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The European arrest warrant is an extremely relevant subject these days, being one of the concerns of the European lawmaker, the EU Member States and the national authorities (Ministry of Justice, courts of law, prosecutor’s offices, police structures) involved in this field. In this article, the author presents the main particularities of the European arrest warrant enforcement in the EU Member States, emphasizing both its positive aspects and the difficulties met by the Member States in transposing the provisions of the Framework Decision no.2002/584/JHA of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States. -
Damages can be assessed by the court, by law or by the willful agreement of parties. This study analyzes the notion of damages, the conditions for awarding damages, as well as their assessment by the court and their legal assessment. The purpose of assessment of damages incurred by the creditor is that of reinstating the creditor to the situation in which it would have been found, if the debtor had voluntarily performed the obligations assumed by concluding the contract. Judicial assessment of damages is made by judgment and involves the judge’s examination of all the conditions for undertaking contractual liability, particularly with regard to the prejudice caused to the creditor by the debtor’s non-performance of obligations. Legal assessment of damages occurs in the cases regulated by Articles 1535 and 1536 of the new Civil Code and falls within the scope of obligations that have as object the service of granting a sum of money, to which the legislator also adds the case of obligations to do, which can be assessed in money. -
The participation of a tenderer in insolvency in a procedure for the award of a public procurement contract is regulated, mainly, by the directives on public procurement and by the laws which transpose them in the Member States. Within the current generation of directives on public procurement, the exclusion of the tenderer in insolvency is still classified into the category of facultative reasons of exclusion. However, as an element of novelty, if a Member State of the European Union decides to turn this reason of exclusion from facultative into mandatory, the State has the right to regulate certain circumstances in which the contracting authorities are prohibited from excluding such tenderer from the procedure. Whenever such regulation is contained in the national acts of transposition of directives, the contracting authority becomes bound to establish whether the conditions that impose the maintenance of the tenderer the procedure are met. The Romanian legislator has chosen to regulate that the contracting authority can not exclude from the award procedure the tenderer that is in the phase of observation or reorganization, if certain conditions are met. Having in view this obligation to establish whether certain conditions are met in order to maintain the tenderer in the phase of observation or of reorganization, as well as the amendments brought by the new directives in the matter of exercise of the right of the contracting authority to request clarifications, it is important to determine the extent to which, under the influence of the new regulations, the assessment commission will have to take a proactive approach or not, in order to decide whether to exclude or not such a tenderer. -
In essence, the expropriation procedure goes through two stages, the administrative stage and the judicial stage, the common law in the matter being represented by the Law No 33/1994, as amended and supplemented. The litigation procedure is criticizable however, in many aspects, for the lack of transparency and of access to data, from the perspective of the holder of the restricted real right. Thus, although in the preamble of this normative act it is affirmed the necessity of equalizing the right of private ownership with the public interest, the latter has priority in many of the situations that have arisen in practice. -
The present study starts from the question whether a reform of the judicial system is necessary in Romania, considering also the fact that the current regulation was adopted in 2004, a part of it having its source in the Law No 92/1992 for the judicial organization. The author considers that the change of the new procedural legislation has led to some normative inconsistencies and to an overcrowding of the courts, especially of the supreme court. The situation became critical and the supreme court was forced to promote an interpretation likely to abandon the original conception of the new Code, namely that according to which it is a common law court in matters of review. The Law No 310/2018 amending the Law No 134/2010 on the Civil Procedure Code, as well as for the amendment of other normative acts has enshrined this new approach of the supreme court, which provoked vehement criticism from some authors.
