The Predictability of Romanian Constitutional Court Decisions and the Political 'Migration' of Parliamentarians (Predictibilitatea Deciziilor Curții Constituționale Din Romania Şi „Migrația” Politică a Parlamentarilor)

Abstract

Legal certainty, as part of the rule of law principle, contributes to the stability of the national normative system. Predictability can ensure that, in the creation and the application of the law, legitimate expectations of persons are protected as condition for legal certainty.

Courts judgments’ predictability allows to the potential subjects of litigation to foresee, as accurate as possible, the finality of the proceedings before taking their case to the court and decide if to proceed or not. The number of the litigations decreases as the courts’ judgments predictability increases, fostering a more stable social environment.

Predictability could be required not only from ordinary courts’ judgments, but also from Constitutional Court’s decisions, too.

The Constitutional Court isn’t part of the Romanian judiciary authority, but, as the main institution entrusted with the Constitution’s supremacy over laws and other regulations, its decisions are essential for the interpretation and the application of the Constitution. These decisions have jurisdictional power and are to be followed by the other state’s authorities, including the Parliament when adopting new laws. This is why, it worth to analyze Romanian Constitutional Court’s decisions from their predictability perspective.

The parliamentary representatives’ freedom to change party membership or their competence to dismiss one Chamber’s chairperson, the competence of the Constitutional Court are some of the subjects covered by the Romanian Constitution for the interpretation of which the Constitutional Court was asked to decide several times. While changing circumstances may support different interpretation over the same Constitutional disposition, a certain degree of predictability can regulate political behaviours and foster political and social stability – as premises for good governance and sustainable national development under the principle of rule of law.

Keywords: Constitutional Court, predictability, legal certainty, rule of law, legality