We will get to know criminal law in the second year of law school in Romania, specifically the general part, while the special part of criminal law will be studied in the following year.

Those interested, whether students, legal professionals, practitioners, or anyone eager to learn more about the institutions of criminal law, can find them in the provisions regulated by the New Criminal Code.

CRIMINAL LAW – GENERAL PART

DEFINITION OF CRIMINAL LAW

              First of all, the general part of criminal law is presented as a system of rules through which relationships between people are protected by applying certain punishments to those who pose a danger to others. The purpose of criminal law is to protect social values, either through prevention or, when necessary, through sanctions that will be applied to individuals who commit crimes.

FUNDAMENTAL INSTITUTIONS (MAIN IDEAS) OF CRIMINAL LAW

The main topics covered in this subject are: the crime, the sanction, and criminal liability.

The crime talks about human actions that can harm other people, being recognized by law.

The sanction(punishments) explains that any rule must be respected according to the law, and the sanction appears as non-compliance with it, representing consequences of the deviation from the criminal norm.

 Criminal liability is linked to the other two by the fact that the person is personally responsible for the acts he has committed contrary to the law, having as a subject involved in the legal relationship of conflict the state itself. He holds the offender accountable and at the same time applies the sanction, with the aim of restoring and respecting the law.

CRIMINAL LAW – SPECIAL PART

This discipline comes as an aid for what is learned in the previous year, with the aim of facilitating the understanding of the incriminations. The difference between the general part, which establishes general principles and rules applicable to criminal law, is that the special part shows in detail the types of crimes, such as murder, theft or corruption, constituent elements of the crimes, such as the subject or object of the crime, and the aggravating or mitigating circumstances. The subject is divided into several chapters, and two of them, the most important ones, talk about crimes against the person and crimes against property.

              The first chapter, which refers to crimes against the person, presents homicide with all its types, such as murder (art. 188 of the Penal Code), which is defined as the intentional killing of a person. Qualified murder is also considered, being also a variant of murder that is punished more harshly because it includes certain circumstantial elements. These aggravating elements can be premeditated murder, for material interest, murder of a spouse or a close relative, or murder in public, which is regulated in Article 189 of the Criminal Code. At the same time, in the matter of homicide, infanticide is also brought into question, which is the murder of the fetus by the mother in a state of mental turmoil, immediately after birth (art. 177 of the Penal Code). Also in this chapter, there is also talk of manslaughter (192 C. Pen.).

              Crimes against bodily integrity or health are the second chapter and criminalise all acts of beating and other violence, such as bodily injury (Art. 194 of the Penal Code) or domestic violence (Art. 199 of the Penal Code).

              There are many crimes that are found in the Criminal Code։ leaving a person in difficulty without help, harassment, human trafficking, forced or compulsory labor, begging, rape, home invasion, theft, piracy, deception, non-denunciation, escape, bribery, embezzlement and more.

              At the same time, crimes against property represent all crimes that have as their object a material value, except for culpable destruction. They are those facts that affect the person’s patrimony. This includes theft, breach of trust, robbery and other related topics.

CONCLUSIONS

To sum up, the study of criminal law is an essential stage for future lawyers. By deepening the different categories of crime and their constituent elements, as well as the general principles, students acquire essential skills for the legal framing of the facts, but also to protect social values.

This discipline also contributes to the formation of an ethical perspective, being also important for the prevention and sanctioning of dangerous behaviors.

Zăvoi Maria-Elena-Bianca

Legal intern R&R Partners