The purpose of Legal Fundamentals for Social Work is to learn structural legal concepts, study the fundamental rights foreseen in Portuguese Constitutional Law, and analyse several specific legal regimes related to Social Work that implement said fundamental rights. In a nutshell, the aim is to have the students understand the role of Law for social work.

The main purpose is to provide the students with elementary legal skills, in order to, for instance, construe legal provisions, identifying the respective nature, as well as the respective position, from a formal and substantial perspective, within the Portuguese legal framework. It is also an objective of the course that students become familiar with the structural norms that regulate family law, the protection of minors, adoption, juvenile delinquency, and the protection of the elderly.