decurso de prazo

02:01 Mar 21, 2018 

It means "throughout the term" 'prazo' is the time period in which a law or clause or anything is in effect. It's simpler than it's been made out to be here. No, you should not just put the portuguese with an english expression, that just shows an inability to translate, quite frankly.

17:12 Jun 1, 2009 

Muriel, I am sorry if you took offense at my comment. I wasn't referring to your answer when I said "devised term." But it is indeed true that the term suggested by the legal dictionary you checked was not appropriate for this context. I understand that this is why we are requested to provide as much information about the context of a term when we post a query.

16:52 Jun 1, 2009 

FYI, my answer wasn't "made up" - it was taken from a legal dictionary as a translation for the phrase "decurso de prazo." though I can understand that the author might be using it in a specific sense, it is a recognized term with a recognized translation.

16:29 Jun 1, 2009 

Thanks to all who contributed.
I checked all 4 suggestions, through Google Scholar and further literature research. None is correct for this case. I in fact did not locate any equivalent term in English. I stress that this is a case that calls for the use of a standard term, not some devised term that seems like it might make the idea clear in English. The Brazilianist literature I read simply provides an explanation of the mechanism, without even referencing the term in Portuguese. My solution, for this text, will be to use the Portuguese, with an explanation in English. Since the author himself footnotes the term upon first occurrence, it will be easy to do so (with his approval).

21:25 May 27, 2009 

I'm a little troubled by the word 'term', which may not be wrong but could give rise to confusion as it has many other meanings and is more commonly associated with a person's term in office, terms of an agreement, etc. (See my answer.)