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The present study analyzes the working hypotheses in the matter of the preliminary procedure regarding claims from European funds. The study identifies a number of working scenarios, starting from the particular way in which these claims arise, specific to European funding mechanisms. Another filter in the analysis is given by an irregularity in the management of funding, an irregularity that is treated differently as it appears before or after the payment, taking into account the variable, if it generates a debt to be recovered from the European Union budget/international public donors and/or national public funds related to them through an undue payment. Thus, the study observes a series of nuances in the hypothesis of undue payments, similar shades of contentious type to tax procedures1. -
The object of the general part of criminal law and its relation to the special part are still uncertain, and this is because the criminal doctrine has always neglected the general criminal norms, by focusing its attention on the norms of incrimination, which are specific to the special part. In relation to these matters, the doctrine often makes contradictory statements and, as a result, some authors have deducted that the connection between the general part and the special part of criminal law is that of a general law (common law) and a special law (exceptional law), so that a possible conflict between a general criminal norm and a special criminal norm is solved according to the rule specialia generalibus derogant. And, unfortunately, such an opinion tends to become dominant, as evidenced by the fact that the criminal legislator disregards more and more frequently the norms with value of principles of branch, which are included in the general part of the Criminal Code. Therefore, in order to combat this completely unacceptable legislative practice, the author of this paper has intended to point out that the general part is a framework-law, with a higher legal value, while the special part is a (derived) subordinate law, which can only specify (clarify) the norms of the general part, but can never derogate from them. However, starting from this premise, the author has noticed that the persisting doubt about the relation between the two parties also has a deeper cause, which resides in the fact that no modern legislator has been preoccupied with determining and explicitly providing the general conditions and rules of punishment. Although the criminal doctrine has, for a long time, noticed that the norms of incrimination lay down special rules of punishment, the scope of which is limited to a specific, well-determined offence, however, in the absence of general rules of punishment, it has concluded wrongly, that the incrimination norms are autonomous independent norms, while general criminal norms are derived (secondary) norms.
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According to the provisions of Article 260 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of 1968 [Article 273 (3) of the Criminal Code], both the „active” false testimony (the situation in which the witness gives false statements) and the „passive” false testimony (in which case the witness does not say everything he knows about essential circumstances he was asked) may be withdrawn, with the mention that, in the latter case, the witness must provide full and real details, which he perceived directly, which were essential and of which he was asked. In order to constitute a cause of non-punishment, the withdrawal of the false testimony must be carried out in the case in which it was given, and not in the case in which the criminal prosecution is conducted or in which the offence of false testimony is examined.
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The article deals with the legal regime of the convict’s money, their sources of origin and the destinations for their use during detention, in the Romanian criminal law and jurisprudence, bringing to light some proposals aimed at improving the situation of some categories of detainees in a state of economic precariousness. The objectives of the article are to determine the content of the notion of convict’s money in the current Romanian legislation, their sources of origin and the destinations for their use during detention, as well as to determine whether the current Romanian legislation complies with the requirements of the international instruments and whether the chosen legislative solutions are similar to those in other European states. The results show that the notion of prisoner’s money should include the money due to the convicted for the work done in prison, the sums received from natural or legal persons during detention and the amounts found upon them at the arrival in the penitentiary. It can be concluded that the amounts of money shown in the nominal account can be used for extinguishing the civil obligations established by the criminal conviction decision, without violating the rights of the detainees to receive, buy and possess goods, the right to telephone conversations, the right to petition and correspondence, the right to food, personal hygiene, the right to photocopy documents from the individual file and the right to medical treatment. The results also show that the present Romanian legislation regarding prisoner’s money complies with the international rules, such as the „Nelson Mandela Rules”, the U.N. Convention against torture adopted in 1984, ECHR/the Convention or the European Penitentiary Rules REC (2006)2, and it is similar to the legislation of other European states, such as France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany or Austria, regarding the sources from which this money may be legally obtained, and the destinations for which this money may be used. In the case of those detainees who do not obtain income from work, it may be beneficial for a regulation to provide, within a reasonable limit, an exemption from the attachment of their money. For all inmates who do not have income, provisions should be made for the prison administration to bear, within a reasonable degree, the cost of national telephone calls made by convicts in order to keep in touch with their family. The implications are to clarify the issues discussed, facilitating a unitary practice, supported by solutions in the jurisprudence.
