2014

Cosmin VADUVA, Lecturer, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Factual and Normative – a Fundamental Distinction in Romanian Law?
Allen and Pardo said that fact-law distinction is fundamental and critical for the system of law. This paper is an attempt to show that the assertion is valid also for the Romanian legal system. In order to do so the analysis will encompass several concepts from fields of law as different as substantive civil law (the landlord’s liability for tenant’s eviction), procedural civil law (the content of the plaintiff’s civil complaint), procedural criminal law (the content of the victim’s criminal complaint, the ne bis in idem principle) and constitutional law (the constitutionality-opportunity distinction). The variety of the considered legal areas suggests the pervasiveness of the distinction between law and fact. The main result of this analysis consists of the clarification of the relationship existing between, on the one hand, the stipulation by law of a distinction between factual and legal issues and, on the other hand, consequences attached by law to this distinction.

Key-words: Factual; fact; normative; law; eviction; landlord; tenant; plaintiff’s civil complaint; ne bis in idem; victim’s criminal complaint; opportunity; constitutionality

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