Obstructing justice according to the Romanian law. The preexistent elements and the constituent content

• Author: Ion Rusu
• Pages: 163-177

Obstructing justice according to the Romanian law.

The preexistent elements and the constituent content

Professor Ion RUSU1

Abstract

Within the present study we have examined the constitutive con tent and the pre -

existing elements of the crime of obstructing justice. We should specify that this offense was

not provided in the previous Criminal Code, representing from this point of view a novelty

element for the new Criminal Code. However, we pointed out that the offense with similar

legal content, without a marginal name, was also provided in two o ther normative acts,

namely Law no. 85/2006 on Insolvency Procedure and G.E.O. no. 46/2013 regarding the

financial crisis and the insolvency of the administrative-territorial units. The novelty

elements of this paper aim both at examining the constitutive content, the preexisting

elements, as well as in the comparative ex amination of the provisions of the present

incrimination and the one existing in the normative acts referred to above. Also, as a

novelty, we also support the necessity o f completing the provisions of the law by including

in its content, as bodies with attributions in the field, the judge of the preliminary chamber

and the jud ge of rights and freedoms, institutions that cannot be assimilated to the term of

court. This paper is part of a broader work to be published early next yea r, continuing to

investigate crimes in the light of the new law. The work may be u seful to students of law

faculties, master students, and law practitioners.

Keywords: offense; material element; essential requirements; subjective side .

JEL Classification: K14

1. Introduction

Obstruction of j ustice was not provided for in the Criminal Code of 1969,

which is why, in terms of the marginal name and partly the legal content, it is

represented as a novelty element of incrimination in the Romanian Criminal Code.

This offense consists in the act of a person who, being warned of t he

consequences of his deeds, performs one of the following actions or inactions:

- prevents, without right, the criminal prosecution body or the court to

carry out, under the law, a procedural act;

- refuses to make available to the criminal investigation body, the court or

the syndic judge, in whole or in part, t he held data, information, documents or

assets explicitly required by the law in order to settle a case.

1 Ion Rusu - “Danubius” University of Galaţi, lawyer of the Vrancea Bar, Romania,

av.ionrusu@yahoo.com.