Tradition and Reform Social Reconstruction of Europe

International Scientific Conference

Tradition and Reform Social Reconstruction of Europe

November 7-8, 2013 - Bucharest (Romania)

Editors

Antonio SanduAna Caras

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Index

Tradition and Reform - Social Reconstruction of Europe Sandu A., Anitei N., Pricopie V., Caras A. ...................................................................................................... 1

Aspects Regarding the Role of Moral and Social Values and Attitudes in Building Community Identity Alexandrache C.................................................................................................................................................. 3

The Image of the Cartoon Character in the European Area Title Alexandru P. ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

What is the “National Law” according to the Provisions of the Romanian Civil Code? Aniţei N.C. ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

Consensual Union in Romania – on the Transition of Social Mentalities and Legal Postmodernism Apostu I............................................................................................................................................................... 17

Aspects of Meta-Reference and of Aesthetic Illusion in Film-Art Arhip O. ............................................................................................................................................................... 21

Constitutional Challenges of EU Accession: the Case of Macedonia Azizi A.................................................................................................................................................................. 27

Reengineering in Romanian Media Organizations Badea M. ............................................................................................................................................................. 31

Gender Equality in Europe. Comparative Approach Bădălău A.G., Neacșu C.R................................................................................................................................ 35

Perceptions of Executive Payment Abuse in Romanian Public Institutions Bădălău A.G., Neacșu D.................................................................................................................................... 39

Observations on Books of Testimony in Wallachia Bădescu L.E. ...................................................................................................................................................... 43

Underpinning Assumptions of Social Balance. The Principle of Non-Discrimination as a Guarantee of Social Rights Berna B. .............................................................................................................................................................. 47

The Social Construction and Re-Construction of EU`s Foreign Policy. A Critical Discourse Analysis Berna I.B. ............................................................................................................................................................ 51

Social Re-Construction and Post-National Constellation – The Formative Period of the European Project Berna I.B. ............................................................................................................................................................ 55

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Romania’s Network of Strategic Partnerships. A Case for Methodological Nationalism Berna I.B. ............................................................................................................................................................ 59

The Documentary Basis of the INQUISITION TRIBUNAL in Medieval Europe Bezus S. .............................................................................................................................................................. 63

The Peculiarities of Date Setting in Medieval Europe (by the Example of Business Letters in Ancient Spanish) Bezus S. .............................................................................................................................................................. 67

Community Structures - Expression of the Transylvanian Saxon Identity Borcoman M. ...................................................................................................................................................... 71

The Environmental and Social Development of Human Settlements near the Danube Buhociu D.H., Florescu T.C., Crăciun C., Popa A. ........................................................................................ 75

Autonomy - Social and Ethical References Caras A................................................................................................................................................................ 79

Administrative Divorce. The Divorce Certificate - a Legislative Omission. Analysis and de Lege Ferenda Proposal Cetean-Voiculescu L. ........................................................................................................................................ 85

Elements of Legal Orders Ciongaru E.......................................................................................................................................................... 89

Considerations Regarding the Amendment to the Civil Code Ciucă L.B............................................................................................................................................................. 93

Europe of Knowledge. Common Places of Thought Ciulei T. ............................................................................................................................................................... 97

The Principle of Proportionality Applied in Case of Freedom of Expression Restraint in the Jurisprudence of the European Convention on Human Rights Coca G................................................................................................................................................................. 101

Cultural Territoriality in the Age of Globalization Cojanu D. ............................................................................................................................................................ 105

European Reconstruction by National Identity’s Conservation (Sociocultural Reflections) Cojocaru M.C...................................................................................................................................................... 109

Innovation Solutions for a Sustainable Competitiveness Recovery of the Romanian Enterprises on the International Markets Constantinescu L.M. ......................................................................................................................................... 113

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An Assessment of the Romanian Social Policy Supporting the Integration of the Discriminated Groups in the Social Community Constantinescu L.M., Dumitru F., Tănăsescu D............................................................................................ 117

Considerations Regarding the Ethno-Cultural Identity of the Aromanians in Dobrogea Cozaru G.C., Papari A.C., Sandu M.L.............................................................................................................. 121

Collateral Consequences of Imprisonment on Offenders’ Lives. A Focus on Inmates’ Relationships with their Families Damboeanu C..................................................................................................................................................... 125

Online News Production: Usability of Multimedia Content Drulă G. ............................................................................................................................................................... 129

Dishonest Testimony - Assessment and Prevention Dutu A. ................................................................................................................................................................ 135

Ethnic and Confessional Metamorphoses in Habsburg Transylvania Floroaia M. .......................................................................................................................................................... 139

Tradition and Reform in the Romanian Inheritance Law, within the European Context Gelei I................................................................................................................................................................... 143

A Few Critical Considerations Regarding Legacy by Universal Title Genoiu I............................................................................................................................................................... 147

Personal Bankruptcy in Romania versus Other Countries in Europe Ginghină A.......................................................................................................................................................... 151

Community Legislation Referring to the Maintenance of Workers’ Rights in Case of Transfer of Business or Business Parts Godeanu T.N. ..................................................................................................................................................... 155

The Development of the Speed Indicators with the Help of Athletics Means (7th Form) Grigoraş-Popa C.I. ............................................................................................................................................. 159

Employer’s Obligation to Inform Hurbean A........................................................................................................................................................... 163

Christian Religion - A Pillar for European Stability Ignat A. ................................................................................................................................................................ 167

Cohesion or Disparities across the EU under the Global Crisis’ Impact Ionescu R.V. ....................................................................................................................................................... 171

Mediation in Romania. Facts and Fiction Ionescu-Tănăsescu B.L. ................................................................................................................................... 175

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Parental and Societal Endorsement as a Factor in Alcohol Consumption by Adolescents and Youth Jackson B.L........................................................................................................................................................ 179

Predicting Adolescent Cannabis Use Persistence into Adulthood Jackson B.L........................................................................................................................................................ 183

Teachers' Attitude towards the Curriculum Reform in Romania Jeder D. ............................................................................................................................................................... 187

Errors in the Use of Persuasion Tools in the Educational Activities Jeder D. ............................................................................................................................................................... 191

Fostering a Greater Sense of European Identity through Tourism Jucan M.S., Jucan C.N. ..................................................................................................................................... 195

The Injury Brought to the Bodily Integrity or Health – the Damage of the Indirect Victims Jugastru C. ......................................................................................................................................................... 201

Training of Students to Preparation of Electronic Tutorials on the Basis of New Educational Programs Khalikova K. ....................................................................................................................................................... 205

E-portfolio as a Mean of Students' Achievements Assessment in the Training of Future Teachers in the Field of Informatics Khalikova K. ....................................................................................................................................................... 209

Graphic Transformations into a Modern Megapolis Architectural Environment (Almaty City) Khalykov K., Maulenova G., Berdigulova A................................................................................................... 213

Traditional Culture and Up-to Dateness SPACE INTERACTION: Artistic and Cultural Processes in Kazakhstan Khalykov K., Karzhaubajeva K. ....................................................................................................................... 217

Visualization of Religious Values by Means of Cinema Khalykov K., Sakhamanov A............................................................................................................................ 221

Facets of Societal Security in Romania after Six Years from Romania’s EU Integration Lungu E............................................................................................................................................................... 225

The 19th Century Political Conflict between Europe and The United States in the New World as it is Depicted in Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo Lupu M.S. ............................................................................................................................................................ 229

The New Institution of Indignity in Romanian Inheritance Law Macovei C., Dobrilă M.C.................................................................................................................................... 233

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Being a Girl is Something Learned: A Comparative Analysis of Gender Stereotypes in Romanian and French Preschool Girls Manea C.N........................................................................................................................................................... 237

Democracy and Globalization Mareş P. .............................................................................................................................................................. 241

Moral Dilemmas of Managing and Rationalizing the Relationship between Man and Nature Maxim S.T. .......................................................................................................................................................... 245

The Impact of Migration on the Local Labour Market Mihail R. .............................................................................................................................................................. 249

Does European Union Matter? A Content Analysis on Spanish, Polish and Romanian TV Representations of EU Milewski N........................................................................................................................................................... 253

The Analysis of Internal Auditors’ Expertise in Accounting Field in the Perspective of EU Vision 2020 Mitea N. ............................................................................................................................................................... 257

The Connection between some Concepts from the Scholar Documents Nagy R. ................................................................................................................................................................ 261

The Problem of Investigation of Musical as an Independent Theatrical Form Nurtazin Y. .......................................................................................................................................................... 265

Media Representations of Romanian Identity: Re-Defining the Romanian 'Other' within the European Cultural Space Pătrașcu C. ......................................................................................................................................................... 269

The Evolution in Law and Jurisprudence of Ways to Defend the Rights Arising from Artificial Accession Pîrvu A., Duminică R. ........................................................................................................................................ 273

European Policy Challenges in the Productive Landscape Economy Popa A., Hărmănescu M. .................................................................................................................................. 277

Unforeseeability according to the Regulations of the Romanian Civil Code. Conditions and Legal Effects Postolache R. ..................................................................................................................................................... 281

Methodology of Motor Learning Based on Transfer Technology in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Potop V................................................................................................................................................................ 285

Exploring a New Challenge: “European Journalism” Pricopie V............................................................................................................................................................ 289

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The European Idea in Romania: Discursive Traditions Pricopie V............................................................................................................................................................ 293

Cuvântul Liber Magazine: Active Actor in Emerging Europeanism in Interwar Romania Rosca L. .............................................................................................................................................................. 299

Prevention of Exposure to Asbestos. Effects on Workers Safety and Health Rusu-Zagar C., Rusu-Zagar G., Iorga A., Iorga O.......................................................................................... 305

Safety and Health at the Educational Institutions Level. European Strategy on Health and Safety at Work (OHS) Rusu-Zagar C., Rusu-Zagar G., Iorga I., Ionescu C....................................................................................... 311

Safety and Health at Work – European and National Legislation Rusu-Zagar C., Rusu-Zagar G., Zagar L., Ionescu C. ................................................................................... 315

Management within Organizations Rusu-Zagar G., Rusu-Zagar C., Ionescu C., Mocanu M. .............................................................................. 319

The Evolution of the Managerial Requirements in a Permanent Changing Society Rusu-Zagar G., Rusu-Zagar C., Ionescu C., Mocanu M. .............................................................................. 323

Human Resource Management - Key to Success for an Organization Rusu-Zagar G., Rusu-Zagar C., Anghel S.O., Mocanu M. ............................................................................ 327

Europe in Virtual Reality of Computer Games Samoylova E., Shaev Y. .................................................................................................................................... 331

Kantian ethics vs. Utilitarian and Consequentialist Ethics in the Kidney Transplant Sandu A............................................................................................................................................................... 335

Instances of Social Construction of Chronic Patients’ Autonomy Sandu A............................................................................................................................................................... 341

Virtual Philosophical Cafe as Appreciative Philosophical Practice Sandu A............................................................................................................................................................... 345

Modern Information Technologies and Identity Shaev Y. .............................................................................................................................................................. 349

The Economic Security Trends in Republic of Moldova during its Engagement into the European Neighbourhood Policy Soimu O. ............................................................................................................................................................. 353

The Road to Europe: Changing the Street Names in Nineteenth Century Bucharest Stahl I................................................................................................................................................................... 357

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A Reflection on Women’s Vulnerability through Toxic Organizations Stăiculescu A.R., Stan A................................................................................................................................... 363

Constitution and Legitimacy Tăvală E............................................................................................................................................................... 367

A Utilitarian Approach to Ethics Audit Terec-Vlad L., Terec-Vlad D.............................................................................................................................. 371

Crimes and Offences Regarding Genetic Manipulation Tudurachi E. ....................................................................................................................................................... 375

Freedom of Labour and Limiting Overlapping Functions in Romania Ţop D., Pădure Petrişor L.A., Ţuţuianu A. ...................................................................................................... 379

Time Banks in Russia: Filling an Empty Gap in Time Bank Research Valek L................................................................................................................................................................. 383

The Forms of Domestic Violence Vlădilă L.M. ......................................................................................................................................................... 387

Political Responsibility of Political Function Holders in the Republic of Macedonia Zendeli F., Elezi Z............................................................................................................................................... 391

Subjective and Objective Perception of Justice in Romania Gavriluță C. ......................................................................................................................................................... 395

Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow via Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory Mihăilescu C. ...................................................................................................................................................... 399

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Tradition and Reform, Social Reconstruction of Europe (7-8 November 2013,Bucharest, Romania)

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Tradition and Reform - Social Reconstruction of Europe

Sandu A.1, Anitei N.2, Pricopie V.3, Caras A.4 1 Associate Professor PhD. Mihail Kogălniceanu University of Iasi; Lumen Research Centre in Social and Humanistic Sciences (ROMANIA) 2 Professor Assistant Faculty of Legal, Social and Political Sciences, “Dunărea de Jos” University, Galaţi (ROMANIA) 3 Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy and Valahia University of Târgoviște (ROMANIA) 4 Research assistant at Lumen Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences, Iasi; PhD Candidate at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Political Sciences (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract International Scientific Conference Tradition and Reform, Second Edition, focused in 2013 on a

European actuality central theme: Social Reconstruction of Europe. The conference aimed bringing together studies and research in various fields of social sciences and humanities, through a rigorous methodology and innovative integrated answer to the question What is Europe?

This is a current problem with identity implications that will be interrogated further tradition of social research of European basic in accordance with the new European policies on the future of Europe.

In conclusion the unity and also originality of the Conference resulted from the conjunction of two elements: on the one hand, it will be given a special attention to issues that involve the study of classical legal science, on the other hand, will be introduced with relevant arguments the modern European and international perspective on the topic.

Brief Introduction into Volume The Conference encouraged original approaches, by transdisciplinary themes of social construction and

reconstruction of Europe. The volume includes some important contributions of developing the social sciences, humanities and law fields.

We followed to develop interest topics on traditions of social sciences, sociology, communication media studies, education studies and European policies and economic challenges. The social sciences debates were enhanced by specific works in the social ethics and politics domains.

In the domain of law, this edition of the Conference, brought together researchers concerned with classical aspects of law, the internally legislative reforms, European and international, but also of modern legislation trends to unify legal standards in different branches of legal sciences.

Analytics We are pleased to share with you the results of the 2nd edition of Tradition and Reform Conference

2013: there were 172 registered persons, with geographically representativeness in Europe, Asia and America, of which 135 were participants with oral, poster, virtual presentation; 140 scientific papers were submitted, from which 111 were accepted for oral and virtual presentation or for poster (72 oral and virtual presentations and 39 poster presentations). There were accepted for 94 papers for publication.

This conference has a wide geographical representation of the amount of participants enrolled, being subscribers from 10 countries, Albania, Czech Republic, Iran, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Spain, Thailand and United States of America (Pennsylvania)

The statistical representation of the participants shows that 21.99 % participants were enrolled from outside Romania and 78.01 % participants enrolled from Romania.

The rate of acceptance for publication, of the total of 140 works submitted, was 67,14 %, while 32,86 % being rejected or withdrawn from publication.


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As it follows, there is exposed a graphical representation of the geographical representativeness of the registered participants.

Great collaboration Lumen Association expresses its sincere appreciation to all its authors and collaborators. We express

special thanks to the scientific event co-organizer and main partner: Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy, Social Europe Research Laboratory, and to the partial sponsor of this event: Ministry of National Education of Romania.

We also bring special thanks to the Institute of Sociology and Institute for World Economy of Romanian Academy, who offered us great conference rooms and hosted us and our participants on the Conference’ days.

The event enjoyed by an extraordinary cooperation with MEDIMOND Monduzzi Editore International Proceedings Division and our partners Encyclopedic Studies Institute, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Higher Education Research and Consulting Company – SUA, Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Valahia University of Târgovişte, Ecological University of Bucharest, Mihail Kogălniceanu University from Iaşi.


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Aspects Regarding the Role of Moral and Social Values and Attitudes in Building Community Identity

Alexandrache C.1 1 Teacher Training Department,”Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The ethnic identity formation is related to the moral, social and cultural conditions of the community. In

the case of the pre-modern Romanian society, this is demonstrated by the activity lead by the monasteries. For the Romanians, the monastery was perceived as a place where one can find the salvation of one’s soul and also it was seen as an investment that has allowed those that were having properties and any other kinds of goods to keep them, even if the economic times were not so good. The monastery was still keeping the Christian- Orthodox Tradition by means of its activity directed towards the community and men, and was helping progress and the infiltration of modern European cultural ideas.

This paper presents the monasteries as a social and economic indicator. It aims at proving whether the monastery was establishing the social ranks, and if while allowing the expression of the religious beliefs, it also permitted the tightening of the relationships existent between people. So, the forgiveness of the sins must be correlated with the preoccupation regarding the obtaining of social „honour”.

From the research made upon historical sources, it has resulted that the monasteries were also used as an accelerating element for the social relationship and as a means to practice the intra and inter-communitarian relationships. In fact, these holly places were helping to solve individual problems, to support the governing ideology and they were also ensuring the need for social assistance, for cultural development.

