The Penal Code of Romania (''Codul penal al României'') is a document providing the legal basis regarding criminal law in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

. The Code contains 446 articles. The articles mention aspects such as the

national boundaries Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

of law and the crimes that fall under the incidence of penal law.

Judicial discretion Judicial discretion is the power of the judiciary to make some legal decisions according to their discretion. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the ability of judges to exercise discretion is an aspect of judicial independence. Wher ...

is granted by the Code through the use of minimum and maximum sentences. The most recent version of the Romanian Penal Code has come into effect on 1 February 2014.

History

The Penal Code of 1865

The Romanian Penal Code was first issued in 1865, under the leadership of A.I. Cuza. The Code (also known as the ''Cuza Code'') standardized the laws of the Principality of Wallachia and

Principality of Moldova Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centra ...

, which since 1859 were united under a single Principality. The Code has been developed using several notions from the Penal Code of France and the Penal Code of Prussia. The ''Cuza Code'' included the principle of legal equality. Instead of the

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

, the most extreme punishment that could be legally enforced was penal labor.

Cruel and unusual punishments Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase in common law describing punishment that is considered unacceptable due to the suffering, pain, or humiliation it inflicts on the person subjected to the sanction. The precise definition varies by juris ...

were prohibited. Based on the Code, crimes were classified under three headings:

delict Delict (from Latin ''dēlictum'', past participle of ''dēlinquere'' ‘to be at fault, offend’) is a term in civil and mixed law jurisdictions whose exact meaning varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but is always centered on the notion of ...

s, misdemeanors and contraventions. The concept of attempted crimes was not mentioned throughout the code; attempting to commit a crime was punished just as harshly as if the crime happened. The

accomplice Under the English common law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even if they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller ...

was to receive the same punishment as the author of the crime. The Code did not criminalize prostitution. Cannabis consumption was not a punishable offense. The Penal Code of 1865 marked the beginning of unitary penal law in Romania.

The Penal Code of 1936

The Penal Code of 1936 (also known as ''The Penal Code of Carol II'') was introduced in order to standardize the many changes in the legal system that have arisen as a result of the Union of 1918. The new Code was heavily updated; the

presumption of innocence The presumption of innocence is a legal principle that every person accused of any crime is considered innocent until proven guilty. Under the presumption of innocence, the legal burden of proof is thus on the prosecution, which must present ...

was expressly mentioned. The sentence was defined as being given in order to punish the crime, not the person committing it. The concept of individual punishments (as opposed to

collective punishment Collective punishment is a punishment or sanction imposed on a group for acts allegedly perpetrated by a member of that group, which could be an ethnic or political group, or just the family, friends and neighbors of the perpetrator. Because ind ...

) has been introduced in the Code. The Penal Code of 1936 remained unchanged in terms of complicity to crime.

The Penal Code of 1969

The Penal Code of 1969 has been developed in accordance to Marxist ideals. The capital punishment has been re-introduced. Parasitism has been introduced as a legal offense.

Homosexual acts Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

were classified as a criminal offense. Nonetheless, the Code retained the

. The Code was now expressly mentioning the concept of complicity to crime. It also included specific definitions of ''infraction'', ''attempt'', ''perjury'', ''rape'', ''bribe'', ''prostitution'', ''war propaganda'' and ''theft''.

Post-1989 amendments

The Penal Code after the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...

has been updated 29 times as of December 2008.

Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

was replaced with

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed te ...

, as the post-Communist

Constitution of Romania The current Constitution of Romania is the seventh permanent constitution in modern Romania's history. It is the fundamental governing document of Romania that establishes the structure of its government, the rights and obligations of citizens, ...

outlaws the death penalty. Sections criminalizing parasitism,

adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and leg ...

and

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

relationships (which were banned under

Nicolae Ceauşescu Nicolae may refer to: * Nicolae (name), a Romanian name * ''Nicolae'' (novel), a 1997 novel See also * Nicolai (disambiguation) * Nicolao {{disambig ...

in 1968) were also removed.

The Penal Code of 2014

A new Penal Code (Law no. 286/2009) came into force on 1 February 2014, together with a new Penal Procedure Code. According to official explanatory notes released prior to its implementation, the new legislation aimed to simplify and accelerate criminal proceedings, eliminate overlaps between Penal Code provisions and those contained in special laws, transpose European regulations into national law and ensure the observance of human rights provisions contained by the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

and various international treaties signed by Romania. In this context, the code redefined the concept of criminal offences, adjusted prison sentences, amended the mechanisms by which criminal fines are calculated, eliminated prison sentences for juvenile offenders and introduced new offences against persons, property, justice and professional conduct. Prostitution was decriminalized.

Structure

The code is divided into a General Part and a Special Part. The former contains general provisions on offences, penalties, criminal liability, the status of minors, security measures, and prescription, while the latter regulates individual offences, which are grouped into twelve titles, plus an additional title comprising final provisions. Compared to the Code of 1969, the new code is longer, comprising 446 articles versus its predecessor's 363.

Bibliography

{{LegalcodesofRomania Romanian criminal law

1865 in law 1936 in law 1969 in law 2014 in law