DEPENALIZAREA FAPTEI ȘI ÎNLOCUIREA RÃSPUNDERII PENALE

The social reaction against low severity felonies ask for finding solutions alternative to criminal penalties. The legislator of the new Criminal Code, waiving the institution of absence of the felony’s social danger and replacement of criminal liability, has adopted, for the argument of criminal prosecution, on grounds of the principle of opportunity of exercising criminal action, the institution of waiver of criminal prosecution, and, in terms of substantive criminal law, waiver by the court law of the penalty enforcement. Both institutions, new as concepts in the Romanian criminal legislation, are practically instruments of non-penalization of the actual felony and replacement of criminal liability with an administrative liability, by enforcing administrative sanctions as alternatives for criminal penalties. The regulation of these new institutions, according to the author’s opinion, can however be criticized both in terms of preserving the rights of the injured persons and by the fact that the prosecutor’s assessment powers are far more extended than those of the court of law.