Publication of ‘The Council of State in the Ancien Régime and Liberalism - Portugal, Spain and France’

The result of an original research into the evolutionary dynamics of the formation and consolidation of the Council of State, from the Modern Period to the end of the political Liberalism of the 19th century, this book, co-published by CEPESE and Alêtheia Editores, seeks to fill a gap in the Portuguese bibliography.

This is a pioneering study by our researcher Judite Gonçalves de Freitas on the profile of this body in three geographically contiguous countries - Portugal, Spain and France - which have maintained close political and cultural affinities.

The analysis methodology combines the perspective of comparative politics with the interpretation of legal sources (regiments, regulations, fundamental laws and administrative codes). In this context, the impact of the modern forms of government of the Ancien Régime (e.g. the Secretariats of State, the validos, the juntas and the ministeriate) on the process of political affirmation of the Council of State is analysed.

At the same time, the implications of the process of liberalisation of the regime on the new political-constitutional life cycle of the Council of State are examined. The conditions under which the modern political-constitutional system was structured (the doctrine of the separation of powers, political currents, administrative systems, the policy of the Secretariats and the Ministry), the question of the dual and single system of administrative jurisdiction and the political evolution of the liberal regimes towards parliamentarisation and democratisation, which conditioned the political life of the Council of State, are important analytical aspects of this study.

The book concludes with an empirical and original approach to the political-administrative activity of the Council of State in Portugal throughout the liberal period, drawing important and innovative conclusions.