Maria Constanca Dias Urbano de Sousa is Professor and Director of the Law Department of the Universidade Autonoma de Lisboa. From 2000 until 2002 she was the legal advisor for the Minister of the Interior of Portugal on immigration, asylum and European issues. Since 2003 she is Professor of "Aliens Law" at the Law faculty of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
 

Her principal research areas are Immigration Law, Asylum Law and the area of Freedom, Security and Justice of the European Union.

Her most recent and important publications include:

• "O terceiro pilar da União Europeia" (The third pillar of the European Union), Via Universitária, May 1999.
• "Os prinípios estruturantes do Direiti Comunitário de criação jurisprudencial" (The fundamental principles of Community law developed by the European Court of Justice), Colecção Divulgação do Direito Communitário, Gabinete do Direito Europeu do Ministério da Justiça, Lisbon 2000.
• "La Régularisation des étrangers illégaux au Portugal" (The regularisation of illegal immigrants in Protugal), Regularisation of Illegal Immigrants in the European Union, Brussels 2000.
• "A protecção temporária de refugiados" (Temporary Protection of Refugees), Themis no. 3, 2001.
• "O Novo Terceiro Pilar da União Europeia" (The "new" Third Pillar of the European Union), Estudos de Homenagem a Cunha Rodrigues, Coimbra 2001.
• "The Portuguese Immigration Law", International Journal of Migration and Law, no. 1, 2002.
• "Le régime juridique de la protection subsidiaire au Portugal" (The legal regime of subsidiary protection in Portugal), Subsidiary Protection of Refugees in the European Union: complementing the Geneva Convention? La protection subsidiaire des réfugiés dans l'Union Européenne: un complément à la Convention de Genève?, Bruylant, Brussels (to be published in June 2002).
• "Asylum and Integration of refugees in Portugal", AWR-Bulletin, 3-4/2000 (April 2003).
• "A Cooperação Policial e Judiciária em matéria penal na União Europeia: Evolução e Perspectivas", in Polícia e Justiça, n.º 2, 2003, pp. 9-53.
• "L'émergence du droit européen de l'immigration et de l'asile",(Emergence of European Immigration and Asylum Law) Galileu - Law Review, n.º 2, 2003, pp. 139-164.
• "O Direito de Asilo", in Janus 2004.
• "A vigência do Direito Comunitário na ordem jurídica nacional", Janus 2004.
• The Emergence of a European Asylum Policy" (Coord.),Bruylant,2004.