Keywords: Ideology, culture, society, mentality, Orthodoxy, foreign travellers.

Introduction In the writings of the XVIIth century, the monasteries, churches and hermitages were presented either in

the contexts regarding the spiritual and the cultural life, or when talking about the lord’s politics. The large amount of information regarding the existence of places of worship does not necessarily prove a profound and spreaded religious belief because they were also used as landmarks, funeral places or sanctuaries, as a proof of its founders good will or as an accelerating factor for the economy. Therefore, the research upon them must be done also from the perspective of the collective mentality, especially because they were pinpointing towards the cultural quiddity that they have generated and also towards the Romanian’s society’s general view on life.

Our direction of investigation is becoming more and more obvious among the preoccupations of the present day historiography and our approach helps the understanding of the religious phenomenon from the opened perspective towards modernity. We are trying to emphasize that even though a monastery is still keeping the Christian- Orthodox Tradition, by means of its activity directed towards the community and men, it has also helped progress and the infiltration of modern European cultural ideas.

Our documentation consists of internal chronicles, the papers and documents attesting the founding of new places of worship, the gifts that were given to these holly places, and also the writings of the foreign travellers which spoke in general of the solidity and of the great number of such buildings, of the places where they were being built and how their surroundings were looking.

From these sources, we have observed some aspects which highlight the fact that the Romanian monasteries have had not only a religious function, but also a social and an ideological- cultural one.

1 “Humanism” and the monasteries’ historicity The Romanian monarchism has manifested especially at the missionary level, by calling people to pray,

to believe in God’s help, and by offering its assistance in making people believe in God by teaching them how


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they could save their souls and body. In order to fulfil their mission, the monasteries were sheltering holly relics and miraculous icons, were dedicated to saints and were honouring the holly fathers that “were being worshiped for their faith and their Philokalic spirituality” [1]. The monastery was helping to solve individual problems, to support the governing ideology [2] and it was also ensuring the need for social assistance and for cultural development [3]. Maybe this is the explanation for Paul de Alep’s “observation”: “each one of them has close to his home a monastery that is well gifted and all the boyars are racing each other so as to build a more beautiful and a more adorned monastery. Their pride is at stake. When one of them retires, he goes to live in his village, in his palaces which are close to his monastery” [4].

Imitating the Byzantine emperors, the Romanian lords (and later on, the representatives of even other social classes) have become founders of religious sanctuaries, both because they had a Christian responsibility and because of the fact that they were gaining the right called dominium eminens, the right to also become their protector. Also, raising new holly places where saints were being worshiped, the reinforcement of the walls of these holly buildings, etc. might have been interpreted as gestures against the pagans [5]. The reading of the charter in the pulpit with the occasion of the consecration of a holly place, represented not only “a custom meant to be of help for the monastery and for the souls present there” [6], but also an occasion to limit and to also reaffirm the role played by that monastery in the lord’s politics. Therefore, when explaining the spiritual- ideological dimension of the monastery and of Church in general, we must analyze the relationship between the lord and the servants of the church also known as “the ones who pray for us”, a name that pinpoints directly to their role as a mediator with God.

The monastery was also a manifestation of the goodwill of the rich people directed towards the community, and implicitly, of the proof that the present is better than the past. So, the founders helped the “needed” monasteries to be rebuilt, reinforced and to have whatever was needed in order to continue their activity. The destiny and the greatness of the foundation was equal to that of its founder (the lord, especially) that was being buried there. In this way, the founder was hoping that he will receive forgiveness from God and that he will gain social immortality. The burial of all the members of a family in the same monastery would have consolidated the “power” of the family over that holly place and over the collective memory. These gestures were contributing to defend the true belief in God and to increase and enrich the Orthodox spirituality [7].

2 Development and social dialogue by means of cultural deeds The monasteries were so called “cultural and scholar centres” because reading and understanding of cult

books was a necessity for the monks. In the biggest monasteries, there were rooms specially created (scriptorium) for copying and binding books. The monks were translating the texts from Slavonic or Greek, “they were struggling to decipher from the old Slavonic manuscripts, all that their souls, troubled with the need for redemption, were trying to find out: the Apocalypse, the martyrs, the ascetics” [8]. There were also made some cultic objects and garments with a remarkable artistic value, but the manuscripts and the printed books have significantly contributed to the spreading and to the consolidation of the Christian faith.

Being tied to the way in which the Christian Orthodox cult was developing, the monasteries have become the brand of this religion, proven by the artistic elements that define them. The special appearance of the Romanian churches which were settled close to the Muslim world could not have passed unnoticed in those times. They were announcing the travellers that they were entering a Christian country.

3 In the service of economy and politics The monasteries were also used as an accelerating element for the social relationships and as a means to

practice the intra and inter-communitarian relationships. Functioning similarly to a feudal domain, the monasteries were administrating their proprieties which they struggled to keep and to enrich and they used to ask for their rights at the lord’s Court, etc. Being autonomous from financial point of view, the monasteries were having patrimonies which they used to administrate, a fact that has allowed them to also organize cultural and social activities. The documents indicate an exaggerated preoccupation for such activities. Monasteries where too much involved into the expansion of their possessions, they were buying the lands that were in close proximity by putting pressure on the owners to sell and by taking abusive charge of the lands. All of these were being reporter to justice by those that fell victim to their pressures. For a historian, these actions show details regarding the life and the problems of the community, its socio-economic transformations; they talk about the phenomenon known as the breaking of communities (“obști sătești”) [9]. The same situation was present even in the following century when some linguistic expressions appeared to describe this exact issue.

We cannot confirm that monasteries were taking advantage of the economic situation when they starting buying properties that were being sold by their owner because “they were in need and they were starving” or when they offered loans only after they were offered guarantees under the form of buildings and lands. What is certain is the fact that monasteries have tried to become stronger from the economic point of view, a thing that is


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normal if we are to reiterate the fact that a rich church is an active one and capable to overcome bad times. There were a few situations when the monks, interested in increasing the monastery’s possessions [10], have bought at smaller prices some properties that were not taken care of and that were not offering a good economic perspective.

For the Christians, the church was perceived as a place where one can find the salvation of one’s soul and also it was seen as an investment that has allowed those that were having properties and any other kinds of goods to keep them, even if the economic times were not so good. This is the explanation that we might find if we are to interpret the reason for which, when in “bad times”, the lords and the boyars were retreating with their families in the monasteries built by them.

Sometimes, while getting involved in economic relationships, the churches and monasteries themselves were becoming the transaction object. For the churches which did not convert into monasteries and which did not gain the respect of the community, their destiny was tied to that of the lands on which they were built and with whom they were being sold (with all their “gifts”, the priest and the holly objects). Improved and with proper buildings, these properties have re-entered in the economic circuit, the monastery thus becoming an accelerating factor for economy. In order to ease up the life of the monks, it was encouraged that the labour to be done by servants. Even if it was considered to be an inappropriate custom with the Christian beliefs, this practice was not seen as abusive due to the small number of monks that was not enough to work the domain, to the permanent pray time, and to the fact that the neglecting of the sermon was considered to be intolerable from the political and social point of view. In many documents it is stated that to become a slave for the church it is considered to be a salvation and not an injustice.

4 The development of society by means of church’s help In order to strengthen the social role played by the monastery, the lord’s politics has encouraged to

build inside monasteries or near them, some settlements with a philanthropic destination, to serve the community. They were being administered by the monasteries that were capable to ensure their functionality, longevity and the keeping of the moral values and attitudes. The infirmaries (“bolnițe”) and the wells were just some other social settlements mentioned in the papers and documents, which were meant for the healing of the body, for the finding and sheltering of the poor and sick people. The infirmaries were created for the help of the sick and old people, even though even nowadays their specific activities remain questionable. Some think that they were a “specific Romanian hospital” [11], an institution that gave medical assistance to the clergymen and to the laymen. Others said about them that they were an annex of the monastery destined for the seclusion and carrying of the old and sick monks, and that it had its own church where all the monks were being buried [12]. It is certain that here there were taken care of, using empirical methods, not only the monks, but also the founders and the benefactors of the religious sanctuary or those that got sick while staying at the monastery. In 1602, Atanasie Crimca raised together with the Lupu and his brother, Simion Stroici, a little church which became later on an infirmary for Dragomirna Monastery, his foundation [13]. The same did Lady Anuța, the daughter of lord Mircea Ciobanu who built The Wooden Infirmary from “Dintr-un lemn” Monastery; Lady Marica built the infirmary that was under the protection of the Virgin Mary, “The Sleep of the Virgin Mary” [14].

The monastery, as a feudal owner, was present when talking about the problems regarding the regulation of the social reports, a reason to reconfirm the privileges linked to the administration of the situation of the subdued peasant and slaves, so contributing to the reestablishment and the maintaining of the social order. There were even found documents where the gesture of buying slaves by monasteries was perceived as a philanthropic one: saving some delinquents from death as long as they were accepting to become slaves. Under the Byzantine influence, the monachal space was also a place for the social exclusion of some (political) undesirable people, but also a space of salvation for the people guilty of treason.

In the case of the social elite, to live in a monastery was not correlated with the idea that only poor people were living there and were accepting to become monks, but that this implied to be dead to the world. For the boyars, embracing such a lifestyle was not perceived neither as a rupture from the rest of the world, nor a carrying-off from the patrimonial issues; instead, this was considered to be a means to get social promotion. The behaviour of the feminine social elite that was embracing the church life was not implying that they were giving up at motherhood [15].

Conclusion and discussion The monasteries were always a social and economic indicator: it was establishing the social ranks; it

allowed the expression of the religious beliefs, and also the tightening of human relationships. So, the forgiveness of the sins must be correlated with the preoccupation regarding the obtaining of the social „honour”. Therefore, we think that for the salvation of one’s soul, there is even another solution along the Christian one:


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the salvation of one’s soul could be gained by doing a material gesture (in the West these were the so called „trade of indulgence”).

There was a certain clear conception about the place and the role of these religious places in the society’s life where progress was also sustained by the Church: the Romanian Orthodox Traditionalism was not against progress because it was perceived as a series of facts done for the good of the community.

Thus, the Church was not against what was new, what was coming as an influence from the other European countries, as long as they were not against the religious customs and convictions. For now, the openness towards modernity led to the improvement of man’s life and not to his separation from Church.

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din istoria şi spiritualitatea românească. Trinitas, Iași. [2] Vicovan, I. (2002). Istoria Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, vol. II. Trinitas, Iași. [3] Cronț, G. (1960). Dreptul de ctitorie în Țara Românească și Moldova. Constituirea și natura

juridică a fundațiilor din Evul Mediu. SMIM (IV), pp. 78-113. [4] Holban, M. (et all). (1976). Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. VI, Bucureşti, p. 149-150. [5] Mazilu, D.H. (2003). Voievodul dincolo de sala tronului. Scene din viaţa privată. Polirom, Iaşi, p.

93. [6] Popescu, R. (1963). Istoria domnilor Țării Românești, Academia, București, p.175. [7] Radu, D. (1986). Învăţătura despre Biserică. Îndrumări Misionare. I.B.M.B.O,R, București, p.

405. [8] Cartojan, N. (1974). Cărțile populare în literatura românească. Enciclopedică, București, p. 222. [9] Trâmbaciu,S. (1999). Relațile dintre orășeni și Mănăstirea Câmpulung în a doua jumătate a

secolului al XVII-lea. SAI. Serie Nouă (LXIV). București, pp.146-151. [10] Ciurea, D. (1969). Precizări în problema evoluției marii proprietăți feudale în Moldova în

secolele XVII-XVIII. Studii. Revista de Istorie (1), pp. 3-19. [11] Samarian, P. G. (1938). Medicina și farmacia în trecutul românesc, vol III, București, p. 116-

117. [12] Brătescu, G. (1969). De la bolnița mănăstirească la spitalul civil. Mitropolia Olteniei (9-10). [13] Gonța, Al. I. (1998). Mitropolitul Atanasie Crimca, fondatorul celui dintâi spital din Moldova.

Studii de istorie medievală. Iași, p. 260. [14] Cronț, Gh (1975). Justiția bisericească în Moldova și Țara Românească în secolele XIV-XVIII.

Mitropolia Moldovei și Sucevei (3-4). [15] Iorga, N. (1925). Mănăstirea Neamțului. Viață călugărească și munca pentru cultură, ed III,

Tipografia Monastirii Neamțu, p. III –IV.


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The Image of the Cartoon Character in the European Area Title

Alexandru P.1 1 Valahia University of Târgoviște, Faculty of Political Sciences, Letters and Communication (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This paper analyzes the specificity of the European comic compared to the Asian and the American

ones. The principal aim of our approach is to detach from this analysis some interpretative elements that highlight European cultural identity. The set of behaviors and values that are transposed artistically in the action of comics (BD) – which are then included in the action of the cinematography - do not speak about a common feature throughout the European space. The image of the character who becomes a hero in comics is much more complex and can not be framed only in a global sociological statistics. The dynamics of this image is linked to a foundation that supports aspects that are related to the national spirit, the national group or individualism, tradition, religion, or in some cases, this image is only a cultural imitation, as is the case of BD in Romania.

Keywords: cartoon, heroes, social value, mimesis, Europe.

1 Philosophical aspects on the comic’s image Cartoons (Bande Dessinée or BD) is the European name for the ninth art. Americans call it comics,

while Asians have many names for it - manga, ame komi, lianhuanhua, manhua etc. In this oriental area, these names refer either to translations of Western comics - American or European –, or they define some particular styles of their area, which in our culture would be classified in the same class of comics. BD is the ninth art, after cinema and photography, although its history is much older than theirs, and its aesthetic and compositional principles are widely applied in cinema. The photography borrows these principles especially from painting, although the philosophy – or the essence – of photo-graphy is very similar to the one of the cartoon (BD). Every picture is meant to be an image that extends or is about to extend a static figure into an imaginary dynamics. Comics help this dynamic photographic interpretation to materialize itself in the form of other possible images, equally static, or in some dynamic ones, such as movies.

However, our study does not refer mainly to such theoretical issues about the essence of this art. First of all, we want to analyze it from its formal point of view, even formal-psycho-sociological, if we are allowed to use this license.

Thus, we’ll search for some answers to this question: Where can we situate the comics and, more specifically, how do we situate them, from the psychosocial point of view, in the European area? This problem brings forth some other small issues, which concern the very making of this art object and the way we interpret it nowadays. Therefore, we also need to refer to some issues concerning aesthetics and the way Europeans, Americans and Asians relate to it. When we ask “What is the particularity of the European comics?” it is necessary to take into account both the history and the way we relate to the message contained in the code expressed by the BD. What do the comics actually say today about the identity of the Europeans? How would be psychoanalysis of Europeans seen through the BD? What does this psychoanalysis say to us? These are the questions that somehow reverse the direction of analysis; we do not mention anymore the comics as an external object, independent of its creator, we talk about the recipient or the interpreter, who is already contained in this object. The image, of any kind it may be, from the illustrated one to the one in motion – the movie - has a double communicational meaning. It says two things at once, in parallel. It first says what it is, as an image independent of its viewer, and then it says many things about the person who looks at it – the person who communicates what the image communicates -, or about its creator. Perhaps in this sense we should understand Aristotle’s interpretation of the construction of images through sensorial impressions. He says, simplifying somehow the mystical ontology of the image in Plato’s works, that the sensation the eye feels is due to the meeting of two fires. One comes as a light from the object; the other one comes as an inner light, from the subject. The image is formed somewhere in between, as a meeting of these two bright fires. Plato goes even further when he explains


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the formation of images in the dreams we have, relating it to that the inner fire, which returns to the self, unable to go outside the closed eye, and thus it forms its own images in the space of the soul [1]. In fact, we are in a continuous process of forming images as signs of a possible reality. Therefore, an image is a purely semiotic object, if it is interpreted in this way. It sets the optimum distance between a pure reality and an imaginary one. All human actions that are in an ontological impossibility to achieve these extremes run on this scale. The real is mixed with the imagery in a worrying measure for the spirits who want at all costs to have something fixed like objective reality in this world. Dan Brown [2] cites in one of his novels (The Lost Symbol) Lyme McTaggart, who says that only a living consciousness is one that has the power to transform a possibility into something tangible, real. Consciousness is a reality-making machine, and its substance is the one which creates its own universe, which is afterwards observed by this consciousness.

An image, be it trapped in a photograph or in a painting, whether located in introverted interpretative dynamics we find in the comics, or in extrovert dynamics of the cinema, is only the symbol of a possible reality. spacing.

2 The History of European Comics (BD) In fact, it is Europe the place where the BD arose [3]. Not in its current form, but in a manner that

causes, as we shall see, the modality in what we can relate to this art today. Among the so-called original cartoons and the comics of nowadays exists a continuity that will not be broken in our psychosocial manner to relate to images. Asia knows also an analogous phenomenon. It would seem that the phenomenon is even older than it’s known in Europe. Nevertheless, the principle is the same: to present a concatenation of images that are linked by a sequence of images that tell a story.

