Environment

Assunção Cristas joined VdA in 2022 as Of Counsel in charge of Environment and the ESG Integrated Services Platform, having led several environmental operations.

Assunção is especially interested in legislative architecture and legislative evaluation, the interaction of the law with other fields of knowledge and its role in the construction of public policies. Her current research focuses on sustainability in general and the sea in particular.

She co-coordinates the Direito e Economia do Mar – A Governação do Mar [Law and Economics of the Sea - The Governance of the Sea] Masters course, at Nova School of Law, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

She is also the Director of NOVA Ocean, a Knowledge Centre set up in 2021 and dedicated to research of the sea.Assunção is a member of the World Economic Forum expert network for ocean and sustainability issues.

She was Minister for Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning between 2011 and 2013, and Minister for Agriculture and the Sea between 2013 and 2015, in the 19th and 20th Governments, respectively.

Assunção is a former Director of the Gabinete de Política Legislativa e Planeamento do Ministério da Justiça [Ministry of Justice’s Office of Legislative Policy and Planning], where she was involved in countless legislative production processes both at the national level and as part of the cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries.

Admitted to the Portuguese Bar Association.

Member of the World Economic Forum expert network.

Of Counsel, Head of Environment

Law Degree from Universidade de Lisboa Law School.

PhD in Private Law from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Law School.