Analysis of the normative framework of the state of emergency in Romania
Analysis of the normative framework of the state of emergency in Romania

Summary/Abstract: The regime of the state of emergency is one of the areas to which the Constitution has given additional importance, ordering that it be regulated by an organic law. Despite this, legal provisions have been slow to emerge. It was only in 1996 that the Ministry of National Defense began drafting a project that it discussed with specialists from other institutions in the defense, public order and national security sector, a project that was submitted to the Government in the fall of 1997. Despite all the favorable opinions, the project did not appear on the agenda of the Government meetings and, of course, it was not included in the Parliament's debates either. A few months later, taking advantage of the competence granted to him by art. 114 para. (4) of the Constitution, the Government adopted Emergency Ordinance no. 1 of January 21, 1999 regarding the regime of the state of siege and the regime of the state of emergency. What determined the Government to enact a normative act of such importance in one night? I think that, in terms of motivation, the most suggestive picture could be provided by the way in which the circumstances of the moment were presented in the print media. "Mineriada 1999", as the miners' protest from Valea Jiului was nicknamed, showed the importance of the existence of clear and coherent legislation in such a sensitive field. The normative act drafted in haste and under the pressure of emotional factors contained, as we will show, some provisions that were outside the limits of legality.

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