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This edition of Momentum clearly illustrates the diversity and complexity of the today’s system of legal sources. It is clear that the primary means of creating legal rules continues to be by statute, making it essential to keep up with the daily flow of new legislation, such as the recent changes to the rules on penalties in the financial sector, the legal framework for the creation and operation of enterprise location areas and to employment legislation, as referred to in articles prepared by our departments specializing in criminal law and civil offences, town and country planning, environmental and property law, and in employment law. Knowledge of the legal texts themselves needs to be complemented by an understanding of how they are seen and applied by the different players in the legal arena. Our public law departments has contributed an article on some of the rules governing public procurement, and our fiscal law department has examined how the administrative authorities interpret certain rules on the transfer of property, even if their understanding is open to question.

But the system of legal sources is not limited to statute: we also need to consider case law as another means of revealing legal rules. A good example of this is the recent decision of the Court of Justice in the Genetics UK judgement, discussed for us by our European and competition law department.

Finally, the system of source also depends on regulatory institutions, exemplified by the creation of the Financial Stability Board in response to the international financial crisis, as examined in one of the articles.

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Spring has arrived with significant additions to our legal team at Sérvulo, which I am happy to announce to our clients, colleagues and all other readers of this newsletter. In addition to opening a new office in Porto and announcing its plans for a further office in Ponta Delgada, Sérvulo now has a new unit dedicated to Urban Planning, Environmental Law and Real Estate, headed by Carlos Pinto Lopes, an acknowledged expert in these fields, who has contributed an article to this newsletter on the close relationship between Environmental Law and other fields of knowledge. With this new unit the firm intends to respond to increasing demands for services and to offer our clients additional support in areas which are certain to attract particular attention and controversy in the present period of crisis. The recent announcement of a review of the legislation on environmental offences and the immediate reaction this produced is a good example of this.

Coming at this particular moment, this new addition to the Sérvulo team reflects the optimism with which we look to the future – optimism which flows from the trust our clients place in our services, and from the high standards we set for our response to their needs, especially in the current environment.

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