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The intangible cultural heritage is a crucial factor in shaping the personality and identity of a human being. At the beginning of the 21st Century, faced with the deepening globalization, commercialization, consumerism, technological progress and urbanization, it is necessary to take, without unjustified delays and considering future circumstances, actions for the protection of the intangible cultural heritage. This study presents the genesis, the legal regulations and mechanisms that were developed under the aegis of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The measures taken by UNESCO1 and by the individual states to reach the set targets should follow the spirit of tolerance, empathy, cultural plurality and respect for human rights. -
The authors analyze, making comments on two cases of judicial practice in the field of risk drug trafficking also on performing operations with products likely to have psychoactive effects. Commenting on the first case, the authors observe the rarest that can be found in the judicial practice in the matter of drugs, namely the existence of a putative deed consisting in the transportation of a supervised delivered parcel in which all the drugs were replaced with other materials, and the person who carried the parcel without drugs was accused of trafficking of risk drugs in the modality of transportation of drugs without right. Commenting on the second case, the authors criticize a solution given by Tribunal of Brăila and the Court of Appeal of Galați, on the ground that the convicted defendant was, in fact, in a factual error with regard to the fact that in the small envelopes he traded as ethnobotanical products there have been identified fragments of cannabis plant mass.
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The law amending and supplementing the Law No 254/2013, a law which has not been promulgated and has not entered into force, has been through a controversial legislative process, involving the disregarding by the legislative power of the effects specific to the decisions of the Constitutional Court, pronounced before the enactment of the laws, assisting in the delivery of three decisions of the Court with regard to the same law, by two of them being established the unconstitutionality of the law as a whole. Finally, as a result of the cessation by law of the legislative process, the only possibility of the legislative power to regulate the regime of home detention is represented by the start of a new legislative approach, this time in compliance with the principle of bicameralism. At the same time, the intrinsic analysis of the provisions regarding the regime of home detention has resulted in the identification of legislative gaps, of the lack of clarity of the legal nature of the institution, of the lack of precision and predictability in the process of applying the regime of home detention, as well as in the identification of numerous cases of legislative parallelism. In compliance with the legislative will to establish the regime of execution of the imprisonment sentence at home, the results of the intrinsic analysis have led to the formulation of some de lege ferenda proposals regarding the regulation of the regime of detention at home, by amending Law No 254/2013.
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Cloud Computing is considered one of the most significant advances in information technology. Specialists agree that in a matter of a few years, almost all data will be in the Cloud. The field of digital forensics has grown rapidly over the last decade due to the rise of the Internet associated crimes and different frauds. Cloud forensics is the process of identifying, preserving, analyzing and presenting digital evidence in a manner that is legally acceptable. Traditional computer forensics consists in collecting data where the system is located. Cloud forensics is difficult because there are challenges with data location, multi-tenant hosting, synchronization problems and techniques for data segregation. In this paper we focus on the different stages of a Cloud Computing forensic search. For each phase of the Cloud forensic process, we have included a list of challenges and analysis of their possible solutions. Our research indicates that some problems are technical and others are legal, however the biggest challenges are not technical but legal.
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Încheierea definitivă pronunțată de către judecătorul de drepturi și libertăți de la Judecătoria Sighetu Marmației, în conformitate cu dispozițiile art. 4886 alin. (7) din C.pr.pen., ne oferă prilejul comentariului de față. În speță, la data de 22 ianuarie 2018, persoana vătămată (constituită parte civilă) P.J. a depus plângere prealabilă la Parchetul de pe lângă Judecătoria Sighetu Marmației, solicitând efectuarea de acte de urmărire penală față de făptuitorii B.I., B.M. și C.V. pentru săvârșirea infracțiunii de degradarea terenurilor agricole, prevăzută de art. 107 din Legea nr. 18/1991, Legea fondului funciar, actualizată, raportat la dispozițiile art. 253 alin. (1) din C.pen. În susținerea plângerii, a menționat că la data de 3 ianuarie 2018 făptuitorii au trecut de mai multe ori cu atelajele proprietate personală trase de câte 2 cai, încărcate peste capacitate, peste terenul de natură fâneață pe care îl deține, împrejurări în care, sub greutatea încărcăturii, copitele cailor de tracțiune și roțile atelajelor au creat urme adânci în solul puternic îmbibat de apele pluviale, terenul agricol fiind degradat pe o suprafață de 900 mp.
