Should Surrogacy Be Legally Regulated in Romania?

Maternity surrogacy aims to provide a child for one or more adults. This consists in the deliberate conception of a child, who is without a family of origin, by manipulating his/her birth and his/her biological mother to satisfy the desire of the beneficiary adults. Therefore, the legitimacy of surrogacy is at least debatable. However, considering the old realities of the current Romanian society, in the present study we proposed by lege ferenda the possible implementation in the legislation of maternity-altruistic surrogate, under certain conditions.

Audiovisual Media Regulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Measures Undertaken by the Romanian Authorities during the State of Emergency

The present study aims to offer a review of measures taken by the Romanian authorities in the field of audiovisual media regulation during the state of emergency instituted in March 2020 following the COVID-19 outbreak. The legal framework has been adjusted, drawing both from extant norms, such as the 2003 Constitution of Romania, and from newly adapted legal norms such as the Presidential Decree declaring the state of emergency. Also, the competent authorities have been invested with additional powers, this being the case of the National Audiovisual Council and the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications. These institutions have faced multiple challenges regarding the clash between freedom of opinion and freedom of speech and the right to correct information of the public and the campaigns to counter misinformation.

Regulation of Work Breaks in Hungary with a European Perspective

The basis for the review of the Hungarian and European rules of the rest break during the working day was the fact that there was a lawsuit to establish the illegitimacy of termination, in which I represented the plaintiff. The reason for the summary dismissal on the part of the employer was that the employee was playing cards while on a rest break during the working day. In his action, the plaintiff sought a declaration that his employer had unlawfully terminated his employment. By the judgment of the Court of First Instance, the action was dismissed, and the plaintiff was ordered to bear the court costs. By the judgment of the Court of Law proceeding by the plaintiff’s appeal, the judgement was reversed, and it ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff severance pay as well as compensation. The defendant presented an application for review, which was not upheld. After completing the matters of fact, the Court of Appeal correctly stated that, at the time of the inspection, the plaintiff availed himself of a rest break during the working day, which was lawful; moreover, it was not disputed by the defendant. The Court of Appeal rightly concluded that the employer may prohibit the employee from playing cards during breaks in the workplace, but this must be communicated unequivocally to him, and this expectation must be consequently carried out. The Court of Appeal also rightly pointed out that in the case of explicit prohibition of some behaviours, employees must also be informed of the legal consequences, which are applicable in case of infringement of the rule. However, in the present case, this was not established, so that the lawsuit ended with the full recovery of a favourable judgment of the employee plaintiff at the Supreme Court of Justice.

Remarks on the Contractual and Delictual Issues of Slaves in the Lex Baiuvariorum

This paper intends to analyse those provisions of the Lex Baiuvariorum that regulate the position of persons in non-free status, i.e. slaves (servi, mancipia, and ancillae). In the course of our endeavour, we make efforts to find an answer to the question as to what extent the significant ecclesiastical impact, far exceeding the effect of the rest of German folk laws, becomes evident in Lex Baiuvariorum: to what extent acknowledgement of the human quality of slaves appears in the code. Not incidentally, at the end of the paper, we try to answer the question whether the meaning of the phrases mancipium, servus, and ancilla – which are usually translated by the words servant and maidservant – can be conveyed in theory by translating them by the word slave, or they require any other, more differentiated term to reveal the legal content of these phrases.

Working Time and Work-Life Balance in Romania during the Pandemic Issues and Evolutions

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic did not leave the world of work untouched. In the new circumstances, challenges and tasks that had previously been widely debated came to the fore. Among these, we can list the issues of working time and rest time, and consequently the work–life balance or sometimes imbalance of the employees. As a result of the pandemic, some processes that have been observed in labour law for a long time have been accelerated. In our opinion, the particularity of the current situation is based on the considerable size of digitalization, the use of new technologies in work, and the widespread use of atypical labour relations, which had a major impact on the solutions that were chosen to countervail the effects of the pandemic.

Status Report on the Regulation of Insolvency Law at an EU Level and Its Trends of Transformation and Development

In the last almost one decade, a number of initiatives were launched in the European Union to reinforce the development of treating cross-border insolvency cases in a unified manner and to strengthen cooperation in the field. The primary aim of this study is to review the results of legislation in the field of insolvency law and to provide an analytical assessment of the level of cooperation based on the legal sources in force. Beyond a critical appraisal, the author intends in this status report to foreshadow a comprehensive picture of the anticipated trends for development too.

State Immunity in Relation to Damage Caused by Legislation

Whenever we mention damage caused by legislation, the question arises if it is possible to talk about the liability of what defines the rules of liability. Is the civil court competent in deciding in these cases at all? It is doubtless that the concept of damage caused by legislation is on the threshold between public and private law, and immunity decides whether it is one or the other. More and more articles are written on the topic of damage caused by legislation, and their approaches to the root of the problem are all different. In this study, by analysing the issues of immunity with regard to damage caused by legislation, I try to reveal the past and present of regulations, and in this way the damage caused by legislation can be separated from the state’s functional immunity.

Autonomous and Automated Vehicles in Germany and Hungary, with Special Attention to the Question of Civil Liability

The most frequent questions associated with autonomous vehicles both in the world press and in legal literature are those that look for the answer as to who is responsible for the accidents caused by these machines. However, only a few such questions deal with the issue that all factums apply different definitions, and the terminology is the basis of applying the particular factum. So, among others, answering the question is inevitable as to whether the autonomous or automated vehicle can be considered a ‘vehicle’, or the human sitting in the car can be considered the ‘driver’. If we decide not to consider the autonomous vehicle to be a vehicle, and – ad absurdum – we create an independent, sui generis category of vehicles, then the legal factums regarding the definition of the vehicle will not be applicable to the factum concerning the history of autonomous vehicles; however, their applicability will surely be questioned. With regard to this, I focus in my study on how the German Road Traffic Act (Straßenverkehrsgesetz) accommodates more advanced automated vehicles, and after this I compare the Hungarian and German rules that are relevant in terms of civil liability if we study the vehicles in question.

International Investment Arbitration in the European Union

The author analyses the regulation of institutional arbitration under investor–state dispute settlement mechanisms, with an emphasis on such arrangements to which the European Union is a party. The functioning of the EU’s Investment Court System is presented in detail as a major reform to the status quo, along with some questions raised when qualifying this system as a means of arbitration, especially for the purposes of recognition and enforcement of decisions rendered, both in jurisdictions party to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union and third countries. The latter problem is identified as a significant aspect of international investment arbitration.

Mongolian Investment Regulation and Arbitration

The author of the study presents the Mongolian legal environment regulating foreign direct investment. The evolution of the rules governing this field is presented in a chronological order from the democratization of Mongolia in the early 1990s to the present day. The author remarks the changes in the rules over time, which show an evolution towards a more level playing field between foreign investors, who were initially in a privileged position when compared to domestic investors. Other changes concern the authorization requirements for foreign investments, which evolved in order to hinder the activity of foreign state-owned enterprises in Mongolia and also to safeguard Mongolian mineral wealth. Investor protection mechanisms are emphasized, such as state commitments to not modifying the taxation environment. The study analyses international arbitration case-law pertaining to foreign investment protection in Mongolia.