Principiul legalităţii incriminării conform art. 7 din Convenţia Europeană pentru Apărarea Drepturilor Omului şi a Libertăţilor Fundamentale
THE PRINCIPLE OF LEGALITY ACCORDING TO ARTICLE 7 OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS

Summary/Abstract: The principle of legality is the basis of most legal systems, establishing the supremacy of law within criminal law field. Historically speaking, this principle emerged as a reaction to the medieval law, which granted judges the sovereign power to rule which deeds are offences or not, and the applicable penalty. In the century of lights, the judges’ arbitrary became synonym with caprice and injustice. Therefore, the idea that only the law can define a crime began to get noticed. Asserted in the beginning by Montesquieu, reasserted by Beccaria, the idea was established once it was incorporated in the Declaration of human rights of 1870 and in the French Criminal code of 1810, being subsequently included in the legislation of all European states. At present, besides the European convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, this principle can be found in other international documents: the Universal declaration of human rights (article 11 para. 2) and the International covenant on civil and political rights (article 15 (1)). The Romanian criminal law sets out the principle of legality in article 2 of the Criminal code, which reads that “the law provides for which deeds are offences, the penalties to be applied to the offenders and the measures that can be taken if such deeds are committed”.

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