Maria dos Prazeres Beleza
{{Short description|Portuguese jurist (born 1956)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Maria dos Prazeres Beleza
| honorific_suffix =
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| office =
| office1 = Vice President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Portugal
| term_start1 = 2018
| term_end1 = 2023
| primeminister1 =
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| successor1 =
| office2 = Member of the Supreme Court of Justice of Portugal
| term_start2 = 2006
| term_end2 = 2018
| primeminister2 =
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| successor2 =
| office3 = Member of the Constitutional Court
| term_start3 = 1998
| term_end3 = 2006
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1956
| birth_place = Coimbra, Portugal
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| children = 5
| parents =
| relatives = Teresa Pizarro Beleza (sister)
Leonor Beleza (sister)
| education =
| alma_mater = University of Lisbon
| occupation = Lawyer; Academic
| awards =
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}}
Maria dos Prazeres Beleza (born 1956) is a Portuguese judge and professor of law who served as vice-president of the Supreme Court of Justice between 2018 and 2023, the first woman to hold this position.{{cite news |title=Maria dos Prazeres Beleza é a primeira mulher eleita para vice presidente do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça |url=https://www.dn.pt/arquivo/diario-de-noticias/maria-dos-prazeres-beleza-e-a-primeira-mulher-eleita-para-vice-presidente-do-supremo-tribunal-de-justica-10086694.html |publisher=Diário de Notícias |date=25 October 2018}}
Early life and education
Beleza was born in Coimbra in 1956. Both of her parents were lawyers and her father taught at the University of Coimbra. Her family moved to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, when she was three. She is the sister of Leonor Beleza, president of the Champalimaud Foundation, and Teresa Pizarro Beleza, the first woman to head the Faculty of Law at NOVA University Lisbon.{{cite news |last1=Neves |first1=Céu |title="De dois para três filhos deixa de haver mãos e colos, depois é um bocado igual" |url=https://www.dn.pt/arquivo/diario-de-noticias/de-dois-para-tres-filhos-deixa-de-haver-maos-e-colos-depois-e-um-bocado-igual-12712519.html |access-date=10 January 2025 |publisher=Diário de Notícias |date=12 September 2020}}
Beleza studied law at the University of Lisbon from 1973 and, while at university, presented a television programme for children called Janela Grande (Big Window). Her education was disrupted by the Carnation Revolution that overthrew the Estado Novo dictatorship in April 1974 and she subsequently retook some of the courses at the Catholic University of Portugal before returning to the University of Lisbon to graduate.
Career
Beleza taught civil procedure and civil law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, at the Catholic University and at the Lusíada University. In 1987 she joined the legal centre of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, while continuing to teach, even after she had been appointed director of the centre in 1989. In 1998, she became a member of the Constitutional Court reducing her teaching to just one class, on civil procedure, at the Catholic University, while serving as the chair of the civil procedure department. In 2006 she became one of the 60 judges in the Supreme Court of Justice in the category of "jurist of merit", the first member to be appointed in this category. Only the second woman to become a member of the Supreme Court, she became president of the 7th Section of the court, which handles non-criminal cases. She was elected by her fellow judges to be one of the two vice presidents of the Supreme Court in October 2018.{{cite web |title=Maria dos Prazeres Beleza |url=https://www.stj.pt/estrutura/maria-dos-prazeres-beleza-2/ |website=Supreme Court of Justice |access-date=10 January 2025}}{{cite web |title=Maria dos Prazeres Beleza |url=https://fd.lisboa.ucp.pt/pt-pt/pessoa/maria-dos-prazeres-beleza |website=Faculty of Law: Catholic University of Portugal |access-date=10 January 2025}}{{cite web |title=Católica: Maria dos Prazeres Beleza distinguida com o Prémio Alumni |url=https://www.udireito.com/eventos/catolica-maria-dos-prazeres-beleza-distinguida-com-o-premio-alumni/ |website=U Direito |access-date=10 January 2025}} In 2021 she was one of three candidates for the position of the president of the court but came second to Henrique Luís de Brito Araújo in the ballot.{{cite news |title=Três conselheiros disputam presidência do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça no dia 18 |url=https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2021-05-06-Tres-conselheiros-disputam-presidencia-do-Supremo-Tribunal-de-Justica-no-dia-18-43442ef1 |access-date=10 January 2025 |publisher=Expresso |date=6 May 2021}}{{cite news |title=Henrique Araújo é o novo presidente do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça |url=https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2021-05-18-Henrique-Araujo-e-o-novo-presidente-do-Supremo-Tribunal-de-Justica-25c9d050 |access-date=10 January 2025 |publisher=Expresso |date=18 May 2021}}
Recognition
Beleza was made alumnus of the year by the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University in 2015. In 2023 she was awarded the gold medal of the Portuguese Bar Association.{{cite web |title=ice-Presidente do STJ homenageada no IX Congresso dos Advogados Portugueses |url=https://www.stj.pt/noticias/hoomenagem-ix-congresso-advogados-portugueses/ |website=Supreme Court of Justice |access-date=10 January 2025}}
Personal life
Beleza married at the age of 23. She has five children, none of whom is a lawyer.
References
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Category:University of Lisbon alumni
Category:Academic staff of the Catholic University of Portugal
Category:20th-century Portuguese lawyers
Category:21st-century Portuguese lawyers
Category:20th-century women lawyers