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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. -
In this study the author analyzes, from a double theoretical perspective – legal and politological –, the option of the constituent legislators from 1990–1991 for the semi-presidential republic, as a form of separation and balancing of the three powers in the state. Based on a relevant bibliography and on the parliamentary debates within the Constitutional Commission for the drafting of the Constitution and of the Constituent Assembly, the author submits to scientific reflection not only the points of view and arguments raised for discussion in the Constituent Assembly, but also the spirit of the constituent legislator referring to the type of political regime to be enshrined and defended by constitutional norm. There are presented, from the perspective of the constituent legislators, the positive and negative valences of the semi-presidential political regime. After many debates, the Constituent Assembly opted for the semi-presidential republic as a form of government after the overthrow of the old regime in December 1989. The author states that the legislators opted for a semi-presidential model of functioning and balancing powers which should preserve the role and the equal weight of the governing public authorities and which was, in its distinctive features, „very close to the classical parliamentary regime”. What the fathers of the 1991 Constitution wished to avoid – and this is clear from the parliamentary debates in the Constituent Assembly – was the institutionalization of some mechanisms and tools for exercising and balancing powers, which would allow in the future the President of the Republic to prevail in the actual political game, by subjecting the other public authorities. Therefore, the Constituent Assembly of 1990–1991 enshrined the institution of the President of Romania as a mediating factor in the governing mechanism, as well as in the conflicts existing in society, and not as a decision-making authority for governing the country. The author points out that, in the three decades of semi-presidentialism, the powers assumed in the governing process by the President of the Republic have exceeded sometimes the constitutional framework prescribed by the Basic Law, which has fuelled and is still fuelling various proposals to correct the current constitutional framework. -
This study aims at performing a critical analysis of the Decision No 814/2015 of the Constitutional Court, by which the Court ascertained the unconstitutionality of Article 60 (1) g) of the Labour Code, which regulated the prohibition of dismissing trade union leaders, except in cases they committed serious or repeated misconducts. Also, the study puts forward a critical exam of the provisions regulating the prohibition of dismissing trade union leaders, emphasizing regulatory errors, by using historical arguments, and making consistent references to the relevant international and European legislation and case law.
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The objective of this short study is to answer a question: is there today a „contraventional law”, as a result of the fragmentation of the administrative law? Assuming the answer is affirmative, we must establish whether the contraventional law itself faces today a process of fragmentation, i.e. if we can talk, for example, about a road contraventional law, a contraventional law of competition, a fiscal contraventional law, etc. -
The preliminary chamber is a new, partly innovative institution for the national criminal proceedings. In fact, this is a qualitative transformation of the provisions of Article 300 of the Criminal Procedure Code of 1968. The preliminary chamber judge is vested with a control form with a specific object and the finality of this control consists in ordering the file for the trial stage on the merits. The jurisdictional control of the preliminary chamber falls within the scope of the entire criminal proceedings as a distinct stage, with its own individualized object.
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Active procedural quality and interest are essential conditions for promoting any action in court. The verification of the two conditions must be carried out from the outset, firstly, by the person or persons initiating an action in court and, secondly, by the court which is invested with resolving the action. The lack of one of the two conditions paralyzes the resolution of the action on the merits and attracts the rejection of the action, either as being introduced by a person lacking procedural quality, or as being without interest. It is not often that in the defenses formulated by the defendant the exception of the lack of active procedural capacity and the exception of the lack of interest are invoked at the same time. Concomitant invocation is often natural, as procedural quality and interest are two elements which, although not confusing, often justify each other. However, I have encountered in practice multiple situations in which the active procedural capacity has been justified by the applicant’s/applicants’ interest in promoting the action. On the other hand, there may be situations, less common in practice, in which the interest is justified by the procedural quality. Here that the two basic elements of any action or lawsuit are often indissoluble, and their concomitant treatment appears natural. That is why I considered it opportune to carry out a brief study on how the interest justifies the active procedural quality, with references to certain solutions encountered in judicial practice or to solutions that had as inspiration the invocation of exceptions, thus trying to argue which, on the one hand, the two exceptions are invoked together, most of the time and, on the other hand, why, in a particular way, the interest justifies the procedural quality. At the same time, the study includes a comparison between the situations in which the interest is analyzed as an exception and the situations in which the interest must be analyzed on the merits. -
