The Eurozone Crisis and the Rise of the Portuguese Constitutional Court

The story of how the Eurozone crisis was particularly harsh on Portugal is a well told one. The most visible side of this story is the austerity policies commanded by reactions to the crisis, particularly following the international loan agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB). The least visible but equally impacting aspect relates to the broad structural reforms requested by the Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Policy Conditionality (MoU) aiming at transforming the structure of the country’s economy and competitiveness. During the Eurozone crisis, the Portuguese Constitutional Court (PCC) rose to stardom by preventing or invalidating restrictive measures that were either directly requested by the MoU or enacted in order to abide with its goals. More than often this national court brought international and EU institutions to the brink of a panic attack. Debtor countries’ courts had never dared to push the integration process this far