Decree in Force Today Bars State Lawyers From Appealing Rulings That Match the Government's Own Binding Legal Positions
Decreto-Lei 207/2026 lets the Prime Minister approve legal positions that bind every public body, and tells the State's lawyers not to drag out cases or appeal rulings that match them. No determination exists yet.
A decree in force from today gives the Prime Minister the power to settle a disputed point of law once for the whole State, and tells the government's own lawyers to stop appealing court rulings that match the position the State has adopted. Decreto-Lei n.º 207/2026 was published in the Diário da República (the official gazette) on Monday, 2 November, and takes effect the following day.
The changes sit in the law that governs the Centro Jurídico do Estado (CEJURE, the State Legal Centre), the body that advises the government and represents the central administration in court. The decree was approved by the Council of Ministers on 23 July, promulgated by President António José Seguro on 28 October and countersigned by the Prime Minister the next day.
Binding positions for every public body
The decree creates a new Conselho de Consultores (Council of Advisers) inside the CEJURE, made up of the centre's director, deputy directors and legal advisers. When a minister or the head of a public body asks for it, the council can propose a "binding determination" on a legal question that matters to the State's dealings with private individuals and companies.
Once the Prime Minister approves a determination, after hearing the ministers responsible for the area, it binds every body of the State's direct and indirect administration in its exact terms. That covers ministries and directorates-general as well as public institutes such as the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum).
The determinations can reach backwards. The decree says public bodies may be required to correct conduct they have already adopted, including decisions that are being challenged in pending lawsuits, by declaring them void, annulling them or putting them right. A determination stops being binding if following it would mean committing a crime.
No more appeals for the sake of it
The decree also sets new rules for how the CEJURE argues in court. In its own words, the centre must refrain from defending positions that "prolong disputes in an unjustified way", in particular by appealing court decisions whose content matches an approved determination.
It goes further when a case is plainly lost. Where the claimant is "evidently" right, the CEJURE must propose that the public body annuls the decision under challenge, takes the decision it was obliged to take, or does whatever the claimant was asking for.
Where there is no determination on a point, the CEJURE's director decides how the State argues the case, after consulting the body whose decision is in dispute.
What it means for residents
For now, nothing changes in any individual case. No determination has been issued yet, and the new council must first approve its own rules of procedure at its first meeting. It will meet twice a month, and its members are not paid extra for sitting on it.
The decree does not say which questions will be settled first, and it leaves the choice to ministers and the heads of public bodies, who must ask for a determination before one can be proposed. Immigration is one area where the State's position in court has been contested: appeal judges are split on whether AIMA may refuse a residence permit on the strength of a Schengen alert alone. Whether that, or anything else, becomes the subject of a determination is not yet known.
The decree is part of the government's wider reform of administrative justice, which the same Council of Ministers meeting took forward on 23 July. That package proposed specialised immigration and asylum courts and a fairer spread of AIMA lawsuits across the country, and a fast-track for disputes with the State worth up to 15,000 euros, according to the government's communiqué. Those are separate measures and are not part of this decree.
What else the decree changes
- AIMA management pay: the agency's board is paid on the scale for public managers of group B companies. Its department directors are now paid 80 percent of a board member's base salary, its service directors 70 percent and its unit coordinators 65 percent. The preamble says middle managers' pay did not reflect "the special complexity" of AIMA's work, given how migration has changed.
- School grade appeals: appeals against decisions on requests to review a pupil's assessment now go to the Instituto de Educação, Qualidade e Avaliação (EduQA, the Institute for Education, Quality and Assessment). An appeal already sent to another body is forwarded automatically, and the family is told. The original filing date still counts, so nobody misses a deadline because of the switch.
- Government drivers: drivers for ministers and the Presidency, and PSP officers who protect members of the government, receive 25 percent of the daily travel allowance for a meal when they work past 20:00 or on a weekend or public holiday. This part takes effect one month after the decree.
- The decree also adjusts the rules of the public shared-services agency ESPAP, the Agência para o Clima (Climate Agency) and the two environmental funds it manages.
