Does the existing Corporate Governance structure and strict Legal Framework, affect the strategic decisionmaking of CEOs?

This thesis is a case study on Corporate Governance and Business Ethics, using the Portuguese Corporate Law as a general setting. The thesis was conducted in Portugal with illustrations on past cases under the Business Judgment Rule of the State of Delaware, U.SA along with illustrations on current cases in Portugal under the Portuguese Judicial setting, along with a comparative analysis between both. A debate is being considered among scholars and executives; a debate on best practices within corporate governance and corporate law, associated with recent discoveries of unlawful investments that lead to the bankruptcy of leading institutions and an aggravation of the crisis in Portugal. The study aimed at learning possible reasons and causes for the current situation of the country’s corporations along with attempts to discover the best way to move forward. From the interviews and analysis conducted, this paper concluded that the corporate governance structure and legal frameworks in Portugal were not the sole influencers behind the actions and decisions of Corporate Executives, nor were they the main triggers for the recent corporate mishaps. But it is rather a combination of different factors that played a significant role, such as cultural and ethical aspects, individual personalities, and others all of which created gray areas beyond the legal structure, which in turn accelerated and aggravated the corporate governance crisis in the country.

The implementation of an Enterprise Geographical Information System to support Cadastre and Expropriation activities.

The processes of mobilization of land for infrastructures of public and private domain are developed according to proper legal frameworks and systematically confronted with the impoverished national situation as regards the cadastral identification and regularization, which leads to big inefficiencies, sometimes with very negative impact to the overall effectiveness. This project report describes Ferbritas Cadastre Information System (FBSIC) project and tools, which in conjunction with other applications, allow managing the entire life-cycle of Land Acquisition and Cadastre, including support to field activities with the integration of information collected in the field, the development of multi-criteria analysis information, monitoring all information in the exploration stage, and the automated generation of outputs. The benefits are evident at the level of operational efficiency, including tools that enable process integration and standardization of procedures, facilitate analysis and quality control and maximize performance in the acquisition, maintenance and management of registration information and expropriation (expropriation projects). Therefore, the implemented system achieves levels of robustness, comprehensiveness, openness, scalability and reliability suitable for a structural platform. The resultant solution, FBSIC, is a fit-for-purpose cadastre information system rooted in the field of railway infrastructures. FBSIC integrating nature of allows: to accomplish present needs and scale to meet future services; to collect, maintain, manage and share all information in one common platform, and transform it into knowledge; to relate with other platforms; to increase accuracy and productivity of business processes related with land property management.

Testes genéticos de venda direta ao consumidor : questões ético-legais no mercado português

RESUMO - As descobertas realizadas na área da genética levaram ao desenvolvimento de aplicações práticas, entre as quais se destacam os testes genéticos, cujas aplicações em saúde tiveram um impacto considerável na prática clínica. Uma das consequências deste desenvolvimento foi o nascimento de um novo mercado na área da saúde, o mercado dos Testes Genéticos de Venda Direta ao Consumidor (TGVDC). Este mercado está associado a questões do foro ético e legal muito específicas e importantes. Através da realização do presente trabalho de projeto pretende-se analisar e discutir as principais questões éticas e legais suscitadas pelos TGVDC, com maior enfoque no mercado português e na aplicação do enquadramento ético-legal em vigor em Portugal. No que toca à metodologia, no âmbito do presente trabalho de projeto, realizou-se uma análise da literatura científica e ético-legal do tema em estudo. Posteriormente realizou-se uma entrevista exploratória, a uma personalidade de reconhecido mérito na área da genética humana, a fim de compreender quais as principais questões suscitadas pelo mercado de TGVDC. Seguidamente realizou-se um mapeamento das entidades que operam no mercado de TGVDC, seguido de um inquérito a essas mesmas entidades, a fim de avaliar as características do serviço oferecido em Portugal e a aplicação do regime normativo ético-legal em vigor. Verificou-se, como era expectável, que o mercado português de TGVDC apresenta reduzida dimensão quando comparado com outros mercados a nível internacional, designadamente o mercado norte-americano que é, claramente, o mais desenvolvido nesta área. Os resultados obtidos apontaram ainda, no que toca à realidade portuguesa, para a pertinência de questões discutidas na literatura analisada. Em suma, apesar das limitações inerentes à realização de um projeto pioneiro e ambicioso num curto espaço de tempo, as conclusões deste trabalho permitem extrair conclusões importantes acerca do mercado português de TGVDC, sob a perspetiva ético-legal, bem como efetuar recomendações importantes para futuros estudos nesta área.

Environmental indicator frameworks to design and assess environmental monitoring programs

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, vol. 22, n.1, March 2004, p. 47–62

"A reserva ecológica nacional e a sua importância para o ordenamento do território"

This work primarily aims to investigate the ambiguity between the right to build and the need to preserve nature through one of its instruments: the National Ecological Reserve. In both national and international political effort, forced by increasing ecological awareness of the society were being created regulations for environmental problemsolving frameworks. This significant increase in provisions, that regulated the environment and spatial territory, are directly related to the objectives of the European community. In a year when the soil policy has changed, it is important to review the priorities of regional planning in the face of environmental policies. REN is a restriction of public utility that, among other things, aims to define and integrate diverse areas of our territory which by their structure are essential to the ecological stability of the environment. Going through a historical study of the various regimes that regulated REN, the present work aims to inform the understanding of the concept REN, exposing its objectives and form of delimitation of integrated areas, in order to answer questions about the nature of this institute. It were related to all regulations governing the ecological reserves and land, namely Scheme for Conservation of Nature and Biodiversity; Natura 2000, the National Agricultural Reserve, the Law of the ownership of water resources and water, and the RJIGT RJUE, checking to its compatibility with REN. Through a literature review regarding the jurisprudence of national courts applying the doctrine, analysis of legal regimes, analysis of maps depicting the REN, we carried out a qualitative assessment of the trend and legal effect of REN in protecting populations and environment. Therefore we will work with this reflect on the existing environment awareness in our society and its problems in the management of natural resources.

Os diferentes níveis de regulação legal dos conflitos de interesses no âmbito da gestão de fundos de investimento mobiliário

In the context of the activity developed by securities investment funds (hereinafter referred to “SIF”) the holders of investment units have a very tiny power to intervene. Aware of the risks that a decoupling between ownership and control may pose, the legislator has foreseen a number of impositions and limitations to the activity of the managing entities, namely to prevent or prohibit the performance of acts in situations of potential conflicts of interests. Accordingly, the purpose of the dissertation on – “Os diferentes níveis de regulação legal dos conflitos de interesses no âmbito da gestão de FIM” – is exactly to determine the field of application of the several levels of legal regulation of the conflicts of interests that arise within the scope of the management of SIF, both at the level of the new legal requirements governing collective investment undertakings, and at the level of the legal requirements governing the conflicts of interests foreseen in the Portuguese Securities Code, in order to clarify the articulation of these different levels of conflicts of interests regulations.