Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

159for Brazilian Portuguese). The English equivalent of acórdão is judgment or decision. Allacórdãos were downloaded from the freely available online database of the Instituto dasTecnologias de Informação na Justiça (Eng. Institute of Information Technology in Law)from the Department of Justice in Portugal. This database contains the decisions producedby different types of courts in Portugal.4.1.2.1. FunctionAn acórdão is a decision reached by a high instance court in Portugal on the review of adecision reached by a lower court or on other legal matters eligible to be heard by that highinstance court. An acórdão is not only written for the benefit of the parties involved in acase, it is also written for the benefit of legal profession, other judges as well as appellateCourts. Acórdãos may set a precedent but, in the Portuguese legal system, there is no rulemaking the acórdão binding on lower courts.4.1.2.2. Institutional contextIn Portugal, judicial courts are organized into three degrees or instances, to whichcorresponds a specific jurisdiction area: the Supremo Tribunal de Justiça de Portugal has anational jurisdiction; the Tribunais da Relação are the second instance courts or courts ofappeal; the Tribunais de Primeira Instância are the courts of first instance. As a rule, highinstance courts are called to when the unsuccessful party in a lawsuit is not contented withthe decision of a lower instance court decision. The unsuccessful party asks for a newassessment of the matter and files an appeal to a higher instance court.All court decisions of the Portuguese corpus were produced by judges working forthe Supremo Tribunal de Justiça de Portugal (henceforth, STJ). The STJ is the senior bodyin the hierarchy of courts of law without prejudice of the Constitutional‘s Court‘s owncompetence. It is composed of civil, criminal and social chambers (Secções) and it can