THE SPECIAL PROCESS OF TUTELAGE: ASSUMPTIONS, PROCEEDING AND IMMEDIACY

Abstract

The access to the law and to eff ective judicial protection is a constitutional principle that requires the State to ensure that citizens have the appropriate judicial procedures to achieve eff ective and rapid protection against threats or violations of their rights, freedoms and guarantees. Since 2013, with the civil procedure reform, the special procedure for the protection of personality has been the fi rst of the special procedures (article 878.º of CPC). This process, before Law No. 41/2013 of 26 June, was a process of voluntary jurisdiction with the designation of guardianship of personality, name and confidential correspondence, but now it is included in the list of special proceedings of contentious jurisdiction (article 879.º, number 5, of CPC). This is a process which aims to obtain, in a swift manner, the measures which appear to be concretely adequate to avoid the consummation of any threat or to cease the eff ects of an off ence that has been already committed. In addition, the process for the protection of personality provides itself the possibility of a provisional unappealable decision, subject to subsequent confirmation in the process itself. This text aims to analyse the procedural procedure of the special process
for the protection of personality in order to contribute to a better understanding of it, particularly regarding to its characteristics of urgency.