National cultural heritage built: legislative risks and administrative deficiencies

• Author: Cosmin Soare
• Pages: 44-59

National cultural heritage built:

legislative risks and administrative deficiencies

PhD. student Cosmin SOARE1

Abstract

Cultural heritage is one of the most va luable values of past, present or future

generations. Faced with the dangers it faces, we h ave the moral and spiritual duty to react

promptly, within our limits of competence. The present study is an expression of this task,

with the proposed analysis aiming at raising a wareness of the danger of a recently initiated

legislative intervention by means of which the means of protection of the cu ltural heritage

built would be seriously impaired. This danger is overlapped with the one caused by the lack

of reaction and even the implicit support of this initiative by the public administration, which

according to the institutional framework in this field has the duty to act as a true guardian

of the national cultural heritage.

Keywords: built cultural heritage, national identity, centenary, public

administration, legislative initiative.

JEL Classification: K23

1. Premises of the study

The special significance of 2018, both from a national perspective, namely

that of celebrating the Centenary of the Great Union on 1 December 1918, and from

a European perspective, that of declare this year as the European Year of Cultural

Heritage2, has led us to grant a special attention to the institution of cultural heritage

in our research3.

This initiative has a complex mission and tends to satisfy both a social need,

but above all a scientific and legal need.

On the one hand, the initiative has the manifested vocation to join the signals

drawn in the sense of awareness of the essential role of the cultural heritage in the

life and identity of the current and future society, as well as in understanding the

1 Cosmin Soare – Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, Romania,

cosmin.alexandru.soare@drd.unibuc.ro

2 Decision (EU) 2017/864 of the European P arliament and of the Council of 17 May 2017 on the

European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, published in the Official Journal no. 131 of 20 May 2017,

pp. 1-9

3 In this respect, we can consu lt: Cosmin Soare, National cultural h eritage: interdisciplinary

approaches. Reflections on the institution of responsibility in the matter, „Perspectives of Law and

Public Administration”, Vol. 7, Issue 1, 2018, p. 43-51 and Cosmin Soare, Spre un Cod al

patrimoniului cultural (Towards a Cultural Heritage Code), „Revista de Drept P ublic” Supplement

2018, p. 168-175.

Juridical Tribune Volume 9, Issue 1, March 2019 45

existence of its indissoluble interference with a series of other factors, among which

a major role is played by the public administration.

On the other hand, the research of national cultural heritage from a legal

perspective implies a real necessity in the present Romanian legal space, taking into

account the social di mension of the law and the new social and legal realities. The

legal research of the phenomena accompanying the constant and rapid evolution of

the cultural heritage institution is a duty that we therefore find fit to answer through

this initiative.

In the initial prefigured order of our studies, this article should have matched

an analysis of cultural heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable Romania and

Europe.

However, the recent evolution of the national legislative process has

prompted us to focus on a stringent issue that has the potential to seriously and

irreparably damage one of the essential and representative categories of the national

cultural heritage, namely historical monuments.

We refer here to the legislative proposal initiated by a number of thirteen

deputies from the Romanian Parliament for the repeal of letter a) of article 24 of the

Law no. 50/1991 regarding the authorization of construction works, registered on 27

March 2018 at the Senate of Romania under no. L339/2018.

2. Legislative proposal and statement of reasons

The legislative proposal initiated under Art. 74 par. (1) of the Constitution

of Romania by a number of thirteen deputies has in its content a unique article and

concerns exclusively the repeal of letter a) of article 24 of the Law no. 50/1991

regarding the authorization of the execution of construction works, republished in

the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 933 of 13 October 2004, as subsequently

amended and supplemented4.

In particular, the provision whose repeal is intended to establish t he

following: "The following acts shall be punishable by a penalty of three months to

one year or by a fine: a) execution without construction or abolition authorization

or failure to comply with its provisions provided in art. 3 par. (1) lit. b), c), e) and

g), with the exceptions provided by the law".

The works that are executed without a building or dismantling permit or with

the non-observance of its provisions and which are in the present regulation

infringements are: "Civil, industrial, agricultural, maintenance, installation and

technological equipment, for infrastructure of any kind or any other nature may be

carried out only with respect to the building permit and the regulations for the design

4 The content of the legislative proposal, registered at the Romanian Senate under no. L339/2018, can

be consulted at https://www.senat.ro/legis/PDF/2018/18L339FG.pdf, consulted by the author from 15

September 2018 to 15 October 2018.