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Romania Courts
The court system was organized at national,
judet, and
local levels. It operated for a long time under the 1947
Law on the
Organization of the Judiciary, which placed many
professional
judicial functions in the hands of ordinary citizens, who
were
selected and instructed by the PCR. The 1947 law put two
lay judges
alongside one professional jurist on 16,000 local judicial
commissions that heard cases involving labor disputes,
civil
complaints, family law, and minor crimes and violations of
public
order. A judicial reform implemented in 1978 established
panels of
between three and seven "popular" judges, recruited from
the masses
of workers and peasants, to serve as local working
people's
judicial councils for two-year terms. These judges were
appointed
by and responded to local PCR committees or people's
councils, the
UTC, official trade unions, and other PCR-controlled mass
organizations.
Operating in small municipalities, towns, and large
industrial
and agricultural enterprises, working people's judicial
councils
played a significant role in dispensing justice. They
handled up to
50 percent of all court cases. The management of a work
unit
investigated and presented the facts of a case, and a
co-worker
defended the accused. Unlike the larger municipal,
judet,
and military courts over which professional judges
presided,
working people's judicial councils could impose only light
sentences short of prison terms. Nevertheless, whether
filled by a
professional or an ordinary citizen, the judge's bench in
Romania
was subject to virtually irresistible pressure to decide
cases
according to the PCR's political preferences.
Data as of July 1989
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