We must therefore start from this definition of comics, understood in the broadest possible sense. It is therefore a story in images that is read in the same way we read a text. The images actually show sequences of an event, and these images must contain a maximum of information to help their interpretation, especially for the reader to be able to compose the related images subjectively, as his representations, in order to give coherent course of events recounted. Therefore, in any given geographic and cultural space, this is the principle that underpins the formation of comics. It is an art of thinking through and in images that requires the subject to fluctuate between introversion and extraversion. What we mean by these terms is what CG Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz [4] understand. These are two types of attitudes, which are characterized by: extraversion is conscious energy flow, orientated to the object, investing it with more reality. There is a compensatory orientation, going the opposite way, back to the object. Introversion is characterized by continuing outside pressure that forces the subject to withdraw this energy of consciousness to itself, taking itself as the main real object. It is less aware of the flow of psychic energy that comes from outside, from the object. The picture that is drawn is presented as an object rich in meanings, which is interpreted by a subject. The next drawn picture must, however, be associated with an image nonexistent outside, but existing inside, constructed as a representation that links the two drawn pictures. Thus, the interpreting subject oscillates between creating and consuming images to construct the reality. This game intro-extravert turns into an art of thinking. It becomes what Leonardo called una cosa mentale.

Thus, the first comic in Europe became artwork-depicting events, extraordinary events that have significance for the social life. Biblia pauperum (1300-1310) presents in this manner the biblical events in pictures. Population, who mostly couldn’t read or write, needed such support of images to compensate this lack. Earlier, the gothic architecture introduces somehow carved band with the same purpose. Stained glasses images or sculptures are ciphered; they are rich in information and messages, always forcing their readers to think or to put their minds together to decipher them. It's a secret art that can be seen by anyone. The Bayeux Tapestry (1066-1082) is actually an embroidery showing them the invasion of Guillaume (Wilhelm) The Conqueror and the story of the battles he fought in. It appears as a narrow band (50 cm) and 69 meters long, including 1515 characters (626 men, 202 horses, 505 animals of all kinds, 37 buildings, etc.). Each scene is accompanied by a commentary in Latin. These comments are not like the dialogues that today are present in every BD. They are more "stage directions" like: et velis vento plenis venit in terra Widonis Comitis (sails inflated by the wind reached the realm of Count Guy) or ubi Harold et Wido parabolant (here Harold and Guy talk).

Therefore, we talk about a cult comic’s history in Europe. We do not consider here the roots of this art which extends to ancient Egypt, who undoubtedly set such as type because we move away from our subject. Also we do not adhere to the idea that the cartoon begins with cave paintings, as some theorists believe. Even if these interpretations have some truth, we believe that this approach is exaggerated. Others are the mechanisms that trigger primitive tendencies to paint caves. See in this sense M. Eliade - History beliefs and religious ideas. This is associated with a certain kind of painting that aims to overcome the static image. If we think of Max Ernst with his graphic novel - Une semaine de bonté (A Week of Kindness) then we understand that BD is not in Europe but a definite art that follows the course of a linear history that supports itself. There is no need to review here the painters from the Renaissance until present day who have tried this writing in images. Just remember the


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famous Van Eyck painting Mystical Lamb, found today in the Cathedral of Ghent and Fra Angelico, with its triptych. Actually, it could be said that the cartoons in Europe begin with the triptych that is the symbol of sacred events that are worshiped, not only people (saints, God, angels etc.). The event itself is sacral and its artistic expression is given by successive images in the interpretive formula announced above. Max Ernst and before him the scholar Rodolph Toepffer, (1799-1846) are in a sense the first "profane" of cartoons. Bayeux Tapestry is a secular history, but it also concerns a sacred feature that these events storied here take them. R. Toepffer is a Swiss teacher who becomes the first theorist of this art. He uses drawings exhibited in strips in an educational aim. From here until today, we are witnessing an explosion of interpretations and reports of this art, which slowly becomes drawn even among the arts.

Cartoons become, after its parting with Europe and imported into the United States, a pseudo-art and / or an art obsolete, intended rather to confuse children and to drift the away from the values promoted by the school system. Thus becomes a "sequential art" (Will Eisner) addressed to an audience that cannot reach the depth and the understanding of other cultural objects. Throughout the twentieth century comic strip has two functions: one for entertaining, as part of children's literature, and one for consuming, in the form of cartoons present in journals.

3 Cartoons Terminology If we look under the technical aspect the cartoons, then this is presented to us in many forms and genres.

In nineteenth century’s Europe [5], we meet illustrated periodical - périodique illustré – i.e. a specific publication in England and in France. Illustrated French periodical mimic Penny Magazine issued in 1832 and Illustrated News in 1842. It is a dedicated hebdomadal for an untrained public and therefore has a huge success, especially since the price is very low (Le Magasin pittoresque à deux sous, 1833). Meanwhile, in Italy we called the cartoons fumetti (clouds), name that comes from the frames in which the text was placed. It is interesting that the Italian name starts from a textual rather than a visual aspect. The fact that the text was put into those bubbles as clouds drew the name of the genre. The first supplement of a newspaper, completely made of drawings, is Corriere de Piccoli, in 1908 (the supplement of Corriere dela Sera). In Spain, we find the cartoons under the name of tebeo or historieta (1917). This term signifies the phonetically transformation of the TBO magazine, te be o – I see you! The Norwegians and the Danes call the cartoon „drawing series” or “drawings row”, meaning tegneserie. After a period of time when these were published as supplements of several magazines, they come out in small sizes. The Italians still use today with predilection, in the moment of the cartoon creation, a small size paper. In France and Belgium further appears the cartoon sketchbook and its size is today popular all over Europe. The Americans use this small size even today, just like the Japanese, this being a feature of the comics from out of Europe.

4 The Specific Features of European Comics After we interviewed, in France and Belgium, people who work in comics shops – antiquarians

specializing in selling comics or shops specializing only in selling the latest issues in this field –we found that comics return to the status of the twentieth century; nowadays, people talk about a new art in the true sense. In fact this is the fundamental feature of the European spirit regarding comics; they are looked like a true art and the “consumers” are individuals passionate about visual arts. In the United States or Asia this artistic characteristic is less obvious or even nonexistent. The European citizen is now relates to the comics like a special kind of decorative art. Les phylactères, in which the text is introduced, have a mandatory role magic – exemplary and this text inserted into an image is the one that invites the reader at a mixture of reading-feeling of the meaning of the event described in text and in image also. This aesthetic–magical origin of the comic comes with a religious line. There are three “stages”, impregnated with sacredness, which prepares the entrance of the comics and his text. First, we talk about phylacteries from Ancient Egypt, which were composed of a text written on a parchment or images of the gods, parchment which was wrapped in another piece of parchment that was sandwiched between two wooden amulets or figurines that were held at the neck. The role was, therefore, of a magical amulet, symbol of Defense or invoking various positive energies. The second stage is the Jewish one, where the phylactery also represents a cube, like a body that closes inside him a roll of paper whereon are written sacred texts. This cube is carried either on the left hand (the connection with the heart) or on the head (connection with the spirit). The third stage represents the Christian art, which presents those phylacteries as word written strings as coming out of the mouth of some painted characters, like representing the logos that this one are keeping and transmitting into the world. These strips words are often encountered in various Annunciations. The magic function of this phylacteres is included in this term, derived from the Greek φυλακτήριον (became in the later Latin phylacterium), which means "that who serves for defense," subsequently became "talisman" or "reliquary". It is, in fact, about an object provided with magical properties, which has as an objective the action to ward off evil or to guard us against any danger. The Greek verb φυλάσσειν, from which is


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derived the noun phylactery, means “to protect”. This phylactery became than, in the Christian art, ornaments of enluminure books, where some letter are rich ornate with a lot of scrupulousness, like a ritual of magic investment of the words. The comic’s phylacteries follow this line, losing today any sacred connotation. We cannot look to this unconscious attraction of the European reader, for reading images as totally broken of the subtle sacred feature that characterized the European culture and that gave these meanings to the association between the text, the image and the described event. This could be the reason why, today, the comic is “consumed” in this space as an artistic object.

Many theoreticians from today converge to the fact that in United States the comic is not consumed under this artistic issue. It is treated more like a business, like an exchange object, having only an economic charge. From the American consumers perspective– who are not only children – it is about a rush from stimulus, a continuously escape into fantasy. The stories of American comics never end. The superheroes don’t die with their creator, as it happens in Europe. If initially USA, until after World War II, were looking for heroes that satisfies the individual wish of adapting to an extremely rough reality, after these years the comic that puts in move all of this heroes, it seems to be completely broken by this reality, even building one parallel that has nothing to do with the existence of ordinary citizens.

When we asked the Franco-Belgian bookseller regarding the drawbacks and shortcomings of European comics today, the answer was: Europe is in a deep crisis of the imaginary and curiosity. You can see this thing easily in today’s comics. They are all taken by the American influence, which accentuates the quantity. An American comic is extremely complex, difficult to read because you have to be trained and persistent to follow multiple events of the superheroes. If you lose the pace with the new, you lose the meaning, you cannot read anymore. The European comic used to be more focused on this artistic feature. A hero of the European comic is closely linked to their creator – who, in the moment of their death, dies the heroic story too, not being continued by others, because the public doesn’t accept this change, considering it “unnatural”, but it is also linked to social, to reality. The comic strip is a work of art that introduces us into an imaginary that is specific to a reality. Let us think about Enki Bilal, the artist that paints the comics, it means that each frame is directly painted, not following the steps well known in the technique of comics - scenario, sketch, drawing, encrage, coloriage, reframing for publication. American comics tend toward improving its style; hence the possibility of working in large teams that can change over time, but the story remains the same. The American society, that puts an accent on performance and doesn’t accept failure, contrasts with the European one on this regard. We talk somehow about putting face to face an American technique / technology and a European aesthetic art that accepts failure and rare "hard to find” models. We think, for example, at the famous Goscinny-Uderzo couple, Asterix and Obelix French Heroes parents [6]. After Goscinny's death there was a crisis because the readers thought that the heros themselves died. The first Asterix and Obelix's recurrence only coordinated by Uderzo generated a wave of disappointment. Le ciel leur tombe sur la tête presents the known history of our heroes, but associated to a cultural American interference. It is about the presence of superheroes and of OVNI’s in this history, which strongly disturbed the public probably because of a survival and noninterference instinct. So, the distance is huge between continents. From Mickey Mouse (1930) that slaps hard the European rational Tintin (1929) and despite the fact that it is an too imaginary character plays its role later in the sea landing on 6th of June, becoming even the codename given to the action, USA reaches to an phantasmagoric imaginary, cut off from any reality.

Vice versa in the Europe of Tintin and Rahan, the Cartesian rationalist savage who is the image of today’s atheist, we reach to imaginary characters and heroes which open to a represses real of individuals emerging much more, and even artificially, from the traditional European values that cannot be isolated from a particular sacred feature. As long as the comic is perceived like an art in this space, we believe that we are still in a non-pathological manifestation of European psychology. When we see that A la recherche du temps pérdu has an adaptation for the comic (appeared in 2013, writer and illustrator by Stéphane Heuet) we cannot talk about the secularization pronounced of this art.

Where can we put ourselves in relation with Asia? If for the European we talk about art, for the American about the economic value, then for the Asian man that relates to the comics, we get nothing of those two. Although the manga output is huge, is not about the value itself at all, like the one invested in an exchange. It is more about entertainment through media. Manga is a press species. It is the equivalent of the English pulp-fiction. The Asian reads comics on the subway while going to work or perhaps they can read the journal as well; however at the end of the line, they will throw it in the dumpster anyway. The Asian gets informed through the comic, even if it involves a history that embroiders around traditional values and it is pure fiction. In every area we have a large range of addressed genres: from the realistic drawings to caricature, we pass from gothic, social, humoristic, fantasy, super heroic, educational, to erotic, crime story, horror, etc. The Asian relates to all these genres only under this aspect. As a specific note of these comics, most of them are black and white, in a small format and printed on a very cheap newspaper paper. In a way, Asians took the American format that in an ascending order is: funny – the presence of a single image, a caricature, in the newspaper, strip – a comic strip made from 2 or 3 drawn frames, also present in the newspaper, comic, comic strip and then comic book. So it is about an invasion in the Asian area of comic books in black and white. This could be the single aspect that ties


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the cultures – the formal one. But history, the drawings, the events are presented in a strong character of its own in this space. The corporeal imaginary it is strongly played in the manga images. We can talk about an emotional stereotypy of the drawn characters – that are highly intellectualized, under the control of reason. There is a narrow range to show the emotional feelings – few pattern gestures to laugh, to cry, to show anger. Big eyes, excessively big, are a mark of these cartoons. The speaking mouth has only few positions, but between these positions in the eyes of the European stands out few details that are lacking from our space. When a character shouts or laughs loudly, there are shown few elements that the European and the American ignores – it is about showing the jaw teeth and the back of the throat. We are under the impression that it is about a stereotypical drawing, poor in shading and grace, in showing subtleties of the body language.

But Europe is not a homogeneous space in presenting and consuming comics. The Frenchman ignores or doesn’t even know that a comic specific to the East exist. It is true that in Romania and in other countries from East this art is almost nonexistent. It was borrowed from the West. Romania has been directly linked to France in the 80s when, because of political ties, some comics could be exported to East (Pif, Rahan, Tintin etc.) Today, in this space we do not talk about a comics industry because there are not even some known authors. There is only a public which is connected directly to the West. What you find in bookstores is a comic strip that doesn’t come from their capital – France or Belgium - but comes from England that, paradoxically, both Belgians and French, for various reasons, considers it almost nonexistent.

5 Conclusions Looking at this psychosocial design that is centered on the interpretative report of comics in the

European, American and Asian area, we can say that Europe is a place of the labor identities. What do we understand from this vague convention? In this issue of this art we see a Europe in need and hunger for an identity. The slogan “Unity in Diversity” comes like a tendency to garner multiple forms of identity like a need for interaction with an alter. Without making psychoanalysis of the European comic – we don’t have the necessary space in this article – we tried just to make the draft of a design that highlights a few joints. Instead, this kind of analysis is necessary given that today we are united – artificially or not – in an united Europe. What Alain Duhamel [7] does in his book Le complexe d’Asterix, namely a psychoanalysis of the French people through the eyes of the comic that presents this hero, it is possible to extend this exercise to the hole Europe so we can get to this process of individuation which manifests under this form of hunger for exact psycho cultural forms, like very well defined individualities. The multiculturalism and the opening to other cultures are just the declared forms of this orientation. Behind this opening there is, though, an unconscious closing and a very strong self-preservation spirit. Only in the conscious imaginary we want a union, standardization. But basically the trend is concentration and not dissolution of identity. It is about concentration, an introvert movement that is made though with the help of the other put in front. The further the alter ego is the more fascinating it is. There is therefore a tendency of this alter approach to identifying or "integration" only in words, at a declarative level. Instead, “biologically”, this thing is impossible to accomplish. Desperately seeking and talking every time we have the opportunity about this European identity as if it really exists. There is, of course, but it will not coincide or ever even be close to this image that we are creating about it. The conscious search of it is only the presence of a generic identity that is developing or it is in a state of shock, in crisis. The imaginary displayed in the comics strengthens our remarks. We are like the state of Asterix and Obelix, the last stronghold in front of a uniformity that takes hold of us, which makes us lose the multiple forms that we cannot control.

References [1] Watson, Gerard. (1988) Phantasia in Classical Thought, Galaway University Press. [2] Brown, Dan. (2010) The Lost Symbol, Corgi, London. [3] Baron-Carvais, Annie. (2007) La Bande Dessinée, PUF, Paris. [4] Franz, Marie-Louise. (2013) Psihoterapie. Din Experiența unui Practician Jungian, Editura

Herald, București. [5] Le Point (hors- série) Historia. (2013) Tintin et les forces obscures. [6] Le Point (hors-série). (2013) Asterix, Notre Héro, nr. nov-dec. [7] Duhamel, Alain. (1985) Le Complexe dʼAsterix, Gallimard, Paris.


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What is the “National Law” according to the Provisions of the Romanian Civil Code?

Aniţei N.C.1 1Professor Assistant Faculty of Legal, Social and Political Sciences, “Dunărea de Jos” University, Galaţi (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Given the legislative reform through the adoption in 2011 of the Civil Code by introducing the

provisions on private international law in Book VII we shall dedicate this article to the "national law".

The article will analyze aspects related to: the tradition of the "national law" as the law regulating personal status, the tradition of "national law" in Romanian private international law and the national law in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code.

In the first section we shall make a short presentation of the national law based on art.3 of the Napoleonic Code which used for the first time in art.(3) the concept of "national law" and we shall eventually see that over time French specialists have become the partisans of the domicile or of the habitual residence law in matters of personal status.

