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One of the main innovations introduced by the new Criminal Procedure Code is the possibility of concluding a plea bargaining agreement between the defendant and the prosecutor. Where there is evidence to confirm that the defendant is the perpetrator of the deed subject to the criminal trial, and he admits the allegations against him, it is possible for the defendant and the prosecutor to mutually agree on the punishment, the method of execution of punishment, as well as on all other aspects related to the criminal side of the case. In this case, the role of the court will be limited only to verifying whether the concluded agreement fulfils or not the conditions provided by law and to confirm it or to reject it. Through this new institution it will decrease the duration of trials where the evidence produced during the criminal prosecution phase proves almost unequivocally the commission of acts by the defendant, allowing the courts to concentrate their resources on the really complex cases. -
After the author has analyzed in a previous study the need to take into account the legitimate defence in the field of cybercrime and has emphasized the aspects of the conditions of the attack, in this material there are analyzed the legitimate retaliation and the state of necessity. In this context, the author has tried to emphasize the problems that may arise in relation to the conditions relating to defence (legitimate retaliation), also seeking to provide a theoretical framework capable of providing applicability to the institution of self-defence. An important aspect analyzed in this paper has been the putative self-defence, which could be a key aspect in the discussion on the legitimate retaliation. Equally, it has been examined inclusively the institution of the state of necessity, also drawing conclusions on the relationship between this institution and the institution of self-defence.
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The Ombudsman is a fundamental institution of the state of law, meant to ensure the protection of natural or legal persons against the abusive manifestations of the public authorities. In this context, this study aims to analyze the main problems arisen in the practice of exercising the powers of this autonomous administrative authority, envisaging, in particular: the scope of public authorities and of the administrative acts falling within the scope of activity of this authority; the procedure for exercising the action for administrative disputes by the Ombudsman. Likewise, following the analysis of these aspects, there are formulated de lege ferenda proposals.
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Under Article 1541 (1) b) of the new Romanian Civil Code, among the conditions in which the court may reduce the quantum of the penalty is also the condition that the penalty should be clearly excessive in relation to the damage that could be provided by the parties upon the conclusion of the contract. This text of the new Romanian Civil Code, which entered into force on 1 October 2011, has generated a controversy, in the sense that, once the „clearly excessive” character of the penalty has been retained, the court shall be required to proceed to the reduction thereof or, on the contrary, it has only a faculty (possibility) to proceed as such. In the opinion of the author of the study, the second interpretation is the judicial one. -
The problematical issues concerning the documents issued by the President of Romania in exercising his constitutional and legal powers and the settlement of disputes derived from these documents have been less discussed in the literature of speciality. Starting from this reality, this study intends to analyze these issues, by comparing the provisions of the Law on the administrative disputes No 554/2004 to the provisions of the revised Constitution and to other special normative acts in the matter. In this context, the study analyzes in detail the documents issued by the President of Romania in exercising his constitutional and legal powers, the documents issued by the President of Romania which may be subject to an action for administrative disputes, as well as the documents which are excepted from the control of the court of administrative disputes. -
The author makes a comprehensive and dense analysis of the exception of non-performance which, in his opinion, falls within the system of remedies for non-performance of contracts. At the beginning of his scientific speech, he has proceeded to a broad presentation of the notion, origin and foundations which justify the existence and the application of this important legal means, which is available to any party of a contractual relation, the content of which is formed of reciprocal and interdependent obligations. Likewise, he points out that, unlike the legislative state existing under the influence of the old Civil Code, currently, the exception of non-performance is expressly regulated, by general provisions, in Article 1556 of the new Civil Code, taken over in their essence from the German Civil Code, which entered into force on 1 January 1900. Having the provisions of the new Civil Code in this matter as legislative reference points, this study presents a vast debate on the scope of application, on the conditions of existence, on its own and specific mechanism of operation, as well as on the effects which this important remedy for non-performance of contracts produces between the contracting parties and to the third parties. The findings and the conclusions of the analysis have allowed the author to retain and to express the elements and the own features of the legal regime and of the functions specific to the exception of non-performance, based on which, ultimately, he proceeds to its delimitation from other related legal mechanisms, such as the legal compensation and the right of retention.
