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Structure and functioning of Cape Verde's legal system
How justice is organised in Cape Verde: the Constitution and the separation of powers, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Justice and first-degree courts, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Bar Association and access to justice.
Cape Verde’s legal system reflects its history: a civil-law order inherited from Portugal and adapted to the island state that took shape after independence in 1975. This guide describes, in general terms, how that system is structured and how it works: where the force of law comes from, who applies it, and how citizens can access justice.
The Constitution and the separation of powers
The Constitution of the Republic of Cape Verde was adopted in 1992 and revised in 1995, 1999 (Law 1/V/99) and 2010 (Constitutional Law 1/VII/2010, of 3 May). The consolidated text is available on the National Assembly portal, which warns that it does not replace the edition published in the Official Gazette.
The Constitution establishes the separation and interdependence of the organs of sovereignty: the President of the Republic, the National Assembly, the Government and the courts. From this architecture flows the independence of the courts in exercising judicial function: when deciding cases, the courts are subject only to the Constitution and the law.
The single government portal and the Government site publish executive acts and official communications; enacted legislation is published in the Electronic Official Gazette, the primary source of all normative production.
The Constitutional Court
Cape Verde has an autonomous Constitutional Court that administers justice in matters of a constitutional nature. Among other functions, it reviews the unconstitutionality of norms and resolves questions of a constitutional nature, guaranteeing the conformity of the rest of the legal order with the Constitution. Institutional information is available on the Constitutional Court site.
The Supreme Court of Justice and first-degree courts
The Supreme Court of Justice is the supreme court in the Cape Verdean judicial hierarchy, standing above the first-degree courts, which comprise common and special jurisdictions, including the judicial jurisdictions and the administrative, fiscal, customs and military ones. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Justice ensures the uniformity of case law and reviews the decisions under appeal.
The organisation, composition, competence and functioning of the judicial courts and of the fiscal and customs courts are now governed by Law 61/X/2025, of 21 August, of the National Assembly, which also enshrines the general principles of the administration of justice (Official Gazette 78, Series I, of 21 August 2025).
Institutional information of the supreme court is available on the Supreme Court of Justice site.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office
The Public Prosecutor’s Office represents the State, promotes criminal proceedings and defends the interests the law entrusts to it. It is an organ with its own statute, independent of the courts and of the Government, headed by the Prosecutor-General of the Republic. Day-to-day judicial policy, the registries and the modernisation of the sector belong to the Ministry of Justice, whose portal brings together institutional information about the sector.
The Bar Association
Advocacy is a regulated profession. The Bar Association of Cape Verde is the institution that disciplines access to and the exercise of advocacy, on the basis of Decree-Law 51/2000, of 4 December, which created the Order, and of the Statutes approved by Law 91/VI/2006, of 9 January. Enrollment in the Order is a condition for practising law; the Order represents the interests of the profession and oversees its members’ compliance with their deontological duties.
Access to justice and legal aid
Access to justice includes, for those without means, State support for the costs of proceedings. The current legal-aid regime rests on Law 35/III/88, of 18 June, as amended by Decree-Law 195/91, of 31 December, and its implementing rules. In March 2026, Parliament approved in general a bill establishing a new general regime of access to justice; the Government publishes the progress of this legislative process.
Modernisation of the justice system
Like other public services, justice services have been the subject of modernisation and digitalisation initiatives, tracked on the Ministry of Justice portal and in Government communications. These initiatives do not change the substantive rules described here; they aim to shorten timelines and bring services closer to the citizen.
About this page
This guide is informational and does not constitute legal advice. The text was verified on 8 October 2026 against the official sources listed in the site’s source register; where full verification was not possible (notably the full text of Law 61/X/2025), the description stays at the level of the principles confirmed by the sources. For a concrete case, consult a lawyer enrolled in the Bar Association of Cape Verde.