Reflections on the moral and legal status of the animal, its cognitive abilities, its differences, essential or not, with humans, have nourished human thinking since ancient times; source of debate also today are a lot of questions: can we kill animals, we can eat them, we can use them in our activity, both in the field and in laboratories, do animals have rights, are they subjects of law? Ever since Roman law, the animal was considered from legal point of view, considering only the faculty of man’s appropriation as a subject of law; the main status of animal remains that of reification, their interests being most often ignored for the benefit of humans’ interests. This status embraced by doctrine, praised legally throughout the different civilizations and which has lasted until today, could be maintained by virtue of the „natural” power of human domination exercised over the rest of living beings also through the Cartesian animal–machine theory, which was translated into law by the animal–thing theory.

Factoring is essentially a hybrid commercial operation that covers the elements of several legal mechanisms, the most common elements being borrowed from the debt assignment mechanism. However, the legislator did not consider it necessary to establish this legal operation in the contracts covered by the new Civil Code. Moreover, factoring does not currently benefit from any express regulation in Romanian law. Although, in the Romanian doctrine, we find references to a possible direct action of the factor against the assigned debtor, the situation of this action is uncertain. In this sense, we considered it opportune, but also necessary to formulate a brief analysis of what the factoring operation means in general, as well as to establish whether or not the factor’s action covers the elements of a direct action. In the Romanian doctrine and legislation we find only fragments of texts regarding the factoring operation, therefore, an exhaustive analysis regarding the application of factoring and even more so of the factor’s action cannot be performed. However, we hope that the brief explanations we will bring will lead to an outline, at least general, of the factor’s action against the assigned debtor.

The present analysis is justified by the challenges generated by the regulation of the normative framework of public power intervention in the management of some new social realities, with a direct impact on the state-citizen relations, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Undoubtedly, some measures established by the Law No 136/2020 on the establishment of some measures in the field of public health in situations of epidemiological and biological risk, taken most often with celerity, will be subject to the control of legality of the courts of law. It would be absurd for acts that ultimately affect fundamental rights and freedoms not to be subject to the means of appeal and not to pass through the judge’s filter, the latter being the one who will, actually, decide on the fairness of the measure adopted. At the boundary between the analysis of the legality and the appropriateness of the measures adopted by the competent authorities of the state, the court of law will have to rule so that both the citizen, viewed individually, and the community feel safe in front of a threat that humanity never faced before. From this analytical perspective, the authors intend to address the issue of the possibility to invoke in court the exceptions of illegality in the context of the provisions provided by Article 17 of the Law No 136/2020.

The present study proposes for analysis some of the implications of the pandemic generated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the matter of the property right and not only, following to consider the property right in its broad sense, derived from the ECHR case law in the matter. As concerns the research hypothesis, the author starts from the premise that the inclination towards martyrology manifested throughout the history by our country determines that some particularly restrictive measures be adopted also in the context generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the most often without a solid theoretical foundation. It is also considered, as a research hypothesis, that there is currently a trend worldwide towards authoritarianism and interventionism from the state government, which is reflected in the measures taken during this period in order to prevent the spread of the respiratory virus.

Although in our daily activity we work mainly in the Romanian law (or, at most, the European law), we are firm supporters of the need to broaden our horizons and to understand the foreign legal systems in order to enrich our knowledge, but also to grow as professionals of law; in particular, when we refer to countries such as the United States, an important economic power, with a solid system of law, from which we can draw the inspiration ourselves. This type of „legal inspiration” helps us a lot to understand other systems of law and to collaborate in cases such as the enforcement of foreign legal decisions, the application of foreign law in local files, helping companies to develop their businesses also in other parts than the country of origin – including Romania. In addition, the Romanian law has been substantially improved over time, having as source of inspiration the legal provisions from other countries. The trademark law – the need to explore and compare the systems of Romanian and American law – resulted, first of all, from the practical need, but also from the desire for knowledge. Although at first glance it looks very different, the U.S. trademark system is very similar to the Romanian one. There are the aspects that could be improved if we found a way to include them in our own legal system. There are some similarities, but also differences, between the regulation of trademarks in the Romanian and American legal systems, and we have tried to highlight some of them. Primo Angeli, an expert in brands, mentioned: „A great trademark is appropriate, dynamic, distinctive, memorable and unique.” Thus, whether we call it brand or trademark, we are not as different as we might think.

The authors criticize the Decision of the High Court of Cassation and Justice No 13/2017 pronounced on appeal in the interest of the law, which had as its object the interpretation and application of the provisions Article 469 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code which is called the Judgment of the request for reopening the criminal trial. The Constitutional Court decided that the decision of the High Court of Cassation and Justice No 13/2017 violates the right to a fair trial and the right to defence of the person.

