Using text-mining-assisted analysis to examine the applicability of unstructured data in the context of customer complaint management

Double Degree

Direito da religião

This dissertation stands out the religious and social role of Christian religious minorities in Portuguese society, where the vast majority of the believers profess the Catholic faith. This work serves to demystify the widespread prejudice against minorities and clarify its place in the religious phenomenon in Portugal. We intend to define the concept of Religion, missing in the Portuguese legislation, framing it in Portuguese constitutional history, which allows us to evaluate the relations State/Catholic Church and State/religious minorities, since Liberalism. We attempt to measure how the legal system accepts the religious phenomenon and how to deal with religious diversity, according to the principle of religious freedom postulated in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic. It is also our intention to relate the concepts of sect and religious minority, which tendentiously are misunderstood. In order to understand the underlying dynamics of religious minorities, we take the example of the Portuguese Evangelical Alliance, which we monitored closely throughout the investigation. We will give some space for a small analysis of the state and social discrimination experienced by the minorities. With this work we can conclude in general that Portugal, despite its weak religious diversity, has a good advance on the religious freedom. The Portuguese State has made a remarkable effort to cooperate with the churches, an effort that must be continued in order to fill some gaps found, particularly in the absence of legislation regarding the criminalization of religious discrimination and competence of the Committee on Religious Freedom in case of a possible complaint. We prove similarly that there is also a special attention to the Catholic Church in the composition of the Committee on Religious Freedom and the Committee Broadcast Time of Religious Confessions. In the end, we prove that the society is the major source of discrimination against minorities.

