The Permanent Observatory on Portuguese Justice (Observatório Permanente da Justiça Portuguesa, OPJ) was created in 1996 within the Centre for Social Studies (Centro de Estudos Sociais, CES) of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, through a contract with the Portuguese Ministry of Justice.

The OPJ continues the research work carried out by the Centre for Social Studies for the Centre for Legal Studies from 1990 to 1996 on the working of courts of law and on Portuguese people’s perception and assessment of law and justice.

The main objective of the Observatory is to monitor and analyse the working of the courts and other related institutions and activities, such as the police, prisons, social reintegration services, expertise and forensic medicine, the legal profession, and alternative modes of dispute resolution. It assesses reforms that have been introduced, suggests new ones, and conducts comparative studies inside and outside the European Union. Moreover, the OPJ carries out surveys on law and justice.