Violating the right to private life under the new romanian penal code

• Author: Mirela Gorunescu
• Position: Associate Professor, Ph.D., Faculty of Law, 'Nicolae Titulescu' University, Bucharest, Romania
• Pages: 128-134

128 Lex ET Scientia. Juridical Series

LESIJ NO. XIX, VOL. 1/2012

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VIOLATING THE RIGHT TO PRIVATE LIFE UNDER

THE NEW ROMANIAN PENAL CODE

Mirela GORUNESCU∗

Abstract

It is more and more difficult nowadays that the private life of a person to remain out of other

people intervention and out of public visibility. In this context, the present paper is concentrated of a

new criminalization included in The New Romanian Penal Code - article 226 from this law. It is

about the violation to the right to private life which is for the first time incriminated by the Romanian

Penal Code.

Keywords: private life protection, criminal liability, The New Romanian Penal Code, crime

Introduction

1. This study focuses on the new legal framework concerning the private life penal protection,

as it results from the New Romanian Penal Code. It is well known that, nowadays it is more and

more difficult nowadays that the private life of a person to remain out of other people intervention

and out of public visibility. That is why the Romanian legislator felt the need to create a special

chapter dedicated to the facts which violate the domicile and the private life.

2. From our point of view it is very important for all the actors involved in applying the penal

law to correctly understand the law, because this is the indispensable premise for a correct

application in particular cases. That is why the present study ai ms to analyze the constitutive

elements of the offence incriminated by the article 226 New Romanian Penal Code and to explain

them in accordance to some settlements of the European Court of Human Rights.

3. We will use the monographic analyze method to reveal the main elements of the crime of

private life violation. Also, the study will focus on the way the European Court of Human Rights

case decisions influenced the new criminalization. Moreover, we will put the new offence in the

larger framework created by the legal rules included in the Chapter IX from the Title dedicated to the

crimes against the person from the special part of the New Romanian Penal Code.

4. In terms of the Romanian doctrine in the field of interest, the present study has the merit to

be among the first studies ever published on this topic. At national level it was already observed that

the European Court of Human Rights pays a special attention to the domicile and private life

protection. An important number of decisions of the European judicial institution were given in this

domain and realized a large concept of private life, which cannot remain out of penal law protection.

The Romanian legislator accepted in 2009 this perspective.

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∗ Associate Professor, Ph.D., Faculty of Law, ”Nicolae Titulescu” U niversity, Bucharest, Romania (email:

mire_gor@yahoo.com).