Abstracts No 4, 2012

Aurora Ciucă, The interest of the child in being born versus the right to identity of the person

Abstract: "The study shows that, in a world where the concept of nuclear family seems obsolete because children living with both natural parents have become an exception, the notion of "interest of the child" achieves a new relevance. The evolution of the traditional family raises many questions: is it in the interest of the child to be the subject of agreements that are often only serving the interests of the adults? What is the optimal relationship between natural and adoptive parents? Which comes first: the right to identity of the child or the right to a private life of the adult? What is the proper language for describing the relationship between the child and the ”intented” parents and the surrogate mother? The study is the expression of a concern over the possibility that these new changes in family structure and conception methods may lead to a discrimination of the children.

Key Words: child, parent, surrogate mother, adoption, intended parent, right to identity, right to a private life 

 

Valentin Constantin, About the subsidiary protection of the rights guaranteed by ECHR

Abstract: The article questions the ”subsidiarity” of the control exerted by the de European Court of Human Rights. The author starts from the premise that subsidiarity implies that the national and the European judge have the same type of judicial function. But there are significant differences between the role of a civil law judge and the role of an international judge. These differences stem from the evolution of the function of the judge in Europe, before and after the French Revolution. They can be seen in the differences in legal reasoning used to justify court decisions. The author’s research does not confirm a real subsidiarity in the relationship between national and European control but rather the existence of two successive types of control. The subsidiarity thesis appears to be also contradicted by the activity of the Constitutional Courts in the area of human rights.

Key words: subsidiary protection, subsidiarity, European judge, margin of appreciation, rule of law, European Court of Human Rights

 

Gabriel Andreescu, The ”contribution” of the Constitutional Court to the de(conspiration) process

 

Abstract: After a review of the Constitutional Court's decisions regarding the legislation for access to one's own Securitate files and the deconspiration of the Securitate as politicalpolice, the study points out the political nature of some arguments that are therefore outside the purview of the RCC. The study also identifies elements in the language of RCC decisions that attempt to minimize the nature and activity of the Securitate as an oppressive organization. After its 2008 decision that declared Law 187/1999 unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court has become the main institution through which former agents and informants contest the lawfulness of their deconspiration. Some of the Courts arguments support these complaints, therefore hindering the deconspiration process. Thus, the Constitutional Court has ignored not only the obviously relevant experience of other Communist countries but also the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, with which it must conform.

Key words:  deconspiration of the Securitate, exception of unconstitutionality, National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, Constitutional Court

Lucian Bojin, From economic crisis to human rights crisis? 

Abstract: The paper discusses some of the effects of the economic crisis of the last years on human rights issues. Effects of the national budget problems are taken into account, as well as the rise of the 2nd generation human rights claims (social and economic rights) emboldened by the loss of ground of the neoliberal approaches. The author also explores a possible future change of paradigm in human rights legal relations if non-national actors (such as MNCs) are to be treated as typical human rights violations authors, a category that, according to the classical human rights approach, was reserved for national states.

Key words: human rights, economic crisis, non-national actors, non-enforceable, taxes for the rich, „Occupy”, „Indignados”

 

Alina Tăriceanu, The harmful social triangle of the Bucharest street prostitute

Abstract: The object of the analysis in this article is street prostitution in Bucharest. The features of street prostitution and the regulation policy enforced by the state affect the everyday life conditions of female sex workers.  Street prostitutes are the most affected by the manner in which the state regulates prostitution, the legal prohibition of this phenomenon being the worst alternative from the point of view of female sex workers. How commercial sex is being sold in the street and the legal status of this activity places street prostitutes in a harmful social triangle. The visibility of this form of prostitution, the lack of education of street sex workers, their poverty and the legal regulation of sex work turn female prostitutes into victims of multiple forms of violence. I demonstrate in this article that the legal prohibition of prostitution in present-day Romania makes female prostitutes highly vulnerable to violence from different public authorities, especially the police.

Key prostitute: street prostitution, harmful social triangle, violence, legal prohibition of prostitution.