Defining health law or the edgewood syndrome

ABSTRACT - The authors’ main purpose is to present ideas on defining Health Law by highlighting the particularities of the field of Health Law as well as of the teaching of this legal branch, hoping to contribute to the maturity and academic recognition of Health Law, not only as a very rich legal field but also as a powerful social instrument in the fulfillment of fundamental human rights. The authors defend that Health Law has several characteristics that distinguish it from traditional branches of law such as its complexity and multidisciplinary nature. The study of Health Law normally covers issues such as access to care, health systems organization, patients’ rights, health professionals’ rights and duties, strict liability, healthcare contracts between institutions and professionals, medical data protection and confidentiality, informed consent and professional secrecy, crossing different legal fields including administrative, antitrust, constitutional, contract, corporate, criminal, environmental, food and drug, intellectual property, insurance, international and supranational, labor/employment, property, taxation, and tort law. This is one of the reasons why teaching Health Law presents a challenge to the teacher, which will have to find the programs, content and methods appropriate to the profile of recipients which are normally non jurists and the needs of a multidisciplinary curricula. By describing academic definitions of Health Law as analogous to Edgewood, a fiction house which has a different architectural style in each of its walls, the authors try to describe which elements should compose a more comprehensive definition. In this article Biolaw, Bioethics and Human Rights are defined as complements to a definition of Health Law: Biolaw because it is the legal field that treats the social consequences that arise from technological advances in health and life sciences; Bioethics which evolutions normally influence the shape of the legal framework of Health; and, finally Human Rights theory and declarations are outlined as having always been historically linked to medicine and health, being the umbrella that must cover all the issues raised in the area of Health Law. To complete this brief incursion on the definition on Health Law the authors end by giving note of the complex relations between this field of Law and Public Health. Dealing more specifically on laws adopted by governments to provide important health services and regulate industries and individual conduct that affect the health of the populations, this aspect of Health Law requires special attention to avoid an imbalance between public powers and individual freedoms. The authors conclude that public trust in any health system is essentially sustained by developing health structures which are consistent with essential fundamental rights, such as the universal right to access health care, and that the study of Health Law can contribute with important insights into both health structures and fundamental rights in order to foster a health system that respects the Rule of Law.-------------------------- RESUMO – O objectivo principal dos autores é apresentar ideias sobre a definição de Direito da Saúde, destacando as particularidades desta área do direito, bem como do ensino deste ramo jurídico, na esperança de contribuir para a maturidade e para o reconhecimento académico do mesmo, não só como um campo juridicamente muito rico, mas, também, como um poderoso instrumento social no cumprimento dos direitos humanos fundamentais. Os autores defendem que o Direito da Saúde tem diversas características que o distinguem dos ramos tradicionais do direito, como a sua complexidade e natureza multidisciplinar. O estudo do Direito da Saúde abrangendo normalmente questões como o acesso aos cuidados, a organização dos sistemas de saúde, os direitos e deveres dos doentes e dos profissionais de saúde, a responsabilidade civil, os contratos entre instituições de saúde e profissionais, a protecção e a confidencialidade de dados clínicos, o consentimento informado e o sigilo profissional, implica uma abordagem transversal de diferentes áreas legais, incluindo os Direitos contratual, administrativo, antitrust, constitucional, empresarial, penal, ambiental, alimentar, farmacêutico, da propriedade intelectual, dos seguros, internacional e supranacional, trabalho, fiscal e penal. Esta é uma das razões pelas quais o ensino do Direito da Saúde representa um desafio para o professor, que terá de encontrar os programas, conteúdos e métodos adequados ao perfil dos destinatários, que são normalmente não juristas e às necessidades de um currículo multidisciplinar. Ao descrever as várias definições académicas de Direito da Saúde como análogas a Edgewood, uma casa de ficção que apresenta um estilo arquitectónico diferente em cada uma de suas paredes, os autores tentam encontrar os elementos que deveriam compor uma definição mais abrangente. No artigo, Biodireito, Bioética e Direitos Humanos são descritos como complementos de uma definição de Direito da Saúde: o Biodireito, dado que é o campo jurídico que trata as consequências sociais que surgem dos avanços tecnológicos na área da saúde e das ciências da vida; a Bioética cujas evoluções influenciam normalmente o quadro jurídico da Saúde; e, por fim, a teoria dos Direitos Humanos e as suas declarações as quais têm estado sempre historicamente ligadas à medicina e à saúde, devendo funcionar como pano de fundo de todas as questões levantadas na área do Direito da Saúde. Para finalizar a sua breve incursão sobre a definição de Direito da Saúde, os autores dão ainda nota das complexas relações entre este último e a Saúde Pública, onde se tratam mais especificamente as leis aprovadas pelos governos para regular os serviços de saúde, as indústrias e as condutas individuais que afectam a saúde das populações, aspecto do Direito da Saúde que requer uma atenção especial para evitar um desequilíbrio entre os poderes públicos e as liberdades individuais. Os autores concluem afirmando que a confiança do público em qualquer sistema de saúde é, essencialmente, sustentada pelo desenvolvimento de estruturas de saúde que sejam consistentes com o direito constitucional da saúde, tais como o direito universal ao acesso a cuidados de saúde, e que o estudo do Direito da Saúde pode contribuir com elementos

Reclamações : a sua importância nas unidades de saúde privadas : um estudo de caso

RESUMO - O sector privado da saúde tem registado um forte crescimento em Portugal. Como principais factores apontam-se a crescente preocupação dos indivíduos com a sua saúde, o aumento do poder de compra, a possibilidade de exercer a escolha do seu prestador de cuidados, o maior conforto proporcionado no consumo de cuidados de saúde e o acesso mais rápido a esses cuidados (por comparação com o serviço público). Em consequência desses factores, existe por parte da instituição privada de saúde a necessidade de apostar num sistema de gestão de reclamações capaz de dar uma resposta rápida às necessidades, expectativas e preferências do indivíduo enquanto doente e cliente. Nesse âmbito, desenvolveu-se um estudo de investigação qualitativo. Recorreu-se à realização de entrevistas semi-estruturadas cujo tratamento foi submetido à técnica de análise de conteúdo. Procurou-se perceber o que pensam os responsáveis pela gestão e tratamento das reclamações acerca da importância do circuito de reclamação, da utilização das reclamações como uma ferramenta de gestão e qual o seu impacto na estratégia da instituição privada de saúde. Dos resultados obtidos, verifica-se que, à data, dá-se ainda pouca relevância a este tema, observando-se falhas a nível do circuito de reclamação. Hoje, a reclamação é ainda pouco utilizada e perspectivada como uma ferramenta de gestão. O seu impacto na estratégia da instituição, apesar de ser relevante, tem potencial para ser melhorado, na perspectiva da learning organization. Seria importante articular as estratégias de qualidade, com a formação dos profissionais na área da reclamação, implementação ou melhoria dos instrumentos utilizados nas respostas ao cliente e à entidade reguladora do sector, bem como com o redesenho do circuito do sistema de informação nesta área.

