Special topic on the Romanian Constitution at 25 in the ICL Journal

The Romanian Constitution turned 25 last year. The Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law (‘ICL Journal’) has published in its last two issues four articles critically examining the Romanian Constitution since its adoption in 1991 until its quarter-century anniversary (see issues 3/2017 and 4/2017).

The Romanian Constitution is probably one of the least researched constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe (‘CEE’). The four articles aim to bring Romanian constitutionalism into the spotlight of comparative constitutional scholars interested in the CEE region. They discuss the topic of civic engagement in Romanian constitutionalism (the article of Paul Blokker, issue 3/2017), the exclusionary nature of the Romanian Constitution, especially with regard to the Hungarian ‘other’ (Silvia Șuteu, issue 3/2017), the evolution of the gender equality guarantees of the Constitution (Elena Brodeală, issue 4/2017), and the relationship of the Romanian Constitutional Court to the branches of government (Bianca Selejan-Guțan, issue 4/2017).*

In line with the focus of our working group, Silvia Șuteu, who coordinated this special topic, explains that the articles “illustrate the interplay between law and politics in the Romanian constitutional environment. Whether it be the constitutional nationalist project behind the constitution’s eternity clause; the participatory turn in constitutional reform and its relationship to constitutional politics; the fraught battle for constitutional recognition of gender equality; or the intense politicization of the Constitutional Court in its early years – all articles emphasize the inevitable overlap between the legal and the political in the evolution of the Romanian Constitution.”

Our working group wishes you a pleasant reading of these timely and original contributions! In case you have difficulties in accessing any of them please let us or our colleague Elena know at: [email protected] or [email protected]

*Silvia Șuteu, Lecturer in Public Law at UCL London, Paul Blokker, Associate Professor in Sociology at Charles University in Prague, and Bianca Selejan-Guțan, Professor of Constitutional Law at “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania are kind supporters of our working group, while Elena Brodeală, is an EUI researcher in Law and one of the ConstPol founding members and coordinators for the academic year 2016/2017.