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This study sets some reference points for a new institution regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code – the judge of rights and freedoms – from a perspective which stresses its role in protecting the rights and fundamental freedoms, as they are established by the Constitution and by the international treaties on human rights to which Romania is a party. -
The proposed study is a systematic and systemic analysis of the rules of the Civil Code established for the „possession of status”. While reviving and modernizing the archaic regulations of the Romanian Civil Code of 1864, the present Civil Code establishes the meaning and the content of possession of status, as well as its effects where it is consistent with the data written down in the birth certificate concerning the filiation of the child to the mother. In this context, it is also pointed out the existence of some issues which require normative correlations (even among some paragraphs or sentences within the same article), legal and logical improvements and compatibility adjustments with the general principles of law.
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Pursuant to Article 1541 (1) b) of the new Romanian Civil Code, which entered into force on 1 October 2011, the court may reduce the amount of the penal clause if „the penalty is clearly excessive as compared to the prejudice which could have been provided by the parties upon the conclusion of the contract”. The author considers that the text is incomplete, in the sense that it does not specify whether the reduction of the penalties may be ordered by the court only on the debtor’s request (the system referred to in BGB – the German Civil Code) or also ex officio (a system presently regulated by the French Civil Code). The author believes that the reduction of the amount of penalties in question can not occur ex officio because fundamental principles of civil proceedings (especially the principle of availability) are violated. Finally, the author proposes an amendment of Article 1541 (1) b) of the Civil Code in order to be expressly stated whether the reduction of penalties occurs only on request or also ex officio.
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The study presents the new provisions of the Civil Code on tort liability for the act of the animal and the act of the thing by establishing the scopes of these liability hypotheses. Along with the traditional rules established in the former Civil Code, as innovative elements, the legal guard was defined, in Article 1377, and provisions concerning the liability in case of collision between motor vehicles and the liability for things that fall down or are thrown out of a dwelling place owned with any title were introduced.
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This article emphasizes the specific elements of the repurchase agreement as regulated in the new Civil Code. In order to achieve this goal, the author first engages in a general characterization of the type of contract under examination, in the light of specific elements concerning the contracting parties, the object of contract and the time of fulfilment of some obligations undertaken by the parties. The study further defines the concepts „repurchase” and „reverse repurchase” and delimits the repurchase agreement from other types of similar contracts, thus configuring more clearly the analyzed convention. Another specific element of the contract under scrutinity is its sui-generis legal nature, which the author explains since there isn’t an unanimous opinion on this issue in the doctrine. At the same time, the specificity of the repurchase agreement is emphasized by dealing with its main effects: the double transfer of property, the transfer of ancillary rights, the obligation of the buyer to exercise the option, as well as the obligations of the seller to make available to the buyer the funds necessary for exercising the right of option and for making the payments. Last but not least, the specificity of this type of contract is also revealed by reflecting the differences among the liquidation, the prorogation and the renewal of the convention under debate. The study presents the points of view expressed in the specialised literature on the studied matter, as well as the author’s opinions on the controversial legal issues in the reference space.
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In this study, the author expresses a series of personal considerations on the civil liability of the transport operator (the carrier) in the regulation of the new Romanian Civil Code, specifying that, against the recipient, dispatcher and passenger, the mentioned liability is contractual liability, while against third parties it is tort liability.
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The author analyzes the procedure to be followed on the hypothesis that the applicant proves that it is impossible for him to trace the domicile of the defendant. The principle of settlement of the trial within due and foreseeable time, the necessity of going through the procedure preliminary to the first hearing term instituted by law, the safeguarding of the right to defense of the respondent are taken into consideration. There are also examined the modality and the time when the law court designates the special guardian to represent the interests of the respondent, starting from the regulations of the Civil Procedure Code in this matter.
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In this study the author examines the provisions of the new (Romanian) Civil Procedure Code referring to the verification of the application for summons and its regularisation by the law court, in the light of the procedures of the same code which regulate the nullity of procedural acts.
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Law No 165/2013 on the measures for the finalisation of the process of restitution, in kind or by equivalent, of the buildings abusively taken over during the communist regime in Romania institutes a new regulatory framework in the matter of acceleration of the process of restitution of real estate property, in agreement with the principles stated by the (European) Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and by the case-law of the European Court on Human Rights. In the ambience of the new regulatory framework instituted by the Law No 165/2013, this study analyzes several issues regulated by the new regulatory framework by referring to special normative acts which came into force before Law No 165/2013. Thus, some aspects referring to the powers of the entities vested with powers for the application of the reparatory laws in the matter of buildings (land and constructions) are analyzed, in the context of the new legal framework instituted by Law No 165/2013, as well as the powers of new entities vested with powers for the application of the reparatory laws. There are also examined some aspects concerning the infringement of the legislative technical rules on the adoption of Law No 165/2013, which can give rise to difficulties in the process of acceleration of restitution of real estate property or, where appropriate, in the process of granting compensatory measures.
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After the entry into force of the Civil Procedure Code and of the Civil Code which introduced new institutions in the matter of family relationships, the Government Emergency Ordinance No 80/2013 on judicial stamp duties was adopted in order to reflect the new structure and dynamics of civil proceedings, new procedural safeguards afforded to parties in order to ensure a fair trial, as well as to cover additional costs for the development of infrastructure and to ensure the necessary logistics for the implementation of the new legal provisions. This study analyses the application of the provisions of Article 15 of the Government Emergency Ordinance No 80/2013 on the judicial stamp duties.
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The entry into force of the four Codes – Civil, Civil Procedure, Criminal and Criminal Procedure – has put an end to the legislative reform of the last 24 years in Romania and now begins the stage of their implementation. This will involve, besides noting the first case-law reactions, the initiation of a process of developing a new Romanian legal doctrine of criminal law and of private law, respectively. From this perspective, the period of exegetical approach, which is in full progress and which has manifested in the form of annotations, comments and theoretical explanations of the Codes, must be followed, as soon as possible, by theoretical analyses meant to deduct the new principles and to contribute to syntheses and systematic exposures of private law and of criminal law, respectively. In this regard, a priority role pertains to the scientific research in the field of law.
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The article analyses the main changes brought to the Constitution by the bill currently under parliamentary debate. The conclusion is that the bill represents a failure from many perspectives: transparency and public debate that must accompany such an important project; dialogue between the power and the opposition in the Parliament; ignorance for the result of a national referendum and, last but not least, the faulty wording of the text. Normally, if a Constitution revision is desired, the parliamentary majority should start negotiations with other parliamentary parties with the purpose of forming a Constitutional Convention which is to draft a new bill. If the parliamentary debate continues on the current bill declared, almost entirely, by the Constitutional Court as not respecting the revision limits and a new referendum will be organized for the approval of the bill, this bill has all chances to fail. A new revision bill should be drafted after a long political debate in which citizens must understand the necessity of the revision. Also, a new bill should consider the interests of the citizens and not interests of those in power.