Constituição e transcendência: os casos dos regimes comunitários do entre-guerras

Tede de Doutoramento, na especialidade de Ciências Políticas apresentada à FDUNL

Ruling the Empire: The Portuguese Colonial Office (1820s-1926)

Portugal was one of the first and most enduring European colonial powers of modern times: 1415 and 1975 mark the beginning and the end of a long empire cycle that left impressive imprints in many places. Since it started, the overseas expansion and the exploration of the colonial resources were closely articulated with state-building and the preservation of national independence. A forerunner at the Great Age of Discoveries, but a latecomer in the era of industrialization, in the 19th and early-20th centuries Portugal was a peripheral country, and the economic gap with the rich and industrialized core of Europe was wide. During this period, however, the country faced the critical challenge of ruling vast and geographically scattered overseas territories, and of preserving them from the greed of strong imperialist powers. This article starts by outlining the major developments in the Portuguese colonial policy over a century, since the 1820s until 1926. The independence of Brazil (1822) was a crucial turning point, which brought about a shift towards Africa. The First Republic (1910-1926), pervaded by a nationalist ideology, gave a new impetus to the efforts towards a more effective colonisation. Symptomatically, a Ministry of Colonies was then established for the first time. Second, it describes and analyses the transformation of the central office for colonial affairs – from a small ministerial department to an autonomous ministry -, stressing the increasing bureaucratic specialisation, the growth of the apparatus and its staff, and the introduction of new criteria for the selection and promotion of permanent officials (namely a higher profile given to careers in local colonial administration). Finally, it presents a collective biography of both the politicians (Cabinet ministers) and the administrators (directors-general) who ran the Colonial Office for a large period of the Constitutional Monarchy (from 1851 to 1910) and during the First Republic, thus enabling to assess the impact of regime change on elite circulation and career patterns.

