The role of the Public Prosecutors Offices in the access of citizens to law and justice in labour and family conflicts: a study case at the courts of Coimbra
To assure the access of citizens to law and justice is to guarantee that they know their rights and do not resign when they feel offended or when they don't have the conditions to overcome the costs and barriers to access the necessary procedures to solve the conflict. To prevail over these barriers in the family and miners and labour conflicts is, in this sense, one of the most delicate and complex situations. The fragility of the non-governmental organizations for the promotion of rights, in these areas, and the reduced capacity of the state agencies in fulfill all the needs, lead us to question the actual model of access of citizens to courts in these two areas. The research aims to achieve a two level analysis. In the one hand, and as a framework, the study of the tendencies and international guide-lines in the promotion and defence of the rights of citizens in the conflicts in the area of family and miners and labour, through the analysis of the official documents from the international institutions, such as European Union or the Council of Europe, and the existing systems in several countries. In the other hand, the study of the Portuguese society, through the analysis of the legal transformations, since the 25th of April 1974, in the system of access to law and justice (official and non official, formal and informal, public, semi-public and private). Inside our system, we choose, as a study-case, the role and action of the Public Prosecutor’s offices in the Court of Family and Miners and in the Court of Labour, both in Coimbra, as inductor and promoter of the judicial mechanisms of access and protection of labour and family and miners rights.