The authors present another opinion on the subject regulated by Article 132 of the Law No 78/2000, arguing that it constitutes a special legal aggravating circumstance for the offences of abuse of office and usurpation of the function provided by Article 297 and Article 300 of the Criminal Code. In the current regulation the abuse of office provided by Article 297 of the Criminal Code by reference to Article 132 of the Law No 78/2000 is not a criminal offence assimilated to corruption offences and, consequently, may not fall within the competence of the NAD unless the damage caused exceeds the ROL equivalent of one million euros. Drawing attention to the fact that the provisions of Article 132 of the Law No 78/2000 are not precise, predictable, they bring arguments in support of the thesis of the susceptibility of unconstitutionality thereof.

The offence of international illicit trafficking in risk drugs is provided in Article 3 (1) of the Law No 143/2000 on preventing and combating illicit drug trafficking and consumption, and, following the amendment brought by the Law No 187/2012 for the implementation of the new Criminal Code, is currently punished by imprisonment from 3 to 10 years and the interdiction to exercise some rights. Prior to the amendment, the punishment was imprisonment from 10 to 20 years and the interdiction to exercise certain rights.

The study is grounded on the thesis according to which the contestation against execution aimed at reducing the punishment imposed on the convicted person under the special cause of reducing the punishment provided in Article 19 of the Law No 682/2002 on the protection of witnesses is inadmissible.

The notion of „principle” has known three approaches throughout its history: ontological (philosophical), logical, and normative. Ontologically, it would mean the primary object of knowledge stemming from the intellectual act, by the procedure of induction, generalization (a form of reasoning), starting from the particular and ending with the general, from facts to concepts. In a logical sense, it is a general proposal induced from particular rules, being a source for deductive reasoning wherein the conclusion follows necessarily premises that are sources of orientation: ideas, facts, situations. Legal logic has a wide content, and it is considered that logical principles denote, on the one hand, a body of rules stemming from a methodic and reflected development, rules ordered systematically, and, on the other hand, the axioms that substantiate a rational structure. This is how principles are linked with the perpetual work of sensibly organizing the law (the activity of legislation). In a normative sense, the principle no longer describes the object or a form of logic, nor does it describe an axiom or a reason-based system of rules, but a legal norm/standard whereby an obligation is asserted, establishing a resource for the legal interpreter. Interpretative adages which relate, however, to formal rules of logical reasoning, may clash and lack any compelling force, being used by the judge in the development of his/her own policy. The role of the principles is to ensure the coherence and harmony of the legal system, since they are the expression of superior values embedded in the spirit of the law. Regarding the content and the extent of the principle of legal certainly, legal literature has identified three levels of approach: pre-judicial legal certainty; procedural legal certainty and post-judicial substantial legal certainty; all of them meet to ensure the „predictability of the law” so that the parties/the litigants have a feeling of certainty.

The current Civil Procedure Code has brought some changes in respect of the evidence with the interrogatory, changes which are discussed in this study. Thus, for example, the court has the possibility to proceed to the confrontation of the parties and, in case of the interrogatory of the persons who are abroad, according to the new regulation, the condition of domicile situated abroad is no longer necessary, being sufficient for the party to be abroad for a longer period of time. I have discussed punctually the administration of the evidence with the interrogatory in the case of the natural person, in the case of the legal person, in the situation of the persons who are abroad, as well as the effects of the absence from the interrogatory or of the refusal to answer to it. Since the confession is currently regulated by the Civil Procedure Code, unlike the former regulation, when it could be found in the Civil Code of 1864, I have presented the most important aspects concerning the judicial confession.

The legal epistemology justifies the interest of this study for the relations which are established between the notions of branch of law, of sub-branch of law, of legal institution, as well as their relations with the forms of legal liability which they regulate. In the problems of the dynamics of the relations between the branches of law and the forms of legal liability the rule is that every branch of the law knows or generates at least one form of legal liability. Starting with the theoretical challenge launched by Professor Antonie Iorgovan, regarding the elements that announce the appearance of a new form of legal liability within or outside a branch of law, the novelty proposed by this study consists in the approach of the inverse relation, precisely of the capacity of a new form of legal liability to generate a new branch of law, as well as its reception by a legal science of branch. The verification of the validity of the capacity of mutual cogeneration between the forms of legal liability and the branches of law will be achieved by means of the examples of the relations established between the ecological liability and the environmental law, the objective liability and the insurance law, the managerial liability and a possible managerial law on the ground of legal methodology.

