Autor: Rodica Aida POPA
Publicat în: Challenges of the Knowledge Society, 2018
Disponibil online: aici.
Abstract: The presumption of innocence represents a constant principle of law, becoming in our modern era a basic principle of all law systems. In Romania, the presumption of innocence is regulated by the Romanian Constitution, as revised, but at the same time by the Criminal Procedure Code that came into effect on 1st February 2014. The application of this principle is closely connected with other procedural guarantees of the suspect and/or defendant during the penal trial, this presumption being
expressly given efficiency by judicial bodies under the scope of majority of court orders. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms addresses effectively the
presumption of innocence in the dispositions of Art. 6 § 2, and the jurisprudence of the European Court has also established some specific criteria in its application. Our study aims to make a brief analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Human Rights Court on the presumption of innocence, with respect to a number of causes, regarding Romania but also other member states of the Council of Europe and towards national standards involved by its regulation. The applicability of the standards established by the European Court of Human Rights concerning this presumption confers to national courts from Romania the possibility to insure effectiveness to the national norm, by completing it, which ensures full compliance of all the guarantees a defendant may benefit from during criminal trials. We consider that the national norm on presumption of innocence stipulated by art 4 of Criminal Procedure code may be modified as well in the light of the agreement given by the European Court in the application of the provisions of art 6 § 2 from the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Keywords: presumption of innocence; European Court case law; enforcement criteria; meaning of words; national standard.