EXCLUSIVE: Human Rights Org Takes Romania Constitution Revision Issue Up To Court

A Human Rights Organization sued the Romanian presidency, the government, the parliament, as well as other state institutions, on grounds that the 2003 law on the revision of the Constitution of Romania was not promulgated, which triggers the nullity of the country’s fundamental law- the Constitution.

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"Failing to promulgate a law and publishing it in the Official Gazette seriously infringes the constitutional and legal norms, which is severely punished with absolute nullity. This procedural flaw cannot be tolerated," according to the Office for International Communication and Human Rights (OCIDO).

Thus, the organization took legal action against the presidency, the government, the parliament, the Constitutional Court, the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the European Commission – and urged the Bucharest Court to take note of the absolute nullity of the provisions of Law 429/2003 on the revision of the Constitution of Romania, given the fraudulent actions against the imperative stipulations of Law 24/2000 (regarding the methodology enforcing the normative acts) and against article 77 of the Constitution adopted in 1991.

OCIDO pointed out that section 1 of article 77 of the Constitution adopted in 1991, called "Promulgation of laws" stipulates that the "Law is submitted to Romania’s President for promulgation and it must be promulgated within 20 days at most of the date of reception.”

OCIDO, represented by lawyer Antonie Popescu, brought forth as argument the fact that the law on the revision of Constitution is constitutional- its regulation is stipulated as imperative at article 72, section 2 of the Constitution – therefore, it must also be promulgated in accordance with the provisions of article 77.

The Romanian President’s obligation to promulgate laws is reinforced by the provisions of Law 24 on March 27, 2000, amended through Government Emergency Ordinance 6/2003, and Law 189/2004.

Law 24/2000 stipulates that acts are initiated, drawn up, adopted and enforced in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of Romania and the provisions of the current law.

Based on article 10, section 2, laws are published soon after their promulgation while accompanied by the papers based on which their were promulgated, namely, the promulgation decree signed by Romania’s President.

According to OCIDO, the only exception consists of revision law on September 18, 2004, namely Law 429/2003, published in the Official Gazette 669 on September 22, 2003.

The revision law was submitted to a constitutionality-related control soon after the people adopted the law, but the control should not have gone down only to the objections raised by the group of senators and deputies.

Therefore, Popescu urges the court – entitled to rule on such legal aspects, which can longer be analyzed by the Constitutional Court, as they are subsequent to the adoption of the law– to admit the action the way it was formulated, which thus renders the law legal.

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