Se știe că, în materie represivă, prescripția produce un îndoit efect, acel de a stinge acțiunea publică și cea civilă, care izvorăște dintr’o crimă, delict sau contravenție polițienească (art. 593–595 C.pr.pen.), și acel de a stinge pedeapsa pronunțată de tribunalele represive art. (596–598 C.pr.pen.). Pentru a se justifica aceste dispoziții s’au dat mai multe motive, asupra căror vom reveni mai târziu tot în coloanele acestui ziar, când vom expune considerațiile generale asupra prescripției penale. Destul este să spunem deocamdată că motivul cel mai puternic și poate singurul motiv ce se poate invoca în specie este că societatea nu are nici un interes a pedepsi o infracțiune a cărei amintire este ștearsă. Legea penală nu vorbește de suspendarea prescripției, ci numai de întreruperea ei. Actele întreruptive consistă, când este vorba de prescrierea acțiunei publice, în acte de instrucțiune și de urmărire (art. 593 C.pr.pen.). Vom vederea îndată care sunt actele întreruptive de prescripție când este vorba de prescrierea executărei pedepselor.

Celebrating the Day of Justice is a good opportunity for the theoreticians and the practitioners of law to subject to reflection topics of a particular interest, legislative and jurisprudential solutions, or de lege ferenda aspects. Such an event also enables the evaluation of the institutional relations between the authorities that have a well-defined constitutional role in exercising the judicial authority, as well as of the contribution of the different legal professions to the general and complex law enforcement process. From this perspective, the author emphasizes not only the importance of the celebration reunion of the representatives of the main institutions and professional organizations of jurists, but also the requirement for such an event to be marked by scientific manifestations, in which the participants to make known their own researches in the field, to debate in a spirit of fellowship and solidarity issues facing justice as a public service, the statute of magistrates, as well as of the other legal professions. In a way, every man of law is responsible for the triumph of the idea of justice in his profession.

The authors plead for the distinct regulation of the manifestly illegal acts and measures showing that their legal treatment requires operative sanctions and their removal in due time having regard to their implications for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Taking into account the implications increased by the latest changes of the institution of the initiation and continuation of the criminal prosecution there are pointed out some inconsistencies of the criminal processual legislation with the provisions of the Constitution and of the European Convention of Human Rights, expressing some criticism of unconstitutionality. Thus they criticize the obligativity to initiate criminal prosecution „in rem” even when the authors are indicated or known, and make some „de lege ferenda” proposals, for the concordance of Article 304 (2), Article 305 (1), (2) and (3) and Article 339 (5) of the Criminal Procedure Code with the provisions of the Constitution.

Both in the Member States and at European and international level there are currently concerns for finding the best means of combating tax fraud and tax evasion. Recent measures place the good tax governance among the means of fighting against this phenomenon, and it is estimated that joint actions at European level are more effective, being meant to encourage also third countries to apply minimum standards of good tax governance. At the same time, the concept of good tax governance, as well as those of tax fraud and tax evasion are taken under consideration by the doctrinaires in the field of criminal and tax law, but the definitions given to them have been imprecise and sometimes contradictory. In this context, we intend to emphasize the contribution of good tax governance as an effective means to prevent and mitigate tax fraud and tax evasion both at national, European and international level.

In this article, the author advocates the necessity to adopt a special law on the liability of magistrates for committing the judicial errors through bad faith or due to their own negligence. The beginning of reforming the political system set in motion in December 1989 has generated also the change of the judicial system as a whole and, at the same time with it, of the relations between the state and the citizen, according to the principles of the constitutional democracy. As the new government system places at its foundation the individual-citizen, it was natural for the state to assume a direct liability for the violation by its judicial agents of the legitimate rights and interests of the citizens. In this framework, it was built a system of corrections for judicial errors, extended to the effective legal liability of the judges and of the public prosecutors who, in bad faith or gross negligence, have violated the processual rights of the parties in the trial, have convicted them unjustly, or have subjected them without any grounds to some repressive procedures. This system of moral and material corrections does not work, the provisions in the matter, included in the processual legislation, are not sufficient for the citizen to gain full confidence in the act of justice. A special law is necessary not only to ensure the corrections of the judicial errors, but also to exemplarily sanction the guilty parties for violating the law.

Stipulation for another and direct actions are two topical legal mechanisms that, although in theory are clearly explained, the judicial practice is hesitant in their application. At the same time, due to the multitude of similarities regarding the effects of these legal mechanisms, a confusion has been created in numerous situations both in terms of their legal meaning and their applicability. As such, a comparative study of the two legal notions contributes and facilitates the substantiation in law of the stipulation for another and of the direct actions, but also the way of application in the judicial practice. In the present study we mainly focused on presenting the origins of the stipulation for another, but also on its application over time, so far, concluding with a comparison with the direct actions, regarding the main effects of the two legal mechanisms. We hope that the judicial practice will outline in time a more effective differentiation of the two notions with a wide spread in the fields of law.

