The principles of territorial application of the romanian criminal law according to the provisions of the new criminal code

• Author: Liviu Alexandru Lascu
• Position: Prosecutor, the Military Prosecutor's Office of Cluj,
• Pages: 79-88

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, www.juridicalj ournal.univagora.ro

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

No. 1 (2013), pp. 79-88

79

THE PRINCIPLES OF TERRITORIAL APPLICATION OF THE

ROMANIAN CRIMINAL LAW ACCORDING TO THE PROVISIONS

OF THE NEW CRIMINAL CODE

1

L. A. Lascu

Liviu Alexandru Lascu

Prosecutor, the Military Prosecutor's Office of Cluj,

*Correspondence: Liviu Alexandru Lascu, Oradea, 5 M. Eminescu St, Bihor, Romania

E-mail: liviulascu@yahoo.com

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the changes introduced by the new Criminal Code in

relation to the territorial application of the criminal law. From this perspective, we see that

the matter of territoriality is supplemented with additional provisions for defining the notions

of crime and territory. The principles of personality and reality have undergone some

adjustments in the way that they can be effective and, without to charge unnecessarily the

judicial authorities and the principle of universality has been reformulated for the purposes of

being applied for only those cases for which the Romanian state has assumed obligations on

the international level. It have been also introduced some new elements as legal instruments

in the matter of international cooperation, like the handing over the persons to the authorities

of another EU Member State or to an international criminal court. These changes appear to

be justified in the light of international treaties to which Romania is a State party.

Keywords: territoriality, personality, reality, universality, handing over, extradition.

Introduction

The social and political reality of the nowadays Romanian society have entailed the

provisions of the new Criminal Code relating to the principles of territorial application of the

Romanian criminal law to be significantly different than the provisions currently into force,

regulating the same matter. The fact that Romania is now a democratic country, a Member

State of the European Union, a signatory State of the European Convention on Human Rights

and of the Treaty of Rome establishing the International Criminal Court, are key issues that

led to some important changes in what regarding the principles of territorial application of

the Romanian criminal law.

The facts like the free movement of the Romanian citizens which led to a significant

change of the ratio between internal and external crimes and made possible the cross-border

crimes, as well as the requirements of the E.U. bodies and European courts for the

harmonization of the Romanian criminal legislation, were the arguments to determine the

Romanian legislator to make a substantial adjustment of the principles governing the

territorial application of the criminal law. Below, we are going to analyze each of the

particularities of this matter, especially those which underwent some changes to the current

regulations.

1

The new Criminal Code of Romania, was adop ted by “the Law no. 286/2009 on the Criminal Code”, published

in the Official Gazette of Romania, no. 510 of 24 July 2009 and this name is going to be further used in this

paper, in order to differentiate between its provisions and those curre ntly in force.