Autor: Alexandru-Nicolae Volintiru

Publicat în: Revista Universul Juridic nr. 8/2016

Disponibil onlineaici.

Titlul lucrării în engleză: The modifications of plea bargaining procedure by Emergency Ordinance no . 18/2016

Abstract: This article is an analysis of the institution of plea bargaining, new criminal procedure institution, which was introduced in the Romanian legislation by Law no. 135/01 July 2010 regarding the Criminal Procedure Code. This institution of criminal procedural law is governed by Chapter I – Title IV of the Special Part of the Criminal Procedure Code, namely, articles number 478-488. 

Given the numerous decisions of the Constitutional Court by which were declared unconstitutional an important part of the criminal procedural provisions contained in the new Criminal Procedure Code, Emergency Ordinance no. 18/2016 amending and supplementing Law no. 286/2009 regarding the Criminal Code, Law no. 135/2010 concerning the Code of Criminal Procedure and also supplementing Art. 31 para. (1) of Law no. 304/2004 referring to judicial organization was adopted. Among the many changes introduced by this normative act is also the institution of plea bargaining. 

Therefore, I proceeded to analyze the main elements that make up this special procedure, namely: holders, purpose and conditions of the agreement of plea bargaining as well as trial proceedings before the court and the solutions that it may have once seised of the case, were reviewed and analyzed. 

In conclusion, this work reveals that the aim of introducing these changes was to ensure respect for fundamental principles and constitutional rights of citizens by aligning this institution with the Constitution of Romania.

Keywords: plea bargaining; simplified judgement proceedings; the Code of Criminal Procedure, Emergency Ordinance no. 18/2016.