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In this paper I seek to present a working hypothesis to be eventually developed in a future contribution, namely that the COVID-19 crisis exposed some problematic behaviours evocative of an authoritarian ethos on the part of both public authorities and citizens which suggest that a penal populist attitude might now be part or even embedded in the Romanian legal culture. Specifically, I will organize this contribution as follows: in the first part, I will briefly describe Romania's reaction (as evidenced both in the official measures taken and the attitude of citizens) to the first wave of the pandemic focusing on the role of penal and military means; I shall qualify this reaction as containing some traces of penal populism. In the second part I shall offer a tentative mapping of the factors that can explain this problematic cultural reaction. Importantly, among these I include the successful fight against corruption with the consequence that what appears to have very much consolidated the rule of law in post-1989 Romania could be shown to have had the unintended and paradoxical effect of undermining the very same ideal. ; W niniejszym artykule staram się przedstawić hipotezę roboczą, która zostanie ostatecznie rozwinięta w przyszłym opracowaniu, a mianowicie, że kryzys COVID-19 ujawnił pewne problematyczne zachowania wskazujące na etos autorytarny zarówno po stronie władz publicznych, jak i obywateli, co sugeruje, że postawa populistyczna w dziedzinie prawa karnego może być obecnie częścią lub nawet elementem rumuńskiej kultury prawnej. W pierwszej części krótko opiszę reakcję Rumunii (przejawiającą się zarówno w podjętych oficjalnych środkach, jak i postawie obywateli) na pierwszą falę pandemii, skupiając się na roli środków karnych i wojskowych; zakwalifikuję tę reakcję jako zawierającą pewne ślady populizmu penalnego. W drugiej części zaproponuję wstępną mapę czynników, które mogą wyjaśnić tę problematyczną reakcję kulturową. Co ważne, zaliczam do nich udaną walkę z korupcją, której konsekwencją jest to, że to, co wydaje się bardzo umacniać rządy prawa w Rumunii po 1989 roku, może mieć też niezamierzony i paradoksalny skutek w postaci podważenia tegoż ideału.

In this paper I seek to present a working hypothesis to be eventually developed in a future contribution, namely that the COVID-19 crisis exposed some problematic behaviours evocative of an authoritarian ethos on the part of both public authorities and citizens which suggest that a penal populist attitude might now be part or even embedded in the Romanian legal culture. Specifically, I will organize this contribution as follows: in the first part, I will briefly describe Romania's reaction (as evidenced both in the official measures taken and the attitude of citizens) to the first wave of the pandemic focusing on the role of penal and military means; I shall qualify this reaction as containing some traces of penal populism. In the second part I shall offer a tentative mapping of the factors that can explain this problematic cultural reaction. Importantly, among these I include the successful fight against corruption with the consequence that what appears to have very much consolidated the rule of law in post-1989 Romania could be shown to have had the unintended and paradoxical effect of undermining the very same ideal. ; W niniejszym artykule staram się przedstawić hipotezę roboczą, która zostanie ostatecznie rozwinięta w przyszłym opracowaniu, a mianowicie, że kryzys COVID-19 ujawnił pewne problematyczne zachowania wskazujące na etos autorytarny zarówno po stronie władz publicznych, jak i obywateli, co sugeruje, że postawa populistyczna w dziedzinie prawa karnego może być obecnie częścią lub nawet elementem rumuńskiej kultury prawnej. W pierwszej części krótko opiszę reakcję Rumunii (przejawiającą się zarówno w podjętych oficjalnych środkach, jak i postawie obywateli) na pierwszą falę pandemii, skupiając się na roli środków karnych i wojskowych; zakwalifikuję tę reakcję jako zawierającą pewne ślady populizmu penalnego. W drugiej części zaproponuję wstępną mapę czynników, które mogą wyjaśnić tę problematyczną reakcję kulturową. Co ważne, zaliczam do nich udaną walkę z korupcją, której konsekwencją jest to, że to, co wydaje się bardzo umacniać rządy prawa w Rumunii po 1989 roku, może mieć też niezamierzony i paradoksalny skutek w postaci podważenia tegoż ideału.

This paper comparatively investigates the role of the so-called political question doctrine in contemporary adjudication. Equally hailed and criticized, the doctrine is an indirect discussion on the perennial question of the border between law and politics. Thus, this contribution firstly seeks to illustrate the idiosyncratic context in which the political question doctrine operates and to ascertain the instability of its meaning, as well as its evolving content over time. Second, this paper examines the scholarly debates that surround the existence of a political question doctrine in the practice of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), as well as the (in) desirability of an express articulation of the doctrine by the ECJ. This study is therefore imagined as an implicit comparison: the theoretical insights drawn from several common law jurisdictions inform the approach to EU law, while, in turn, the EU example is employed as a background against which to consider and revisit some of the doctrine's limits and possibly even perils. Without attempting to provide a taxonomy of cases in which "political question" types of arguments may arise before the ECJ, this paper identifies – mostly through doctrinal study –examples of alternative strategies or concepts so far employed by the Court in order to deal with issues generally defined as "political". Finally, this contribution weighs some of the advantages and disadvantages that the adoption of the doctrine would bring in practice, both in light of the Court's position within the institutional system, and of the specific features of the EU's legal construction as a whole.

"Combining insights from comparative legal theory, jurisprudence and legal history, this collection examines the legal and constitutional identity of Central and Eastern Europe. Although the various countries of Central and Eastern Europe have often compared themselves to the West, the failure of these countries to engage with one another has resulted in a whole spectrum of legal identities remaining hidden. This book takes up a comparison of such identities within the region of Central and Eastern Europe, and following from the prima facie similarity between the region's countries, given the experience of communism and legal transfers. The book thereby illuminates, through comparisons, the distinct legal identities of the 16 Central and Eastern European states; whilst, at the same time, arguing for a shared Central and Eastern European legal identity. This book will appeal to scholars and students in the area of comparative law, as well as lawyers, political scientists, sociologists and historians with particular interests in Central and Eastern Europe"--

"Combining insights from comparative legal theory, jurisprudence and legal history, this collection examines the legal and constitutional identity of Central and Eastern Europe. Although the various countries of Central and Eastern Europe have often compared themselves to the West, the failure of these countries to engage with one another has resulted in a whole spectrum of legal identities remaining hidden. This book takes up a comparison of such identities within the region of Central and Eastern Europe, and following from the prima facie similarity between the region's countries, given the experience of communism and legal transfers. The book thereby illuminates, through comparisons, the distinct legal identities of the 16 Central and Eastern European states; whilst, at the same time, arguing for a shared Central and Eastern European legal identity. This book will appeal to scholars and students in the area of comparative law, as well as lawyers, political scientists, sociologists and historians with particular interests in Central and Eastern Europe"--