Registering the theme of the dissertation is a legal requirement. At the Faculdade de Direito, it is the responsibility of the Academic Division to send the respective information to the Registo Nacional de Teses de Doutoramento  em Curso (National Ongoing PhD Theses Register), which was established by Decree-Law No. 52/2002, 2nd March, and maintained by the Direção-Geral de Estatísticas da Educação e Ciência (Directorate-Genral of Education and Science Statistcs). The Academic Division collects the information necessary for this task from the application that the PhD student submits, addressed to the President of the Scientific Council, c/c to the Coordinator of the 3rd cycle, proposing the theme of the dissertation and the choice of supervisor, indicating the specialisation chosen for public examinations and the individual research programme. The PhD student is not required to do anything else.
N.B. The inclusion of themes on the Registo Nacional de Teses de Doutoramento em Curso (National Ongoing PhD Theses Register) database by the Direção-Geral de Estatísticas da Educação e Ciência (Directorate-General of Education and Science Statistics) is not automatic and it is common for there to be a delay between the Academic Division sending the information and it appearing on the Registo Nacional de Teses de Doutoramento em Curso.