This study focuses on the legal issues involved by the provisions of Articles 125 (3) and 132 (2) of the Constitution (according to which the office of judge or public prosecutor shall be incompatible with any other public or private office, except for the didactic offices in the higher education institutions) in correlation with the provisions of Article 41 (1) of the Constitution (according to which the right to work shall not be restricted, and everyone has a free choice of his/her profession, trade or occupation, as well as work place). Currently, the relevant administrative practice and case law interpret and apply extensively (lato sensu) Articles 125 (3) and 132 (2). Such approach leads to the presumption that any other activity performed by judges or public prosecutors is forbidden (otherwise triggering disciplinary liability thereof) unless that other activity is not related to didactic offices in higher education or is not assimilated to such offices by special law (or, as it happens most often, by a decision issued by the Plenum of the Superior Council of Magistracy). This study demonstrates that, on the contrary, the aforementioned constitutional provisions establish a presumption according to which the judges and public prosecutors can lawfully perform not only the activities which consist in „didactic offices in higher education”, but also any other activity which is not an „office” and in relation to which there is no „conflict of interest” in the light of the relevant legal provisions. In order to reach this conclusion, the constitutional and legal provisions on the concept of holding multiple „offices” must cease to be interpreted extensively (lato sensu), as it is made currently by the administrative practice and the case law, but restrictively (stricto sensu) – as those constitutional provisions constitute an exception from the constitutional principle of the free right to work, establishing a restriction of this fundamental right exercise. The legal provisions laid down in this field can be qualified as consistent with the Constitution only if their normative content does not produce an extensive application of the constitutional provisions concerning the holding of multiple „offices”. Thus, by the words „other public or private office” (with which the office of judge or public prosecutor is prohibited to be held simultaneously) one has to understand exclusively a public or private activity performed regularly and in an organized manner within an institution (organization) against a remuneration.

The aim of the present paper is to cover the main aspects regarding the legal treatment of witness protection in the Romanian criminal legislation by presenting, from a critical standpoint, the current regulation of the witness protection. The authors analysed essential aspects regarding the protection of threatened witnesses, the protection measures ordered during the criminal investigation, the protection measures ordered during the trial or the protected witnesses hearing, as well as the protection of vulnerable witnesses by reporting to the European Convention of Human Rights provisions and jurisprudence. Also, the present paper analyses the probative value of the protected witness statements and contains comparative law matters on witness protection laws in several European countries.

The oblique action is a means of preserving the claim that has been regulated both in the sense of the new Civil Code and in the sense of the old Civil Code. The new regulation, however, brings some improvements to clarify the conditions and effects of the oblique action. At the same time, the notion of general pledge of creditors is replaced by the notion of joint guarantee. As such, a study on the effects and conditions of the oblique action is extremely useful, especially as it is compared with the provisions of the new French Civil Code. Through this paper we have understood to deal with a very important and up-to-date subject as it is a means of protecting the claims at the disposal of any creditor. At the same time, the parallel with the direct actions comes to clarify the confusion that has been created many times in both doctrine and judicial practice between the two legal mechanisms.

The article analyzes the Decision of the Constitutional Court No 369/2017, by which the phrase „as well as in other requests assessable in cash worth up to ROL 1 000 000 inclusive” was declared unconstitutional. In the Civil Procedure Code, in Article 483 (2), there are listed the judgments that can not be challenged with recourse, among which there are the requests assessable in cash worth up to ROL 500 000. By Article XVIII of the Law No 2/2013, this threshold was increased to the amount of ROL 1 000 000 inclusive. We consider criticizable the establishing of the categories of court judgments that have eluded the recourse taking into account the value criterion and we propose to eliminate this criterion. In our opinion, we agree with the admission of the plea of unconstitutionality, which has eliminated the value threshold for the promotion of judgments that can be challenged with recourse. Likewise, we consider criticizable also the delimitation of the material competence between judges and tribunals, being based on the value criterion. In our opinion, the delimitation of the material competence must be made depending on the nature of the litigation brought to justice, not on the value criterion of the request for summons.

The most important normative act, which regulates the matter of establishing, organizing and dissolving societies, is Law No 31/1990. According to Article 1 (1) of the Law No 31/1990, for the purpose of carrying out activities for profit, natural persons and legal persons may associate and form companies with legal personality, in compliance with the provisions of this law. Article 1 (2) of the same law provides that the companies referred to in paragraph (1) based in Romania are Romanian legal entities. Violations of legal norms regulating the establishment, organization, modification and cessation of the activities of societies can be manifested in various forms and may, as the case may be, imply criminal, civil, disciplinary, tax liability etc. Taking into account the fact that the companies have a special importance in the field of business, the Romanian legislature criminalizes certain facts of violation of the norms provided by the Law No 31/1990.

This study is a thorough analysis of the procedure of judgment in the absence of the defendant. In particular, there are assessed the remedies that the Romanian regulation provides to the one who has been the subject to a procedure of judgment in contumacy. The author brings arguments of comparative law and of systemic interpretation of the internal legal rules, his conclusion being that there are many aspects in which the internal regulation is deficient.