The new Civil Procedure Code, under the impulse of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, has established for the first time, in the Romanian law, a procedural means intended to be an effective remedy for unjustified tendencies to delay trials: the contestation regarding the delay of the trial. The present approach was occasioned by a recent decision of unconstitutionality regarding the application of the provisions of Article 524 (3) of the Civil Procedure Code. In the introduction of this study, the author makes a general delimitation of the contestation by other procedural means, stating that it can be qualified neither as means of appeal, nor as a civil action or as a special procedure. The author emphasizes the contestation’s nature of procedural incident and of means to remove any obstruction in the settlement of civil cases in an optimal and predictable time limit. The control of constitutionality carried out by the Court concerns a very concrete aspect of the competence to settle the contestation. Through the analyzed decision, the court of constitutional control has appreciated that the settlement of the contestation by the panel notified with the settlement of the main action is likely to affect the objective impartiality of the court. In the present approach, the author considers such an action of the court of constitutional control as being judicious, but expresses reservations regarding the solution of attributing the competence to settle the contestation to the higher court. In justifying this point of view, the author notes also the existence of other similar procedural means the settlement of which is given, however, in the competence of a panel of the court empowered to judge the main action as well. On the other hand, the settlement of the contestation by the superior court is not likely to provide celerity in its settlement.

Undoubtedly, the most frequent contract used in practice is the sale and purchase contract, through which the alienation and acquisition of the property right and of other real rights is achieved, outlining the essential instrument through which the legal circulation of goods is carried out. The consent gives expression and materialization to the free will of the individual to contract and pre-contract, to assume a series of rights and obligations, to enter into legal relations. In this context, encountered with a special frequency in the current socio-economic reality – the preparatory agreements, as anticipatory manifestations of the consent in the matter of the sale and purchase contract, involve the same rigour of the conditions necessary for the valid existence of the consent. In all cases, what brings all these legal figures together into the patterns of a single legal institution is the main purpose pursued by the parties or at least by one of them, the one to enter, in the future, into a contractual legal relationship that gives full sati sfaction to the interest shown. As a consequence, the expression of the agreement of will determined by consent has known a double externalization, first through the previous form – the pre-contract – and subsequently through the contract itself. These two different moments, the period between them and the way in which they are legally related reflect some particularities and issues worth to be analysed in the broad spectrum of legal relations between persons.

The official proclamation of the climate emergency (at an international, European, and national level) has stimulated the concerns and efforts to regulate and adopt public policies aiming for mitigation of, and adaptation to climate change. Initiated in the name of the principle of precaution – scientific uncertainty regarding the anthropic causes do not justify the inconsideration of the phenomenon, but they impose taking progressive and proportional measures – 30 years ago, the process of development of climate law has already known three successive and progressive stages, configured around three major international acts. The Framework Convention on climate change (1992) has generated a general normativity, as a guideline and non-binding; the additional Kyoto Protocol (1997), with a superior legal force, provided precise targets and determinate periods of time to reach them; finally, the Paris Agreement (2015) has marked the phase of voluntary commitments and of adequate instruments, varied in their means of enforcing. Characterized by a dependency and a major interconnection with scientific data, climate law is inspired by a series of fundamental concepts (general interest of humanity, environmental transition, the rights of future generations, global approach), and it is dominated by a series of general principles (precaution, common but differentiated responsibility, the right to a stable climate), affirming itself as a law of the present day, but especially of the future. Assuming the Green Deal as a new strategy for growth of the EU (2019), of the law for climate (2020) and the return of the USA to the Paris Agreement (2021) re-launch the multi-lateral framework for negotiation and international regulation in this field, opening ample perspective for affirmation of the new legal regime and the innovative scientific field.

Prin cererea de chemare în judecată adresată Judecătoriei Constanța la data de 11 iunie 2018, contestatorul S.P. în contradictoriu cu intimata Direcția Generală Regională a Finanțelor Publice Galați – Administrația Județeană a Finanțelor Publice Constanța a solicitat instanței să dispună anularea executării silite înseși și a actelor de executare silită subsecvente, inclusiv Somația din data de 30 martie 2018 și Titlul executoriu din data de 30 martie 2018 emise în Dosarul de executare xx, respectiv să oblige intimata la plata cheltuielilor de judecată.

The 1995 UNIDROIT Convention in Rome established a minimum body of common legal rules for the protection of cultural heritage. The essential rules of the Convention are: 1) the possessor of a cultural object which has been stolen shall return it; 2) access to justice by filing a request with the court or other competent authorities of the Contracting State where the cultural property is located, for its restitution; the possibility for the parties to submit their dispute either to a court or other competent authority or to arbitration (Article 8); 3) the right of the bona fides holder of the stolen cultural property to be paid, at the time of restitution, a fair compensation; the correlative right of the paying claimant to request reimbursement from another person (Article 4).

The study tries to identify, with jurisprudential examples, the situations in which the moral rights of the author no longer have the desired finality at the time of regulation, being used in this sense historical perspectives and comparative law perspectives. In a first part it is presented the evolution of the moral rights from the case law and doctrine to the enactment. The second section analyzes, from a jurisprudential perspective, the effectiveness of the right to respect the integrity of the work, concluding that the diversification of the modalities to create works that can be protected by copyright has exceeded the relevant regulation. A final analysis concerns the situation of exercising the right of withdrawal in the case of written works. The conclusions bring proposals to improve the mechanism of functioning of the author’s moral rights.

