Narana Coissoró

Narana Sinai Coissoró GCIP GOC GCIH (3 October 1931 – 29 August 2026) was a Portuguese lawyer, academic and politician of the CDS – People's Party.

Born in Goa in Portuguese India, he moved to Portugal at the age of 18 to study law at the University of Coimbra. He sat in the Assembly of the Republic for eight legislatures, led his party's parliamentary group for thirteen years between 1978 and 1991, and served as Vice-President of the Assembly from 1999 to 2005.

Early life and education Coissoró was born in Goa, then part of Portuguese India, on 3 October 1931. He came to Portugal at 18, intending to study law and practise as a lawyer.

Academic career Coissoró practised law and was a retired professor of the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (ISCSP – Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences), at the time part of the Technical University of Lisbon. He presided over the school's Institute of the Orient (Instituto do Oriente), a research unit devoted to Asian studies, from its creation in 1989 until 2018.

In April 2018 the ISCSP and the Institute of the Orient held a ceremony in his honour, granting him the title of honorary president of the institute and the school's Medal of Merit, and naming its documentation centre after him.

Other activities Coissoró headed the Casa de Goa, the association of the Goan community in Lisbon, until 2014, when he was succeeded by Edgar Valles.

Personal life and death Coissoró was married to Teresa da Costa Brandão, born at Caldas da Rainha, with whom he had a daughter. The party praised the rigour of his thinking and the firmness of his convictions, and linked his career to the establishment of Christian democracy in Portugal.

The 2021 Grand Cross was presented at a lunch held for his 90th birthday at the Casa de Goa in Lisbon, by the former CDS leader José Ribeiro e Castro, acting on a warrant signed by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Selected works Alguns aspectos da paisagem goesa (1955) O regime das terras em Moçambique (1964) As instituições de direito costumeiro negro-africano (1964) Os princípios fundamentais do direito ultramarino português (1966) História de um escândalo político (2008)