José Luís Da Cruz Vilaça

Sports, Media & Entertainment

Energy & Natural Resources

Technology, Data & Artificial Intelligence

José Luís da Cruz Vilaça is a Partner in the European Union Law, Competition, and Foreign Investment area.

He develops his activity in European Union Law and Competition Law, with extensive experience in EU law and competition law matters, as well as issues related to the European Convention on Human Rights and the protection of fundamental rights.

Throughout his career, he has held academic positions such as tenured or invited professor at various universities in Portugal and abroad, and has authored close to 200 articles and books published by national and international publishers. He held political positions as a Member of the Assembly of the Republic and member of the Portuguese Government between 1980 and 1982, having served as Secretary of State for European Integration, conducting the negotiations for Portugal's accession to the European Communities in 1981/82.

Following Portugal's accession, he held judicial functions: as Advocate General (1989–1996), first President of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (currently the General Court of the EU), and subsequently Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union (2012–2018), where he was elected President of Chamber. As a lawyer, he was a founding partner and coordinator of the European and Competition Law department at PLMJ, and in 2019 founded Cruz Vilaça Advogados.

He has been part of Antas da Cunha Ecija since 2025.

President of APDEN – Portuguese Association of Energy Law (2019-present).

President of FIDE – International Federation of European Law (2016-2018).

President of APDE – Portuguese Association for European Law (2006-2018).

Founding member of Portuguese Competition Lawyers Circle (2009-present).

Member of Portuguese Bar Association. European and Competition Law specialist.

Coordinator and author of numerous publications, including, “EU Law and Integration: Twenty years of judicial application of EU law”, Hart Publishing, 2014

Author of close to 200 articles and books published by national and international publishers

Decorated by the Heads of State of Portugal, France, Italy and Luxembourg

Universidade de Coimbra

Law Degree

Universidade de Coimbra

Master's in Political and Economic Sciences

Université de Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne

Doctorate in International Economics

Band 3 and Senior Statesperson, Competition/EU Law

Chambers and Partners

Tier 3, EU and Competition

The Legal 500

Portugal