Decizia Curții Constituționale a României nr. 175 din 24 martie 2022 referitoare la obiecția de neconstituționalitate a dispozițiilor art. 117 alin. (1) lit. a) din Codul de procedură penală
Decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania no. 175 of 24 March 2022 on the objection of unconstitutionality of the provisions of Article 117 (1) (a) of the Criminal Procedure Code

Summary/Abstract: The general aim of criminal procedure law is to ensure that proceedings are conducted efficiently, in accordance with known principles. To ensure this, the law regulates various rights and obligations on the part of the participants in the proceedings. One obligation is that the witness shall testify. This is not an absolute obligation, as the same law also regulates several exceptions, one of which is the right of the witness to choose not to testify when his or her testimony could incriminate his or her own family members. However, the law is not sufficiently clear and balanced, omitting to grant this benefit to all persons who fall within the notion of family member under criminal law. If in 2017 the Constitutional Court sanctioned the procedural law (i.e. Article 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code) for omitting cohabitants from granting this benefit, it now sanctions it for omitting the exemption from the obligation to testify for persons who have established relationships similar to those between parents and children.

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