Imprisonment in Romania. Trends of the Legislation and Case law in the Post-Communist Era

• In Event: Balkan Criminology Penology Panel - Special Panel Celebrating 25 Years of ESC

Abstract

Romania has an interesting history when it comes to regulating penalties for criminal offences. After 1989, the legislature tried to diminish the penalties for a series of criminal offences, especially the ones perpetrated against the property of the State. Nonetheless, some penalties provided by the law remained extremely elevated, including 20 years imprisonment for aggravated theft (similar to homicide). Consequently, the Romanian courts adapted the sentences in order to have a better reflection of the criminal offence which was actually perpetrated. With the adoption of a new Criminal Code in 2009, which entered into force in 2014, the penalties were adjusted taking into account the new social realities. However, in the past years, we witness again higher penalties or a tougher regime of their application, such as impossibility to apply a suspended sentence for specific criminal offences, which was seen by legal scholars as a populist move. The presentation will go through these new trends of the legislation and show whether the case law actually followed the legislature's approach, trying to see if such changes better protect the social values and actually prevent criminal offences.

Author

• Andra Roxana Trandafir, University of Bucharest