page_title: Caetano Luís Pequito de Almeida Sampaio
section_title: Early life and academic career
hierarchical_section_title: Caetano Luís Pequito de Almeida Sampaio / Early life and academic career
caption_attribution_description: English: Tower and old building of Coimbra University Italiano: Torre e antico palazzo dell'Università di Coimbra
context_page_description: Luís de Almeida Sampaio is a Portuguese career diplomat. He currently serves as the Permanent Representative of Portugal in the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO.
context_section_description: Luís de Almeida Sampaio was born and raised in Porto, Portugal, to Maria Luísa de Almeida Sampaio (née Marques Pequito), a medical doctor and to Caetano Pinto de Almeida Sampaio, a civil servant with a long time career in social security and health public services.
  His childhood was mainly spent in his native city where he attended primary and secondary school. During his primary school years he attended Escola Particular do Centro Social e Paroquial de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, a period he often mentions as being responsible for some of the most important things he has learned throughout his life, particularly due to his teacher, Aníbal Rocha.
  
  He started his secondary studies in Liceu Alexandre Herculano in Porto before being transferred to Liceu António Nobre during the time of the Carnation Revolution in 1974.  That was a particularly important period for Luís de Almeida Sampaio because, as a young man interested in politics, he was one of the founders of Juventude Centrista (a predecessor of the current Juventude Popular or People's Youth) in Porto.
  He went on to graduate from the University of Coimbra in Portugal in 1982 with a Law Degree. During the years spent there, Luís de Almeida Sampaio established a close and lasting friendship with a prominent Jesuit priest, António Vaz Pinto (who later, alongside another very well known Portuguese Jesuit priest, Vasco Pinto de Magalhães, would come to officiate his marriage and baptise his two daughters), who was the first Jesuit priest to be chaplain of the University since Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal expelled the order from Portugal in 1759.
  From that period he also recalls Professor António Castanheira Neves due to a curious situation in which Luís de Almeida Sampaio enrolled in the class of Metodologia Jurídica under Castanheira Neves and he was the only student to do so that year.  Furthermore, his political thinking was profoundly influenced by one of Castanheira Neves’ books, Questão-de-facto – questão-de-direito ou o problema metodológico da juridicidade.
  In 1983, while preparing for the diplomatic service concours, he attended the course Cycle d’Histoire du XXeme Siècle at the Abbey of Prémontrés in Pont-à-Mousson, Lorraine, France, organized by the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (commonly known as Sciences Po).
caption: Coimbra University tower building
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