In the second section we shall show that in Romania, the "national law" as a unique connection to the personal status was accepted on December 1, 1865, along with the entry into force of the old Romanian Civil Code which took on the provisions of art.3 paragraph (3) of the French Civil Code, in art.2 paragraph (2). Later, in 1992, following the social and economic changes which had occurred in Romania, they adopted Law no.105/1992 on the regulation of private international law relationships which regulated "national law" for the conflict of laws in case of the individual in art.12 and in case of the legal person in art. 40. We shall explain in this section the concept of "national law" in terms of art.12 and art.40 of Law no. 105/1992.

We shall devote the third section to the conflict of laws on “national law" aimed at individuals and legal persons regulated by the provisions of the Civil Code in the following articles: art.2568, art.2569 and art.2571. In this section we shall explain and try to clarify what is meant by the concept of "national law".

Keywords: Napoleonic Code, Law no. 105 of 1992 on the regulation of private international law, Romanian Civil Code, the national law, the individual, legal person.

1 National law tradition in Romanian private international law Romania adopted the national law as unique connection for personal status on December 1, 1865, along

with the entry into force of the old Civil Code. Thus, the Romanian Civil Code took over the provisions of art.3 paragraph (3) of the French Civil Code, in art.2 paragraph (2) where it acquired a form adapted to the Romanian citizens "The laws related to civil status and capacity of persons apply to the Romanian people even when they reside abroad." [1] The French regulation was adopted without substantive changes by the editors of the Romanian Civil Code, because in that era, the personalism governed the doctrine of private international law1.

In the Romanian law the enforcement of national law in matters of personal status raised a number of questions and more opinions were formulated in the literature. For example, in an opinion it has been argued that art.2 paragraph (2) of the Romanian Civil Code could be interpreted "in the sense that marital status and the capacity of the person is governed by ...the law of residence or of domicile or by the law or of the court and

1 This trend was promoted by Mancini. He started from the idea that civil laws were the reflections of the collective mentality of a nation. Also, Mancini believed that a person belonging to a nation determined his/her civil status, and not just his/her political one. Therefore, any person who was a member of a nation had the subjective right to request the authorities of the foreign state on the territory of which he/she found him/herself, to apply him/her the so-called "necessary part" of the law of the nation to which he/she belonged, namely that part which regulated in addition to the status and capacity of the person, family relations and succession. As the individual could not evade the national law in the domestic law, in the same way the State which receives the foreigner cannot deprive him of the status conferred by his/her domestic law.


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authority before which the person is presented, but for Romanians abroad an exception was made and their capacity was subject to Romanian law in their interest and in the general interest of the society." The author demonstrated that the solution he/she proposed was adopted as a legal solution by several countries such as: Switzerland, USA (with some nuances), Russian Federation, Ukraine and the countries of Central or South America. This opinion, though opposed by other Romanian specialists of private international law [2] led the private international law specialists, who were attached to the national law until then, to reflect on the advantages of using the domicile or residence as connection points in matters of personal status.

In 1992 as a result of changes in Romania, Law no. 105 on the regulation of private international law relationships was adopted2.

In Law no.105/1992 as a connection point for the conflict of laws regarding individuals the "national law" was regulated in art.12 and in case of the legal persons in art.40.

According to art.12 of Law no. 105/1992 the national law was the national law in case of individuals was:

1. the law of the State whose citizenship the person concerned is claimed to hold; 2. the Romanian law, if the person concerned holds the Romanian citizenship, besides other citizenship; 3. the law of the State on whose territory the person concerned has his/her domicile, in the absence of a

domicile, his/her residence if he/she has more foreign citizenship or is stateless. Article 40 of Law no.105/1992 regulated the national law as a connection point for the conflict of laws

regarding the legal person.

2 "National law" under the provisions of private international law of the Civil Code

2.1 The "National Law" as the Law of the State whose Citizenship the Individual Holds

By studying the provisions of paragraph 1, Part I, of art.2568 of the Civil Code we can notice that: for the individual the national law "is the law of the State whose citizenship the individual holds." So if an individual has Spanish citizenship it means that his/her national law is the Spanish law. For example, according to art.2572, paragraph 1 of the Civil Code provides: "the civil status and the capacity of an individual are governed by his/her national law ..... " So, the status and capacity of the Spanish citizen are governed by the Spanish law.

We shall ask the following question: What law is competent to solve a case where a person holds more than one citizenship? Paragraph 2 of the same article gives us the answer: where a person holds more than one citizenship, "the law of the State whose citizenship he/she holds and to which he/she is most closely connected, in particular by means of his/her habitual residence." Basically, where a person holds more than one citizenship the most important connection point is his/her "habitual residence" so the law of the habitual residence shall apply but there is the possibility that the connection point for the person with more than one citizenship is the state he/she is most closely connected with provided he/she holds the citizenship of that State and therefore the law of the State whose citizenship he/she holds is applied if he/she is most closely connected to that state.

The formulation of paragraph 2 of art.2568 of the Civil Code, seems at first unclear urging us to ask other questions: When can one can use for the person who has more than one citizenship the connection "of the state the person who has more than one citizenships s is most closely connected with? " and When can one use for the person who has more than one citizenship "the habitual residence?" as a connection point.

The way in which paragraph 2 of art.2568 of the Civil Code is formulated determines the appearance of other questions such as: When can one use for the person who holds more than one citizenship the connection" of the State the person who has more than one citizenship is most closely connected?” and When can one use for the person who has more than one citizenship the "habitual residence” as a connection point? In this context, we believe that one can use for the person who has more than one citizenship, in the first place, the point of connection represented by the "habitual residence" and only secondary the connection point: "the state he/she is most closely connected with”. We consider such a solution by taking into account that, on the one hand, the legislature used the phrase 'particularly' and, on the other hand the phrase "the state the person who has more than one citizenship is most closely connected with" is hard to define because the Romanian legislature either in the regulation of Law 105/1992 or in the regulation of the new Civil Code does not explain what they mean by "the state he/she is most closely connected with."

I think that first of all we could use for the person who has more than one citizenship "the habitual residence" as a connection point and then the connection of "the state he/she is most closely connected with." We support this view primarily through the fact that the legislature uses the phrase "particularly". Secondly, the

2 Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no.245 of October 1,1992.


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phrase "the state with which the person who holds more than one citizenship has the closest connections" is hard to define because neither the Romanian legislator nor the regulation of Law no 105/1992, nor the regulation of the new Civil Code explain what they mean by "the state he/she is most closely connected with." As we stated in other works the phrase "the state he/she is most closely connected with" was not and is not explained in the legislation, but was and is and now left solely to the Romanian public authorities, which have to define it relation to each case and at the same time limit it during the process of interpretation of the phrase in question. Thus, based on the evidence produced and the circumstances of the case, the Romanian authorities will decide in relation to each case what does the phrase "the state the person who holds more than one citizenship is most closely connected with" mean and decide which of the states concerned will be assigned this quality.

One cannot use at one’s own choice either the connection of present and past habitual residence, or the connection with the State the person who holds more than one citizenship is most closely connected with because the legislature did not use the coordinating disjunctive conjunction "or" in order to develop rules.

Considering all these aspects, we must understand paragraph 2 of art.2568 of the Civil Code in the sense that the point of connection of the State with which the person who holds more than one citizenship has the closest connections should be used only if the person who holds more than one citizenship does not have a habitual residence (present or past).

The connection points mentioned above are layered in such a way so that the first removes the second. In conclusion, in case of the person who holds more than one citizenship, the provisions of paragraph 2

of art.2568 of the Civil Code provide two connection points: • his/her habitual residence, the requirement is for that the person to hold the citizenship of that state.

For example: What law applies to an individual who has the following citizenship: Romanian, French and Spanish? From the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 2568 of the Civil Code we know that the "special" connection point is the "habitual residence." Therefore, if the habitual residence is in Spain we shall apply the Spanish law, if the common residence is in Romania we shall apply the Romanian law and if the habitual residence is in France we shall apply French law;

• the State he/she is most closely connected with, the condition being for the person to hold the citizenship of that State. We shall take the same example: What law applies to an individual who has the following citizenship: Romanian, French and Spanish? From the provisions of paragraph 2 of art.2568 of the Civil Code we know that another connection point is the “the State he /she is most closely connected with" the condition being for the person concerned to hold the citizenship of that State, therefore, so to the individual who has the following citizenship: Romanian, French and Spanish we shall apply: either the Spanish law if the individual concerned is most closely connected with the Spanish state, or the Romanian law if the individual concerned is most closely connected with the Romanian state, or the French law if the individual concerned is most closely connected with the French state.

From the provisions of paragraph.3 of art.2568 of the Civil Code it becomes clear that if a person has no citizenship the connection point is the habitual residence.

From the provisions of paragraph 4 of art.2568 of the Civil Code in case of refugees the connection point is the habitual residence but only if there are special provisions and international conventions to which Romania is party.

Per a contrario, the habitual residence is not a connection point for refugees where Romania is not party to international conventions or if by means of special provisions it is not provided that Romania is part of the regulations containing the special provisions relating to refugees.

Next we will ask the following question: By what law shall one judge whether a person is the citizen of a State or not? Art.2569 of the Civil Code gives us the answer stating that determination and proof of citizenship "are in accordance with the law of the State whose citizenship is claimed." For example, if we want to know whether a person is a citizen of the Spanish state or not we must study the rules on the Spanish citizenship to determine whether or not the individual is a citizen of Spain.

2.2 "National law" as the Law of the State whose Citizenship the Legal Person Holds

Art.2568 paragraph 1 of the Civil Code provides: ".....the law of the State whose citizenship the legal person holds. "

From the provisions of paragraph 1, Part II, of art.2568 of the Civil Code we find that: • for the legal person the "national law" is the law of the State whose citizenship the legal person holds. By studying art.2571 of the Civil Code compared to art.40 of Law no. 105/1992 we see that the text of

paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 are identical and in addition to this art.2571 of the Civil Code contains paragraph 4. As such, the provisions of art.2571 of the Civil Code paragraph 1 show that according to the articles of associations the citizenship of the legal person is the territory where it established its registered office. We wonder: What is the citizenship of the legal person in case it has offices in several states? Paragraph 2 of the same article solves


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the problem by stating that "if it has offices in several states, the head office is the one that determines the citizenship of the legal person." In these circumstances we wonder: What is the head office from the point of view of private international law? Paragraph 3 of the same article gives us an explanation stating: "The head office is the location of the main centre of leadership and management of statutory activity, even if the decisions of the respective body are taken according to the directives transmitted by shareholder or associates from other states".

So the citizenship of a legal person is the territory where the legal person - regardless of the number of registered offices established in different countries – establishes its main centre of leadership and management of statutory activity, even if the decisions of the respective body are taken according to the directives transmitted by the shareholders or associates from other states.

In paragraph 4 of art.2571 of the Civil Code the legislature introduce the exception so that where there are registered offices in several states, and the legal person has the head office established in a certain state which is not the state where the legal person was initially established, but the law of the state where the head office exists makes reference to the law of the State where the legal person was originally constituted, the law of this last State, the law of the place where the legal person was originally established shall apply.

For example, an association which was formed in Portugal has registered offices in several countries, namely in France, Italy, Spain, Romania. The head office of the association is located in Romania. In these circumstances, if a legal problem appears the Romanian law shall be applied; however, if the Romanian law, in order to solve the problem makes reference to the Portuguese law the law of the Portuguese state shall be applied.

Conclusions The Romanian Civil Code specifically dedicates the following articles to the "national law": art.2568

with the marginal name of National law, art.2569 with the marginal name of Determination and proof of citizenship and art. 2571 with the marginal name of Nationality of legal persons.

From the provisions of art.2568 paragraph (1) Part I of the Romanian Civil Code we find that, the national law in case of the individual is:

1. the law of the State whose citizenship the person concerned is claimed to hold; 2. the law of the habitual residence if the person holds more than one citizenship, the concerned person

being required to hold the citizenship of that State too; 3. the law of the State he/she is most closely connected with where the person has more than one

citizenship, the concerned person being required to hold the citizenship of that State too; 4. the law of the state where he/she had his/her habitual residence if the person has no citizenship; 5. the law of the state where he/she has his/her habitual residence if the person is a refugee but only if

Romania is party to the special provisions and international agreements concluded in this regard. From the provisions of art.2568 paragraph (1) Part II, in conjunction with the provisions of art.2571 of

the Romanian Civil Code the national law in case of the legal person is: 1. the law of the State whose citizenship the legal person holds as shown in the articles of association

(namely the territory where it established its registered office in accordance with the articles of association); 2. the law of the State where the legal person has established its head office in case it has offices in

several states; 3. the law of the State whose citizenship the legal person holds as resulting from the articles of

association, even if the legal person has offices in several states, but exceptionally, only if the law of the state where the legal person has its head office refers to the law of the State whose citizenship the legal person holds as shown in the articles of association.

In conclusion, the "national law" in Romanian law has an important role as a connection point both for individuals and legal persons.

References [1] Jakotă, M., V., (1997). Drept internaţional privat (Private International Law), vol. I, Editura

Fundaţiei Chemarea, Iaşi. [2] Nestor, I., Căpăţină, O., (1997). Legea aplicabilă statutului personal al străinilor potrivit dreptului

internaţional privat român (The Law Applicable to the Personal Status of Foreigners according to the Romanian Private International Law), in Revista Română de Drept, no. 9/1967.


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Consensual Union in Romania – on the Transition of Social Mentalities and Legal Postmodernism

Apostu I.1 1 Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The current evolution of the Romanian marital mentalities generally underlies mentalities about to be

adapted to be more modern. Under these circumstances, new conjugal mentalities arise in which social imperatives gradually become less influential, the couple grows increasingly free and independent of the extended family, and consensual cohabitation tends to become one of the basic prerequisites for the partners to know each other better, to socialize and create the first elements of marital solidarity while the couple is taking further steps towards marriage. Often taken for consensual union, cohabitation has been, culturally speaking, acknowledged as a state which renders two partners’ living together prior to their marriage lawful from a social point of view (a state of fact questioned by the traditional cultural system which is still nurturing the current social mentalities, yet more discretely).

From the opposite perspective, the legal system has built up the landmarks for some marital mentalities with postmodern orientations, Law no. 202/2010 and Law no. 71/2011 setting legal frameworks regulating the engagement, which create new dissolution rules and a series of patrimonial strategies attempting to put marriage on more contractual bases. Marriage therefore tends to gradually assimilate the awareness of failure in the same time as the declaration of eternal love, given that the decision to get married is backed by the strategy of patrimonial regimes establishing the way assets are to be distributed in case that marriage comes to an end. The current marital legislation leaves room for the mentalities of postmodern individualism, thus creating a premise for legalizing consensual unions.

Our study aims at analyzing the Romanian social mentalities, various international experiences related to the legalization of consensual unions, as well as the Romanian legislation in force and new proposals to make domestic partnerships lawful, while proving the effects of inconsistency between the values of social and the legal systems, bearing important consequences on both the social policies and the economic resources.

Keywords: cohabitation, legislation, consensual union, traditionalism, modernity

Solidarity and individuality in the contemporary couple The current social space can no longer be controlled by a unique cultural system that legitimizes only

one type of marital behaviour to which couples adhere in an inflexible manner. The challenge of modernity is bound to the multiple ways, in which marital values are connected, to the way traditional values are synthesized with the modern ones or the way new forms of manifestation are built within marriage independently of the general social norm.

The analysis of the contemporary conjugal systems broadly defines the classic nuclear type of family with a functional structure that does not differ greatly from traditionalism. What gradually changes within the contemporary family and in its actions is not its functional structure but the relationships between the partners and the way the functions of this new perspective are projected. The family shifts from a mind-set where partners were subject to the will of community to a type of mind-set where they built their relationships with their own resources, the structures changing being those of spousal role and not the functions themselves.