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A new decision of the European Court of Human Rights (the Judgment of 19 June 2018 pronounced in the Case Bursa Barosu Bașkanligi et al. against Turkey) strengthens the case law according to which the useful effect of the right to a fair trial presupposes also the right to execute the justice decisions (inaugurated in 1997), including those that protect the environment (initiated by the Judgment of 12 July 2005 in the Case Okyay against Turkey) and opens new perspectives in this matter. Limited to procedural issues, the decision contributes, however, to the nuancing of the problems, encourages the progress of the effectiveness of environmental law by judicial means and, through the suggestions offered, underlines the need to particularize the legal reaction to the specific of the ecological realities. The deception is mainly resulted from the limitation to the data of the judicial precedent and the failure to fully use the capacities related to the involvement of the civil society in promoting the environmental judicial progress.
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The theme of this study is the public order considered in its sense of limit of the principle of contractual freedom. The author starts in the analysis of this concept from the finding that, at present, it is almost impossible to formulate a definition sufficiently comprehensive, in order to be unanimously accepted by the specialized doctrine and by the case law. This is because it is a notion whose content is constantly evolving, depending on the needs of the judicial life, which is in an increasingly accelerated dynamics. Therefore it finds that the current public order has two components: the classical public order and the modern public order; the first has been and continues to be conservative and the second intends to be innovative. The classical public order usually consists in defending the main pillars of support of the society, such as: the state, the family and the individual, as well as the fundamental human rights, called „personality rights”. The modern public order has the mission to respond to the demands of the contractual life, determined mainly by the great economic changes that took place and continue to take place in the modern society.
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Within this study the author makes a brief examination of the main amendments and supplements of the new Civil Procedure Code, operated during the period passed from its adoption up to the present. Some of the most significant normative amendments and supplements have been operated by the Law No 310/2018 and concern the matter of material competence of judges. The author considers that by these legislative interventions the legislator’s vision about the competence of the courts of first instance has been significantly amended, this being enlarged with cases of special importance, such as those in matters of inheritance and usucapion. In this way, the courts of first instance tend to become, to a certain extent, common law courts, and not courts for the small claims. A change of substance which has been emphasized in a special way is also the one that offers another perspective on the competence of the supreme court in the matter of review. Important evolutions have also been brought in the matter of incompatibility, of the regularisation procedure and in the field of enforcement. With regard to these institutions the author has formulated also some criticism about their content, but also in relation to some unconstitutionality decisions, among which some are considered questionable.
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Expertise is the activity of research of certain facts or circumstances of the case, which requires specialized knowledge, activity carried out by an expert or, in the cases provided by law, by a specialist in a specific field, designated by the court at the request of the parties or ex officio, and whose findings and/or conclusions are reported in a written document, called an expertise report. As such, the expertise and the expertise report are two interdependent operations, since the expertise report is the follow-up of the expertise, its final act, and the expertise is the research activity on which the expertise report is based. Although the legislator establishes that the evidence can be provided, among others, by means of the „expertise” (Article 250, Articles 330–340 of the Civil Procedure Code), which constitutes the means of proof, from a legal point of view, is the expertise report, and not the expertise itself. The expertise can only concern factual circumstances on which the expert is asked to give clarifications or to ascertain them, circumstances which require specialized knowledge and which help to solve the case. The legal norms cannot form the object of the expertise, because the judges must know the law in force in Romania. However, the content of the foreign law is established by the court of law through „attestations obtained from the state bodies that have enacted it”, by „expertise opinion” or by another appropriate way [Article 2562 (1) of the Civil Code].
