Criste Mircea, Judicial Review: A Disputed Competence in the Romanian Legal System

The evolution of constitutional review in Europe in the final quarter of the twentieth century, especially after the expansion of a posteriori review, reveals an increase in the role and participation of the judge a quo in a field ab initio restricted to a special and specialized judge, namely the constitutional judge.

Romania is a good example in observing the relationship between the two categories of judges, having quite a tradition regarding constitutional review, which began more than a century ago. The involvement of the Romanian judge a quo in order to have their right to control laws recognized presents a double symmetry. It occurs at the beginning and at the end of the twentieth century, as well as at the dawn of the birth of a new Romania: in 1918, the Great Union occurs, and at the end of 1989, which marks Romania’s break with totalitarian communism.