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The modality of enforcement through garnishment involves the existence of a legal relationship, in which the pursued debtor has the quality of creditor, and the garnishee has the quality of debtor, a legal relationship used by the pursuing creditor in order to realize the claim from the writ of execution. The garnishment knows two phases, the one of establishment and the one of validation, the second one intervening only if the garnishee fails to fulfil its obligations as a result of communicating the address for establishment of garnishment. The application for validation of the garnishment is a veritable application for summons, its finality being to obtain a writ of execution by the executing creditor against the garnishee. The study examines the defences which the garnishee can invoke in the court of validation, having regard to the legislative solution provided by the current Civil Procedure Code, according to which a garnishee is forbidden to file a contestation to the enforcement against the acts establishing the garnishment, the latter being able to use his defences only before the court of validation [Article 787 (5) of the Civil Procedure Code]. Therefore, the processual means of invoking the defences before the court of validation are analyzed, being questioned the admissibility of the garnishee’s filing of a counter claim aiming at the cancellation of the juridical act from which the relationship between him and the debtor arose. The defences of the garnishee are analyzed starting with the distinction between defences on the merits and the processual and procedural ones, in relation to the possibility conferred to the third party to invoke against the creditor all the pleas and defences that he may oppose to the debtor, to the extent that they are prior to the establishment of garnishment [Article 790 (3) of the Civil Procedure Code]. -
The institution of the penal clause, regulated in Articles 1538–1543 of the new Civil Code, still encounters different interpretations, even contradictory sometimes, in the judicial practice and in the solutions of the courts. In particular, the interest of the practitioners and of the specialized doctrine is based on the possibility conferred to the court of law to reduce the penal clause in the two cases provided by the legislator, namely when the main obligation has been executed by the debtor to the benefit of the creditor and when the penalty is clearly excessive in relation to the prejudice which might have been foreseen by the parties on the conclusion of the contract. This study aims to analyse thoroughly the two hypostases in which the judge is allowed to defeat the principle of binding force of the contract and to intervene in the decrease of the quantum of penalties, an analysis materialized both from a theoretical point of view and especially from a practical point of view, offering relevant solutions from the recent judicial practice.
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Presumptions have been playing an important role in the civil trial, their necessity and utility being recognized both in the doctrine and in the judicial practice. Recently, in order to remove any doubt about the quality of means of evidence of the presumptions, the legislator of the Civil Procedure Code enumerates them among the means of evidence and, at the same time, establishes their legal regime, and the legislator of the Civil Code has extended the scope of the legal presumptions. The reason behind these regulations is based precisely on the necessity to find out the truth also in the cases in which the judge does not have available direct evidence. Certainly, as we have stated on another occasion, the presumptions are indirect means of evidence, as the conclusions drawn imply eo ipso the prior proof of a fact that is neighbouring and related to the unknown fact. As we shall further show, the Romanian legislator has understood to classify the presumptions into legal (established by law) and judicial or simple (left to the enlightments and wisdom of the judge), with the mention that, in this study, we shall refer in particular to the legal presumptions.
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In practical situations with medical implications, the nature of the expertise must be established as a matter of priority. This matter involves a series of discussions on the differences between forensic expertise and specialized medical expertise. Nowadays, forensic expertise continues to be approached from an obsolete perspective, without detecting its limits in medical or legal matters. Highlighting the differences between the two categories of expertise and the shortcomings of the relevant legislation has major practical consequences. The utility of this study lies in terms of analyzing the legal significance of respecting the medical specialty and the object of the medical expertise – a new category of expertise, which seems to be of no practical use, despite its great importance. This respects the principle of medical specialty and takes into account also the level of development of medical science in the field of expertise. Adherence to incidental medical guidelines or protocols can be verified only by a specialized medical expertise, the only one able to analyze the compliance of the medical conduct. Instead, the limits of forensic expertise are revealed by its object, which is just another expertise in medical law, without encompassing the entire medical or legal matter, in a single specialty. The two types of work must be clearly delimited in judicial practice, for the full clarification of legal situations with medical implications, regardless of their nature. -
In this study, the author aims to highlight a number of manifestations of the principle of availability in civil proceedings that have been sanctioned for the abuse of procedural law. From the analysis of the judicial practice, we identify a multitude of situations in which the person’s right to file a lawsuit is exercised for purposes other than the one for which he was recognized by law, which was sanctioned by the application of a judicial fine. The right to sue and the right to appeal must be exercised in good faith, in accordance with the purpose enacted by the legal provisions, and not to pursue the production of a detrimental result to the adverse party. -