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The regulation of the profession of physiotherapist was made in Romania by the Law No 229/2016, which also established the College of Physiotherapists from Romania, as a professional organization, of public interest, having as object of activity the authorization, control and supervision of the exercise of profession of physiotherapist. In this article there are presented aspects regarding the outlining of the notions of physiotherapist/kinetotherapist, regarding the content and organization of the profession of physiotherapist by the new regulations, as a liberal profession of authorized public practice. In the present study it is analyzed the context in which it was adopted the Law No 229/2016, at a time when the status of the profession of physiotherapist was not regulated, at a time when the County Public Health Directorates issued authorizations for free practice which authorized persons licensed in other fields (physical training and sports), there are emphasized the current conditions for issuing the free practice authorization for physiotherapists. The study presents aspects regarding the recognition of the diplomas and qualifications at European level and the mobility of the profession of physiotherapist, as well as aspects related to the introduction of a European professional card and to the possibility of issuing the certificate of conformity. There are presented aspects concerning the compensatory measures designed to eliminate the important differences in programs specific to physiotherapy. In his activity, the physiotherapist must comply with the Code of Ethics of the Physiotherapist and the Status of the College of Physiotherapists from Romania. Elements of novelty regarding the malpractice in physiotherapy are presented, with connections to the experience gained in the sphere of medical malpractice, including with references to the subjective foundation of the civil liability of the medical staff.
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In this article, the author analyzes the legal nature of the Constitutional Court, a political jurisdictional authority of jurisdiction, whose role consists mainly in controlling the constitutionality of laws and of other acts adopted by the Romanian Parliament and by the Government. The Constituent Assembly of 1991 opted for the institutionalization of the European model of constitutional jurisdiction, according to which a body independent in relation to the powers of the State assumes the role of guarantor of the supremacy of the Constitution. The constituent legislators have preferred to abandon the control of the constitutionality of laws enforced by the supreme court, which was established by the Fundamental Law of 1923. In the constitutional architecture of the Romanian State, designed after the change of the political regime at the end of 1989, the Constitutional Court is a political-jurisdictional body whose legal nature derives from the way in which it is organized and structured, as well as from the attributions conferred to it by the Constitution. At the same time, the Constitutional Court also appears as a regulating body of the public authorities with governing powers in the state, which it obliges, through its decisions, to return to the constitutional legality. The author highlights both the political and the judicial nature of the Constitutional Court and shows that there must be a balance between the two essential characteristics of this public authority, in order for it to fulfil its constitutional role in a complete independence and impartiality and not to transform itself into a political tool for solving the relations between powers, especially between the legislative power and the executive power, which should benefit to one or another of the political actors.
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In the present study we have proceeded to analyze the text of Article 318 of the Criminal Procedure Code, in the light of the judicial practice in the matter. We also insisted on presenting some malfunctions in the application of the provisions of Article 318 (16) the 2nd sentence of the Criminal Procedure Code, provisions which in their essence prohibit the case prosecutor to adopt a solution to abandon criminal prosecution in the event that this solution was initially rejected by the preliminary chamber judge. The provision in question is all the more controversial as it is mentioned even therein this prohibition irrespective of the reason invoked, which leads to the conclusion that the solution to abandon criminal prosecution can no longer be ordered by the prosecutor, even if the evidence administered show that its adoption is required. In this context, the provisions criticized seem to be unconstitutional, because by applying them, the prosecutor is obliged by the legislator to violate several provisions of the Constitution, among which there is the principle of legality.