1.1 From “Our” Solidarity to Self Solidarity Émile Durkheim (1893) was the first to introduce the problem of solidarity by analysing its landmark

within the specific cultural context. He identifies solidarity as an external action which influences the couple by the norms imposed by the community, be it as an action owned by the couple. Irrespective of the optics of


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solidarity, either an extension of external social stimuli, or as a consequence of some specific internal values of the marital couple, the elements building solidarity are oriented towards the idea of domestic reciprocity. Either egalitarian or hierarchical, marital solidarity is based on a set of values that have maintained the couple’s unity and reacted as a resource of stability in practical moments of life. Therefore, Durkheim identifies a type of mechanical solidarity for the traditional space, without it being the direct construction of the marital couple but that of the community, which imposed the rules of manifestation even within the family intimate framework. Concerning the socio-cultural plan of modernity he describes solidarity from an “organic” point of view, as a personal construction of the couple, the values upon which the marital relationship is based being the extension of the couple’s own will. The exterior no longer veils the will of the couple, the young can build their own values and the lifestyle and ulterior laws become flexible in favour of this type of solidarity. [1]

Since in Durkheim’s sociological thinking solidarity appeared as a “sine qua non” component, to the social group, therefore in the family too, postmodernity tends to structurally recreate the marital couple. In most of the social studies the family was described as the “cell-based society”. Yet gradually, society tends to enter a process of individualization, therefore a transition from micro-group psychology to individual psychology. Irène Theèry appreciates how in the new social structure, marital relationships are more and more “privatized”, collective norms lose importance, being regarded as a interference in the couple’s private life. In this social context the individual becomes the “base cell” of the society and individualist interests are more important than that of the couple’s interests. [2]

As a consequence of the personal interests outweighing those of the group, the marital structure will modify both legally and culturally. Marriage gradually becomes a contract and partners build their personal security rather than the mutual security. The shift from shared assets to judicial systems that determine forms of sharing goods in case of dissolution (also determining the forms of dissolution) deinstitutionalizes marriage in favour of the orientation towards a contract. Therefore, attached next to “I love you” lays the awareness of a potential failure and this orientation towards itself, structurally reorganizes the classical function of marital solidarity. Recent French research confirms a new type of conjugal attitude that places individualism at the level of the main survival values within the couple. The saying “vivre ensemble sans être ensemble” offers each partner a double access: access to couple life and access to individualism. Marriage partners dwell together but every now and then they live separately. Therefore marital solidarity increasingly shifts optics in the favour of individualism. This leads to the beginning of devaluation of marriage that is increasingly regarded as closed partnership in roles and predetermined statuses. Couples become distant to marriage showing that marriage is not enough since it fails to create common time, limits and surrendered freedoms. The individual “that lives with” changes in fact the relationships with the partner so that his newly composed identity becomes a “conjugal self”. [3] From this perspective the principles of homogamy become more comfortable as the individual easily adapts the “conjugal self” to the new conditions.

1.2 The Consensual Union – as an Alternative to Legal Marriage Over the years we assist to a double movement: on one side some kind of hesitation of the couples to

enter marriage, and on the other side a suppleness of the law which was supposed to attenuate this reluctance. Therefore, we assist to a double deinstitutionalization, of the behaviour and of the law itself. [4] Amid the value fluctuations that nowadays define marital life with its increasing individualistic orientations, the consensual union seems to rise up as an optimal alternative to marriage. The increasingly louder criticism of marriage regarding the pre-setting of rules, the closed or old system seem to be in competition with the legal alternative of the consensual union. Consequently, cohabitation shows up to be a less rigid form likely to be accepted according to individual requests. Partners do not estimate they should remain together in the name of an exterior principle, of an institution or of a moral or societal principle. [5]

The legal alternative of the consensual union in Europe appeared as a reaction to the old family law. It invents patrimonial regimes; rules predetermined in a contract, simple forms of fusion and dissolution and subsequently become premises to modify family law. Legalising the marital bound attracts the privatization of the marriage and at the same time of the divorce. [6] Over time, marriage borrows the contractual character of the consensual union until it all becomes a contract. At the same time, the consensual union seems to be just a beginning; first seen as a compromise for the young, especially for same gender persons, it finally created the return to a contractual marriage by the increase of tolerance and acceptability especially for the same gender people. Nowadays, countries like Belgium, France, Holland, Denmark etc. have legalized homosexual marriage and with the classical law was modified, highlighting both the relaxed forms of dissolution and the elements connected to the patrimonial security of each partner. We can say that the consensual union has stimulated not only a specific law but also new marital mind-sets. The consensual union can be considered an intermediary state with two main effects: the raise of social tolerance for same gender couples and the stimulation of new legal mind-sets. The social assimilation of the two effects led again to marriage in a new manner. We can identify such a practical example in France. If in the first 46 days from the entry into force of the Civil pact of solidarity law (15th of November, 1999 – 31st of December 1999), a percentage of 91% of the couples that adhered to Civil


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pacts of solidarity were legalized between same gender persons, in 2008 a percentage of 94,4% of the persons that appealed to civil pacts of solidarity were of different genders. Therefore cohabitation as an addition that incorporates legally and culturally same gender couples. Nonetheless, the intermediary character of this legal form of manifestation is explained by the statistics of 2010 when, according to the National institute of demographical studies in France, in 2010, out of 35,060 dissolved Civil pacts of solidarity, 12,758 couples (36,39%) gave up the Pact in favour of marriage. [7] In conclusion, following the legalization of the consensual union, the growth of social tolerance but also the its legal experience led to the contractual form of marriage, now including all type of couples with no interdiction of the sexual orientation.

2 Consensual union in Romania. Social mentalities versus law The new challenges of conjugal life have led, in certain countries, to legalizing the consensual union.

The new social needs, being stimulated by unprivileged communities (same sex couples), have been the main reason for legalizing an alternative legal marriage. In countries with greater degree of tradition, with conjugal structures in transition towards modernity, the trend of legalizing same sex marriage did not occur.

In Romania, after a superficial analysis, we notice that the number of people that declared as being in a consensual union should have led towards legalizing. According to the statistics form the Census of 2002 a percentage of 3,9% couples have declared themselves in an consensual union. Pragmatically, the two projects to legalising consensual union in Romania, (initiated by senators Nicolae Păun in 2002 and Viorel Ariton in 2010), were contested by the entire Romanian community. In the first law package, the one of senator Nicolae Păun, it was debated the necessity of consensual union just for heterosexuals, by motivating the decrease of marriage due to the growth of divorces in Romania, though the information was false as Romania is the country with the lowest percentage of divorces in Europe. Also, the preposition was targeted to assimilate the concubines in the marriage institution only after ten years of conjugal relation, which shows that not even the law enforcer did not comprehend the difference between consensual union as a premarital state and its juridical alternative to marriage.

The attempt to legalize it ever since 2010 by the senator Viorel Ariton represented the first law proposal in Romania that was correlated to the international law of partnership. His proposal was aimed to legalize consensual union for heterosexuals and homosexuals included. Nonetheless, the greatest problem of this law proposal shifted from the reduced degree of tolerance for the same sex couples in Romania. This triggered the motion to be retreated form the Parliament project. According with the European statistics identified by Eurobarometer 66 that was conducted by EOS Gallup Europe in 2003, Romania, alongside Turkey, Lithuania and Malta, are amongst the countries with the least tolerance in favour of same sex marriages.

According with the recent research the social mentality of Romania regarding the consensual union is not associated with the marriage law alternative but to that of premarital state. This is the very reason why their own supporters also contested the law. [8] As it debuted in other countries, the concubine state has pre-set stages to legalizing. It was described as being a “serial cohabitation”, and these stages the youngster’s rapport law marital perspectives as just of few of them get married before 30 years old. [9] Also, the social studies of the last few years report a growth of unmarried people that live together (considered as being concubines), though, in concept, the idea of concubine state or consensual union has multiple values in Romanian’s mentality. According with the study concluded by SOROS, “Family Life” in 2008, at the top reasons for consensual union choice we depict the “financial difficulties” reason for 58,4%, the “we are not ready/ it is not the right time” for 30% and “we want to know each other better” for 22,5%, therefore no reason against legitimate marriage to place the concubine state in an alternative to marriage. The same study shows that a growth to tradition, the women considering man as a leader to the domestic group in a percentage of 39%. Also, the role distribution identified by SOROS show a gender inequity.

Nonetheless, the law system was conduced in parallel with the social mentalities. The law has always answered to community needs as certain law guides bearing the imprint of international trends. Moreover, ever since one particular moment the Romanian law developed itself independently from social needs. Constantly inspired by the French law system the family law image is re-dimensioned by the increased dropping of the institutional character in favour of the contractual one by opening even more the road towards consensual union. If the 202/2010 law was in favour of divorce, the 71/2011 law defines it even better by offering a law frame on which a more successful law project of consensual union might lay.

From this perspective, depicting engagement as a state of fact or a stage in the wide process of marriage can be considered the optimum juridical resource to future legalization. The 71/2011 law offer the possibility to choose the patrimonial regime choice, therefore the solidarity function changes considerably its shape – the regime of goods separation chosen at the time of marriage unites two counter-meaning situations: the alleged love that is at the core of romantic fusion and the fear of dissolution that supports the concern for protecting the personal patrimony. In the same law meaning, by simplifying the divorce procedures builds the image of an increased freedom in favour of married couples. Being regarded more as an international influence, even more


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than community’s desire, the law enforcements remain at the level of provocation by highlighting the social mentalities regarding couple life and by offering new information regarding the degree of confidence and solidarity that fundaments the modern conjugal couple.

Conclusion Legalising the consensual union wasn’t an easy process in none of the European countries. The debates

between law and society, between its supporters and followers were difficult obstacles in the legalization path. Although, the first proposals regarding legalising triggered adamant reactions, nonetheless, the social exposure of the new mentalities made the degree of acceptability to be even greater. Once with this transition of the proposed law for legalising consensual union a social framework was built in favour of legalising.

For Romania, the associated mentalities to consensual union express a large diversity. The consensual union is regarded as a premarital state, as a permanent pattern of illegal cohabitation, as a testing marriage and regarded less as a legal alternative to marriage. Supported by wide social stereotypes, (reactions towards the restrictive character of marriage, easy possibility of dissolution etc.), easy to counter debate, the consensual union was never supported consistently by a certain cultural community as it happened in the European milieu.

Nonetheless, the law frame made consistent steps in legalising it, though; the law projects and the social systems did not conduct an analysis regarding the social-economic consequences that the consensual union legalisation proposes. Therefore, the social and law rights, the costs regarding social protection are generated by expenses and they were never projected in the state budget in order to gather the potential effects (costs specific to social welfare, costs of homo-paternity etc.)

The Romanian law system that is reconfigured by the 71/2011 law offers today the premises of legalising consensual union by supporting the idea of freedom by rapid dissolution and patrimonial property guarantee. These two law tendencies have constituted the law post-modernity and, therefore, the legal premises of consensual union. As a consequence, the law post-modernity anticipated the social post-modernity as being the necessary resource in constructing the social-cultural milieu where legal consensual union can be placed.

References [1] Durkheim, Émile (2008). Diviziunea muncii sociale. (Social Labour Division) Bucharest: Antet

Publishing House, pp.79 [2] Thery, Irène (1998). Couple, Fiiation et parenté aujourd’hui. Le droit face aux mutation de la

famille et de la vie privée. Paris: Editions Odile Jacob, pp. 15 [3] de Singly, François (2000). Libre ensemble. L’individualisme dans la vie commune. Paris:

Nathan/HER pp. 21 [4] Roussel, Louis (1989). La famille incertaine. Paris: Editions Odile Jacob, pp. 72 [5] de Singly, François (1993). Sociologie de la famille contemporaine. Paris: Nathan, pp. 86 [6] Barthelet, Bernadette (2006). Le coût juridique du non-mariage p. 106 in Barthelet Jacques

Arènes, Benoit Pierre, EID George, Chiti Jean – Marc, Lacroix Xavier, (2006), Quel avenir pour la famille? Le coût du non-mariage, Paris: Editeur Bayard

[7] Prioux France, Mazuy Magali (2009). L'évolution démographique récente en France. Quelques différences entre les départements d'outre-mer et la France métropolitaine, Population, 2011/3 Vol. 66, pp. 460).

[8] Apostu, Iulian (2013), The traditionalism of the modern family – socio-legal sense and counter sense in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 92, 10 October 2013, pp. 46–49

[9] Cohen, Jesica, Manning Wendy (2010). The relationship context of premarital serial cohabitation in Social Science Research, Volume 39, issue 5, September 2010


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Aspects of Meta-Reference and of Aesthetic Illusion in Film-Art

Arhip O.1 1 Ecological University, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This essay concentrates on applying the concept of meta-reference to the cinema. Two of the main

meta-referential devices are self-reflexivity and parergon, adapting from painting, literature, etc. to cinematography. They activate a modern way of addressing the diegetic audience. We comment upon these artistic implements and their effects in film-art (e.g. I. Bergman’s “Persona”, Woody Allen’s “The Purple Rose of Cairo”, and Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games”, “Caché”). Broken aesthetic illusions and diegetic frames make these movies especially suitable examples in which to analyze self-reflexive cinematographic devices. At a higher level of symbolic, diegetical and dramatic motivation, the device loses its anti-illusionist effect on the audience. The directors found ways to demonstrate that the characters in the movies are geminated by para-characters which are no longer able to see the difference between reality and fiction, believing that the world itself responds to a remote control and everything is rewindable. The screen-border is no longer a taboo. These movies do not highlight primarily the mimesis process, but the semiosis process, both of which arise from the European scientific and innovative traditions.

Keywords: artistic communication, meta-reference, parergon, cinematographic art, tradition, innovation.

Introduction – meta-reference and heteronymous image For many centuries the meta-referential phenomenon [1] has been present in humanities, but the

research work began later. Over the decades of the 20th century, fruitful essays have revealed meta-referential practice and strategy in other media-fields. As film-art is considered one of the latest, meta-reference became an explicit expression of self-consciousness during the ‘60s and afterwards. Besides the aspect of self-representation, it also involves dialectic forms (essence vs. appearance; truth vs. illusion; reality vs. image, object vs. sign) and the ambiguity of the aesthetic border. From the director’s point of view, self-reflexivity in cinema may be seen as a device revealing the enunciation, but, for the audience, it emphasis that it is watching a movie. This paper aims to highlight a broad human meta-capacity. Meta-reference in films has received little attention in Romanian studies. This oversight must be reformed. Film allows fruitful research in view of larger aims, namely to shed light on author’s self-consciousness filling few lacunae of the existing research.

1 Meta-referential approaches and methodological basis The contribution uses methods of visual semiotics (adapting functions and codes for artistic

communication) and of meta-referential theory [1], observing the dichotomy fictum (fiction centred metareference) – fictio (mediality centred metareference). We transfer several meta-devices from other arts to film not aspiring after a closed system. Prima facie it seems ideal to use pair-concepts applicable to all media; it does not exist yet a proper conceptual system for this particular subject. The results take the shape of visual semantics, revealing the relationship between visual signs and significances, and of pragmatic perspective emphasizing the relevance for the receivers. The contribution also capitalizes mythical, symbolic significances of a few filmic elements, trying to offer a more complete understanding of these innovative endeavours and correlating certain features with meanings. Assessing a kind of contemporary filmic syndrome de Clérambault, we underline the opposition between aesthetic norm and paradigmatic value of these cinema-masterpieces.

1.1. The Image Area – A Springboard between Fiction and Reality W. Allen’s movie “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985) is an obvious example of getting over from fiction

into reality and vice versa. The film’s character, Tom Baxter, emerges from the screen into the real life as he fell


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in love with the waitress Cecilia who has a bleak life, an unhappy marriage losing her into the fictional realm. Cecilia sublimates fiction and personages of the watched films. Allen’s movie deals with a kind of para-aesthetic reception-process. Cecilia is the chosen character who sees the imaginary structure and can live in it. She was convinced of Baxter’s statement: “In my world, people are self-consistent. You may rely on them” [2]. Allen also presents a very consistent world. The same is true for M. Haneke. In his movie, “Caché” (2005), the audience watches the home-life of Laurent family through a static camera installed on the street symbolically called Iris. Iris is the visual diaphragm of the eye controlling the amount of light reaching the retina. Mythological, Iris was the female messenger of the gods. The sight of the audience is presented metonymically by video cassettes and drawings sent to G. Laurent. The montage highlights the syncope of the sequences, so the audience experiences the delay-feeling, a bookish idle delivering. In his second film, “Funny Games” (1997/2007), a strange killing doublet (Peter and Paul) looks straight to the camera, talks to the audience and the director about their decision regarding the course of action and the predictable happy-end which it is not the case of their murder-game. In addition, Paul literally rewinds the film with a television remote and he goes for a turn in reality. According to the biblical perspective, Paul and Peter are martyrs revealing true knowledge and faith. Haneke inverts the original meanings and the normal evolution of the events. “Persona”, I. Bergman’s movie (1966), presents expressly a film take-up spool and the audience is asked to offer answers to the intellectual and emotional issues from this complex film. The screen is a penetrable diaphragm in all these artistic achievements.

1.2. The Language of the Image - Exergue We have noticed that the movie-director decided to use exergue for a better understanding and optical

investigation. An already mentioned example is the name of the street in “Caché” (Iris), and another one, in the same film, is the title of the movie watched by G. Laurent at the cinema (“The Brothers”). The allegoric title applies to the biblical brothers, Cain and Abel/G. Laurent and Majid. Regarding W. Allen’s movie, the exergue is: “Now playing The Purple Rose of Cairo” – it underlines the fictional crossing over of the characters. Above all, this is the clearest exergue [3] for self-reflexivity and meta-referential intention on behalf of the director.

2 Symbolical, mythical and stylistic aspects These films are rich in symbolic elements implying biblical or mythical significances. We identify them

and comment upon. The combinative perspectives of the directors are a strong proof of their intentions. They wish to modernize filmic art and to transform the audience into an active communication-partner. The communication is based on words, gestures, looks, symbolical or mythical clues, trompe l’œil, l’œil surpris [4], hors-d’œuvre or parergon, etc. which can be noticed and figured out by the audience. The spectator is embedded in the visual field where he finds his spiritual food. The illusionist character of the representation constitutes the source of intellectual pleasure. There is a prominent continuity between the representational level and the reality-level. The innovative directors have broken the Hollywood-standards and classic norms.

