Futility of the regulatory framework on the organization and operation of public gatherings - the right to protest in Romania

• Author: Marius-Adrian Arva
• Position: Student Police Academy 'Alexandru Ioan Cuza', Faculty of Police
• Pages: 8-14

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijjs

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No. 2 (2019), pp. 8 - 14

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FUTILITY OF THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK ON THE

ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF PUBLIC GATHERINGS –

THE RIGHT TO PROTEST IN ROMANIA

M-A. ARVA

Marius-Adrian ARVA

Student Police Academy „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Faculty of Police

Mailing address: City of Iași, Poitiers Boulevard, no. 18-22, postal code 700671, Iași County

E-mail: arvamariusadrian@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT:

If in the introductory part of the paper we present the constituent elements of the right

to protest in relation to constitutional or conventional provisions and by analyzing some

jurisprudential elements of the national courts and of the European Court of Human Rights,

in the second part we carry out a detailed analysis of the solutions pronounced by the

relevant national courts, based on which we concluded the uselessness of the sanctions

regulation regarding the participation in protest actions carried out in a peaceful context.

KEY WORDS: freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, right to protest,

jurisprudence.

INTRODUCTION

The recent events in the Romanian society's history regarding considerable assemblies

of people, resulting in a strong civic awareness compels the institutional actors involved in

ensuring the orderly climate in the public space to show an increased interest in the legislative

framework by which they act, overcoming in the end the security of each individual.

However, it is imperative that there is a balance between guaranteeing by the state a

favorable environment for the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms and their justified

limitation, meaning that (…) state authorities are obliged to take not only reasonable

measures, but both firm and adequate ones, in order to ensure the peaceful conduct of lawful

manifestations of its citizens and to oversee the public order keeping (...)

1

.

We underscore that the chosen topic is of high interest in relation to the section

concerned in the conference, given that by presenting the values put into debate by the

national courts, we carry out a detailed analysis of the normative framework in which citizens

exercise some of their basic constitutional rights that sparkled the public attention of the

contemporary Romanian society, more precisely the right of freedom of expression and

assembly.

Moreover, we advocate in the study conducted for the reconfirmation of these rights,

carrying out a thorough study of the solutions given by the national judicial forums in relation

to the exercise of these rights, in antithesis to the coercive attribute of the state authority.

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Civil Decision no. 732/23.05.2018 of the Suceava Tribunal, available at www.rolii.ro, accessed on

22.11.2019.