Articles for category: Rumänien

Who’s Afraid of the „Big Bad Court”?

The end of 2021 brought a new chapter in the saga of how should the primacy of the EU law be applied by Romanian courts. A press release of the Romanian Constitutional Court, issued on 23 December 2021, raised concerns about the conformity with the principles set forth in the case law of the CJEU regarding the primacy. The press release, albeit a non-legal document, might have a dissuasive effect upon the judges who would be, otherwise, willing to disapply some norms of internal law, according to the latest judgment of the CJEU on the matter. In Romania, the disregard of the decisions of the Constitutional Court can be a ground for disciplinary action against judges.

10. Januar 2022

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Goat, Cabbage and Wolf

According to a flurry of recent news, snowballed in almost identical form in the Western press, the Romanian Constitutional Court has ruled, just before Christmas, to deny the primacy of EU law. More often than not, analogies with Poland were made, glossing on surface similarities. The juxtaposition is misleading. As the late János Kornai put it, simply because we [i.e., countries in the hinterland, ces pays là-bas] are in the same hospital, that does not mean we suffer from the same sicknesses.

7. Januar 2022

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Handle with Care

I will, in what follows, seek to answer the overarching question of this symposium, starting from a cautionary Romanian rule of law (RoL) reform tale. Other things being equal, its lessons may be extrapolated to the specific case of hopefully post-Orbánite Hungary. The specific context of Hungary presents, at least apparently, the Romanian problem in reverse, namely, the transition from an authoritarian nationalist regime to a pluralist, European, rule of law order.

22. Dezember 2021

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A Tale of Primacy, part III

The third act, but not the end, of the ongoing „game of Courts” between the Romanian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice came on 9 November 2021, with a letter by the Romanian Constitutional Court to assist the acting minister of justice with a reply to the EU Commission's concern about primacy of EU law. I will not comment again on the arguments, already developed by the Constitutional Court in its decision, but I will try to emphasize, through relevant quotes, the disregard of the rule of law requirements stated in the CJEU judgment as well as the absence of the capacity of a true dialogue with the European Court.

17. November 2021

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A Tale of Primacy Part. II

On 18 May 2021, the CJEU issued a judgment on several requests for preliminary ruling by Romanian national courts regarding the impact of EU law on Romanian laws on the judiciary and the CVM. On 8 June, the Romanian Constitutional Court issued a decision pertaining to the subject. In a succession of legal nonsense, it shattered hope that the CJEU’s judgment could be a guide for national courts for applying the primacy of the EU law.

18. Juni 2021

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A Tale of Primacy

In its 18 May ruling Asociația „Forumul Judecătorilor din România”, the ECJ took a solid stance on the primacy of EU law by recognizing the binding nature of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism established by the European Commission with respect to Romania in 2007. The judgment is a genuine guide to national courts on applying the primacy of EU law, especially as regards controversial issues such as the judicial independence and rule of law.

2. Juni 2021

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Romania: COVID-19 Response in an Electoral Year

The year 2020 was a difficult one for Romania, as for the whole world, because of the Covid-19 crisis which overlapped with other local crises of political, legal and social natures. The country’s response to the Covid-19 challenges was rendered even more difficult and incoherent by these crises. In February-March 2020, the government and the President were looking for a solution in order to initiate the procedure for early elections and at the very first moments of the pandemic the country had an interim government after a motion of censure had passed.

26. März 2021

Romania in the Covid Era: Between Corona Crisis and Constitutional Crisis

In Romania, the sanitary crisis caused by the SARS-COV-2 pandemic started during an existing political crisis and overlapped, at a few crucial moments, with a constitutional crisis. The fact that 2020 is an electoral year had an important impact on the crisis management: on the one hand, the political conflicts increased, but, on the other hand, the fact that the power did not belong to the same political majority hindered potential abuses of one of the actors, especially of the President.

21. Mai 2020

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COVID-19 and Disposable Migrant Workers

Picture this: The world is battling a pandemic, with many countries in lockdown and borders closed. You arrive at a regional airport in northern Romania and wait for hours in the parking lot to board a charter flight. You might end up in Baden-Baden, Berlin or Düsseldorf—it’s hard to know, since no one is telling you what the final destination is. Physical distancing seems not to apply. You are jammed together with 2000 other people waiting to be placed as seasonal workers in the fields of Germany. Asparagus needs to be picked and the new crop need to be planted so the Germans can enjoy uninterrupted production of the spring vegetable through 2020 and 2021.

16. April 2020

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