This study examines the manner in which the Romanian Constitutional Court has used in its practice the principle of non-retroactivity of the law with reference to service pensions. At the same time, the study contains a detailed critical examination of the thesis of the constitutional contentious court regarding the qualification of the laws amending or repealing the service pensions already in payment as non-retroactive and, therefore, in compliance with the constitutional requirements. On the other hand, the author of the study advances the thesis according to which any law that modifies the formula of calculation of the service pensions in payment, including by resorting to the extension of the contributivity rule, is retroactive and, consequently, unconstitutional. In substantiating this statement, there are initiated a series of considerations regarding the defining elements of the right to pension, the theories regarding the earned rights, as well as the development of a detailed analysis of the concept of legal effects produced during the application of another law (new law).This study examines the manner in which the Romanian Constitutional Court has used in its practice the principle of non-retroactivity of the law with reference to service pensions. At the same time, the study contains a detailed critical examination of the thesis of the constitutional contentious court regarding the qualification of the laws amending or repealing the service pensions already in payment as non-retroactive and, therefore, in compliance with the constitutional requirements. On the other hand, the author of the study advances the thesis according to which any law that modifies the formula of calculation of the service pensions in payment, including by resorting to the extension of the contributivity rule, is retroactive and, consequently, unconstitutional. In substantiating this statement, there are initiated a series of considerations regarding the defining elements of the right to pension, the theories regarding the earned rights, as well as the development of a detailed analysis of the concept of legal effects produced during the application of another law (new law).

The 150th anniversary from the issue of „Dreptul” magazine, edited by Societatea Juridică (1871), the first representative publication, with a „programme” in the matter, represents the occasion to review the evolution of the juridical literature as vector of the science and culture of law in Romania, to capture its current state and to prefigure the perspectives of development. The juridical press has emerged and developed in our country as a tool for promoting knowledge of law, through the dissemination of the case law, the affirmation of the doctrine and of the dialogue of ideas. After an initial period marked by the spirit of imitation related to the massive legislative import that characterized the establishment of the foundations of the Romanian juridical modernity after 1859, the interwar juridical unification (judicial, constitutional-legislative, at the level of the regime of juridical professions and of the juridical higher education) favoured the transition to its own literature in the field and a national juridical culture with strong original and identity accents. Marked by a certain eclipse and by a perspective „planned” between 1949–1989, it experienced a strong recovery after 1990 by resuming its issue in new editions, along with Dreptul, and of the other two landmarks genre: Curierul Judiciar (founded in 1892) and Pandectele Române (since 1921) and the issue of new ones, currently facing the low tide and the unexpected challenges of the accelerated digitalization and neoliberal globalization.

La 16 decembrie 2021 se împlinesc 150 de ani de când a văzut lumina tiparului primul număr al revistei „Dreptul”. Anul 1871 a avut o însemnătate aparte pentru lumea juriștilor români de atunci, marcând, pe de o parte, fondarea Societății Juridice și, pe de altă parte, apariția revistei „Dreptul”.

Potrivit art. 248 C.pen. din 1968, fapta funcționarului public ce, în exercițiul atribuțiilor sale de serviciu, cu știință, nu îndeplinește un act ori îl îndeplinește în mod defectuos și prin aceasta cauzează o tulburare însemnată bunului mers al unui organ sau al unei instituții de stat ori al unei alte unități din cele la care se referă art. 145 sau o pagubă patrimoniului acesteia se pedepsește cu închisoare de la 6 luni la 5 ani.

In the present article, the author analyzes twenty-four judgments of the European Court of Human Rights pronounced in the cases regarding the Revolution of 1989, by which it was established that Romania violated, mainly, the procedural side of Article 2 (right to life) of the (European) Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The author also identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the procedure by which the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supervises the enforcement by Romania of those judgments. Finally, the article aims to assess the impact that the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights have had in recent years on the conduct of internal investigations, i.e. the so-called „File of the Revolution”.

The study addresses issues specific to the object of probation in appeal and emphasizes that, naturally, the object of the probation in appeal specializes as a result of the concrete manner in which there will operate the devolution determined by the holder of the legal remedy and the reasons on which it is based. At the same time, it is shown that formulating an request for evidence with a clear and concrete indication of the evidentiary thesis covered by each requested evidence is very important because only in this way it can be really made an assessment on the usefulness and on the relevance of that evidence. The author also emphasizes another reason why the indication of the evidentiary thesis is important, meaning that in its absence or in the case of indicating some generic theses the assessment on the legality of the evidence can be impeded and it is analyzed the situation of being requested to be heard as witnesses persons that are under the incidence of some legal norms that require them to maintain professional secrecy, such as magistrates or lawyers. All these arguments lead to the conclusion that a request for evidence made in appeal that hasn’t got concrete evidentiary theses indicated regarding each piece of evidence requested does not allow the assessment on the usefulness of the evidence by reference to the specialization of the object of probation at this phase of the criminal trial and, consequently, it should be dismissed by the court invested with the examination of the case.