The present study illustrates a sensitive issue of the disciplinary procedure concerning civil servants, insufficiently debated in the speciality literature, namely the possibility of the titular of the disciplinary complaint to resort to the courts in order to refute the report by which the disciplinary investigation is finalized with a proposal to classify the complaint. The research is structured starting from the solution given to this issue by the courts themselves, in the few decisions that deal with the subject, a solution which the author attempts to combat in the light of the current legislation in force, insufficient in its turn, corroborated with the relevant approaches taken from the decisions of the Constitutional Court. Apart from the elements of novelty and originality of the analysis, it is distinguished by its applied character, knowing the ideas conveyed by the author being necessary not only for the civil servants involved in disciplinary conflicts – as defending parties or as members of the disciplinary commissions –, but also for the judges called upon to decide on the legality and grounds of the solutions for dismissal of the disciplinary complaints. The thesis of inadmissibility of the actions seeking the annulment of the dismissal solutions should be reconsidered, the author’s opinion being that the commissions’ reports can be included among the administrative acts (by express or tacit validation by the leader to whom they are presented) or in the refusal to perform an administrative operation, as a challengeable act under Article 8 (1) of the Law on administrative disputes No 554/2004. It is certain that concealing reports from the commission against any form of control is not only harmful (at least at moral level) to the titular of the complaint, but also abnormal, unjust and unlawful. -
Factoring is essentially a hybrid commercial operation that covers the elements of several legal mechanisms, the most common elements being borrowed from the debt assignment mechanism. However, the legislator did not consider it necessary to establish this legal operation in the contracts covered by the new Civil Code. Moreover, factoring does not currently benefit from any express regulation in Romanian law. Although, in the Romanian doctrine, we find references to a possible direct action of the factor against the assigned debtor, the situation of this action is uncertain. In this sense, we considered it opportune, but also necessary to formulate a brief analysis of what the factoring operation means in general, as well as to establish whether or not the factor’s action covers the elements of a direct action. In the Romanian doctrine and legislation we find only fragments of texts regarding the factoring operation, therefore, an exhaustive analysis regarding the application of factoring and even more so of the factor’s action cannot be performed. However, we hope that the brief explanations we will bring will lead to an outline, at least general, of the factor’s action against the assigned debtor.
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A “natural right” being most profoundly democratic not only retained, despite the historical vicissitudes, its intrinsic moral values, but due to the constant and firm “juridicization”, in another historical ambience, has increased these values and the implications of their valorization, while granting plenary sense to the contemporary “rule of law”, ensuring above all - according to the beautiful and meaningful saying of a historical figure - the protection of the “powerless people in front of power”: the right to request the assistance of a judge or the right of access to a judge. Article 5 of the Code of Civil Procedure recalls us that right, but unfortunately, as it does, requires again to make any effort for the consistent and undoubtedly useful understanding from the social point of view of its purposes. -
One of the constant elements of the civil procedural institutions is the classification of the nullities of the civil procedure acts into two categories: absolute nullities and relative nullities. This dichotomy involves an essentially different legal treatment applicable to them. However, in many situations, nullities of the civil procedural acts depart, in some aspects, from the „classic” rules involved by this classification. The author of this study refers to such nullities as „atypical nullities”. -
In a traffic accident resulting in numerous injuries there have been drawn up several forensic documents, the time limit for medical care being extended to 100 days because of the emergence of some post-operative complications. After numerous postponements and after the reinstatement of the case on the list of cases twice, the court requested that the acts be approved by the Superior Forensic Commission next to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, although there were no contradictions between them. This body has decided that there is no causal relation between the accident and the extension of the number of days of medical care, invoking medical negligence and the failure of the injured person to go through the entire recovery treatment. Based on this advisory opinion the court has ordered the acquittal, ignoring the other evidence, without giving reasons. According to the author, the solution of the court is ungrounded and unlawful. -
