With the aim of strengthening the knowledge of all practitioners in the legal field on fundamental rights issues, the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (CFJJ) is going to organise a seminar under the theme "The System of Fundamental Rights". This initiative will take place on October 15th in the Auditorium of the CFJJ, Rua Dr. Pedro José Lobo, n.° 1-3, Banco Luso Internacional building, 18th floor, between 5 pm and 7 pm. Integrated as part of the 2nd EU-Macao Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field, the seminar will feature as its keynote speaker Professor José Alberto de Melo Alexandrino, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. This event will be conducted in Portuguese with simultaneous translation to Cantonese. During the five daily sessions, which will take place until October 19th, the following topics will be discussed: 1. Introduction: the concept, value and function of the fundamental rights • Constitutional nations' concept of fundamental rights;
• The multidimensional value of fundamental rights;
• The function of fundamental rights;
• The requirements and overall provisions of fundamental rights;
• The definition of the subjects of the study. 2. Fundamental Rights System under the Macao Basic Law: specificities and approximation in a comparative legal context • The characteristics of the Macao's legal order;
• The distinctiveness of the Macao's legal order;
• The Basic Law as a Constitution in the functional sense;
• The uniqueness of the fundamental rights affirmed in Macao;
• The status and provisions of the fundamental rights and freedoms in the Basic Law. 3. The defining elements in Macao's System of Fundamental Rights • The fundamental options made by the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law;
• Joint Declaration as a baseline standard and reference for the Fundamental Rights System;
• Systematisation of the fundamental rights and freedoms in the Basic Law: The statutes of fundamental rights and the statutes involving fundamental rights;
Listed and disseminated rights in the Basic Law;
The principal content of the listed rights in the Basic Law;
• The openness of the Fundamental Rights System;
• The nature and function of the principle of inviolability of human dignity;
• Any unified system for fundamental rights?
• Elements for the composition of the Fundamental Rights System. 4. Definition and scope of the Fundamental Rights System • The principle of universality;
• The principle of equality;
• The principle of appropriateness;
• The principle of the protection of expectations;
• The principle of access to law and effective judicial oversight;
• The principle of direct applicability of the statutes of fundamental rights;
• The principle of constraint of public entities; • The principle of legal reservations;
• Amendment of the Basic Law to safeguard fundamental rights and freedom;
• Prohibition of restrictive "Ex post facto" laws. 5. The feasibility and complications of the protection of fundamental rights • The importance of the protection mechanism that existed until December 19, 1999;
• The protection function of the Joint Declaration;
• The protection function of the statutes of the international human rights law;
• Judicial protection;
• Non-judicial defensive mechanism. The 2nd EU-Macao Co-operation Programme in the Legal Field, which incorporates this workshop, has as its main objective the "Consolidation of the Macao Legal System" and will take place until December 2013. The execution of this Programme is coordinated by the Law Reform and International Law Bureau, with the participation of several other MSAR's entities and public departments, namely the Legal and Judicial Training Centre, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the Economic Services, the Financial Services Bureau and the Institute of European Studies of Macao.
