Law no. 287/2009 regarding the Civil Code introduces in the matter of successoral option many new items here and there, reconfiguring it. In this study, we propose to examine the general aspects that the successoral option involves in the light of the provisions of the new Civil Code, to highlight the new items brought by this legislative instrument in the matter subject to the examination et to assess their progressive nature.

The judicial individualization of the sentence shall be carried out by a complex operation using all those individualization criteria set forth by law (general and special criteria); the need for taking into consideration all the grounds for sentence modification is included within these criteria, as well. Drawn by this need, the Romanian Criminal Code into force (since 1968) contains regulations regarding the manner in which the various grounds for sentence modification must be enforced, when they concur, regulations contained in the provisions of art. 80. Likewise, the new Romanian Criminal Code contains such regulations in art. 79. In this study, the authors have emphasized several systems of sentence determination in case of the concurrence between the grounds for sentence modification. Both the Criminal Code into force and the new Criminal Code adopted an objective criterion concerning the manner in which the various grounds for sentence modification must be enforced, being sensitive to multiple interpretations and contradictory solutions. The Romanian Criminal Code of 2004 – abrogated, before becoming effective, through the new Criminal Code – which forwarded a system based upon a subjective criterion, by granting the judge the freedom to assess the predominance (prevalence) of the grounds for sentence modification and to give them the due legal effect. From the point of view of the authors of the study, this system seems to be more adequate to settle the problems raised by the concurrence between the grounds for sentence modification.

The rental of safe deposit boxes shall be regulated by the Civil Code (Law no. 287/2009) within the banking agreements, together with the current bank account, deposit and credit facility. The above mentioned regulation makes obvious a special agreement, customized by its content, different from the civil deposit and from the rental. Being concerned with the protection of the client’s valuable goods, the legislator allocates a larger space to the access to the safe deposit box – voluntarily or in a forced way (art. 2197-2198). This study examines the rental of the safe deposit boxes according to the Civil Code in the classical way of approaching the agreements.

This study examines preliminarily the documents upon which the Court of Accounts concretizes its activity, and it analyses further in a detailed manner the remedies at law against these documents, by emphasizing the non-unitary case law in the matter, namely: if the law court is competent in the first instance (the Administrative and Fiscal Section), and the Court of Appeal is competent in the second appeal (the Administrative and Fiscal Section) or, on the contrary, the Court of Appeal (the Administrative and Fiscal Section) is competent in the first instance, and the competence shall belong to the High Court of Cassation and Justice in the second appeal (the Administrative and Fiscal Section). Based upon a comprehensive analysis the authoress points out that the last solution shall be legal.

This study examines the twinning of the rules and principles of the European Union law (Directive 1999/70 EC of 28 June 1999 enforcing the framework Agreement concluded on 18 March 1999 between the European social partners as regards work for a limited period of time) together with the national laws of certain European states (France, Germany, Romania) in the field of individual employment agreements concluded for a limited period of time.

Cerința interesului de a fi actual trebuie îndeplinitã pe tot parcursul procesului, iar nu numai la momentul introducerii acțiunii. Astfel, în cazul în care pe parcursul procesului acțiunea promovatã de reclamant rãmâne fãrã interes, demersul procesual, inițial justificat, rãmâne fãrã o finalitate practicã din punct de vedere juridic, soluția consacratã jurisprudențial în atare situații fiind aceea a respingerii acțiunii ca rãmasã fãrã interes (Înalta Curte de Casație și Justiție, Secția comercialã, decizia nr. 2623 din 13 septembrie 2011).

The author reveals a series of analogies, contradictions between Articles 98-103 of the new Civil Code (Law No. 287/2009 republished on July 15th, 2011 and effective since October 1st, 2011) and Law No. 119/1996 (republished on November 2nd, 2009) on the civil status documents, situation which, on the one hand brings about a series of difficulties as regards the correct interpretation and enforcement of the law, and, on the other hand, is in breach of the rules of principle of Law No. 24/2000 laying down detailed rules on the legislative technique for drafting regulations (republished on April 21st, 2010).

The regulation by the new Civil Code of the patrimonies by appropriation came as a necessity given the economic development of our society. The existence of the patrimony by appropriation was equally recognized by the former legislation, by way of specific provisions regarding the carrying out of certain liberal professions or economic activities. This paper is aimed at analysing specific aspects of the patrimonies by appropriation from the perspective of the liberal individual professional patrimony, as a patrimonial mass distinctively regulated by the new codification. The exercise of the authorized liberal professionals implies the existence of a professional patrimony that ensures the carrying out of activities that do not have an economic character. The formal recognition of the “self-employed” as a subject of tax law bearing specific tax liabilities, distinct from those incurred by this same person concerning his personal patrimony, could create the appearance of a “two-headed monster”, of two or more persons in one, of a person who is multiplying according to the number of patrimonies by appropriation that he holds. In fact, the possibility for an individual to carry out economic activities or liberal professions without setting up, to that effect, a legal entity with its own patrimony, does not require the use of the legal fiction of multiplying the person according to the needed number of patrimonies, as the modern doctrine concering the patrimony accepts both the uniqueness and the division of the patrimony into patrimonial masses and patrimonies by appropriation.

The accession of Romania to the European Union on January 1st, 2007 also involved the need for harmonization of national legislation with the European one, which, inter alia, led to the elaboration of a new Criminal Code. This regulation covers some new elements, including the crime of harm to the unborn child, as provided for in Article 202 under the new Criminal Code, as an integral part of Title I of the Special Part dedicated to crime against the person. As stated in the Explanatory Memorandum to the new Criminal Code, by criminalizing such acts it was intended to cover a legal vacuum, i.e. to protect the fetus from the moment of the commencement of the delivery process until completion thereof. In the study hereby, the author examines from the criminal doctrine perspective, but also in terms of medical science, the meaning of the term fetus and the phrases “during childbirth” and “during pregnancy”, advancing some de lege ferenda proposals.