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Any attempt in the sphere of the humanities to characterize and explain the man in his individuality, but also in the social existential context relates also to the problem of freedom. Freedom is essentially related to the human being, but also to the existential phenomenality of man. Man is the only being whose fundamental ontological dimensions are freedom and spirit. In this study, the authors briefly analyze the concept of freedom not only as a moral value or category, but especially as an ontological dimension of man. In this way, the distinction is made between the ontological freedom and the legal freedoms established or recognized by means of legal norms by the state. The legal freedoms are a phenomenal expression of human existence, whose legitimacy and ground are conferred by the ontological dimension of human freedom. In this context, there are analyzed the main characteristics of the legal freedoms and the practical importance of the ontological meaning that must be found in the freedoms established by law.
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In the present scientific study, we decided to carry out a thorough investigation into the concept of applying criminal liability for swindling in the conditions in which the state has a limited role in regulating the economic market relations and the coercive methods of preventing and combating this crime which must have a status subordinated to economic, informational, political, juridical-civil methods. In order to make the prevention of scams more effective, it is necessary to strictly correlate it with the many transformations and processes taking place in the political, economic, social and ideological domain of the state.
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This paper presents an analysis of the legality of the decisions made by the administrations of the places of detainment to forbid to the persons deprived of their freedom to receive and acquire different categories of foods, decisions based on safety reasons regarding the detainment, as per Article 148 (6) in the Regulation of Enforcement of Law No 254/2013, as well as the extent to which these decisions violate or not the right to receive and buy goods according to Article 70 from the Law No 254/2013. The paper summarizes the currents of opinion formed both in the practice of the judges of surveillance of deprivation of liberty, as well in the courts by displaying certain judicial situations regarding the nature of some foods which are not particularly regulated in Annex 1, Title IV of the Regulation, situations which not even at present have received unitary unification in relation to the character of the actions taken by the prison as a restraint or a reduction of the right to receive and buy goods. The conclusions of this endeavour offer a possible solution to this problem of great actuality in practice starting from the assumption that reducing the exercise of the right to receive and buy goods is legal in the extent to which the principles of legality, equity, the realization of goals and proportionality are abided.
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The present study is dedicated to the approach from theoretical and practical perspective of the problem of instigation to commit an offence or to continue to commit an offence for the purpose of obtaining evidence in the context of using special investigative techniques. The problems presented are based on an ex post facto analysis, with applied character, by outlining some concrete hypotheses. There are highlighted aspects elaborated by the European Court of Human Rights by way of case law, but also relevant aspects from the national case law of Romania in order to identify the criteria for establishing the illegal nature of the activities of the criminal investigation bodies necessary to collect and provide evidence in the criminal trial. Likewise, there are presented and analyzed the conditions retained by the Strasbourg Court necessary to be fulfilled so that the activities of the state bodies do not exceed the scope of loyalty of administration of evidence. In addition, an attempt is made to delimit the instigation to commit offences from the legal activity of the undercover investigators in the context in which it has been authorized the use of the special method of investigation of using undercover investigators or collaborators, provided by the Criminal Procedure Code.
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Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to public health; every year, it generates the premature illness and death of over 5 million people worldwide and over 400 000 inhabitants of the EU. Such realities and the proliferation of the cases of non-compliance with the legal regulations and the measures adopted to prevent and combat air pollution have generated an increasing and more diverse judicial contentious, both at national level and at the level of the jurisdictions of the EU. By the Judgment of 26 June 2019, the Court of Justice of the EU has pronounced a solution for the reference for a preliminary ruling raised before a Belgian tribunal on the interpretation of Articles 6, 7, 13 and 23 and of Annex III of Directive 2008/50/EC. The intention was to find out to what extent the national jurisdictions can control the location of the sampling points and if it is possible to establish an average value, starting from the results of the different measuring stations, in order to evaluate the compliance with the limit values. The Court of Justice of the European Union has stated that national jurisdictions are competent to control the choice of the location of the air quality measurement stations and to take, with respect to the national authorities concerned, any relevant national measure; in order to evaluate the compliance with the limit-values, the pollution level of each sampling point must be taken individually. The new case law of the Luxembourg court contributes to strengthening the environmental contentious and its role in ensuring the application of the regulations in this field.