Proportionality of the enforcement measures constitutes, in essence, a fundamental principle of the civil enforcement procedure, which, although it does not have a regulation in terminis recognized in the Civil Procedure Code, already knows, at regulatory level, the valences of a principle, following only to be assimilated by the doctrine, by the practice and, consequently, by the legislator. Although it could be argued that proportionality is subsumed to the general principle of the right to a fair trial, we consider that it claims its own individuality at the level of the fundamental thesis leading the enforcement process, as compared to the specificity of the measures involved, the fairness of the procedure following to be appreciated by reference to the level at which all the other principles are observed, being a corollary thereof. The procedural guarantees which they enjoy, the remedies and the legally recognized consequences are elements that turn, therefore, the proportionality of the enforcement measures into a basic principle of the enforcement, on which a fair procedure is built, thus giving full expression to the valorisation of the rights and fundamental freedoms of the individual. -
The article addresses the newly introduced legal institution of verification of the legality and lawfulness of protective measures during the criminal trial, which institutes the obligation of the criminal judicial body to periodically analyze whether the legal and factual grounds on which it was previously taken or maintained continue to exist, following to be ordered its maintenance, cancellation, extension or limitation. Through the novelty of the subject under analysis, the study will contribute to the outlining of the guidelines of judicial practice in this unique legal matter. -
Termination of a contract certainly raises a multitude of questions for the party wishing to invoke the resolution or termination of the contract. This study intends to present the main out-of-court alternatives available to the parties to a convention, namely the unilateral declaration of resolution and the Commission Pact, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each institution under review, as well as the guidelines of the main legal systems and opinions expressed in the practice that appeared with the entry into force of the new Civil Code. By analyzing all the aspects mentioned above, we tried to facilitate the choice of the party that wants to terminate a contract. We also presented some proposals that could improve the usefulness of these institutions, especially the unilateral declaration of resolution, proposals aimed at the correlation between this declaration and the land book, as well as the various cases that may arise in notarial practice.
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Adopted in the 1922–1926 legislature, the Constitution of 1923 was indispensable for the project of legislative unification of Romania. Its norms impose unique fundamental principles and rules for the entire national legal system: the principle of national sovereignty; the principle of legality and supremacy of the Constitution; the interests of the social community may take precedence over individual interests in the matter of property right. The regulation of some unique institutions for the entire Romanian State ensures the unitary exercise of constitutional competences, and the regulated rights for all Romanians ensure a unique foundation of freedom and equality. Other provisions have a strong unifying role and each provide a point of constitutional support for future legislation. The supremacy of the constitutional norms in the system of legal norms, supported by the case law of the unique supreme court, but also the beneficial psychological effect determined by the constitutional unification complete the picture of the impact of the constitutional norms from 1923. -
The study analyzes the provisions of the Law No 114/2021 on some measures in the field of justice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil cases. The mentioned normative act provides the conditions for conducting the court hearings in the civil trial by videoconference. The conditions are the following: to be decreed the state of alert instituted in order to prevent and combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic also for a period of 30 days from its cessation; to be about a civil case; to have the agreement of the parties in this respect; to have the possibility; the approval of the court of law. The Constitutional Court, by the Decisions No 157/2020 and No 457/2020, has established that the justice cannot stand still, not even during the COVID-19 pandemic, under this requirement the legislator regulating by the Law No 114/2021 the manner of conducting judicial proceedings during this period. However, the legislator did not rise up to the standards imposed by the Constitutional Court of Romania, in the sense that it did not regulate an effective way of access to justice, in the situation where the objective pandemic conditions restrict this possibility. Although we appreciate positively the provisions of the Law No 114/2021 referring to the development of the civil process by electronic means, we consider that the measures ordered should be generalized and not applied, as provided by Article 1 (2), only for reasons generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In any democratic state the activity carried out by the body of magistrates must be limited exclusively to the law and in compliance with the Constitution, because, otherwise, those judgments pronounced by ignoring these requirements, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens, may lead to the commission of some judicial errors, through which the litigants suffer both from damage of material, but especially moral nature.
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Article 78 of the Civil Procedure Code, paradoxically, evokes through its title an apparent exception to the principle of availability, however, through its content, it constitutes a confirmation of this principle. Given this apparent contradiction, it must be clarified whether, in the case provided in Article 78 (2) of the Civil Procedure Code, the party requesting the introduction of the third party in the trial after the judge has questioned the necessity of its introduction may formulate any new heads of claim involved in the enlargement, in this way, of the procedural framework. Also due to the phrase „ex officio” attached to this introduction, it must be concluded whether, for these possible new heads of claim, related to the introductory request, the requesting party must pay judicial stamp duty or, due to this reference to officiality, the party is exempted from such obligation. It must also be established whether to these new heads of claim it can be opposed the exception implied by the sanction of loss, referred to in Article 204 of the Civil Procedure Code, in the conditions in which they would be related to the introductory request.
