Condamnarea României de Curtea Europeană a Drepturilor Omului pentru neconvenţionalitatea procedurii judiciare contravenţionale
The Conviction of Romania by the European Court of Human Rights for the Unconventionality of the Judicial Procedure for Misdemeanors

Summary/Abstract: According to domestic Romanian Law, misdemeanors are not criminal but rather administrative acts. However, taking into consideration the European autonomous notion of “criminal”, misdemeanors are criminal in character if one looks at the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The result is the applicability of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, on the right to a fair trial, in its criminal dimension. Penalties for misdemeanors are enforced by an administrative agent and they are the subject of contesting before a judiciary court, where the plaintiff has the obligation to prove the lawfulness and the lack of merits of the administrative act establishing the facts and enforcing the penalty. This aspect changes the burden of proof and constitutes a violation of the presumption of innocence – an element of the right to a fair trial. The conviction of Romania by the European Court of Human Rights involves the obligation of the state to modify its unconventional domestic legislation.

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