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At the conclusion of the individual labour contract it can be established, as provided in Article 31 of the Labour Code, a probation period. The legislator has established only the maximum duration of the probation period; specifically, the duration of the probation period is agreed upon in the individual labour contract, when negotiating the clauses. The probation period cannot be modified, being established upon the conclusion of the individual labour contract, but it can be suspended. In the case of the probation period, the dismissal procedure is limited only to the written notification, which must not be motivated, without other obligations for the employer, not even granting a notice period, nor carrying out the procedure of evaluation of the employee.
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The Aarhus Convention (1998) organizes the exercise of public access to environmental information, taking part in decision making, and access to justice in environmental issues, as procedural safeguards of the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The effectivity of the right to environmental information bares significant limitations, both doctrinal and political, and has met several obstacles, mostly technical and cultural; such aspects concern especially the definition of environmental „information”, the conditions of accessing them, the exceptions, the administrative proceedings, the access to justice in this field and its results etc. In explaining its contents and amplifying the efficiency of this right a special part is played by the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the Compliance Committee for examining the enforcement of the Convention created in 2002 that can file complaints from Member States and non-governmental organizations, to evaluate, in a non-conflictual, non-judiciary and consultative manner, whether the treaty is correctly enforced by the Parties. Having no decision power, the Compliance Committee issues, following the examination, only a recommendation, addressed to the Reunion of Parties, that is always approved by the Member States.
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Every 3 months, calculated from the beginning of the liquidation, the judicial liquidator must submit to the creditors’ committee a report on the funds obtained from liquidation and from the collection of claims, as well as a distribution plan between the creditors, if necessary. The report and the plan shall be recorded at the registry of the tribunal and shall be published in the Bulletin of Insolvency Procedures. The report shall also provide the payment of his fee and of the other expenses provided in Article 159 (1) point 1 or of Article 161 point 1 of the Law No 85/2014, as the case may be. The report on the funds obtained from liquidation and from the collection of claims shall include, at least, the following: the balance in the liquidation account after the last distribution; the collections made by the judicial liquidator from the sale of each asset and from the recovery of the claims; the amount of the interests or of other incomes benefiting to the debtors’ fortune, as a result of keeping the undistributed amounts in bank accounts or by administering the assets existing in the debtor’s fortune; the total of the cash amounts existing in the liquidation account.
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The study analyzes how it evolved the competence of the court of law to solve the review in the civil trial from the initial version of the Law No 134/2010 on the Civil Procedure Code to the amendment brought by the Law No 310/2018 for amending and supplementing the Law No 134/2010 on the Civil Procedure Code, as well as for the amendment and supplementation of other normative acts. The result of the study is reflected in the opinion according to which the court of law competent to solve the review in the civil trial had to remain, as a rule, the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Thus it would have been made a unitary interpretation and the contradictory solutions would have been avoided. Although in the versions of the Law No 134/2010 and until the adoption of the Law No 310/2018 the purpose of the review was to subject to the High Court of Cassation and Justice the examination, under the terms of the law, of the conformity of the contested judgment with the applicable rules of law, the supreme court has diverted this purpose, by admitting the exception of its material incompetence and declining to solve the reviews.
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The apparition of the first Administrative Code of Romania – an essential legislative document for the activity of the public administration, for the life of the Romanian State, as a whole – brings, among other things, a significant novelty: the regulation of the legal regime applicable to contractual staff. Such a regime is a justified option of the legislator, taking into account the particularities of this category of personnel – an integral part of those who perform the work as employees. The study carefully analyzes the specific legal norms that apply to the contractual staff and solutions are offered for their practical application. It is concluded that two categories of legal norms produce their effects: the first is constituted by the norms specific to the contractual staff, and the second is formed of the norms that apply also to public servants. Although both categories of norms are part of the Administrative Code, they – respectively those that apply to the contractual staff – are also integrated as part of the labour law, being at the confluence of labour law with administrative law. The common law for the regulations regarding the contractual staff can be found in the norms of the Labour Code.
