Ruth Garcês (1934–2006) was a Portuguese lawyer, magistrate and judge. She was the first female magistrate and the first female judge in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. She founded the Portuguese Association of Women Judges. Born in

Lourenço Marques Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088 ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

in 1934, Garcês (also written as Garcez and Garcêz) graduated in Law from the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

in 1956. After completing her studies, she returned to Mozambique, practicing there for two decades. After the Independence of Mozambique in 1975 she settled permanently in Portugal and, in 1977, began to work as a magistrate after a competitive exam that, prior to the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

in 1974, had only been open to men. In 1993, she was made a judge at the Lisbon Court of Appeal. A

Fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...

singer in her spare time, Garcês retired from the judiciary in 2005 after reaching the age limit of seventy. A year before her retirement she had competed for a position on the

Portuguese Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Justice ( pt, Supremo Tribunal de Justiça, , STJ) is the highest court of law in Portugal without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court. The judges of the STJ are referred to as "counselors" (''conselhei ...

( pt, Supremo Tribunal de Justiça). She attributed her failure to gain a seat to the practice of giving preference to “judges who served political power”. That year, she published the book ''Eu Juiz Me Confesso'', which developed this theme of the relationship between politics and justice. In 2005 she was awarded the

Order of Liberty The Order of Liberty, or the Order of Freedom ( pt, Ordem da Liberdade), is a Portuguese honorific civil order that distinguishes relevant services to the cause of democracy and freedom, in the defense of the values of civilization and human di ...

( pt, Ordem da Liberdade) by the President of the Republic,

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th president of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. A member of the Socialist Party, a party which he led between 1989 an ...

. She died on 10 June 2006 at her home in

Porto de Mós Porto de Mós () is a town and a municipality of Estremadura province in Leiria District. It is in the Centro Region and the Pinhal Litoral subregion. The population in 2011 was 24,342, in an area of 261.83 km². There were archeologic find ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garces, Ruth 1934 births 2005 deaths Portuguese women lawyers 20th-century Portuguese judges 20th-century women lawyers People from Leiria District 21st-century Portuguese judges 21st-century women lawyers