2.1. The Purple Rose The rose is a universal symbol of revival, love and accomplished perfection. [5] All these meanings

comply with Cecilia’s wishes and dreams. But they do not become true. Eventually, the movie itself is the Rose, the perfect, magical cinematographic jewel. Cecilia remained in her dreary life and her only offer for Tom Baxter/Gil Shephard is a merry-go-round standing for simulacra of the world. The purple colour represents the mystery of life, the nocturnal or feminine principle apprising for danger and rule violation. Woody Allen breaks the classical cinematographic norm.

2.2. The Video-Cassette In “Caché”, the family receives video cassettes revealing slices of their life and having a deceiving

designation of threat. In fact, this modern device stands for G. Laurent’s recollections of his wrongdoing against his adoptive brother during their childhood. The cassettes and the drawings are projections of this guilt and his remorse. His successful life cannot counter-balance the culpable past. His real sin is not his vanity, but his self-abandonment which is the main cause for not realizing the gravitas of his behaviour. G. Laurent, the contemporary Cain, is guilty of violation of xenia. The Greek term “xenia” refers to the ritualized friendship and hospitality, both of them being not observed by George.

2.3. The Cock In “Caché”, characters receive little pieces of paper with sketches of a blooded cock. The cock is

another symbol standing for vanity and reckless anger [5]. Laurent’s envy and hatred as a child against his


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adoptive brother, Majid, render the mythical conflict between Cain and Abel. The drawn blood figures Cain’s sacrifice in front of divinity, his tribute being not accepted. Georges Laurent holds up his sin and grief for the audience to see.

2.4. The Egg The egg is a symbol referring to primary reality containing plurality of human beings and the mystery of

existence. The egg constitutes a parallel anaphora [5] for the crime-games played by the doublet Paul and Peter in “Funny Games”. One of them goes to borrow eggs from the next victims. The egg epitomizes the seed of diversity [6]. “Funny Games” proposes the reverse of a happy-ending for a thriller. The new category of para-characters is represented by Paul and Peter. They act beyond fiction like a director’s tool-box. They wear white golf-clothes instead of the classical black helmets for negative personages, the dress-code announcing new rules for fiction. It resembles a paradox as the croquet-game from “Alice in Wonderland”. Paul and Peter violently attack the family, the brutality’s intensity being ascendant. The movie itself becomes a loaded gun and the onlookers are molested similar to the characters. The para-characters disobey all rules of a serial killer. They cut off justice and miraculous escape routes or techniques for survivors. The movie deconstructs the modality in which media present violence.

2.5. The Double or the Divided Self From a symbolic point of view, the double has an evil connotation pointing our enemy and foreboding

death [7]. The doublet came to Farbers’ vacation house and, after a bunch of lies-prologue, it took the family hostage. It represents the psychopathic enemy proposing sadistic games during the next twelve hours. After the innocent guess-game played by the family before reaching their vacation retreat, the double initiates them into games involving mental and physical violence. The characters finally die and this strongly argues against the traditional film-pattern presenting violence. Although the double is not formed by twins, there is a certain emphatic likeness between Peter and Paul. It may symbolize the ambivalence of the twins, a specific aspect for a turning point [6]; they decide the future, maintaining a very tense atmosphere. Another connotation of their arrival to the house and on the screen may be the one specific to the director as a “visitor” into his own creation. Becoming a semiotic instrument, he creates his self-portrait as an iconoclast and contextualized film-director (Montaigne: “So, my reader, I’m the very dough of my book” [7]).

2.6. The Golf-Game In “Funny Games”, golf is a metaphor for life-course. This sport does not require a standardized playing

area, but it involves rules and hazard (unplayable situations). Paul and Peter play life-and-death golf on the neighbourhood-field, the families being the holes. They also play golf with the Farbers, their deaths being holes. The final scene in which the wife fails to save her life being thrown from the boat is very figurative. The move resembles a skilled stroke of a golfer and her fall is like the roll of the ball into a hole. During their discussion with the Fabers, the doublet imposes rules and a precise lapse in order to win the game. Inter-textual syntagmatic combinations can be noticed while the game is taking place. The standard plot is reversed and disestablished; the general assembly being a different one. The common thriller and the intellectual-film constitute in absentia rapport. They are mutually exclusive. The director also uses a sophism extra dictionem [8]. The relative elements are intermingled with the absolute ones as in “Alice in Wonderland”. The cinematographic sophism highlights technè, the art itself as the real subject of any film.

2.7. The Silent Character Bergmar’s character, the actress Elisebeth Vogler, is healthy in all her aspects, but she does not talk.

Symbolically, silence is openness to revelation and a passageway [6], being characteristic for the lapse preceding and following the creative activity. It adds loftiness to Elisebeth’s formal behaviour. The ex-actress plays the part of her real life and nurse Alma (“soul”) has the role of delivering monologues. The illusionist artistic effect presents commendable scenes introducing us to a dual character. E. Vogler reveals the appearance of the protagonist and Alma discloses the inside aspect, evoking interiority. The sequences, in which the husband is present, are eloquent for the existence of a single personage. This movie focuses on getting from the surface of a personage into its inner world. The non-verbal aspects are very conclusive. Bergman produced a kind of silent-film based on corporal alliterations reinforcing referential value. Such insights touch upon the unconscious causing strong emotions to the audience. The meta-representation enriches the paradigm of personages. Elisebeth vanishes in her inner depth and the screen mirrors only gloom and death [9]. The audience deals both with the disclosure and the concealment of the character.


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2.8. Screen and Camera - Parergon The directors’ camera is the door for our fictional entering and the characters’ reality disclosure. The

relationship between cinematographic fiction and the reality of the onlookers has become a meta-artistic one. The movie itself is a parergon [10]. The directors bring to light the stagy elements and challenge the onlookers to become active partners in the artistic communication. The lens of the camera has become an aesthetic border. It plays the role of a window, a door or of any other kind of specular surface as in painting or architecture. We deal with the awakening of self-consciousness of the new cinema resting upon three convergent features: illusionist representation, theme of vanity of action/story and the meta-referential aspect. The lens of the camera emphasizes the hiatus between two different spiritual attempts to deal with cinematographic art [11].

3 Conclusions

3.1 Result - New Concept and Terminological Tools in the Romanian Aesthetic Theory

The concept meta-film is as fruitful as other meta-approaches in arts requiring more consideration. Our “carefree approach” [12] brings it into attention of Romanian public and research-area, but there is a long way to go before entering a large-scale dialogue. The previous essays focussed on product, production, reception or consumption [13]. We point out that the onlookers are challenged to interpret, answer and act as diegetic audience, the border between reality and fiction being intentionally vulnerable. The essay highlights a multitude of symbols, connotations, mythical implications, visual and meaningful perspectives revealed for the first time. It also points out the fact that film-art struggles for a specific autonomy.

3.2 Current Deficiencies and Future Intents The artistic communication must take into account self-reflexivity and self-reference in cinema. In

many cases, self-reflexivity refers not to the film itself, but rather to a film within a film. The film-image presents itself as being aware of its image-character and it expresses the desideratum of acceding to a superior existential level. A valid issue for further approaches will be the difficulty to range the variety of aesthetic filmic forms and effects. A major task is to determine the functions of various meta-devices in different cultural, mental and historical contexts.

3.3 Anticipating the Model-Spectator Meta-representation must take into account the different media, the message being a specific artistic

work which lays itself into a particular cultural context, code and channel [14]. It also requires a receiver with valuable cognitive skills who is capable of decoding the message. He deciphers a new syntax on the syntagmatic axis of images. The act of viewing is a complex transaction between the viewer and a kind of competence which posits a film to be watched in an “economic manner” [15]. This enhances understanding and the viewing pleasure is supported by the context. Semiotic methods draw upon more than mere comparisons, metaphors or analogies.

References [1] Wolf, W. (2009). Metareference across Media. Theory and Case Studies. Rodopi, Amsterdam-

New York. [2] X X X (2013). Woody Allen in dialog cu Stig Björkman. Publica, Bucuresti, p. 169. [3] Stoichita, V. I. (2013). Instaurarea tabloului. Metapictura in zorii Timpurilor moderne. Humanitas,

Bucuresti, p. 22 [4] Siguret, F. (1993). L’œuil surpris. Perception et représentation dans la première moitié du XVII-

éme siècle, Klincksieck, Paris. [5] Gardent, C. (1996). Anaphores parallèles et thechniques de resolution. Paris, Larousse, p. 75. [6] Chevalier, J., Gheerbrant, A. (1995). Dictionar de simboluri. Artemis, Bucuresti, vol. III, pp. 176-

178, vol. I, pp. 345-347, vol. II, pp. 390-395, vol. I, pp. 471-472, vol. III, p. 343, vol. II, p. 87. [7] Montaigne (2012). De la vanité. Gallimard, Paris. [8] Petreu, M. (2013). Jocurile manierismului logic. Polirom, Iasi, pp. 73-74. [9] Poulet, G. (1987). Metamorfozele cercului. Univers, Bucuresti, p. 249.


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[10] Dragomirescu, Gh. N. (1975). Mica enciclopedie a figurilor de stil. Editura stiintifica si enciclopedica, Bucuresti, p. 56.

[11] Arhip, O. (2013). Film, Life and Meta-referential Inferences. Theatrical Colloquia 15, Iasi, pp. 256-262.

[12] Metz, Ch. (1991). L’Enonciation impersonnelle ou le site du film. Paris, Méridiens Klincksieck. [13] Withalm, G. (2007). The Self-Reflexive Screen: Outlines of a Comprehensive Model.

Nöth/Bishara, eds.3-125. [14] Nöth, W. (2007). Self-reference in the Media: The Semiotic Framework, Nöth/Bishara, eds. 3-

30. [15] Eco, U. (2011). Confesiunile unui tânăr romancier. Iaşi, Polirom, p. 49.


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Constitutional Challenges of EU Accession: the Case of Macedonia

Azizi A.1 1 Associate Professor (REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA) [email protected]

Abstract Usually, states make constitutional changes to find solutions to problems that arise over time, and to

adjust the main Act Constitution according to the real needs of citizens. Moreover, countries that wish to join any international organisation, have an additional obligation to harmonise their national legislation in conformity with the rules of that organisation. Specifically, this paper will focus on the need for constitutional changes, and what states must do as a result of their accession to the European Union (EU), according to the rules for admission. So while Macedonia has been a candidate-country for EU membership since 2005, it is logical to analyse the need for the changes to be made, as well as further activities of the state in the process of euro-integration. The objective of this paper is to affect, in raising the awareness of citizens, but also the responsibility of policy-makers in Macedonia, a concrete and transparent approach on the need for constitutional changes as a result of the country's future integration into the EU. Since EU membership requires a number of changes which the state should undertake, in this paper the provisions of the current Macedonian Constitution are analysed, which are questionable and need revision, according to the principles of supremacy and the direct implementation of EU legislation in national legislation. A survey, a standardised questionnaire, was carried out in order to obtain the opinion of the citizens of Macedonia on the possibility of constitutional changes related to EU integration. Finally I draw some conclusions and make some suggestions.

Keywords: Constitutional Changes, Republic of Macedonia, European Union.

Introduction This paper presents a combination of theoretical and empirical research, due to the nature of the

problem being treated here. The first part analyses the theoretical aspect that concerns the experience of member states of the EU on constitutional changes during their accession to the EU, while the second part presents an empirical research that relates to the case of Macedonia as a candidate country for EU membership.

Membership of the EU, or preparation for accession requires specific constitutional challenges due to the specific features of the EU legal system. While some of the necessary constitutional adaptations derive from concrete requirements of the acquis comunautaire (and are thus specifically addressed in the accession negotiations, in separate chapters), other constitutional implications result from the general impact of EU membership on the domestic constitutional and legal system (such as changes in the balance between the executive and Parliament, changes in the internal distribution of competences, as well as participation in the EU decision-making process and the implementation of EU law). [1] This means the overall preparation for accession and membership, i.e. a provision permitting the transfer of sovereign powers to the EU. Each country has to decide for itself how to identify or create a constitutional basis for membership limiting its own sovereignty by authorising the application of sources of EU law within its own legal system. By contrast, for the accession countries, these specific issues of constitutional character, such as EU citizens’ rights, and the question of extradition and the EU Arrest Warrant, already arise during the screening process and the following accession negotiations related to separate negotiation chapters.

The experience of EU member states on constitutional changes Most member states have adopted specific constitutional ‘integration clauses’, by which they have

authorised the transfer of sovereign powers to the EU to exercise these powers instead of the state institutions. The Constitutions of Hungary (art. 2A), Latvia (art. 68), Slovakia (art. 7) and Slovenia (art. 3a) are among those which expressly mention the transfer to the EU in their texts.


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Usually, the transfer of sovereign powers to the EU requires Parliamentary approval derogations in the internal distribution of powers and, in some cases, referendum requirements in case of ratification of major Treaty amendments or prior constitutional amendment. According to the Dutch Constitution, an ordinary law is sufficient for the transfer of powers to international organisations (art. 92); in the case of a contrast with the Constitution such a transfer is subject to a higher majority requirement, i.e. a 2/3 majority (art. 91). [2] In the Constitutions of Hungary (art. 2A), Slovenia (art. 3a), and Latvia (art. 68), there is also foreseen a 2/3 majority -requirement for Parliamentary approval of the delegation of powers to the EU.

In addition to Parliamentary approval, the requirement of holding a referendum for fundamental decisions has been introduced in some Constitutions, e.g. in Latvia (art. 69), and in Portugal, where art. 8 of the Constitution pertains to the application of EU law within the Portuguese legal system, and art. 295 of the Constitution allows for holding a referendum.

Some Constitutions offer a choice in cases of Treaty revisions between approval by a qualified majority in Parliament, or a referendum. In Denmark, Constitution (art. 20) makes the transfer of State competences to international organisations dependent on prior Parliamentary approval by reaching the extraordinarily high threshold of a 5/6 majority in Parliament. In Poland, Constitution (art. 90) also offers two alternative procedures for reaching the authorisation of a transfer of State competences: the Polish Parliament can choose between Parliamentary approval with a 2/3 majority or a referendum (art. 44).

Some Constitutions require express constitutional amendments prior to the transfer of competences. This has been clarified in France by a judgment of the French Conseil Constitutionnel in 1992, which interpreted art. 55 as requiring formal amendments, at least in the case of the transfer of additional competences. [3] Thus, in 1992 art. 88-1 was inserted into the French Constitution, permitting the transfer of powers. Further articles with the new title on integration are dedicated to single constitutional implications of membership, such as the rules on the European Arrest Warrant (art. 88-2), the extension of voting rights in local elections to EU citizens (art. 88-3), and changes in institutional relations reacting to the innovations in the Lisbon Treaty, such as simplified revision procedures or subsidiary control (articles 88-4, 88-6, 88-7). In addition, the ratification of future Treaties of accession with new members will be subject to a referendum in France (art. 88-5).

The necessity of prior constitutional amendment can also be combined with a referendum. Each significant change to EU Treaties requires an amendment to the Irish constitution (always by means of a referendum) before they can be ratified. Ireland has held constitutional referendums for every new Treaty, and for every time a separate paragraph is attached to art. 29 of the Constitution listing the constitutional changes due to the ratification of international treaties. In October 2009, the 28th Amendment of the Irish Constitution (Treaty of Lisbon) Bill 2009 was passed in Ireland’s most recent referendum. [4]

From the EU perspective, the primacy of EU law cannot be limited by the nature of contrasting national legislation; national ‘reservations’ to the uniform application of EU law cannot be accepted in any case, not even those regarding constitutional principles.

The need for constitutional changes in EU accession countries The annual Progress Reports by the EU Commission for the Western Balkan countries highlight the

necessity for specific amendments to the Constitutions in various areas, closely acquis-related, or of a more general nature; very prominent among these are the independence of the judiciary and the strengthening of Parliamentary oversight over the government. While most of these concerns have to be addressed by ordinary legislation, some questions are constitutional in nature and thus need regulation at a constitutional level.

Constitutional change might also be necessary for the guarantee of the rights resulting from EU citizenship, in particular residence rights and voting rights of EU citizens. Putting these rights into place to ensure EU citizens’ rights to vote and stand as candidates in municipal and European Parliamentary elections, requires the harmonisation of the provisions of the Constitution, laws and other regulations, which regulate the exercise of the right to vote, according to the acquis, and especially Council Directives 94/80/EC and 93/109/EC.

As a consequence of the implementation of the Framework Decision on the EU Arrest Warrant (EAW), creating a facilitated possibility of extradition to other EU Member States has become an obligation, and has already been addressed during the accession negotiations (chapter 24). Although national legislation in contrast with EU legislation cannot be applied due to the supremacy of EU law, controversies might arise from the fact that the contrasting national prohibition is at a constitutional level. [5] Leaving this question unresolved will inevitably result in challenges to courts and constitutional conflict. [6] Despite their clear wording, existing prohibitions might be interpreted in conformity with the EU arrest warrant system; otherwise they have to be changed.