The article sets under review the opportunity to pursue criminal action as an institution of novelty in the field of criminal procedure, by the Prosecutor’s possibility to assess the existence of real public interest in carrying out the investigation and to rule, subject to certain conditions, upon the solution of abandoning criminal prosecution, provided that practical circumstances of the offence committed reveal that this interest does not subsist.

In case of the minors aged between 14 and 18 years old, who are liable from the criminal point of view, the presumption according to which their judgment has not reached its maturation, but is in full process of development and stabilization is instituted. In view of these circumstances, minors under this category of age do not have the psycho-physical ability to fully become aware of the gravity of the perpetrated crimes and, especially, their injurious consequences on the social values protected by means of criminal regulations. Given this context, the author claims that the new Criminal Code excludes the possibility of enforcing punishments in case of under aged criminals and establishes a specific system of criminal penalties, entitled educational measures, classified into two categories: educational measures without deprivation of liberty and educational measures with deprivation of liberty.

On the basis of the organization and operation of the union institutions there are the principle of autonomy of their organizing, the principle of conferral of competencies and the principle of the institutional balance. MEPs represent the people (in the system previous to the Treaty of Lisbon) and the EU citizens (under the current regime), they can not receive instructions, orders from governments of the Member States, not being appointed by them. The States are associated in the Union itself, which reveals a community of interests and aspirations, embodied in the objectives and decisions set.

Pursuant to Art. 147, paragraph (4) of the Romanian Constitution republished on October 31, 2003, “Rulings of the Constitutional Court shall be published in the Official Gazette of Romania. As from their publication, rulings shall be generally binding and effective only for the future”, and pursuant to Art. 147 paragraph (1) of the said Constitution, the provisions of the laws, ordinances and regulations in force found to be unconstitutional shall cease their legal effects within 45 days of the publication of the decision of the Constitutional Court if, in the meantime, the Parliament or the Government, as the case may be, cannot bring into line the unconstitutional provisions with the provisions of the Constitution.. Under these constitutional requirements, the study’s authors comprehensively examine the casuistry these rules have generated, the Constitutional Court jurisprudence in the matters and so on, and the delicate situation arisen because neither the Constitution nor any other law expressly regulates the state of laws or Government ordinances (no longer existing) declared unconstitutional.

In this paper the author makes a comparative analysis of Art.72 (“notifying the enforcement of collective redundancy”) and Art. 74 (prohibition of new employment subsequent to collective redundancies, employees right to reemployment) of the Labor Code (Law no. 53/2003, republished on May 18, 2011), texts related to the Council Directive no. 98/59/EC of July 20, 1998. In this respect, the author concludes that although usually the said texts of the Labor Code are consistent with the aforementioned Directive, however, the amending / supplementing of the Labor Code is required to imperatively establish a mandatory form of employees representation outside the union organization, taking into account that the “employees representatives” institution (Articles 221 to 226 of the Labor Code) is currently optionally governed (and not mandatory), and only where the employer exceeding 20 employees had not constituted representative unions.

Through its varied meanings, “loyalty” is perhaps the noblest moral value. It is, in terms of law, a factor and a marker of legal relationships “moralization”, procedural relations including. Although unanimously accredited in the field legal relationships as well, including procedural relations, the loyalty principle is enshrined in terminis as a fundamental principle of civil proceedings. However, it is an implicit result of numerous provisions in the law of civil procedure, which finds appropriate forms of legal and judicial sanction. In our procedural civil regulatory climate, certain peremptory procedural exceptions having permanent effect make unnecessary the application of the praetorian “estoppel” rule established in common law and subsequently in other legal systems. Fundamental right of access to justice is not incompatible with assuming „duty of loyalty”.

Following the entry into force of the new Romanian Civil Code (on October 1, 2011) and the new Romanian Code of Civil Procedure (which will take place on February 1, 2013), in the Romanian civil law doctrine a controversy arose in the sense that divorce exclusive fault of the defendant State (that if the respondent spouse doesn’t file a counterclaim) is admissible only by way of exception, where the reason for divorce consists of a minimum 2-year de facto separation of spouses or, on the contrary in other situations as well. After a thorough analysis, the author opts for restrictive solution, i.e. divorce for applicant spouse’s exclusive fault (if the respondent spouse doesn’t file a counterclaim) is admissible only by way of exception, where the reason for divorce consists of a minimum 2-year de facto separation of spouses.

In this article, the author critically examines matters of criminal procedural guarantees for the injured person, the injured party or civil party, stressing their importance in the administration of criminal justice. In this context, topics on the rights of victims are depicted inspired from the principle of equality of arms, inferred from the (European) Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the author making some suggestions on repairing the damage caused as a result of the offense.

The article hereby reviews the arguments on the need for detention of the presumption of innocence in contravention and, therefore, the proper application of the provisions of art. 6 of the (European) Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Arguments are the result of uniform and consistent theories and practices of the European Court of Human Rights and the provisions of the Constitution of Romania, republished. Given these arguments, the author considers that the presumption of innocence in contravention is mandatory for the Romanian courts when a complaint of contravention is submitted for trial against a sanctioning act. In conclusion, it urges that the High Court of Cassation and Justice order by an appeal, in the interest of the law, guidance for uniform practice in contravention and / or the legislator to amend laws on this issue, to that effect.