Isabel Jalles was born in 1949 in Lisbon and she graduated in Law from the universities of Lisbon and of Coimbra in 1972. The interaction of economy and law was at the centre of her interests.
After graduating Isabel Jalles started an academic career as a lecturer at the Law Department of the University of Coimbra where she taught international private law. In Coimbra she was one of the founding members of the „Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and Economy” (Centro Interdisciplinar de Direito e Economia) and of the journal „Revista de Direito e Economia”, which both still exist today.
She returned to the Law Department at the University of Lisbon in 1977 where she taught international Business Law until 1984. In Lisbon she built up the Portuguese section of the International Federation of European Law (FIDE) and founded the journal „Assuntos Europeus”. She was the first director of the Law Department at the „Centro de Estudos Europeus” at the Catholic University.
Isabel Jalles also held appointments at the Max-Planck-Institutes in Hamburg, Heidelberg and Munich and at the Department for European Studies at The University of Cologne. She was alumna of the „Salzburger Seminar für amerikanische Studien”, visiting professor at the University of Louvain and at the „Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique” in Paris. Her wide-ranging bibliography was published in leading journals and by international publishing houses.
The Lawyer
Isabel Jalles was admitted to the Portuguese Bar in 1977. Since 1986 she focussed on Business Law and problems of international law. She founded the „law boutique”, specialized on European issues to which she contributed with her broad knowledge and her professional network abroad. She was the first Portuguese lawyer admitted to the European Court of Justice. Isabel Jalles passed away on the 24th of November 2006.