Res Publica: Citizenship and Political Representation in Portugal, 1820-1926

The term res publica (literally “thing of the people”) was coined by the Romans to translate the Greek word politeia, which, as we know, referred to a political community organised in accordance with certain principles, amongst which the notion of the “good life” (as against exclusively private interests) was paramount. This ideal also came to be known as political virtue. To achieve it, it was necessary to combine the best of each “constitutional” type and avoid their worst aspects (tyranny, oligarchy and ochlocracy). Hence, the term acquired from the Greeks a sense of being a “mixed” and “balanced” system. Anyone that was entitled to citizenship could participate in the governance of the “public thing”. This implied the institutionalization of open debate and confrontation between interested parties as a way of achieving the consensus necessary to ensure that man the political animal, who fought with words and reason, prevailed over his “natural” counterpart. These premises lie at the heart of the project which is now being presented under the title of Res Publica: Citizenship and Political Representation in Portugal, 1820-1926. The fact that it is integrated into the centenary commemorations of the establishment of the Republic in Portugal is significant, as it was the idea of revolution – with its promise of rupture and change – that inspired it. However, it has also sought to explore events that could be considered the precursor of democratization in the history of Portugal, namely the vintista, setembrista and patuleia revolutions. It is true that the republican regime was opposed to the monarchic. However, although the thesis that monarchy would inevitably lead to tyranny had held sway for centuries, it had also been long believed that the monarchic system could be as “politically virtuous” as a republic (in the strict sense of the word) provided that power was not concentrated in the hands of a single individual. Moreover, various historical experiments had shown that republics could also degenerate into Caesarism and different kinds of despotism. Thus, when absolutism began to be overturned in continental Europe in the name of the natural rights of man and the new social pact theories, initiating the difficult process of (written) constitutionalization, the monarchic principle began to be qualified as a “monarchy hedged by republican institutions”, a situation in which not even the king was exempt from isonomy. This context justifies the time frame chosen here, as it captures the various changes and continuities that run through it. Having rejected the imperative mandate and the reinstatement of the model of corporative representation (which did not mean that, in new contexts, this might not be revived, or that the second chamber established by the Constitutional Charter of 1826 might not be given another lease of life), a new power base was convened: national sovereignty, a precept that would be shared by the monarchic constitutions of 1822 and 1838, and by the republican one of 1911. This followed the French example (manifested in the monarchic constitution of 1791 and in the Spanish constitution of 1812), as not even republicans entertained a tradition of republicanism based upon popular sovereignty. This enables us to better understand the rejection of direct democracy and universal suffrage, and also the long incapacitation (concerning voting and standing for office) of the vast body of “passive” citizens, justified by “enlightened”, property- and gender-based criteria. Although the republicans had promised in the propaganda phase to alter this situation, they ultimately failed to do so. Indeed, throughout the whole period under analysis, the realisation of the potential of national sovereignty was mediated above all by the individual citizen through his choice of representatives. However, this representation was indirect and took place at national level, in the hope that action would be motivated not by particular local interests but by the common good, as dictated by reason. This was considered the only way for the law to be virtuous, a requirement that was also manifested in the separation and balance of powers. As sovereignty was postulated as single and indivisible, so would be the nation that gave it soul and the State that embodied it. Although these characteristics were common to foreign paradigms of reference, in Portugal, the constitutionalization process also sought to nationalise the idea of Empire. Indeed, this had been the overriding purpose of the 1822 Constitution, and it persisted, even after the loss of Brazil, until decolonization. Then, the dream of a single nation stretching from the Minho to Timor finally came to an end.

Transcriptional regulation of the mannosyltransferase-encoding gene pigm in inherited glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) deficiency

