Revista Jurídica Portucalense

The Special Thematic Dossier Human Rights under Pressure: Global Challenges and Local Tensions brings together a set of contributions that examine how contemporary legal systems respond to situations of crisis, structural vulnerability, and profound technological and social transformation.

Rather than approaching human rights from a single doctrinal perspective, this dossier adopts a problem-oriented and cross-cutting view, focusing on concrete areas where the protection of human dignity is placed under particular strain. The published articles address, among other issues, restrictions of rights and freedoms in emergency contexts, structural and collective forms of litigation, civil liability and accountability for serious wrongdoing, the impact of artificial intelligence on labour and disability, the need for effective human oversight in clinical and technological decision-making, and the reconfiguration of labour law in times of sectoral and economic crisis.

Taken together, these contributions illustrate how global standards of human rights protection are tested and reshaped by local legal, institutional, and social realities, and how law is required to operate under conditions of uncertainty, risk, and accelerated change. Human rights are thus treated not only as a normative horizon, but also as a practical and contested field of governance, responsibility, and institutional design.

The dossier remains open and is currently being expanded, as additional manuscripts are under evaluation and may be integrated into this thematic collection as they complete the peer-review process.