“The Shape of Law to Come” is a comprehensive project of thematic broad range that combines the following lines:
1. It’s a wonderful (digital) world: Law in a digital and technological society

2. Vulnerability and diversity: fundamental rights in context

3. Economic effects of family in the 21st century

4. Tax Evasion in Portugal: The Relationship between Taxpayers and Tax Authority

The technological developments of the last decades have deeply changed everyday life from the family and individual spheres into the professional and collective spheres. In many fields, the signs of this new age are clearly noticed and continuously challenge law. 

​In the last decades, there have been significant changes in family forms and in the legal framework applicable to them. As a consequence, it is important to reflect on the patrimonial component of family legal relations. Bearing in mind marital relationship, affiliation relationship and de facto union relationships, we will consider the signs of a persistent patrimonialisation of the family.

An increasingly large body of literature shows that taxpayers’ perception of tax authorities is an important factor in tax evasion. It is therefore necessary to examine how tax authorities are perceived by the Portuguese taxpayers in order to design the best policies to tackle tax evasion. 

Science has shown that what is at stake is not “saving the planet”, but rather ensuring the continued favourable state of the Earth System for humanity. That means that a planet beyond the favourable state cannot serve as our “Common Home”. Scientific knowledge has already identified the control variables that determine the state of this system, the so-called "Planet Boundaries", which define the Safe Operating Space for Humanity. This qualitative and quantitative space for security is intangible and non-territorial, and constitutes our real Global Common. 

Bibliometrics, assessments of scientific performance and, generally, the more or less objective or subjective methods of assessing the research work produced by legal professionals are topics that have recently preoccupied academia, research centers, researchers and postgraduate students. The importation of methods, formulas, and systems from the exact sciences into the world of legal research seems to be ineluctably imposed, and the need to adapt the way we have worked over many decades appears to be a reality with no way back.