Fighting corruption through criminal law - the case of Romania

• In Event: Euroc - Corruption across the globe (2)

Abstract

The phenomenon of corruption is, as is well known, a scourge that affects every society. In Romania, the fight against it took off around 2000, when the country joined the international conventions on corruption.
The measures taken have been strong and consistent, including, among others, the creation of nationwide strategies to tackle the phenomenon - the latest of which dates to 2021 - or the establishment of specialized units to tackle the problem within the police and prosecution services.
Clearly, an integral part of these efforts has been the usage of the criminal law. The first obvious action taken from this perspective was the adoption, at the turn of the millennium, of a law specifically designed to contribute to the fight against corruption: Law No 78/2000. Here, for the first time, the concept of offenses assimilated to corruption was enshrined in national law, alongside classic corruption offenses such as bribery or trading in influence.
The latest legislative intervention in this area was made at the end of last year, when the offense of bribing a foreign public official was introduced into national law.
The purpose of our communication is to examine the relevant offenses - both those present in the Criminal Code and those found in other normative acts - from the perspective of their ability to contribute to limiting corruption.
The scrutiny will focus on two main elements. The first concerns the actual coherence of the regulation, the clarity of the incriminating rule. The second concerns the penalties contained in the legal texts and their dissuasive power.
As a result of our analysis, we will also make some proposals to improve the rules.

Author

• Teodor Manea, Faculty of Law, Bucharest University of Economic Studies