Xavier, Rita Lobo2015-09-162015-09-162015XAVIER, Rita Lobo – Autonomy and private ordering in Portuguese family law. In SWENNEN, Frederik (ed.) - Contractualisation of Family Law - Global Perspectives. London: Springer, 2015. ISBN 978-3-319-17229-3. Cap. 12, p. 255-269http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/18262This chapter describes substantive and procedural Portuguese Family Law focusing on autonomy and private ordering and emphasizes that state intervention in family relations is increasing, mainly regarding children protection, criminalization of domestic violence and social security protection of cohabitants. According to Portuguese Law domestic contracts and family agreements have no binding effect; nevertheless family mediation is encouraged as well as settlements on divorce or separation.engbook part10.1007/978-3-319-17229-3_12