Teaching Public Law in the 21st Century – ICON-S Portugal Roundtable
The International Society of Public Law – Portuguese Chapter invites you to participate in our in-person roundtable addressing the fundamental challenges facing public law education today.
The context: Public law teaching stands at a critical juncture. We witness the erosion of universalist normative ideals in international law, the contraction of deliberative spaces in constitutional systems, and the growing conservative instrumentalization of legal discourse. Meanwhile, our students arrive with different cognitive patterns—fragmented attention, visual processing, parallel information streams—and we face phenomena not yet fully theorized: algorithmic governance, digital constitutionalism, climate disruption.
The challenge: How do we teach constitutional, administrative, and international law when artificial boundaries between these fields no longer serve? When disciplinary isolation from political science, economics, and sociology limits understanding? When monologic, technologically inert pedagogy fails both students and the society that awaits them?
This roundtable brings together experts to examine pedagogical innovation, interdisciplinary integration, and the transformative potential of AI in legal education—not as abstract possibilities, but as urgent necessities for forming jurists capable of structural thinking about the public dimension of law.
Programme:
14:30 – Alexandra Aragão: “From Knowledge to Creativity: Innovation, Gamification and AI”
16:00 – Joana Neto: “From Support to Innovation: Rethinking the Teacher-Student Relationship”
16:30 – Marta Costa Santos: “Head in the Clouds: From Inattention to Digital Learning”
📅 November 24, 2025
⏰ 14:00-17:00
📍 University of Coimbra – Capela do Colégio da Trindade
Coordinated by Luís Meneses do Vale and Teresa Violante.
We look forward to your participation and contributions to this essential discussion.
Conscientious Objection Workshop
It is with great pleasure that the NOVA Centre for the Study of Gender, Family, and Law, in partnership with ICON-S Portugal, invites you to participate in our in-person Workshop “Conscientious Objection in Healthcare: Understanding the Impact of Gender”.
📅27th November 2025
⏰ 17h00 (5 pm)
📍NOVA School of Law | Room 123
The debate on conscientious objection in healthcare is at a critical juncture in Portugal.
Recent data reveal that 30% of public hospitals do not provide voluntary termination of pregnancy services and that more than 80% of gynaecologists declare themselves conscientious objectors.
This reality creates systemic barriers that disproportionately affect access to healthcare for women, LGBTI+ people, and other marginalized groups, raising fundamental constitutional questions about equality, dignity, and non-discrimination.
The workshop will bring together renowned experts to examine this issue from a constitutional and intersectional perspective, contributing to the ongoing legislative debate on fundamental rights and access to healthcare in Portugal.
We will be honored to have you join us and look forward to your valuable contributions to this important discussion. We are counting on you!