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The author makes a brief analysis of the relapse into crime in the new Criminal Code and argues the opinion according to which, if the post-execution relapse into crime has been finalised and used in a criminal trial according to the Criminal Code of 1968, the relapse into crime can not be retained according to Article 43 (5) of the Criminal Code and the limits of the punishment can not be increased by half. -
Inconveniences of neighbourhood are regulated autonomously in Article 630 of the new Romanian Civil Code, as judicial limits of the right of property. The paper analyzes the inconveniences of neighbourhood in the light of the relation to the abuse of right, because it has been for a long time the main instrument of settlement of the conflicts arisen in the state of neighbourhood. In this regard the author emphasizes that, unlike the abuse of right that involves, in all its forms of manifestation, the existence of guilt and the illicit act, by engaging the tort civil liability, the inconveniences of neighbourhood oblige the owner to provide reparation only if they are abnormal and are produced by the normal and licit exercise of the right. The foundation of the obligation to repair the created inconvenience is equity, the only one that can adjust to the conditions required by the legal situation specific to abnormal disturbances of neighbourhood. By applying equity, the court sets the judicial limits in the exercise of property, separate from the legal limits or from the conventional ones, expressly regulated by the new Civil Code, for private interest.
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This paper presents a brief analysis of the problems raised by the offence of theft. The authors emphasize, on the one hand, the close connection between these problems and some errors occurred in the civil theory of possession, and, on the other hand, some shortcomings of the current definition of the offence of theft. Similarly, there are presented some possible corrections, both at theoretical level and at legislative level. -
Law No 78/2014 regarding the regulation of volunteering in Romania provides that a volunteer agreement can be concluded by any natural person „who has acquired capacity to work according to the legislation in the field of labour.” Whereas this phrasing is likely to generate controversies and discussions (the Law No 78/2014 being a law in the field of civil law, and not in the field of the labour law), the author examines precisely at what age minors may conclude volunteer agreements. The author’s conclusion, resulting from the corroboration of Articles 41–42 of the Civil Code with Article 13 of the Labour Code, is that: minors may conclude volunteer agreements after they turned 14, but between 14–16 years of age the consent of their parents, guardians, etc., is also required and, after the minor turned 16, he may conclude such an agreement himself, without the above-mentioned consent.
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Suspicious death is one of the key legal institutions on the right to life. This study aims to present the concept of suspicious death in Romanian law, its evolution and the relationship between its legal provisions and Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Even though impossible to quantify at present moment, many of the abuses committed by agents of the communist regime, abuses which led to the death of their victims, may constitute reason enough to consider them suspicious deaths under Romanian criminal law. Article 2 ECHR, from a procedural point of view, may be interpreted as obliging the Romanian state to organize an effective investigation into the circumstances that led to the deaths of the opponents of the communist regime in Romania, if and when the circumstances in which the death occurred raise the possibility that that death to be a result of an abuse committed by an official of the Romanian state or in his or her custody. -
In this study the author points out that, although in Romania we can not talk about a real regime of liability for the inconveniences of neighbourhood, but rather about an identity between this form of liability and the one for the abuse of law, however the social, economic, cultural realities, etc. impose such regulation. From a legal point of view, there is no exact definition of this notion, reference being often made in the legal doctrine to the sociological studies that have examined neighbourhood relations or to geographic studies, in which it is contained the essence of this notion from a spatial point of view. The author points out that neighbourhood can be defined as a state of facts that captures the co-existence of some persons, of some assets, whether movable or immovable, configuring those spaces of conflict and discussing proximities and distances. The Civil Code establishes precise rules on environmental protection and good neighbourliness, considered to be legal limits to private property right, thus, according to the provisions of Article 603 of the Civil Code: „The property right imposes the compliance with the duties concerning the environmental protection and the ensuring of good neighbourliness, as well as the compliance with the other duties which, according to law or custom, belong to the owner.” The new regulation nuances certain aspects which, in practice, raise many problems; the following are examples: the use of waters, the roof droplet, the distance and the intermediate works for certain constructions, works and plantations, the view of the neighbour’s property, the right of passage, and finally the judicial limits are regulated. These judicial limits determine expressis verbis the consequences of exceeding the normal boundaries of the neighbourhood, more precisely, if the owner causes, by exercising his right, greater inconveniences than the normal one in the neighbourhood relations, the court may, on grounds of equity, compel him to pay compensation for the benefit of the injured person, and to restore the previous situation whenever possible.
