Academic Centrehttps://doi.org/10.22364/iscflul.9.2.08 | 89-96 | PDF
Cristina Nicorici, PhD, Assistant Professor
Faculty of Law West University of Timisoara, Romania
The Principle of Legality and General Crimes – the Particular Case of Abuse in Service of Public Officer
Key words: principle of legality, predictability of the law, accessibility of the law, clarity of criminal law, criminal responsibility, public officer, clause of subsidiarity
Summary
The principle of legality is a fundamental part of the criminal law system and a rule that is a part of the positive legislation in most of the countries. One of its components – the law – should state clearly, in a predictive and comprehensible manner, what actions or inaction constitute crimes. Many countries including Romania attempt to regulate and penalize, as precisely as possible in accordance with this principle, by the means stipulated in criminal law, the actions of public officers who fulfil their duties improperly, or fail to fulfil them, with the intention to cause damage to others. The current article considers the crime of abuse of office, – an incrimination that aims to define all types of conduct of a public officer that are not regulated by law as more specific crimes. However, such a general incrimination invariably is on the edge of the principle of legality. The aim of this article is to analyse the ways how the crime of abuse of office has been regarded in Romania in the latest years, in connection with the principle of legality.
The current paper has been published in the second collection of research papers in conjunction with the 9th International Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia “Revisiting the Limits of Freedom While Living Under Threat. II”, 9–10 November 2023. Riga: University of Latvia Press, 2024. 232 pages.