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This paper has as objectives the analysis of the possibility to raise requests and exceptions in the procedure of confirmation of the solution to abandon the criminal prosecution, in relation to the exigences given by the right to a fair trial to which the suspect or defendant should be entitled. The study relates to the functional competence of the preliminary chamber judge and has as purpose to express the considerations for which the same procedure should be applied also in the processual course of the confirmation of the solution to abandon criminal prosecution. From this perspective, we will also analyze the competence to verify the legality of the administration of evidence by the criminal prosecution bodies in the light of its significances. At the same time, we will find out if the Decision of the Constitutional Court No 802/2017, by which the constitutional contentious court has enshrined the principle of the freedom of evidence in the preliminary chamber phase, should be applied also in the procedure of confirmation of the solution to abandon the criminal prosecution, before the preliminary chamber judge, in order to allow that it should be administered any means of evidence referring to the legality and loyalty of conducting criminal prosecution acts and the administration of evidence.
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By Decision No 405/2016, the Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) ruled that the provisions of Article 297 (1) of the Criminal Code (misfeasance in office or misconduct in office) are constitutional only if the sentence „fulfils wrongfully” has the meaning of „fulfils by breaching the law”. However, in more than two years from the publication of this Constitutional Court Decision, it is worth to notice that the jurisprudence of the criminal courts knows diametrically opposed interpretations. In one opinion, the Decision is interpreted as of the utmost generality, while a second opinion regards the CCR provisions as being of strict interpretation, whereas for the existence of the respective criminal offence is necessary that the public servant breach one of the laws that govern his activity or at least a provision that is part of its duties in office. The article presents the jurisprudence of the Romanian courts related to the crime of „misfeasance in office” while examining it in the light of the requirements of the principle of legality and of the CCR Decision considerations.
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The Court of Justice unitarily interprets the law of the European Union by way of the preliminary reference procedure. Social networks make available to every person possibilities of individual communication or in communities. The meeting between the Court of Justice and the social networks is not new, but now the European Court has consolidated the interpretation of the notion of controller within the regulations on personal data protection. The administrator of a page hosted by a social network is a controller within the meaning of European legislation. The study attempts to correlate the main attributes of the controller with the functions of the administrator of a page hosted by a social network and to deepen the liability of this administrator.
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For the Romanian legal system, the case law does not have the quality of formal source of law. Nevertheless, the legal reality, also seen from a historical perspective, has demonstrated the essential role of the judicial practice in interpreting and enforcing the law, in constructing the argumentative practices, in clarifying the will of the legislator, and in discovering less obvious meanings of the legal norms, and last but not least to the unification of legal thinking and practice. Therefore the case law, together with the doctrine, is an important component of the Romanian legal system. Staring from these considerations, in this study we aim to emphasize a few aspects of constitutional case law. We are underlining its contribution to the emergence of the constitutionality control of laws in Romania. Under the influence of the Constitution of 1866, which did not regulate such a control in an institutional manner, the courts have assumed this competence by interpreting the law and by jurisprudential way. There are also presented and analyzed important contributions of the case law of the Constitutional Court, but also of the judiciary courts to the development of constitutionality control in our country. We support the idea that the case law currently plays an important role in the interpretation of the constitutional norms, including in terms of deepening the forms of constitutional control.
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In this study, the author presents, from the point of view of the constitutional law, the complex process of re-emergence of the state formations after the break-up of the Roman imperial administration at the end of the 5th century. The collapse of the boundaries of the West Roman Empire and the penetration of the conquering migratory populations to its centre have generated not only the destruction of the military capacity of the empire and its army, but also of the political institutions and of the entire Roman administration. Practically, the Roman state has entered an advanced dissolution process that has led also to the replacement of the old production relations with new relations. Instead of the Roman administration, rudimentarily organized patriarchal formations which responded to the new military conditions imposed on the indigenous population by the conquering populations appeared. At the same time with these, in the former Roman provinces, the Christian churches continued to carry on a social organization activity. Practically, the Christian Church took over some social organization and management functions, specific in the past to the Roman administration. The gradual conversion of the conquering populations to Christianity has stimulated the process of restating and the emergence of the first barbarian kingdoms. The Church had thus an overwhelming role and hastened the re-emergence of the statehood on the former territories of the vast Roman Empire. Finally, new states have emerged on the European continent, with well defined ethnic physiognomies and endowed with a political administration based on constitutional principles that have proven their validity in the subsequent centuries. At the same time with the formation of the new states, a new theory of the political institutions has been forged and gradually developed, in which, along with the elements of laic thinking, many precepts of Christian religion can be emphasized.