The judicial activity of the courts of law is meant to guarantee the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens, to ensure the observance of the supremacy of laws and to prevent the abusive exercise of power by the state representatives, thus having a fundamental function manifested in the form of the judiciary, within the constitutional architecture of Romania which is based on the classical theory of the separation of powers in the state. The Fundamental Law and the infra-constitutional legislation contain provisions meant to guarantee the independence and impartiality of the representatives of the judiciary, necessary to ensure the fulfilment of the jurisdictional function by these, respectively the correct interpretation and application of the laws. The increased importance of the creative role of the judges has led to its definition in the doctrine as being jurisprudential law, lately a cause for its strong development being the very increase of the activity of legislation, of regulating the conduct of the subjects of law by the state, in a multitude of areas of social and economic life. The amplification of this operation has led to the impossibility of regulating these conducts in detail by law, so that the executive and, respectively, the judiciary took over the task of ensuring the completion of the general framework provided by the legislative. The possible conflict between the legislative activity and the interpretation given to the legal norm by the judge may lead to situations in which the right be recreated, by way of interpretation. The current normative framework applicable in Romania allows to engage the liability of magistrates (prosecutors and judges) for the defective way in which they exercise their professional activity, their liability can take several forms, namely criminal, disciplinary or civil liability, depending on the consequences they generate. -
The Law No 95/2006 on the health reform stipulates, in Article 653 (2), that: „ the medical staff shall be liable under the civil law for the prejudices caused by error, which also include negligence, recklessness or insufficient medical knowledge in the exercise of the profession, by individual acts within the prevention, diagnosis or treatment procedures”. The text of law finds its applicability in the cases that raise for discussion whether the doctor’s diagnosis was a correct one and the chosen therapeutic conduct was necessary to restore the patient’s health condition. However, even under the terms of subsistence of the situation of error of diagnosis, this does not unconditionally engage the legal liability, an approach that makes necessary a distinction between the guilty diagnosis error and the excusable diagnosis error. In this study the authors intend to identify and analyze the hypotheses in which the doctor’s legal liability can operate/intervene in case of an error of diagnosis.
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Having regard to the number of judgments delivered in the field of property and of expropriation against Romania by the European Court of Human Rights, it is necessary to present the relevant principles which this court has set out, principles which the national judge is bound to observe and to apply to concrete cases, in accordance with the provisions of Article 20 of the Constitution. The principles not correlated with actual examples would be devoid of content, therefore the presentation of the most important examples on the basis of the state of fact emphasizes the correct reasoning of the Court, the more so as it has a limited competence to verify the compliance with the domestic law1, attribution which is the responsibility of the national judge.
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In this study the authors intend to point out the significant novelties brought in the matter by the Law No 85/2014 on the procedures for preventing insolvency and for insolvency, as compared to the previous regulation (the Law No 85/2006). This being the case, the authors examine the mentioned novelties: (I) as concerns the judgment within the insolvency procedure; (II) with reference to the effects of the insolvency procedure; (III) in the field of reorganization and bankruptcy. Finally, the authors come to the conclusion that the Law No 85/2014 succeeds to cover a series of legislative gaps, to settle some controversial issues in the legal practice and, finally, to provide some equitable solutions where the provisions of the old law (No 85/2006) were rightfully criticized.
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In the present study we have proceeded to analyze the text of Article 318 of the Criminal Procedure Code, in the light of the judicial practice in the matter. We also insisted on presenting some malfunctions in the application of the provisions of Article 318 (16) the 2nd sentence of the Criminal Procedure Code, provisions which in their essence prohibit the case prosecutor to adopt a solution to abandon criminal prosecution in the event that this solution was initially rejected by the preliminary chamber judge. The provision in question is all the more controversial as it is mentioned even therein this prohibition irrespective of the reason invoked, which leads to the conclusion that the solution to abandon criminal prosecution can no longer be ordered by the prosecutor, even if the evidence administered show that its adoption is required. In this context, the provisions criticized seem to be unconstitutional, because by applying them, the prosecutor is obliged by the legislator to violate several provisions of the Constitution, among which there is the principle of legality.
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The regulation of crimes in the field of the illegal removal and transplant of organs, tissues and cells of human origin at the level of each country is extremely important due to the big social danger of these crimes and the importance of the social values protected by their incrimination, values regarding the life and the physical and mental integrity of the members of society, as well as the respect due to the memory of deceased persons. In this respect, at the level of the European Union, the Directive 2004/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 31 March 2004, on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells was adopted. There are numerous European countries in which the crimes in the field of the illegal removal and transplant of organs, tissues and cells of human origin are incriminated in the Criminal Code. Their experience should also be followed by Romania, where, at present, the field is regulated by Law no. 95/2006 on healthcare reform, as subsequently amended and supplemented.
