Institutional Uncertainties of the Rule of Law – The Public Prosecutor’s Office Between the Executive and the Judiciary

Abstract

The Romanian society, the state, the administration and the judiciary are facing several essential challenges of the contemporary world, and these challenges have to be addressed as soon as possible. The position and the role of the Public Prosecutor’s Office within the rule of law should be clarified since it is a well known fact that the judiciary and public administration systems are not yet capable to manage the changes necessary for the integration in the European juridical space. With the advancement of the Romanian public administration reform, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the public administration have become the two main actors involved in the struggle against corruption. Corruption is considered to be an important factor underlying the inability of the public administration and the judiciary systems to act and to meet the citizen’s needs. The Romanian citizen has been facing the burden of corruption and bureaucracy, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office is one of the institutions called upon not to eradicate this phenomenon, but to prevent it and to keep it under control. Within the current framework, when the political and legal debate raises issues regarding a new review of the Romanian Constitution, one of the questions raised is whether the Public Prosecutor’s Office is a public authority belonging to the executive or to the judiciary. The following paper studies the place of the Public Prosecutor’s Office within the legal systems and consequently will indentify and determine its place and role at the intersection between the executive and the judiciary.