The Council of State in the Ancien Regime and Liberalism – Portugal, Spain and France

Judite Gonçalves de Freitas

The result of an original research on the evolution dynamics of the formation and consolidation of the Council of State from the Modern Era to the end of the political Liberalism of the 19th century, this book seeks to fill a gap in the Portuguese bibliography. This is a pioneering study on the profile of that body in three geographically contiguous countries – Portugal, Spain and France –, which maintained close political and cultural affinities. The analysis methodology combines the perspective of comparative politics with the interpretation of legal sources (rules, regulations, fundamental laws and administrative codes). In this context, the impact of the modern governmental forms of the Ancien Regime on the process of political affirmation of the Council of State is analyzed.

At the same time, it analyses the implications of the regime's liberalization process on the State Council's new political-constitutional life cycle. The conditions for the structuring of the modern political-constitutional system (doctrine of the separation of powers, political currents, administrative systems, Governement policies), the issue of the dual and single administrative jurisdiction system and the political evolution of liberal regimes towards parliamentarization and democratization, which conditioned the political life of the State Council, constitute important analytical aspects of this study.

This work ends with an empirical and original approach to the political-administrative activity of the Council of State in Portugal throughout the liberal period, drawing innovative conclusions from it.

Note: Due to publishing rights, only the first pages of the work are available. The book is available at CEPESE's Library.