The procedure regarding the admission of guilt

• Author: Andrei Zarafiu
• Position: Lecturer, Ph.D.,Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest
• Pages: 95-104

Andrei Zarafiu

95

LESIJ NO. XIX, VOL. 2/2012

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THE PROCEDURE REGARDING THE ADMISSION OF GUILT

Andrei ZARAFIU∗

Abstract

Considering the present normative framework, even if in criminal matters the transactions

between the judicial organs, which exercise the procedural function of indictment, and the defendant

are not permitted, the admission of guilt appears as an incipient form of negotiation of penalty. In

anticipation of a future special procedure regarding the accord of admission of guilt, the present

institution has generated a great amount of controversy which has, inevitably, caused a matchlessly

practice to appear. The purpose of this study is to identify the primary consequences of the norms

which now regulate the judgment regarding the admission of guilt and to offer concrete and punctual

solutions to the grave problems generated by a defective normative framework. The article has as

basic study a documentary material which is comprised not only of normative guidelines, but also of

a judicial practice generated by the application of these norms for almost a year. Last, but not least,

the actual dimension of the admission of guilt procedure is also underlined by the dealing of the legal

issues introduced by the Constitutional Court’s recently handed down decisions in these matters.

Keywords : admission of guilt, special procedure, guilt acknowledgment, penalty, judgment.

Introduction

The Constitutional Court in its attempt to eli minate the contradictions generated by the

appearance of a deficiently regulated institution, has pronounced two important decisions in the

matter of admission of guilt.

Being only a supervisory organism with jurisdictional attributions, the Constitutional Court,

through the two decisions mentioned above, has determined a legislative intervention which would

transpose, on a normative level, the findings of the constitutional litigation court.

By adopting the Government’s Emergency Ordinance no. 121/2011, the content of the

institution of judgment in case of admission of guilt has gained new dimensions, whose judicial

consequences will manifest in the cases of trials started before the coming into force of th is

procedural institution.

The goal of the present article is to identify the procedural impediments generated by the

introduction in Romanian Criminal Procedure of the judgment in case of admission of guilt.

The study also proposes appropriate solutions for the problems which appeared as a

consequence of the intervention of the Constitutional Court.

The purpose of Law No. 202/2010, at both declarative and institutional levels, was the

simplification and acceleration of the judicial activity criminal in nature.

With respect to the settlement of criminal causes in the first court of la w, the lawmaker’s

intervention materialized into the introduction (regulation) of a new special procedure for judging the

causes in case guilt is acknowledged.

Anticipating the new similar institutions regulated by the future Criminal Procedure Code, i.e.

judgment in case guilt is acknowledged (the new Criminal Procedure Code, Art. 374) and the

settlement of causes under the acknowledgement agreement (the new Criminal Procedure Code,

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∗ Lecturer, Ph.D.,Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest (e-mail: andrei.zarafiu@mnpartners.ro).