The recent statute of limitation ruling concerning the infringements attributed to Eng.º Jorge Jardim Gonçalves by the Bank of Portugal has led to a public opinion outcry demanding for two amendments to correct an already flawed Portuguese criminal system, namely the reduction of the applicable statute of limitation and the restriction on the use of appealing proceedings.

These superficial reactions to deep structural issues of the Portuguese criminal system tend to hide, in my humble opinion – and I have been saying it for years now - the real and relevant issues that shape the Portuguese legal system. In the last years and even in the last decades, there has been consistent action by the legislative branch to hinder or relevantly restrict the use of appealing proceedings. Every participant in the Portuguese legal system knows it and it is easily verifiable by virtue of a “then and now” exercise.

However, despite the increasing restrictions in the appealing proceedings, the public opinion has continued to demand additional restrictions to civil rights – of a criminal nature – still considered by some as too extensive.

On the other hand, in relation to the statute of limitation issue, I have already said in previous occasions, jestingly, that the Portuguese criminal systems could even foresee a both renewable and retroactive statute of limitation period of one hundred years.

In my opinion, both the statute of limitation and the appealing proceedings are not the issues of the Portuguese judiciary system. The former have period thresholds that are balanced and the latter still grant a minimum level of legal protection.

Either we comprehend this reality, or we will fail any approach to reform the legal system, jeopardising the Rule of Law which we, as a Country, have fought for. Hence, I would advise that whenever someone makes a stand on central legal issues, it should leave any demagoguery aside.