Croatia has amended its Constitution allowing the extradition of its nationals. [7] According to art. 33 of the Croatian Constitution, in July 2010 Croatia also amended the Act on judicial cooperation in criminal matters. [8]


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Necessary change might also affect internal institutional balances and thus extend to other parts of the Constitution. Comparative experience demonstrates that this might lead to the establishment of new, specialised institutions (e.g. Parliamentary Committees or a Ministry for European Affairs). Parliaments can participate in the European decision-making process and need to create institutional structures, adequate procedures and administrative capacity. [9]

The case of Macedonia as a candidate country for EU membership Although up to now many laws have been harmonised in more fields, Macedonia so far has not made

efforts in the constitutional changes needed in the way of its Euro-integration. Specifically, there should be added to the Constitution of Macedonia a new chapter that will deal with relations with the EU, or art. 111 should be amended, since it does not provide supremacy in terms of the direct effect of EU law in the country. Regarding this, art 1. of the Constitution should also be amended,, which among others emphasises that ‘state sovereignty, is indivisible, inalienable and undisputed’. The principle of supremacy in the EU implies a change to this article, and in that way, this article will have to ensure the priority of EU law, but also the transfer of sovereignty to EU institutions in areas defined by the founding treaties of the EU. In Art. 8, which numbered the fundamental values of the constitutional order, the last paragraph should be changed and provide answers to potential conflict between national and the international law; namely priority should be given to EU law versus national law.

This study is a survey design study. Citizens answered two questions, in which they expressed their opinions about the questions posed on this issue. In order to see how this topic is important, we carried out a questionnaire (in June 2013) with 1115 citizens in Macedonia. For all the respondents selected, the demographic, ethnic, gender and geographic characteristics of the country were respected.

Table 1: The citizens’ opinion on the Constitutional changes

Answer Question Yes No No Answer

1. Does Macedonia have a harmonized legislation with EU Law? 49% 22% 29%

2. Do you think that Macedonia should change its Constitution as a result of European integration processes?

35% 41% 24%

Conclusion Membership in the EU means transformation from independent states into ‘interdependent’ and

‘integrated states’. [10] Candidate countries for EU membership, such as Macedonia, among others, in addition to the harmonisation of their laws, should make the necessary constitutional changes, to be prepared on a legal basis for the application of EU legislation in their country. Macedonian citizens are not against legal changes that should be made in accordance with EU law, whereas, when it comes to constitutional amendments, they are more hesitant because of the transfer of sovereignty. This relates to the lack of an open campaign by the Government to promote a greater awareness of citizens about the benefits of EU membership and for the duties arising from this process; to understand this process as a normal thing for all aspirant countries who want to be part of the big European family.

References [1] Woelk, J. (2011). Constitutional Challenges of EU Accession for South East European Applicant

Countries: A Comparative Approach, Trento/Bolzano, p.3 [2] Besselink, L. (2007). The Dutch Constitution, the European Constitution and the Referendum in

the Netherlands, in A. Albi and J. Ziller (eds.), The European Constitution and National Constitutions. Ratification and Beyond, Kluwer Law International, The Hague

[3] Grabenwarter, Ch. (2006). National Constitutional Law Relating to the European Union, in v. Bogdandy/Bast, Principles of European Constitutional Law, Oxford, p.113 et seq.

[4] Barrett, G.M. (2008). Is a Second Referendum Appropriate in Order to Allow Ireland to Ratify the Treaty of Lisbon? Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1263300


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[5] Pollicino, O. (2008). European Arrest Warrant and Constitutional Principles of the Member States: a Case Law-Based Outline in the Attempt to Strike the Right Balance between Interacting Legal Systems, German Law Journal, Vol. 09 No. 10, pp.1313-1355.

[6] Kühn, Z. (2007). The European Arrest Warrant: Third Pillar Law and National Constitutional Resistance/Acceptance. The EAW Saga as Narrated by the Constitutional Judiciary in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, in Croatian Yearbook of European Law and Policy, Vol.3/No.3, pp.99–133.

[7] EU Commission, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 2011 Progress Report, p. 66 [8] EU Commission, Croatia 2010 Progress Report, p. 56. [9] Albi, A. (2007). Supremacy of EC Law in the New Member States: Bringing Parliaments into the

Equation of 'Co-operative constitutionalism', European Constitutional Law Review, pp.25-67. [10] Hofmann, A. (2009). Von der Transformation zur Kooperationsoffenheit? Beiträge zum

ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, Bd.206, p.526


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Reengineering in Romanian Media Organizations

Badea M.1 1 Faculty of Political Sciences, Letters and Communication, Valahia University of Târgovişte (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract In the context of the economic crisis, the fierce competitive market and a declining advertising industry,

media institutions have real difficulties to sustain themselves afloat. On the other hand, many media companies are organized according to a conventional organizational structure, as defined by Adam Smith. This departmental organization is not able to react quickly to current conditions on the market. Media organizations would have to (re)construct in order to be flexible, efficient and business processes oriented. This paper shows how, by applying reengineering, media organizations can “reinvent” themselves in order to face competition in a changing world.

Keywords: media industry, media organization, reengineering, process orientation, Romania.

1 Introduction In Romania, the media industry is facing a paradigmatic crisis generated, in particular by the economic

one, but, according to some experts, we can also take into account the structural crisis in the organization. Fierce competition, public behavioral changes, technological developments (digitization press), declining advertising market are factors that deepen the crisis due to economic instability. On the other hand, a lot of managers in Romanian media are prisoners of bureaucratic mentality often being unable to react to the effects induced by profile changes and market dynamics.

Media organizations should be redesigned so as to be able to react quickly to each new situation. The scientific literature on this specific field does not reveal any concrete models or applications that could improve or resolve structural crises identified in current media organizations. Starting with the concept of reengineering, presented by Hammer and Champy, the aim of this paper, conducted by observation method, focuses on a predictive hypothesis that could be tested in the media industry: the sales and editorial structures to be interdependent integrated in the reengineering process.

2 Romanian Media landscape According to the Activity Report of the National Audiovisual Council in 2012 [1], in Romania activate,

629 radio stations and 361 television stations. Also, according to the same report, there are 3625 cable television networks in 9824 localities (71% of all villages in the country). In the same time, 2569 publications are audited by the Romanian Audit Bureau Transmedia [2], but the number is much higher. Although there is no official data on new media publications, it can be noted that on 30 June 2012 [3], there were 9,642,383 internet users, representing 44.1% of the total population, below the European average of 63.2%. These figures place Romania in the European ranking tail. By comparison, we can cite the Netherlands with 92.9% of the total population of Internet users, or the same parameters, France with 79.6% and Bulgaria with 51%. Regarding the budget of the industry, the advertising market for 2013 is estimated around $ 295 million, compared to $ 303 million in 2012, according to the study Media Fact Book [4]. Proportionally, the money are split 64 % for television, online media 14%, 10% market outdoor, print and radio’s 7% respectively 6%. From these statistics it appears that, although not at the competition level in the West, the media industry in Romania is quite diversified, assuming the budget of the advertising market but even less than in most European Union countries. If we join these aspects and organizational crisis experienced by most media institutions, inserted in departmental structure type, we can argue that a viable solution to this deadlock can be fundamental rethinking processes.


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3 Reengineering in Romanian Media Adapting the media definition of reengineering presented by Hammer and Champy [5], Paul Marinescu

[6] considers that “Reengineering for the media, means the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of processes for collecting, processing, transmission or distribution of information of interest (for) public and persuading prospective ad (where appropriate) in order to obtain an improvement (profitable) spectacular cost, quality and speed”. Hammer and Champy [5] consider that in the definition of reengineering there are four keywords:

“Fundamental” After analyzing the current situation, managers assess whether business management rules are outdated,

misleading or inappropriate, and if they find this, must ignore what is already and focus on what they should do. “Radical” Reengineering means reinventing the company, not improving, developing or modifying activity. “Spectacular” Generally, reengineering approaches the firms who experience great difficulties, those who anticipate

the occurrence of big difficulties and organizations that are in great shape and want to secure supremacy, and to strengthen themselves and to extend it.

“Processes” In many cases, managers are concentrated on structures (departments, functions) and do not think in

terms of process (the activity trough which one or more entries turns out as outputs into products that have value for the customer). In other words, the manager is so bureaucratic that actually neglects the fact that he has to make a competitive product.

Essentially, according to the hypothesis proposed in this paper`s introduction, media managers must undertake reengineering in order to fully meet clients needs (public and advertisers) and thereby to spectacular reposition themselves in the market (for instance - by consistent increased audience and / or incomes).Therefore, we believe that through reengineering implementation the sales structure that targets advertisers as clients and editorial structures which target the public as client (we consider the public as client because, indirectly, by measuring audiences/market share, the public influence the advertising earnings) will be spectacularly efficient. The solution we propose is that the two structures (sales and editorial) to be interdependent integrated in the reengineering process. Presented below is a flowchart of a small radio station [7] (Fig. 1):

Fig.1. Flowchart of a small radio station

Owner

Executive Director

Studio / Promotion Director

AdministrationSales

Director

Seller 1 Seller 2 Seller n

News / Sport

Show 1

Show n Advertising scheduling

Technical Production


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The above organization represents a classical pyramidal Adam Smith type structure (who believed that the supreme benefits are coming from the division of labour). Hammer and Champy showed [5] that “Today all companies (...) are structure based on the central idea of Smith labour division or specialization - and, as a consequence of work fragmentation. The bigger the company, the more specialized the worker and the more separated are the steps that work is fragmented in (...). These workers don’t execute a work entirely, they just execute scattered tasks”. In the presented example can be observed that the two structures are separated from the top management (Studio Director, in charge of the editorial part and Sales Director). Fragmentation of work, in this case, is obvious.

For example, in the case of this radio station, the information is gathered by the reporter, who present it in raw form to the editorial staff, then, hand it to the news editor who hand it to an editor on duty, he/she processes it alone or with a technician, and then is sent it to the news presenter, who broadcast it in news bulletin, after approval of the coordinating editor. Meanwhile, the sale team is not aware if the news is important or not (may be a breaking news) and may miss placing an expensive advertisements in the news bulletin neighbourhood. The same thing can happen also for shows, when sales people can miss the placement of advertising during a program containing an interview with a personality or a celebrity, for example. These situations could be avoided if we intend to apply reengineering by changing the work units: from functional departments to process teams, modifying thus the hierarchical organizational structures that become flat. A solution that we propose is the following (Fig. 2):

Input 1 (Information) Output 1 (News) (Process n) Input n (Information, music) Output n (Show / Transmission)

Fig.2. Work processes after applying reengineering

We can see in this example several aspects: - Pyramidal structure became flat, processes-oriented; - Interdepartmental work is transformed in a work process (1 ... n); - Top management does not interfere in the work process; - Executive Director became a leader; - Work Processes (1 ... n) are executed by reengineering teams; - Reengineering teams are led by process owners, in our case by coordinating editor or producer

(underlined in Fig. 2). “Reinventing” radio station, in the same idea as our example, brings several advantages and benefits: - Top management will deal, in particular, with editorial / sales radio station policy; - Bosses pressure is avoided, the work being independent in accordance with editorial / sales radio

station policy; - Work is no longer fragmented; they work as a team; - Newly created structures are more flexible and can cope more easily, without bureaucracy, to each

new situation; - The editorial and sales structures are harmonized and can effectively sell space for advertising. In the new structure, the leader (Executive Director) asks to the media organization to implement the

reengineering and sets new targets, as never before then (e.g. consistent growth for audiences and sales). He does not make other people do what he wants, but makes people want what he wants [5]. The leader identifies activities that has to be redesigned and transformed in work processes and assigns owners who will direct these processes. The task of a process owner (coordinating editor and producer) is not to do reengineering, but to monitor that it is done. Reengineering ideas and plans are put in practice by reengineering teams that are independent. Team members need to break old bonds (departmental, as shown in Fig. 1), so to be loyal to the

Reengineering team 1 Reporter, technical, editor, coordinating editor, presenter, promoter, sales person

Reengineering team n Producer, musical editor, technical, promoter, sales person


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work process (as shown in Fig. 2). Basically, teams are formed with people from the old departments, which now create well-defined work processes. In this way, the two oldest independent structures (editorial and sales) are now transformed into interdependent teams, flexible and with a common goal: to grow audience and sales quotas (till the reengineering implementation the staff of the editorial structure was only interested in audience and sales representatives were interested only in advertising market).

In essence, in the new structure, the leader will act as a visionary leader and as a current opinion maker, the reengineering team “reinvents” the company's activity and processes owners will engage, inspire and advise the teams [5].

4 Conclusions Classical organization by departments of media companies, according to which the activity is broken

down into simple operations, fragmented, is at this moment, a rigid structure, tied up with patterns, in the context of overwhelming transformations of the industry. They are not able to respond strongly to current challenges and to future updates in this field. The hypothesis proposed in this paper could be tested in media companies so that they can “reinvent” themselves by applying reengineering. Process orientation could optimize the activity of media companies, thus achieving spectacular results for the two industry specific indicators: audience and sales.

References [1] www.cna.ro/Raport_anual_2012.html, accessed on October 25, 2013. [2] http://www.brat.ro/audit-circulation/figures-circulation/, accessed on October 25, 2013. [3] http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa.htm#ro, accessed on October 25, 2013. [4] www.mediafactbook.ro, accessed on October 25, 2013. [5] Hammer, M., Champy J. (1996). Reenginering-ul (Reproiectarea) întreprinderii, Editura Tehnică,

Bucureşti, pp. 57, 57-60, 36-37, 130, 128-134. [6] Marinescu, P., coord. (1999). Managementul instituţiilor de presă din România. Teorie, practică

şi studii de caz, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, p. 99. [7] Haas M.H., Frigge U., Zimmer G. (2001). Radio management. Manualul jurnalistului de radio,

Editura Polirom, Iaşi, p. 421.


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Gender Equality in Europe. Comparative Approach

Bădălău A.G.1, Neacșu C.R.2 1 PhD. Candidate at University of Târgoviște (ROMANIA) 2 PhD. Candidate at “Ovidius” University of Constanta (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Gender Equality in the European Union develops to a polemically debated subject in Europe.

Accordingly, the impact of the European Union on current but also possible member states is still not clear. The theory of the New Institutionalism offers a framework founded on three items: Institutions, Interests and Ideas exposing instruments but also channels of the European Union for exercising its influence. Case studies developed on Romania, Lithuania and Poland prove the tendencies of gender (in-) equality indices refined by two major institutions: the United Nations together with the World Economic Forum. Gender Equality was in a positive manner influenced by the EU, generally via Regulatory Frameworks but also via Positive Conditionality. Meanwhile Gender Equality is introduced by Institutions and Interests, the third indicator: Ideas, settles it in society via rules and values. Better outcomes as far as Gender Equality in Europe is concerned could be attained in case that the European Union reaches a higher level of supranationality.

Keywords: Gender Equality, European Union, Romania, Lithuania, Poland, New Institutionalism.

Introduction Gender Equality can be found in the fundamental principles of the European Union reflected since 1957

when the Treaty of Rome was signed. Although it was an early acknowledged, so far it can be seen that little progress was achieved. There are three various basic concepts within the theory of New Institutionalism: Institutions, Interests and Ideas is based on. New Institutionalism offers an important theoretical framework as far as the analysis of the European Union’s influence on Gender Equality is concerned, because it constitutes categories that provides an in depth discussion of various important dimensions.

However, meanwhile the role of Institutions are better connected to Historical Institutionalism, the debate regarding Interests is improved after a look at the Rational Choice Institutionalism [1]. Although at first sight it could appear as rather unclear, the debate regarding Ideas is going to play a major role in the evolution of Gender Equality both on the national and worldwide level. The setting of Ideas emerges from the Sociological Institutionalism [2].

After establishing a theoretical framework for the analysis, more detailed background knowledge is offered for the comprehensive concept of Gender Equality, which proves quite challenging because it is rather “contested ideal notoriously open to a variety of interpretations” [3] (Jagger 1990, p. 239). For the purpose of this research, the definition of the European Commission will be used, according to which, Gender is defined as “the social differences or roles allotted to women and to men, roles that are learned as we are growing up, change over time, and depend on our culture, ethnic origin, religion, education, class and the geographical, economic and political environment we live in. These models of behaviour set the standard and influence that we are apart from our sex” [4]. All in all, European Commission means through Gender Equality “that the different behavior, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and favored and do not give rise to different consequences that reinforce inequalities” [4].

Considering the above definition of Gender Equality, in this study was carefully considered the socialist past of the countries analyzed, as this represented a crucial moment in the understanding of Gender Equality in the context of communism. The discussion of Gender Equality in Europe is important because gender policies in communist states were unique. Thus, in terms of higher education, the female participation rate reached 70 % [5], although they had a “double burden”, apart from employment women being also responsible for the house, family work, children and elderly. However, the accession process enhances the European Union with power in terms of Gender Equality in the Member States.


