Abstracts Nr 4, 2020

Doru Trăilă, Discrimination related to inheritance rights in the ECHR case law  

Abstract: Inheritance rights are not explicitly part of the fundamental rights expressly protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. However, by praetorian and dynamic means, the Court has come to recognize and protect certain rights by expanding the interpretation of its provisions relating to the rights expressly enshrined in the Convention by considering that these rights are, for example, included in the scope of art. 8, which guarantees the right to respect for family life or Article 1 of Additional Protocol 1 on the right to property. On this basis, it is clear that the right to non-discrimination provided for in article 14 of the Convention would be applicable when certain interferences with the rights expressly enshrined are neither proportionate nor justified in an objective and reasonable manner in relation to that right. One could then say that Article 14 is thus an integral part of each of the articles enshrining rights and freedoms as it does not have an ”independent existence”.

Keywords: inheritance rights, heir, child, descendant, adultery, marriage, discrimination, sexual orientation, religion, proportionality, objective justification, reasonable justification.

 

Cristian Nuică, Practical aspects regarding the risks and consequences of initiating the infringement procedure. The case of Romania’s pecuniary sanction - “warning” for the national authorities 

Abstract: This article present, from a practical point of view, the issue of the risk of initiating the infringement procedure, limited to the field of non-discrimination, starting from a concrete case of pecuniary sanction of Romania, as a legal consequence of initiating the infringement procedure. Having this case as a study and reporting, we will analyze two situations that could have generated the initiation of the infringement procedure against Romania, under the necessary punitive consequences, in connection with the failure to fulfill the obligations of correct, complete and timely transposition of directives which regulates the matter of non-discrimination at the level of the European Union. The conclusions are related to the need to take specific measures, at the level of the relevant national or profile authorities, in order to eliminate the risk of initiating the infringement procedure against Romania, respectively to avoid financial sanctions such as those resulting from the analyzed case.

Keywords: Cause C-549/18, European Commission (Commission) v. Romania; National Council for Combating Discrimination; Court of Justice of the European Union; non-discrimination

 

Gabriel Andreescu, A Law on the prevention and combating of anti-Roma acts. The punitive ways are superficial ways 

Abstract: The article analyses Law no. 2/2021 regarding measures for preventing and combating anti-Roma acts from the point of view of the more general requirements of democracy and public policy. I discuss the arguments of the initiators of the law, the opinions of the advisory bodies, and reference the laws that intersect or overlap this law; I also discuss the many facets of Roma militancy which explain the passing of Law no. 2/2021. One chapter of the study outlines the vulnerability of the Roma communities. Last, I argue for the need to rethink the system for the protection of national minorities in our country by conferring cultural autonomy to minorities. This normative reconstruction would be part of a strategy to improve the situation of Roma in Romania because a community-level institutional system would strengthen the role and the responsibility of the community in parallel to the role and the responsibility of the Romanian state. The article attempts to prove that public policy that builds the pillars for the emancipation of vulnerable populations is preferable to punitive instruments.

Keywords: Law no. 2/2021, anti-Roma, anti-Semitism, normative system, vulnerability, militancy, public policy, protection of national minorities