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Potrivit art. 52 alin. (1) C.pr.pen., instanța penală este competentă să judece orice chestiune prealabilă soluționării cauzei, chiar dacă prin natura ei acea chestiune este de competența altei instanțe, cu excepția situațiilor în care competența de soluționare nu aparține organelor judiciare, iar conform alin. (2) al aceluiași articol, chestiunea prealabilă se judecă de către instanța penală, potrivit regulilor și mijloacelor de probă privitoare la materia căreia îi aparține acea chestiune. Conform alineatului (3) al art. 52 C.pr.pen., hotărârile definitive ale altor instanțe decât cele penale asupra unei chestiuni prealabile în procesul penal au autoritate de lucru judecat în fața instanței penale (cu notă aprobativă). -
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to public health; every year, it generates the premature illness and death of over 5 million people worldwide and over 400 000 inhabitants of the EU. Such realities and the proliferation of the cases of non-compliance with the legal regulations and the measures adopted to prevent and combat air pollution have generated an increasing and more diverse judicial contentious, both at national level and at the level of the jurisdictions of the EU. By the Judgment of 26 June 2019, the Court of Justice of the EU has pronounced a solution for the reference for a preliminary ruling raised before a Belgian tribunal on the interpretation of Articles 6, 7, 13 and 23 and of Annex III of Directive 2008/50/EC. The intention was to find out to what extent the national jurisdictions can control the location of the sampling points and if it is possible to establish an average value, starting from the results of the different measuring stations, in order to evaluate the compliance with the limit values. The Court of Justice of the European Union has stated that national jurisdictions are competent to control the choice of the location of the air quality measurement stations and to take, with respect to the national authorities concerned, any relevant national measure; in order to evaluate the compliance with the limit-values, the pollution level of each sampling point must be taken individually. The new case law of the Luxembourg court contributes to strengthening the environmental contentious and its role in ensuring the application of the regulations in this field. -
This article investigates how the postcommunist Romanian political regime was defined, with particular emphasis on the settlement of legal conflicts of a constitutional nature through the decisions of the Constitutional Court. Through this research we aim to identify the successive incarnations of the political regime, having as a reference the dynamics of the postcommunist Romanian political regime in relation to the continuous and varied relationship of the forces of political actors, as well as to the way in which they interpret and apply the constitutional norms. The originality of this research lies in the fact that in the analysis of the Romanian political regime we will combine the normative-institutional perspective with the perspective of the political and institutional practice, in order to obtain a complex picture, overall, on the way of formation and articulation of the Romanian political regime. The article highlights a permanent evolution of the political regime in relation to the continuous and varied relations determined by the forces relations of the political actors, as well as by the way in which the constitutional rules are interpreted and applied by them. The intrusion into the Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence in settling legal conflicts of a constitutional nature confirms the analysis of the political scientist Giovanni Sartori, according to which the alternation of the nature of the post-communist Romanian political regime is determined by the political and institutional practice built in relation to the political relationship between the president and the parliamentary majority. Defining the nature of the Romanian political regime helps us to understand the dynamics and frequency of constitutional crises -
The practice of the constitutional jurisdiction court points out that the exercise of the constitutionality control does not lead only to the ruling of some simple solutions, by which the criticized text or texts of the law are found to be or not in compliance with the rules of the Fundamental Law. The complexity of this control, in close connection with the growing complexity of the regulations, but also with the desideratum of legal security, which must be equally considered in exercising the constitutionality control, makes that the solutions of the Constitutional Court be also expressed in different forms. This study makes an analysis of the decisions of the Constitutional Court pertaining to the category circumstantiated by the term „interpretative decisions”, in order to emphasize their importance and their role in the process of constitutionalization of law. Certainly, the achievement of constitutionality control involves, in itself, a process of interpretation and comparison of the constitutional rules and, respectively, of the infraconstitutional ones. Within the interpretative decisions, however, this comparative examination has a greater complexity, constituting an emphasis of more possible interpretations and the identification of the one which complies with the provisions of the Constitution. Such an analysis also raises for discussion the role of the Constitutional Court in the process of interpretation of the legal infraconstitutional rules, an interpretation facilitated by the provisions of the Fundamental Law, its basis and the limits of the jurisdiction of the Court. -
