E se Temis não for cega?

: a consideração da cultura nos crimes culturalmente motivados

Abstract

The text paves the way for the tutelage offered to Culture by Law. If, on the one hand, it is constitutionally protected, on the other, Criminal Law is pressured to disregard it when raised as a defence. This Law-Culture confrontation will guide the work written below. As an example, FGM will be discussed, its legal context, its motivations, the practicality rate, and the way the court faces, in our view, these instigating circumstances. This practice is particularly secretive and often goes unpunished, perhaps due to ignorance or, who knows, the disregard around it. It is often ridiculed, literally criminalized, without any sort of assumption. However, it is important to warn that it will be scrutinised and analysed on a case-by-case basis in order to understand how the Law deals with it. At the same time, a more in-depth study will be carried out on the cultural motivations that precede the practice of a crime such as FGM, raising the question of whether we can speak of a cultural defence that, if prevented, raises the issue of cultural preference. Finally, there is a discrepancy between the diplomas, which reflects the coldness of the Law in dimensions that are unknown. There is a clear violation of the Right to Culture and the Right to a defence that considers the person as a whole. Culture is clearly disregarded, denied and even intentionally degraded by the Law. Perhaps Justice should not be as blind as it has always intended to be.

Date of Award	16 Sept 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Freitas (Supervisor)