Paper short abstract:

Our talk will focus on the nature and the results of the “pluralistic” legal project assumed by Portuguese metropolitan government when Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 was enforced in colonial territories.

Paper long abstract:

When Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 was enforced in colonial territories in Africa, the right to be judged according to their consuetudinary private and criminal law was recognized to a large set of native communities. This law - the usos e costumes -, was deemed to be enforced by ordinary or special colonial courts, and headed by colonial judges or administrative officials, sometimes with the support of native authorities. Being aware of the difficulties these officials would face while applying norms which they hardly knew about, the metropolitan government gave instructions to codify those usos e costumes, in order to provide colonial officials with a written record of the native law they were expected to use.

Our talk will focus the nature of this "pluralistic" project assumed by Portuguese metropolitan government, strongly influenced by previous representations about the character of native communities, namely their general backwardness. "Usos e costumes" were the opposite of the "civilized" legal culture and their recognition was in tension with universalistic ideas associate with the codification of law and "assimilationist" ideas associated with the civilizing mission, a problem that needed to be solved by the doctrine.. We also intend to make some reflections on the way the "usos e costumes" were applied, focusing on the equivocal aspects involved in their application.