RESUMO:O glicosilfosfatidilinositol (GPI) é um complexo glicolipídico utlizado por dezenas de proteínas, o qual medeia a sua ancoragem à superfície da célula. Proteínas de superfície celular ancoradas a GPI apresentam várias funções essenciais para a manutenção celular. A deficiência na síntese de GPI é o que caracteriza principalmente a deficiência hereditária em GPI, um grupo de doenças autossómicas raras que resultam de mutações nos genes PIGA, PIGL, PIGM, PIGV, PIGN, PIGO e PIGT, os quais sao indispensáveis para a biossíntese do GPI. Uma mutação pontual no motivo rico em GC -270 no promotor de PIGM impede a ligação do factor de transcrição (FT) Sp1 à sua sequência de reconhecimento, impondo a compactação da cromatina, associada à hipoacetilação de histonas, e consequentemente, impedindo a transcrição de PIGM. Desta forma, a adição da primeira manose ao GPI é comprometida, a síntese de GPI diminui assim como as proteínas ligadas a GPI à superficie das células. Pacientes com Deficiência Hereditária em GPI-associada a PIGM apresentam trombose e epilesia, e ausência de hemólise intravascular e anemia, sendo que estas duas últimas características definem a Hemoglobinúria Paroxística Nocturna (HPN), uma doença rara causada por mutações no gene PIGA. Embora a mutação que causa IGD seja constitutiva e esteja presente em todos os tecidos, o grau de deficiência em GPI varia entre células do mesmo tecido e entre células de tecidos diferentes. Por exemplo nos granulócitos e linfócitos B a deficiência em GPI é muito acentuada mas nos linfócitos T, fibroblastos, plaquetas e eritrócitos é aproximadamente normal, daí a ausência de hemólise intravascular. Os eventos transcricionais que estão na base da expressão diferencial da âncora GPI nas células hematopoiéticas são desconhecidos e constituem o objectivo geral desta tese. Em primeiro lugar, os resultados demonstraram que os níveis de PIGM mRNA variam entre células primárias hematopoiéticas normais. Adicionalmente, a configuração dos nucleossomas no promotor de PIGM é mais compacta em células B do que em células eritróides e tal está correlacionado com os níveis de expressão de PIGM, isto é, inferior nas células B. A presença de vários motivos de ligação para o FT específico da linhagem megacariocítica-eritróide GATA-1 no promotor de PIGM sugeriu que GATA-1 desempenha um papel regulador na sua transcrição. Os resultados mostraram que muito possivelmente GATA-1 desempenha um papel repressor em vez de activador da expressão de PIGM. Resultados preliminares sugerem que KLF1, um factor de transcrição restritamente eritróide, regula a transcrição de PIGM independentemente do motivo -270GC. Em segundo lugar, a investigação do papel dos FTs Sp demonstrou que Sp1 medeia directamente a transcrição de PIGM em ambas as células B e eritróide. Curiosamente, ao contrário do que acontece nas células B, em que a transcrição de PIGM requer a ligação do FT geral Sp1 ao motivo -270GC, nas células eritróides Sp1 regula a transcrição de PIGM ao ligar-se a montante e não ao motivo -270GC. Para além disso, demonstrou-se que Sp2 não é um regulador directo da transcrição de PIGM quer nas células B quer nas células eritróides. Estes resultados explicam a ausência de hemólise intravascular nos doentes com IGD associada a PIGM, uma das principais características que define a HPN. Por último, resultados preliminares mostraram que a repressão da transcrição de PIGM devida à mutação patogénica -270C>G está associada com a diminuição da frequência de interacções genómicas em cis entre PIGM e os seus genes “vizinhos”, sugerindo adicionalmente que a regulação de PIGM e desses genes é partilhada. No seu conjunto, os resultados apresentados nesta tese contribuem para o conhecimento do controlo transcricional de um gene housekeeping, específico-detecido, por meio de FTs genéricos e específicos de linhagem.-------------ABSTRACTC: Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) is a complex glycolipid used by dozens of proteins for cell surface anchoring. GPI-anchored proteins have various functions that are essential for the cellular maintenance. Defective GPI biosynthesis is the hallmark of inherited GPI deficiency (IGD), a group of rare autosomal diseases caused by mutations in PIGA, PIGL, PIGM, PIGV, PIGN, PIGO and PIGT, all genes indispensable for GPI biosynthesis. A point mutation in the -270GC-rich box in the core promoter of PIGM disrupts binding of the transcription factor (TF) Sp1 to it, imposing nucleosome compaction associated with histone hypoacetylation, thus abrogating transcription of PIGM. As a consequence of PIGM transcriptional repression, addition of the first mannose residue onto the GPI core and thus GPI production are impaired; and expression of GPI-anchored proteins on the surface of cells is severely impaired. Patients with PIGM-associated IGD suffer from life-threatening thrombosis and epilepsy but not intravascular haemolysis and anaemia, two defining features of paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare disease caused by somatic mutations in PIGA. Although the disease-causing mutation in IGD is constitutional and present in all tissues, the degree of GPI deficiency is variable and differs between cells of the same and of different tissues. Accordingly, GPI deficiency is severe in granulocytes and B cells but mild in T cells, fibroblasts, platelets and erythrocytes, hence the lack of intravascular haemolysis.The transcriptional events underlying differential expression of GPI in the haematopoietic cells of PIG-M-associated IGD are not known and constitute the general aim of this thesis. Firstly, I found that PIGM mRNA levels are variable amongst normal primary haematopoietic cells. In addition, the nucleosome configuration in the promoter of PIGM is more compacted in B cells than in erythroid cells and this correlated with the levels of PIGM mRNA expression, i.e., lower in B cells. The presence of several binding sites for GATA-1, a mega-erythroid lineage-specific transcription factor (TF), at the PIGM promoter suggested that GATA-1 has a role on PIGM transcription. My results showed that GATA-1 in erythroid cells is most likely a repressor rather than an activator of PIGM expression. Preliminary data suggested that KLF1, an erythroid-specific TF, regulates PIGM transcription but independently of the -270GC motif. Secondly, investigation of the role of the Sp TFs showed that Sp1 directly mediates PIGM transcriptional regulation in both B and erythroid cells. However, unlike in B cells in which active PIGM transcription requires binding of the generic TF Sp1 to the -270GC-rich box, in erythroid cells, Sp1 regulates PIGM transcription by binding upstream of but not to the -270GC-rich motif. Additionally, I showed that Sp2 is not a direct regulator of PIGM transcription in B and erythroid cells. These findings explain lack of intravascular haemolysis in PIGM-associated IGD, a defining feature of PNH. Lastly, preliminary work shows that transcriptional repression of PIG-M by the pathogenic -270C>G mutation is associated with reduced frequency of in cis genomic interactions between PIGM and its neighbouring genes, suggesting a shared regulatory link between these genes and PIGM. Altogether, the results presented in this thesis provide novel insights into tissuespecific transcriptional control of a housekeeping gene by lineage-specific and generic TFs.

