Referendumul consultativ în probleme de interes naţional. Unele aspecte teoretice de interpretare şi de jurisprudenţă constituţională

Abstract

A referendum is a form of direct democracy. A constitutional system becomes functional first of all due to the indirect, representative democracy, but complementary and subsidiary, the referendum may be used also. The constitutional institution of the referendum is a manifestation of the national sovereignty of the people. This article proposes to present an analysis of the referendum’s institution, especially of the consultative referendum regulated by the article 90 of the Romanian Constitution. After presenting some theoretical issues related to direct democracy, the paper analyzes different aspects related to the consultative referendum in matter of national interest. The analyzed issues are the following: discretion about the referendum of the Romanian President, meaning of the consultancy, will of the nation, meaning of consulting the Parliament, juridical aspects of the presidential decree, and extending the scopes of national interest issues. In conclusion, some already formulated ideas about modifying the existing regulations are presented and further discussion topics and proposals related to the institution of the referendum are proposed.

Keywords

• representative democracy, direct democracy, referendum, consulting the nation, will of people, discretion, constitutional referendum, legislative referendum, national interest issues, effects of the referendum.