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The amendments and additions to Article 56 of the Labour Code have eliminated the discrimination on grounds of sex established by the Constitutional Court in the Decision No 387 of 5 June 2018 and they reflect the European and national policy of maintaining in service the employees who meet the retirement conditions for old age, but the new provisions of Article 56 of the Labour Code require a relatively complex interpretation, which raises problems in terms of their clarity and predictability and makes their understanding by the subjects to whom they are addressed difficult.
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The purpose of this study is to analyze the legal regime of the right of national minorities to use their mother tongue in the public administration, as it is regulated in the Administrative Code, recently adopted by the Government by the Emergency Ordinance No 57/2019. It was established in the Romanian legislation immediately after 1989, through the first Law of the local public administration No 69/1991, taken over and developed by the Law No 215/2001, and through the Administrative Code, it finds its place, mainly, in the 3rd part thereof, dedicated to local public administration. In the Constitution it was established in 2003, by completing the former Article 119, which became Article 120, with a new paragraph, which expressly regulates it.
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Artificial intelligence can be classified into analytical artificial intelligence, human-inspired intelligence and humanized intelligence, and in reference thereto it should be noted that, although computer systems reproduce human emotions and expressions, it is difficult for them to comprise a sufficiently large database so as to be able to express the human feelings of a person at the time of making a decision. Although the predictability of a judicial decision by artificial intelligence may take the form of legal certainty, in criminal matters, however, the data used may not reflect the complete reasoning of the judge, which is composed of a multitude of decision-making factors. Therefore, the authors consider that in criminal matters the decision-making must belong to the human judge, the judge being the one who will decide on the basis of the evidence administered not only with regard to satisfying the objective side of the offence, but especially with regard to its subjective side. -
The phrase actio libera in causa designates that situation in which the perpetrator, at the time of committing a deed stipulated by the criminal law, was in a situation that excludes the imputable character of the deed. However, it must be emphasized that, at a previous moment, when the perpetrator was not under the incidence of such causes, he triggered or allowed the emergence of some states of fact that would eliminate the imputable character of the deed. In such a hypothesis, the criminal doctrine from Romania is unanimous in accepting that the person who causes his own state of incapacity will be liable under the criminal law. In order to argue the possibility that a person, at the time of committing a typical action or inaction, be liable under the criminal law, the authors of criminal law in our country have adopted the model of exception or extraordinary imputation. According to this system, the perpetrator will be liable under the criminal law for causing his own state of incapacity. Thus, the imputability, in the case of the construction of actio libera in causa, will not be analyzed at the time of committing the criminal deed, but in relation to the moment when the perpetrator caused his state of incapacity. The construction actio libera in causa, from our point of view, covers only certain hypotheses in which the perpetrator creates the appearance of existence of a cause of imputability (intoxication, irresponsibility, physical or moral constraint), and not those hypotheses, in which the perpetrator provokes the existence of a justifying cause.
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The article analyzes the refusal of the convicted person to be subject to the medical examination upon the arrival to the penitentiary, from the perspective of the Romanian legislation, in correlation with the international instruments regarding the rights of detainees, and legislative solutions adopted by other European states, arguing some proposals de lege ferenda meant to facilitate the fulfilment of the positive obligation of the state to prevent the spread of contagious diseases in the penitentiary environment. The objectives of the article are to determine whether the detainee has the right to refuse the medical examination, whether the Romanian legislation complies with the requirements of the international instruments regarding the protection of the rights of the detainees, respectively whether they have similarities with the legislations of other European states; at the same time, the aim is to identify some rules applicable to the penitentiary system, derived from the case law developed by the ECtHR/Court and from international documents, in relation to the right to health and the relationship between the autonomy of the detainees as persons and the prison environment.
