Portuguese Civil Code

The current Portuguese Civil Code was approved on 26 November 1966 and entered into force on 1 June 1967, replacing the previous Portuguese civil code of 1868. Its text was prepared by a commission of law professors whose final phase was presided over and substantially reshaped by Professor Antunes Varela, which is why the code is often called Varela's Civil Code, in distinction from Seabra's Civil Code, the 1868 predecessor whose drafting commission had been presided over by the Viscount of Seabra exactly a century earlier. Because of his important contributions, the code is also sometimes referred to as Vaz Serra's Civil Code, particularly by scholars at the University of Lisbon's Faculty of Law.