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The judicial practice, including that of the Supreme Court, reveals difficulties in applying the sanction of nullity, in particular in case of virtual nullities. In this context, the author shows that it is necessary an applied analysis of the theory of nullity, in order to establish a staging of the judicial approach undertaken for applying this sanction. An interdisciplinary approach for the purpose of establishing the role of the condition of injury in such approach contributes to the avoidance of the confusion of the virtual nullity with the relative one. -
The study under the heading above reviews the relationship between the European Parliament and national parliaments of the 27 EU Member States (including, where appropriate their regional parliaments) in the light of provisions brought under the Treaty of Lisbon (effective since December 1st, 2009). -
By comparison, the author examines the role of national parliaments in the treaties establishing the European Communities, the European Union (subsequent to the Treaty of Amsterdam), and then, much more in detail, the role of national parliaments in the Treaty of Lisbon (effective since 1 December 2009). At the end, the author examines the (indirect) influence of the Treaty of Lisbon on the legislative deliberative process in the Parliament of Romania. -
By comparison, the author examines the role of national parliaments in the treaties establishing the European Communities, the European Union (subsequent to the Treaty of Amsterdam), and then, much more in detail, the role of national parliaments in the Treaty of Lisbon (effective since 1 December 2009). At the end, the author examines the (indirect) influence of the Treaty of Lisbon on the legislative deliberative process in the Parliament of Romania. -
The correlation between parliament and democracy is a classical one. It has been proven not only by the beginnings of parliamentarism, related to limitation of the omnipotence of the monarch, but also by subsequent developments, especially in the generalization of universal suffrage, but also by the historical experience of the previous century, when the collapse of totalitarian or authoritarian regimes has always been followed by the return to parliamentarism or to a political system in which Parliament’s role is essential. After joining the European Union, its role was enhanced by its involvement in the European decision-making process. -
The attributions that confer substance to the activity of the prosecutor before the jurisdictional body are the participation in the trial of the criminal and civil cases, the exercise of the means of appeal against the judgments, the examination of the cases of non-uniform application of the law and the analysis of the cases in which the courts have delivered final judgments of acquittal, return or referral to the prosecutor. In criminal matters, the prosecutor mandatorily participates in the trial, under the sanction of absolute nullity, in the cases where the law expressly provides for his participation, and optionally, in cases other than those in which the law establishes the obligativity of participation. In civil matters, the rule is that the prosecutor takes part in the trial optionally, when he considers it necessary to defend the rule of law, the rights and interests of citizens. By way of exception, the prosecutor mandatorily participates in the trial of the civil cases when the obligativity is expressly provided. In criminal matters, the law opens for the prosecutor the path to exercise all means of appeal, ordinary (appeal, contestation) or extraordinary (recourse in cassation, contestation for annulment, revision), against various judgments. In civil matters, the prosecutor may exercise the means of appeal when he deems it is necessary to protect the rights and legitimate interests of minors, of the persons placed under interdiction and of the missing persons, or when he has participated in the trial of the case. -
Are separate opinions necessary? Writing them involves both time and resources, and the result does not influence the causes in which they were formulated. In this context, the logical question is why some national and international judges choose to formulate such opinions. We appreciate that the main reason is the potential of these opinions to contribute to the development of the future judicial practice. The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance and benefits of regulating the separate opinions in national legislation and to encourage their use. In this study we aim to analyze the purpose of the separate opinions along with the arguments for and against their regulation in national legislations. We will also analyze the difference between separate and concurring opinions, but also the different result that these opinions may have. We will also address the issue of the style in which these opinions are written and the impact it may have on future case law. A distinct part of this paper will be devoted to the analysis of separate opinions in national courts. At the same time, we will follow if there are differences between the constitutional court and the common law courts, regarding the use of these opinions. At the end of the study, we will make some proposals de lege ferenda on the need for legislative development of the field of separate and concurring opinions, development which would encourage their use and, at the same time, would limit the purpose of using these opinions to the development of the case law.
