THE CRIMINAL SAFEGUARD OF VULNERABLE PERSONS.

THE NEW CONCEPTION

OF THE ROMANIAN CRIMINAL LEGISLATOR

Rodica PANAINTE[1]

Abstract

This article represents an analysis of a new incrimination in the Romanian criminal law, namely that of the offense of patrimonial exploitation of a vulnerable person, stated in the provisions of Article 247 of the new Romanian Criminal Code. The brief history of criminalization shows however that this is not an ex novo incrimination, as the Romanian criminal legislation stated the incrimination of similar acts in the criminal codes of the period prior to the Communist regime, by most often taking over texts from foreign, European criminal legislations.

We have argued in this article that the current regulation was done under the inspiration of foreign regulations, and on this occasion we have made a European comparative law approach, showing the manner and form in which some of the European legislations incriminate the acts of patrimonial exploitation of a person, and that these incriminations generally aim to protect the vulnerable persons against patrimonial exploitation.

We have also analyzed the sense in which the Romanian criminal legislator has used the phrases patrimonial exploitation of a person as well as that of person in a state of obvious vulnerability, as clarifying the meaning of these phrases helps to delimit the scope of incidence and application of the new legal text.

Finally, we have shown the need and importance of this new incrimination, given the current social and economic context in Romania, which required the safeguarding of the categories of vulnerable persons against this form of exploitation, but we have expressed our reservations about the manner and extent to which criminal law will be able to manifest its preventive role in the case of these new offenses.

Keywords: criminal law, new Criminal Code, patrimonial exploitation, vulnerable person, criminal safeguard.

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[1] Rodica Panainte, PhD., is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law within “Mihail Kogalniceanu” University of Iaşi, Romania, and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Law within “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi.

This work was supported by the strategic grant POSDRU/159/1.5/S/141699, Project ID 141699, co-financed by the European Social Fund within the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development 2007-2013.