O Conselho de Estado na monarquia constitucional: uma reflexão preliminar

This article summarises the transformations in the State Council’s functions and membership throughout the Portuguese Constitutional Monarchy, and makes a preliminary attempt to scrutinise the political role played by an institution designed since its inception to advise the monarch. In spite of the parsimony of contemporary sources, and even contradictory empirical evidence, it seems indisputable that in several critical occasions the monarch’s political decisions were influenced by the dominant view in the State Council. Finally, the article presents the collective biography of the 73 individuals appointed to the State Council between 1833 and 1910 – who may be defined as the inner circle of the ruling elite - focusing on basic background features (birthplace, age, education, occupation, noble titles and political experience).

Liberdade e tolerância religiosa: "portugueses não católicos" no ultramar do século XIX

The personal legal status of native non catholic people of Portuguese colonial Empire during the nineteenth century, their position in what concerns Portuguese citizenship, is the main subject of this article. While discussing constitutional articles on religion, Portuguese deputies of the nineteenth century were confronted with a set of problems about that status which they find difficult to solve: should non catholic peoples who were born in Portuguese colonial territory be treated as plain Portuguese citizens or where they just “savage people”, “colonial subjects” or, in a more optimistic approach, “civilizing subjects”. The results were not conclusive, giving rise to an “uncertainty principle” which enabled central and local government to decide in an almost casuistic way about native people status and rights.

A Constituição e o Direito Justo

Também publicado em DELGADO, José Pina (org.) e SILVA, Mário Ramos Pereira (org.) "Estudos em Comemoração do XXº Aniversário da Constituição da República de Cabo Verde", Praia: Edições do ISCJS, 2013, [9]-29 pp

A restrição ao sigilo bancário decorrente do regime de branqueamento de capitais

Technologic and socio-economic mutations have always determined challenges not only to lawyers, but to law itself. These phenomena have occurred specially when trying to deal with the hard task of finding solutions for the current increasing mismatch of social interests, for example, bank secrecy and money laundering. Usually occurring simultaneously, they are typical examples of outcomes generated by technological and socio-economic innovations that have become fashionable and captured international attention. At the same time, bank secrecy and money laundering support interests belonging to different dimensions, deserving to be balanced in the light of the heterogeneous mechanisms provided by the law to its practitioners and society as a hole. In order to achieve an outcome in accordance with the Rule of Law´s principles, lawyers´ tools are consequently subordinated to constitutional and social justice. Guided by this purpose, we performed the present study, aiming to analyse bank secrecy and money laundering in the light of the current stablished juridical procedures. We intended to develop a prudent point of view that is also in accordance with social reality. In sum, we demonstrate that bank secrecy should adopt a flexible character, embedding new settings and following the socio-economic path in a globalized world with constant innovations.

