The law system as a pole of the society - the necessity of criminal law

The most simple definition given to humans by Aristotle is that "humans are social animals", therefore our need to cohabitate with our peers , to organize ourselves in different groups and our need to live in a society. The society is the result of conscious and deliberate behavior of individuals and does not exist anywhere else except in the actions of individuals. This does not mean that individuals have concluded contracts in which their will to live together was the source of the human society ; at first, a more selfish reason determined us to live together and that is self-preservation. By cooperating and by assuring mutual assistance, humans were able to bring benefits not only for them, but for the whole community. In these conditions of cohabitation, feelings of sympathy, friendship and a sense of belonging to the same extended "family" emerged; these all together raise the animal species represented by humans at the height of truly human existence.

Although people have a set of fundamental principles and morals, in order to keep such a complex system -the society- working properly and to provide its inhabitants a peaceful living, a set of rules, laws and regulations needed to be implemented. In the early stages of development, customs, traditions and primitive judicial practices were the ones insuring the well-being of the community and also that punitive measures were taken against those who defied any of the existing conventions. It can be said that the legal system has its origins in those customs and judicial practices, but there were no law branches to correspond to different life domains. The most conspicuous law branches were the civil law and penal (criminal) law, but they seemed to be interwoven because neither of them had a systematized written code. Nowadays, not only that a thorough legal system exists, but there is to be found a code ,a legislation for each branch of law. In Romania, both Civil and Penal Codes were enforced in 1864 and suffered modifications along the years according to the political realities in our country (ex: the collapse of the communist "empire"). After Romania became a member of the European Union, emerged the need of a new Penal Code that would align the Romanian legislation to the European one. The Criminal Code consists of two parts which also correspond to the two divisions of the Criminal Law; the first part is called the General Part of Criminal Law -containing provisions related to criminal law enforcement , legislation relating to crime and criminals, the criminal penalties system and the criteria of application , causes that remove the criminal character of the act- and the second part called the Special Part of Criminal Law containing incriminating provisions which establish the actual content of each offence and the corresponding penalties for those offences . Furthermore, offences are classified by the legal subject which was jeopardized by the infringement, so there are inchoate offences, offences against the person, crimes against property, crimes against justice, defenses to liability. Article 1 of the Criminal Code provides that the purpose of the Criminal Law is to protect against crime key values as sovereignty ,independence, unity, indivisibility of the state, individual rights and freedoms , property and the order of the law. In this context, the purpose of criminal law is to protect society as a whole, its members in particular, against any anti-social acts that fall under criminal liability.

In order to understand the form of today's Criminal Code, it is important to look into the evolution of our nation and state, because the law them. Our ancestors, "geto-dacii" , lived organized in tribes and they were unified under Burebista; he put the bases of a centralized state that offered criminal law the opportunity to develop. The penalties were very harsh so that women who committed adultery were punishable by death. In the geto-dacian criminal law , the private vendetta and the judicial duels were the only known penalties. These forms of private justice indicate either the absence of specialized public authorities in criminal repression or the slow access of the population to those authorities.

After the Roman conquest, within the province of Dacia two legal systems were in force: the Roman law system and the one which belonged to the inhabitants, to the "geto-dacian". Offenses committed by one pilgrim against another pilgrim were punished according to the Geto-Dacian law, within the limits imposed by edict of the governor of the province. Crimes committed by a roman against a pilgrim and as well crimes committed among Roman citizens were punished according to the Roman law. The guilty pilgrim was considered, fictitious, a Roman citizen in order to apply the rule of the Roman law. Provincial governor was the only one who could pronounce the death sentence for serious crimes, but if the perpetrator was a respected dacian citizen ,the death penalty for him could have been pronounced only by the Emperor himself.

1. Istoria Statului si Dreptului Romanesc , Cosmin Dariescu

2. Istoria Statului si Dreptului Romanesc, Ioan Chis

3. Drep penal , Traian Dima