Consimţământul exprimat de inculpat în cursul urmăririi penale, privind recunoaşterea vinovăţiei
The consent expressed by the defendant during the criminal investigation, regarding the admission of guilt

Summary/Abstract: Highlighting the importance and actuality of the elements of negotiated justice in the criminal trial, this study deals with the issue of the statement given by the defendant during the criminal investigation, as an expression of his consent in order to conclude a guilty plea agreement.The institution of the guilty plea agreement, as a form of negotiated justice, was introduced into the procedural-criminal legislation in Romania through the provisions of the current Criminal Procedure Code (entered into force on 1 February 2014).Starting from an aspect of non-unitary practice regarding the legal consequences of the defendant’s withdrawal of consent regarding the admission of guilt, as well as from the finding, by the Constitutional Court of Romania, of the unconstitutionality of some provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code regarding the guilty plea agreement procedure (including in relation to the statement given by the defendant in order to conclude the agreement), the present work brings into discussion the difficulty of adapting the adversarial elements to the continental law system to which the Romanian law is also part.The research methods used for the elaboration of the study are: the documentation, the observation and the scientific analysis, including aspects of comparative analysis (between the Anglo-Saxon legal system and the continental one, between the procedural-criminal legislations of several European states, as well as between the special procedure of the guilty plea agreement and the simplified trial procedure in the case of admission of guilt in the regulation of the current Romanian Criminal Procedure Code).The paper presents the solution pronounced by the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice (in the Decision No 5/2017) for the unification of the judicial practice, in the sense of establishing the irrevocable character of the recognition of guilt made under the conditions of a validly expressed consent.Likewise, in the context of the legislative changes foreseen by the most recent draft law on the amendment and completion of the Criminal Procedure Code, approved by the Government of Romania on 28 December 2022, the paper formulates a concrete proposal, de lege ferenda, for the implementation of the Constitutional Court Decision No 490/2022.

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