Abstract
In Portugal, the Constitutional Court provoked a flurry of debates concerning its role during the peak of the anti-austerity-movements in Portugal, between 2010 and 2014. The accusations culminated in the term ‘juridical activism‘, meaning the 13 judges took an active political role in dealing with highly contested subjects such as cuts in the wages, and the pensions of the Portuguese public sector. In these debates the socio-economic background and the role of other actors such as social movements is often neglected. Portugal has a rich history of social movements, protests and strikes. During the revolution in 1974/75, the working classes could inscribe parts of their interests into the Portuguese Constitution. The Portuguese legal system therefore, was one of the most progressive worldwide. However, casualisation, privatization and the dismantling of the welfare state have undermined the achievements of the social movements during the revolution in the 1970s. Since 2011 Portugal entered severe economic turmoil, new movements against austerity measures emerged and challenge the bailout-program and the constitutional frame. The inter-linkage between a serious economic crisis, the attempted solutions, and the rising social movements contesting these events, culminated in a judicial crisis – a point of conjuncture for different antagonistic actors and their (class) interests – creating several deadlocks and opportunities for political and social change in divergent directions.
Portugal; judicial crisis; social and labor movements