STATE PENSION FUND | REQUISITE OF PORTUGUESE NATIONALITY | FORMER OVERSEAS ADMINISTRATION | PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY

 

Constitutional Court, judgment no. 354/97, 30.04.1997

 

JURISDICTION: Constitutional

CASE: 678/96

SUBJECT: Constitutional appeal

RAPPORTEUR: Messias Bento

RULING: Rejects the appeal, finding that the absence of a requisite of Portuguese nationality for employees and agents from former overseas provinces to be entitled to retirement benefits from the State Pension Fund is not unconstitutional.

DOMESTIC LAW:

Portuguese Constitution [Articles 8(2), 13, 15(2), 281]

Law no. 28/82, of 15 November 1982, as amended by Organic Law no. 88/95, of 1 September 1995 [Articles 66, 70(1), 80]

Law no. 143/85, of 26 November 1985

Organic Law no. 85/89, of 7 September 1989

Law no. 2098, of 29 July 1929 (Article XII)

Decree-Law no. 498/72, of 9 December 1972 [Articles 1(1), 5, 6, 35 to 39, 46, 82(d)]

Decree-Law no. 308-A/75, of 24 June 1975 [Articles 1(1)(a), 2, 5]

Decree-Law no. 524-M/76, of 5 July 1976

Decree-Law no. 362/78, of 28 November 1978, amended by Decree-Law no. 23/80, of 29 February 1980 (Articles 1 to 7)

Decree-Law no. 191-A/79, of 25 June 1979

Decree-Law no. 191-D/79, of 25 June 1979 [Articles 1(2), 4(1), 5, 6)

Decree-Law no. 23/80, of 29 February 1980 (Articles 2, 3)

Decree-Law no. 118/81, of 18 May 1981 (Article 2)

Decree-Law no. 363/86, of 30 October 1986

Decree-Law no. 498/88, of 30 December 1988, amended by Decree-Law no. 215/95, of 22 August 1995 [Articles 1, 2, 22(a)]

Decree no. 46982, of 27 April 1966 (Article 437)

Constitutional Court, judgment no. 277/92, 14.07.1992

Constitutional Court, judgment no. 351/92, 10.11.1992

Constitutional Court, judgment no. 603/92, 17.12.1992

Constitutional Court, judgment no. 162/93, 09.02.1993

Constitutional Court, judgment no. 405/93, 29.06.1993

INTERNATIONAL LAW:

Agreement between the Portuguese Republic and the Republic of Cape Verde on Civil Servants, 1976 [Article 1(b)]

FOREIGN LAW: n.a.

KEYWORDS: State Pension Fund; requisite of Portuguese nationality; former overseas administration; principle of equality; retirement application; loss of Portuguese nationality; former overseas provinces; foreigner; employees and agents of the Metropolis; Republic of Cape Verde; decolonisation process; principle of assimilation of foreigners and stateless persons to Portuguese citizens; former Portuguese colonies; former Portuguese overseas territories; forced to leave their lands; historic change; conventional international law; unduly differentiated treatment of realities which are essentially the same; Cape-Verdean applicant; indirect unconstitutionality; primacy of conventional international law over domestic law; returned from former overseas territories; unjustified discrimination; former overseas civil servants who are not Portuguese citizens; overseas territory under Portuguese administration

COMMENTS: Coming soon.

REFERENCES IN THE LITERATURE:

MIRANDA, Jorge, and MEDEIROS, Rui, Constituição Portuguesa Anotada [Annotation to the Portuguese Constitution], vol. I, 2nd ed., Coimbra, Wolters Kluwer/Coimbra Editora, 2010.

 

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