Changes at the Constitutional Court of Romania

Valer Dorneanu is the new president of the Constitutional Court of Romania.

Daniela Budu, 14.07.2016, 13:47

As of Wednesday the Constitutional Court of Romania has a new president and three new judges. On the occasion of the inauguration ceremony held at the Cotroceni Palace, President Klaus Iohannis urged the new judges to promote the highest standards of professionalism and independence.

He asked them to contribute to strengthening the Constitutional Court of Romania as a pole of stability in the state’s constitutional architecture, by promoting a clear, coherent and predictable jurisprudence. The three judges of the Constitutional Court replaced the previous judges whose terms in office expired.

They will hold their offices for 9 years. Judge Valer Dorneanu was elected with a majority of votes as president of the Constitutional Court of Romania for a 3-year term in office. Valer Dorneanu said he intended to work with his colleagues as a team and preserve the reputation of the Constitutional Court.

Valer Dorneanu: “We expect to have a good cooperation with the state institutions. We expect state institutions to no longer consider the Constitutional Court as the place to which they can refer all the misunderstandings and conflicts created at political level. We cannot deny our role of arbiter, but we would like to remain a constitutional arbiter not an arena referee”.

Valer Dorneanu, 72, has been a judge of the Constitutional Court since June 2013, being appointed by the Chamber of Deputies. In June 2016 he was elected interim president of the Constitutional Court of Romania following the end of his predecessor’s mandate.

Before going to the Constitutional Court, Valer Dorneanu has been a deputy Ombudsman in charge of such institutions as the army, the judiciary, the police and the penitentiaries. Between 2000-2008 he was a Social Democratic MP and during his first MP mandate he held the position of president of the Chamber of Deputies.

He also held the position of minister for the relation with Parliament between 1992- 1995. The former president of the Constitutional Court of Romania, Augustin Zegrean, says his term in office was a period of intense activity, when they had to solve even 10 thousand cases in one year. According to Augustin Zegrean Romania has too many regulations in the legal field.

Augustin Zegrean: “We have more than 1,000 crimes mentioned in Romania’s criminal code, which I believe is too much. It is very difficult to be a judge in a country where laws are changing so frequently and are so numerous. It is also difficult for the population because, at least in criminal justice, ignorance of the law affords no excuse. And I don’t think that people in this country know all the 1,000 crimes in the criminal code.”

We remind you that the judges of the Constitutional Court of Romania are appointed by the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the Presidency.