbon, July 30, 2026 (Lusa) - The Higher Council of Administrative and Tax Courts (CSTAF) said on Thursday that the proposal put forward by a Nobel laureate in Economics, that Portuguese courts should rule on cases within 90 days, would necessitate the removal of certain rights.
A study by Nobel Laureate in Economics James A. Robinson and Professor Nuno Palma, commissioned by the CIP, Portuguese Business Confederation and the IDL, Amaro da Costa Institute and presented today, maintains that the gradual introduction of a 90-day deadline for courts to resolve disputes will act as a catalyst for the national economy.
For the CSTAF, which oversees the administrative and tax courts, where cases against public bodies are heard, the target is «an economic ideal constructed in the abstract, which ignores a fundamental fact: a legal proceeding is not merely the time taken for the judge to reach a decision», but rather «the sum of the statutory time limits for the parties to exercise their rights».
These include the rights «to be heard, to challenge court orders, to object to the rejection of evidence, to produce such evidence and to appeal», as enshrined in the Portuguese Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Since the «simple sum of the minimum procedural time limits» generally exceeds 90 days, «the target would only be achievable by abolishing procedural safeguards – something no state governed by the rule of law would accept».
«The empirical evidence is straightforward: no European democracy meets, or even comes close to meeting, such a deadline,» maintains the body, which is, by definition, headed by the President of the Supreme Administrative Court, Jorge Aragão Seia.
In the study «Unlocking Portugal's Growth – Structural Reforms and Challenges to the Implementation of Economic Policies», to which Lusa had access, James A. Robinson and Nuno Palma also propose that the President of Portugal receive weekly anonymised reports on each judge's productivity.
«The suggestion is constitutionally inadmissible,» counters the CSTAF, emphasising that this «clashes head-on with the principle of the separation of powers and with the guarantee of independence which protects, first and foremost, the citizens themselves».
According to the Superior Council, which cites data from the Directorate-General for Justice Policy, by the end of 2024, the time taken to resolve cases at first instance stood at 511 days for administrative proceedings, 711 days for tax cases and 412 days in the judicial courts – the latter overseen by the Superior Council of the Judiciary and in which criminal and civil cases are decided.
According to James A. Robinson and Nuno Palma, Portugal faces six «main obstacles» that present opportunities to enhance the country's economic growth: «A slow administrative and tax justice system, rent-seeking and limited competition in non-tradable sectors, limited meritocracy and performance management in public administration», inefficient use of European Union funds, a complex tax system and «incentives misaligned with productive investment», as well as «human capital strategies that undervalue excellence and discourage the dissemination of technology».
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