The authors of the study review one of the novel solutions implemented by the new Civil Code of Romania in the area of contractual obligations, namely the regulation of the unusual clauses. These are defined as a species of standard clauses and may be viewed in general as clauses which purport to alter the balance of the obligations of the parties resulting from the statutory regulation of contracts for the benefit of the party which proposes...

The objective of Dzodzi doctrine is to forestall future divergent interpretations of a provision of Union law in cases where the national law has adopted the same solution for the purely internal as for the cross-border situations. The first of the objections raised by Advocate General Cruz Villalón is that in cases where Dzodzi doctrine applies, Kleinwort Benson doctrine must simultaneously be applicable.

Open data is a hot topic in European Union in the past few years that raises a series of legal issues from different perspectives: copyright and related rights, personal data protection or re-use of public information. We are writing this article with the aim to overview the main legal problems related to open data from a Romanian legislation point of view, as well as a presentation of the relevant public policies on the topic, in order to bet...

Law no. 134/2010 regarding the Civil Procedural Code is expected to enter into force in June current year. As far as arbitration is concerned, articles 533-612, Book IV, „About arbitration” of the new Romanian Civil Procedural Code introduce new provisions regarding modernization of the arbitral procedure according to the technological development, disputes arbitrability, eligibility criteria for arbitrators, competent court to settle inciden...

As far as the car registration taxes are concerned, it seems the Romanian Government never learns from the previous mistakes. Although all the past regulations concerning car registration taxes have been quashed by the Court of Justice and disregarded by national courts, a new regulation practically identical to the past ones has been enacted since 13 January 2012. Moreover, by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 1/2012, the discrimination has...

The judge has the power to revise the amount of what is provided for in a penalty clause, in the case where this amount is “manifestly excessive” (art. 1541 Romanian Civil Code). In the legal system French we speak of a “manifestly excessive or derisory amount” (art. 1152 C. civ. français).So it is not only a question of allowing the judge to reduce a penalty, but also of increase it. However, as in other foreign systems, it is necessar...

The right of any person to invoke the illegality of an administrative or fiscal act is clearly stipulated in art. 4 parag. 1 of Law no. 554/2004. However, some authors and, moreover, the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice have imposed a series of admissibility conditions in order for this right to be allowed. Some consider that the illegality of such acts can only be accepted as a defence when invoked within the one year term, stipu...

With regard to the law applicable to the legal person, the new Civil Code sets out a new regulation, partly taking over the former dispositions of Law no. 105/1992 establishing a regulatory framework for private international law relations. Thus, Section 2 – in Book VII of the new Civil Code, Dispositions of private international law, in the special part on the Conflict of Laws, Chapter I Persons – deals with the law applicable to legal ...

Along with the coming into force of the Rome Convention in Romania, the practitioner was confronted with the issue of determining the law applicable in international contractual relations, and was unwillingly transformed in a sort of a political buffoon, puzzled by the importance of the revision, but still a patriot resisting globalization. The emergence of the Rome Convention in Romanian positive law generated a pro-active reaction for the pr...

The regulatory framework on European structural and cohesion funds still raises many controversies from the standpoint of the practical applicability at a national level.There was created, within the application of the regulatory framework on European structural and cohesion funds, a new structure at an inter-institutional level, which doubled the functions and competences of the existing institutions in the system of pre-accession funds....