A intervenção dos orgãos de polícia criminal em sede de julgamento

Currently, Portugal assumes itself as a democratic rule of substantive law State, sustained by a legal system seeking the right balance between the guarantee of fundamental rights and freedoms constitutional foreseen in Portugal’s Fundamental Law and criminal persecution. The architecture of the penal code lies with, roughly speaking, a accusatory basic structure, “deliberately attached to one of the most remarkable achievements of the civilizational democratic progress, and by obedience to the constitutional commandment”, in balance with the official investigation principle, valid both for the purpose of prosecution and trial. Regarding the principle of non self-incrimination - nemo tenetur se ipsum accusare, briefly defined as the defendant’s right of not being obliged to contribute to the self-incrimination, it should be stressed that there isn’t an explicit consecration in the Portuguese Constitution, being commonly accepted in an implicit constitutional prediction and deriving from other constitutional rights and principles, first and foremost, the meaning and scope of the concept of democratic rule of Law State, embedded in the Fundamental Law, and in the guidelines of the constitutional principles of human person dignity, freedom of action and the presumption of innocence. In any case, about the (in) applicability of the principle of the prohibition of self-incrimination to the Criminal Police Bodies in the trial hearing in Court, and sharing an idea of Guedes Valente, the truth is that the exercise of criminal action must tread a transparent path and non-compliant with methods to obtain evidence that violate the law, the public order or in violation of democratic principles and loyalty (Guedes Valente, 2013, p. 484). Within the framework of the penal process relating to the trial, which is assumed as the true phase of the process, the witness represents a relevant figure for the administration of criminal justice, for the testimonial proof is, in the idea of Othmar Jauernig, the worst proof of evidence, but also being the most frequent (Jauernig, 1998, p. 289). As coadjutant of the Public Prosecutor and, in specific cases, the investigating judge, the Criminal Police Bodies are invested with high responsibility, being "the arms and eyes of Judicial Authorities in pursuing the criminal investigation..." which has as ultimate goal the fulfillment of the Law pursuing the defense of society" (Guedes Valente, 2013, p. 485). It is in this context and as a witness that, throughout operational career, the Criminal Police Bodies are required to be at the trial hearing and clarify the Court with its view about the facts relating to occurrences of criminal context, thus contributing very significantly and, in some cases, decisively for the proper administration of the portuguese criminal justice. With regards to the intervention of Criminal Police Bodies in the trial hearing in Court, it’s important that they pay attention to a set of standards concerning the preparation of the testimony, the very provision of the testimony and, also, to its conclusion. Be emphasized that these guidelines may become crucial for the quality of the police testimony at the trial hearing, thus leading to an improvement of the enforcement of justice system. In this vein, while preparing the testimony, the Criminal Police Bodies must present itself in court with proper clothing, to read before and carefully the case files, to debate the facts being judged with other Criminal Police Bodies and prepare potential questions. Later, while giving his testimony during the trial, the Criminal Police Bodies must, summing up, to take the oath in a convincing manner, to feel comfortable, to start well by convincingly answering the first question, keep an attitude of serenity, to adopt an attitude of collaboration, to avoid the reading of documents, to demonstrate deference and seriousness before the judicial operators, to use simple and objective language, to adopt a fluent speech, to use nonverbal language correctly, to avoid spontaneity responding only to what is asked, to report only the truth, to avoid hesitations and contradictions, to be impartial and to maintain eye contact with the judge. Finally, at the conclusion of the testimony, the Criminal Police Bodies should rise in a smooth manner, avoiding to show relief, resentment or satisfaction, leaving a credible and professional image and, without much formality, requesting the judge permission to leave the courtroom. As final note, it’s important to stress that "The intervention of the Police Criminal Bodies in the trial hearing in Court” encloses itself on a theme of crucial importance not only for members of the Police and Security Forces, who must welcome this subject with the utmost seriousness and professionalism, but also for the proper administration of the criminal justice system in Portugal.