CRIMINAL LAW
Art. 23 para. (9) of the Romanian Constitution provides that " no punishment can be established or applied except under the conditions and under the law ", a provision brought to the level of principle by the Latin formulas nullum crimen sine lege, nulla poena sine lege.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations refers to art. 11 paragraph (2) that "no one will be convicted for actions or omissions that did not constitute, at the time when they were committed, a criminal act according to international or national law".
The principle of the legality of criminal and procedural criminal rules requires compliance with the fundamental law and other normative acts existing in society, by all state bodies, by all legal entities under public or private law and by all citizens.
The fundamental institutions of criminal law, the crime, criminal liability and criminal sanction, are regulated according to generally valid rules materialized in principles of criminal law that include all measures for the development and implementation of criminal rules. The entire criminal legislation is based on the principle of the legality of incrimination and the penalties of criminal law.
In Romanian criminal law, this fundamental principle is defined in art. 1 of the Criminal Code named "Legality of criminality", respectively art. 2 with the marginal title "Legality of criminal law sanctions". Thus, according to Art. 1 para. (1) "The criminal law provides for the acts that constitute crimes" and according to paragraph (2) "No person can be penalized for an act that was not provided for by the criminal law at the time it was committed";
Art. 2 para. (1) shows that "The criminal law provides the applicable punishments and the educational measures that can be taken against the people who have committed crimes, as well as the security measures that can be taken against the people who have committed acts provided by the criminal law."
Para. (2) establishes that "A punishment cannot be applied or an educational measure or a safety measure cannot be taken if it was not provided for by the criminal law at the time it was committed" and according to para. (3) "No punishment can be established and applied outside its general limits"
