On 17 and 18 September, the Porto School of the Faculty of Law of Universidade Católica Portuguesa hosted the conference 'Fundamental Concepts of Law: Legal Expectation', bringing together researchers and academics from different areas of Law and from other fields of knowledge.
“I would like to express my particular satisfaction as Dean of the Law School, because this Conference is the result of a collaborative effort by the younger members of our School, who conceived and structured this event with ambition and rigour,” emphasised Marta Portocarrero.
Organised by Francisco Quelhas Lima, Luísa Naia, Benedita Sequeira, Mafalda de Sá, Rita Henriques and Sofia Garriapa, the conference started from the premise that expectation is present across multiple areas of law, from the protection of legitimate expectations to contractual relationships, as well as Criminal, Constitutional and European Law. The discussion nevertheless sought to move beyond a strictly legal analysis, placing the concept in dialogue with Philosophy, Linguistics, Psychology, Literature and Theology.
The discussion began by examining the very nature of the concept from a philosophical perspective. Jorge Silva Sampaio’s opening contribution explored the distinction between epistemic, practical and motivating reasons, in order to identify the conditions necessary for something to be classified as an expectation and, more specifically, as a legal expectation. Marco Neves then examined the linguistic origins of the word expectation, seeking to better understand how the concept relates to its contemporary use, both in legal contexts and in ordinary language.
From the perspective of Psychology, Carlos Eduardo Peixoto presented expectation as a form of anticipation, “a way of dealing with the chaos of the universe”. Drawing on the work of Rescorla and Wagner, he addressed the notion of “prediction error”: when what happens does not correspond to what was expected, the organism adapts. In relation to Law, he framed expectation as a response to uncertainty and as a mechanism for ensuring predictability in social relations. Edmundo Balsemão Pires, in turn, distinguished between cognitive and normative expectations: while the former may be contradicted by events, the latter project the future in terms of what ought to happen. His analysis also introduced the social dimension of normative expectations, which are not necessarily constructed by an individual but may instead emerge from intersubjective relationships. Ricardo Gil Soeiro subsequently connected the notion of expectation with the works of Kafka and Beckett, reflecting on waiting, postponement and the individual’s relationship with an uncertain future, while also drawing on the thought of Jacques Derrida. Finally, Bruno Nobre brought together concepts from physics and theology to conclude that, although expectation consists in a belief concerning a future event, often grounded in scientific laws, in the case of the believer, God may constitute a foundation for that same expectation.
In the field of Civil Law, our faculty member Ana Afonso focused, in discussion with Júlio Gomes, on legal expectation in the context of rights subject to a condition. António Graça Moura, for his part, examined the doctrine of legitimate expectations and legal expectation in the context of the voluntary limitation of the right to one’s image.
In Criminal Law, Virgilio Rodriguez-Vazquez considered whether legal expectation could constitute an autonomous basis for criminal intervention. The discussion, commented on by Professor Conceição Cunha, proceeded from the relationship between communicative theories, the stabilisation of normative expectations and the protection of legal interests. The conclusion was that expectations help to explain the functioning of Law, but do not replace the legal interest (bem jurídico) as the substantive basis for criminal intervention. The importance of the principle of trust was also highlighted. Artificial Intelligence introduced a further dimension to the criminal-law debate. David Castro-Liñares addressed the use of algorithms in predictive criminal justice and the challenges associated with algorithmic risk, the concept of precrime and the transformation of criminal attribution, in a presentation commented on by Professor Pedro Freitas. The discussion also addressed the question of the neutrality of AI systems.
On the second day, the debate extended to constitutional, European and international dimensions, beginning with a presentation on intergenerational expectations, focusing on the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, delivered by Mishael van Luipen and chaired by Professor Manuel Fontaine. The discussion was further extended, through the contribution of Stephania Karasamani and with commentary by Inês Neves, to the European Citizens’ Initiative and the expectations arising from it for citizens who sign and propose such initiatives. Finally, Natalia Torres-Cadavid examined expectation in the context of Colombia’s new transitional criminal justice framework, with the participation of Professor Elisabete Ferreira.
The conference concluded with a keynote address by Gonçalo Almeida Ribeiro, a faculty member of the Lisbon School, who situated legal expectation within the principles of legal certainty and the rule of law. His presentation distinguished between expectations and perceptions, and analysed how individuals form predictions in a world structured by meanings, social norms and previous experiences. The CEID researcher also addressed the protection of legitimate expectations, particularly where individuals, acting in good faith, make investments or formulate plans on the basis of the stability of a particular legal framework.
For the Director of the Porto School, the reflections developed throughout the conference demonstrated the potential of the initiative and of the School’s new generation of researchers, which, in her words, “is also an expectation, but one that is clearly beginning to bear fruit.”
