Paulo Guerra

- Juiz Desembargador - Tribunal da Relação de Coimbra

Paulo Guerra holds a Law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra (1981–1986).
He has served as a Judge since 1988 and is currently an Appellate Judge at the Court of Appeal of Coimbra.
From 2014 to 2021, he was the Deputy Director of the Centre for Judicial Studies (CEJ), on judicial secondment.
He is the author of several legal works in the field of Family Law and Children’s Rights.
He lectured at the Centre for Judicial Studies (CEJ) for six years in this area, three of which as Coordinator of the Department.
He also served as Secretary Judge of the High Council for the Judiciary (2004–2007).
He has been a speaker at over 700 seminars, conferences, and congresses, and a guest lecturer at several Portuguese universities in postgraduate and master’s programs, as well as open lectures.
He has delivered around 80 training sessions in Portugal, Spain, France, Macau, and Mozambique.
He represented the Portuguese State, appointed by the Government, during Portugal’s Presidency of the European Union (July–December 2007), chairing in Brussels the EU Civil Law Committee Working Group on the regulation concerning maintenance obligations (Regulation No. 4/2009 of 18 December 2008, on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions, and cooperation in matters relating to maintenance obligations).
He also represented Portugal (and subsequently coordinated the positions of the 27 EU Member States) in the negotiations leading to the new Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, and the corresponding Protocol on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations, held in The Hague from 5 to 23 November 2007, under the Hague Conference on Private International Law. He signed both the Convention and the Protocol on 23 November 2007, together with the Ambassador of Portugal to The Hague.
He is a member of the Centre for Family Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra and of the Permanent Observatory on Adoption (Coimbra).
He defines himself as a worker for childhood.