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1.1 Purpose, Problem of Research and Research Focus The most important aim of the research consists in the development of an answer to the overall research

issue concerning the influence of the European Union on Gender Equality in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The below research questions will be used: (1) How did Gender Equality develop in Central and South-Eastern Europe? and (2) How did the European Union influence Gender Equality in Central and South-Eastern Europe?

Following the steps of the chosen setting of Institutions, Interests and Ideas particular channels of the European Union to make use of its influence on current Member States are introduced. Every selected country is analysed in connection to the following channels: Legal Setting, ECJ, Positive Conditionality, Europeanization as well as Gender Mainstreaming. Therefore, Legal Setting together with Positive Conditionality are considered driving channels of the European Union’s impact on Gender Equality in Central and South-Eastern Europe.

2 Methodology of research For the accomplishment of the research objective, the above mentioned questions have been chosen and

are going to be applied to the specific cases of the three analysed countries. This systematic comparison allows the researcher to generalize and connect the conclusions to the wider case of Central and South Eastern Europe. The comparison focuses only on the mentioned countries, time span and Gender (In-) Equality indices. This system has several predefined variables in close connection to the theory of New Institutionalism and its components. For applying this methodology, different sources of research will be considered. On the one hand primary sources such as: legal texts, indices of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the United Nations (UN) as well as the World Economic Forum. On the other hand, reports from the European Commission as well as annual reports regarding the progress of the analyzed EU Member States.

3 Results

3.1 The Case of Romania Regarding the Legal Setting, it seems that “there is no public information available on developments

related to the case law on gender equality. The Romanian courts do not publish their decisions, hence it is very difficult to assess to what extent the gender equality law is being enforced.” [6] However, the Romanian legislation is to a certain level aligned with the acquis in the area of gender equality. Nevertheless, constant efforts must be made for establishing regulatory bodies capable of promoting equal treatment. One step forward can be considered the adoption of the National Strategy for Equality between Men and Women from March 2010, even if, so far remains at a declarative level.

As far as ECJ is concerned, because of the missing cases forwarded to this court, no impact could be noticed up to now.

A difficult task remains the Europeanization with its two facets: Rational Choice Institutionalism implemented through the adoption of several directives and the sociological perspective which is by far more difficult. In Romania Europeanization can be seen as a spill-over of EU rules and ideas.

As a conclusion, one can assume that the EU policies impacted Romanian regulation due to the close surveillance of the EU in period of pre-accession, but also in the post accession period, when improvement did continue even if the Gender Equality concept did not focus on Gender specifically. A positive trend can be observed, but skepticism still exists.

3.2 The Case of Lithuania The Lithuanian legal framework adopted several changes from 1998 when, the Lithuania’s parliament

implemented the directive on equal opportunities for women and men (1998) appointing an ombudsman one year later. In spite of this, according to the European Commission, “Lithuania's capacity to enforce the social acquis once adopted still constitutes a source of concern” [7]. One year later, the European Commission praised the results of the ombudsman. In 2002, the European Commission admitted that “Lithuania’s legislation is now almost fully in line with the acquis” regarding Gender Equality [8]. Sedelmeier [9] and Davulis [10] are very positive regarding the achievements of Lithuania with regards to Gender Equality.

Similar to the Romanian case, no cases of Lithuanian court were forwarded to the ECJ, therefore, external influence from other judgments cannot be excluded.

One more time, Europeanization is difficult to measure, especially since Gender Equality standards were implemented quite early, if we consider the Women’s Advancement Program from 1996, therefore, adopted before the EU accession process.


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In terms of Gender Mainstreaming, there are multiple initiatives dealing with issues in the areas of employment, poverty, education, decision-making and violence. In this vein, the European Structural Funds played a major role in projects regarding labor market and reintegration of women. Index values and general trends concerning Gender Equality are positive which makes us conclude that the European Union had a major impact on the policymaking in Lithuania.

3.3 The Case of Poland In 2000, the European Commission advised Poland to pay urgent attention regarding the issue of equal

treatment for women and men [11]. Three years later, the EU admitted the progress has been made but pleaded in favor of new amendments with regards to employment and social security. [12] Zielinska concludes: “... when it comes to the transposition of particular EU concepts and regulations, despite several, consecutive amendments, they still show many inadequacies and deficiencies” [13]. To sum up, the adoption of national law along with the aquis communitaire was not fully achieved, which means that, if it were not for the EU Commission even less would have been done.

With regard to the ECJ, things are similar to Romania and Lithuania. Europeanization is still a difficult topic or even unlikely. Thus, according to the GGGI, Gender Equality

experienced some progress regarding political empowerment, but the other areas: education, health and survival did not register any progress.

Regarding Gender Mainstreaming, some organizations and foundations were founded, many of them engaging in this topic. The negative thing is that they focused rather on equal opportunities on the labour market instead of being involved in various Gender Mainstreaming projects. Policies concerning Gender Equality in Poland do not meet the expectations of the EU. As a concluding remark, the European Union with its powerful concept of Positive Conditionality saw some progress, but these policies still need time and effort.

4 Conclusions The study of the three EU Member States: Romania, Lithuania and Poland provides further perspective

concerning the European Union’s impact on Gender Equality policies in the above mentioned Member States. The research setting is made up of Institutions, Interests and Ideas representing three important instruments of the EU to exert its influence via different channels. There are two channels based on Institutions: Legal Setting and the ECJ, two channels based on Interests: Europeanization and Positive Conditionality and two channels based on Ideas: Europeanization and Gender Mainstreaming.

According to the results of the research, Positive Conditionality and Legal Setting represents the channels with the biggest impact, at the opposed pole being the ECJ. As for the others, Gender Mainstreaming appears as a EU fund provider and not as lived, meanwhile Europeanization is rather linked to the progress achieved by Institutions- and Interests-based channels rather then causing any effects by itself.

References [1] Hall, Peter A & Rosemary C. R. Taylor, 1996: “Political Science and the Three New

Institutionalism”. MPIFG Discussion Paper 96(6). [Electronic] Available: http://www.mpifg.de/pu/mpifg_dp/dp96-6.pdf , retrieved on 02.07.2013.

[2] March, James G. & Johan P. Olsen, 2006: “Elaborating the New Institutionalism”. University of Oslo: Centre for European Studies. [Electronic] Available: http://www.cpp.amu.edu.pl/pdf/olsen2.pdf, retrieved on 02.07.2013.

[3] Jaggar, Alison M., 1990: “Sexual difference and sexual equality” in Rhode, Deborah L. (ed): Theoretical perspectives on sexual difference, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

[4] European Commission, 2004: “Equal Guide on Gender Mainstreaming”. [Electronic] Available:http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/equal/data/document/gendermain_en.pdf, retrieved on 02.07.2013.

[5] Baer, Susanne & Miriam Hoheisel (ed.), 2008: ”Between success and disappointment. Gender Equality Policies in an Enlarged Europe”. Bielefeld: Kleine Verlag GmbH.

[6] Teşiu, Roxana, 2012, European Gender Equality Law Review – No. 1/2012, European Commission, pp. 102-105. Available: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/law_reviews/egelr_2012-1_final_web_en.pdf, retrieved on 04.07.2013.

[7] European Commission, 1999: “Regular Report on Lithuania’s progress towards accession”. [Electronic]


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Available:http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/archives/pdf/key_documents/1999/lithuania_en.pdf retrieved on 04.07.2013.

[8] European Commission, 2002: “Regular report on Lithuania’s progress towards accession”. [Electronic] Available: http://ec.europa.eu/development/body/organisation/docs/CMR_LT.pdf retrieved on 04.07.2013.

[9] Sedelmeier, Ulrich, 2009: “Post-accession compliance with EU Gender Equality legislation in postcommunist new member states.” In: Schimmelfennig, Frank & Florian Trauner (eds): Post-accession compliance in the EU’s new member states. European Integration online Papers (EIoP), Special Issue 2(13), Art. 23 http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2009-023a.htm.

[10] Davulis, Tomas, 2009: ”Lithuania” in Prechal S. & S. Burri, 2009: Gender Equality Law in 30 European Countries. [Electronic] Available: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=641&langId=en retrieved on 04.07.2013, pp. 101-108.

[11] European Commission, 2000: “Regular Report on Polands’s progress towards accession”. [Electronic] Available: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/archives/pdf/key_documents/2000/pl_en.pdf retrieved on 04.07.2013.

[12] European Commission, 2003: “Comprehensive monitoring report on Poland’s preparation for membership.” [Electronic] Available: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/archives/pdf/key_documents/2003/cmr_pl_final_en.pdf retrieved on 04.07.2013.

[13] Zielinksa, Eleonora, 2009: “Poland” in Prechal S. & S. Burri, 2009: “Gender Equality Law in 30 European Countries”. [Electronic] Available: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=641&langId=en retrieved on 04.07.2013.


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Perceptions of Executive Payment Abuse in Romanian Public Institutions

Bădălău A.G.1, Neacșu D.2 1 PhD. Candidate at University of Târgoviște (ROMANIA) 2 Lecturer PhD. at “Andrei Saguna” University of Constanta (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Nowadays, the social construction and reconstruction of Europe is highly needed. Romania, which is

part of the EU has still a long way to go. In this vein, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, one major issue that has been deeply criticized is executive compensation abuse by public servants. Accordingly, the article highlights the participants’ shared experiences (having to do with executive compensation abuse) and their perceptions on executive compensation abuse. The main objective of this research consists in exploring Romanian public servants’ shared experiences concerning executive compensation abuse, as well as their perceptions, discrepancies and unsolved interrogations – presented within an ample, interconnected qualitative and quantitative methodological approach. A sample of 20 individuals was chosen for a triangulation method. From the triangulation resulted that, there are six new themes that derived from the interview/questionnaire, specifically referring to executive payment abuse namely: (a) ethics means knowing right from wrong, (b) perspectives of ethical behaviour, (c) types of executive payment abuse, (d) participant perceptions on institution and colleagues, (e) how payment abuse impacted employees, and (f) transparency is imperative.

Keywords: Executive compensation abuse, civil servant, public institution, perception.

Introduction Due to fact that the phenomenon of executive compensation abuse became alarming and widely spread,

public executives must pay close attention to the manner in which their actions, behaviors, and decision-making affect employees, stakeholders and the institution itself. Unethical leadership is defined “as behaviors conducted and decisions made by organizational leaders that are illegal and/or violate moral standards, and those that impose processes and structures that promote unethical conduct by followers. We now review then consequences and influences of unethical leadership.” [1] Thus, top managers engaging in, enabling, or fostering unethical practices in the public institution they work in, do not show ethical leadership. For developing an ethical environment, top managers must set an example for civil servants to follow. Additionally, public managers harnessing and embedding unethical behavior of their followers show unethical leadership.

Kranacher [2] stated that the public institution's stakeholders are being damaged by scandal and corruption. On the one hand, Verschoor [3] observed that unethical behavior had a tiresome impact on the success of a public institution. Thus, in the case when ethical problems last, an institution’s capability to attract and maintain desirable civil servants diminishes.

When studying the motivations why a public manager would engage in unethical behaviors resulted in a variety of reasons. Leap offered an in-depth discussion referring to human features connected with ethically challenged public managers. The most important features of unethical public leaders include “(1) placing financial self-interests above all else, and (2) showing little concern for followers”. [4] Donaldson’s tried to implement proactive actions in favor of combating an unethical business environment. He also suggested a pro-management theory in order to limit unethical acts and behaviors between public managers. The scholar considered that principles of stewardship must surpass a leader’s personal ambition. According to Donaldson [5] ethical education must not be obligatory, since unethical executive behavior is the outcome of improper interpretation. There are some merits which can be attributed to Donaldson but one could support the opinion that persons do learn through proper training techniques. Therefore, his argument proved incorrect as ethics can also be shared and learned just as other values.


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1.1 Purpose, Problem of Research and Research Focus The most important aim of the research pertained to the lack of governance processes toward stopping

or discouraging executive compensation abuse by identifying lived experience patterns as experienced by participants. The below open-ended research questions will be used to gather responses for developing topic awareness among research participants: (1) What are the participants’ shared experiences, having to do with executive compensation abuse? (2) How do participants perceive the executive compensation abuse?

The main purpose of this research will be to analyse the experiences of several Romanian stakeholders who had encountered such executive compensation abuses in public institutions. The final goal is revealing particular minuses and negative issues that lead to executive compensation abuses. At the beginning, the assessed thematic features sets are: (1) participants’ knowledge of concepts; (2) institution transparency; (3) causes and effects of executive compensation abuse; and (4) participants’ advices, recommendations as well as shared insight.

2 Methodology of research The triangulation method represents the combination between qualitative and quantitative

methodologies used in the research of one phenomenon. The participants to the research revealed manners in which governance processes might stimulate fair, ethical compensation at work. Therefore, the executive compensation abuse issue is investigated from the perspective of those who experience it. The qualitative study included 8 focused questions meanwhile the quantitative research implied 12 questions, out of which 4 were for the demographic data of the responders. Both researches were used for exploring participant experiences with executive payment abuses in the workplace.

3 Results

3.1 Results of Quantitative Research The hypotheses of the quantitative research were the following: HS1: Executive compensation abuse

highly affects employee morale and business ethics. (experiences) and HS2: Generally, leaders abuse the business system for their personal gain. Data clustering for this research resided in locating and grouping together the similarities (for instance, themes) among shared experiences of research participants. For the first hypothesis, “Executive compensation abuse highly affects employee morale and business ethics” were made a number of five corelations. Based on the correlations made, one can state that executive compensation abuse affects the civil servants’ morale, and for proving this, significant correlations were made. Thus we can say that the first hypothesis executive compensation abuse highly affects employee moral and business ethics was confirmed.

To verify the second hypothesis a total of three significant correlations were done. Following the conducted correlations, the second hypothesis was confirmed as well. In all the methodological approach the themes resulted and the hypothesis of the research pointed out an important aspect: civil servants are sensitive to executive compensation abuses of any nature. Unfortunately there is little protection against this and one major part can be played by the psychological side and the manner how each individual was brought up.

3.2 Results of Qualitative Research From the triangulation resulted that, there are six new themes that derived from the interview questions

specifically referring to executive payment abuse namely: (a) ethics means knowing right from wrong, (b) perspectives of ethical behavior, (c) types of executive payment abuse, (d) participant perceptions on institution and colleagues, (e) how payment abuse impacted employees, and (f) transparency is imperative. Patterns revealed in the six newly discovered themes addressed the study questions mentioned at section 1.1.

Participants’ lived experiences were the first emphasis found in (d) participant perceptions on institution and colleagues, and (e) how payment abuse impacted employees (both personally and professionally).

Participants’ perceptions of executive payment abuse were addressed under (a) ethics is knowing right from wrong, (a) ethics means knowing right from wrong, (b) perspectives of ethical behavior, (c) types of executive payment abuse, and (f) transparency is imperative.

Theme 1: Ethics means knowing right from wrong. For Bannon, Ford, & Meltzer [6], public leaders are responsible for business ethics. Thirteen participants (65,0%) interviewed in the study have seen ethics as the capability to distinguish right from wrong in an individual’s pursuit of moral excellence. The findings stated that public executives have a moral obligation first of all to distinguish between right and wrong, and second, to proactively quest for ethically sound actions, behaviors, as well as decisions.


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Theme 2: Descriptions of ethical behavior. Bruhn [7] considered public leaders might find it difficult to differentiate between ethical and unethical behaviors. Most of participants in the research took an opposite approach in the description of ethical and unethical behaviors. From the 20 participants interviewed in the research, 19 (95%) presented usual examples to convey a proficient understanding of the ethical behavior concept and 13 (65%) participants gave examples regarding unethical actions. These results prove that flawed reasoning exists with regards to confusion among top leaders since the lower ranking civil servants proved little difficulty in the comprehension and description of ethical and unethical actions, behaviors as well as decisions.

Theme 3: Types of executive compensation abuse. Every time that an executive public manager has put his/her personal and financial interests above the institution and its employees, a type of leader payment abuse has occurred.[8] The qualitative research presented two initial methods whereby each person described direct experiences with executive payment abuse at their jobs. Accordingly, nineteen responders out of twenty (95%) considered that systematic abuse represented a primary means that executive public leaders use in order to circumvent organizational systems. Among them, abuses directed against civil servants were claimed to be major contributors to this phenomenon according to the remaining 11 participants (55%). The research participants cited two essential methods of direct experience with public leader compensation abuse. Ten of the responders (n = 10) claimed their experiences with executive payment abuse in the workplace took place through public policies and lack of honesty. The rest of 50% of respondents (n = 10) described the manner in which executives had manipulated civil servant payment and benefit systems for their own gain. These findings prove that leader compensation abuse is prevalent and widely spread due to the fact that public governance processes are either not sufficient or do not exist at all. Thus, employees are possible easy targets for managers to manipulate through abuses directed towards employees. One motivation why abuses directed towards civil servants seldom take place is that the employees could be low ranking and lacking any major input into the decision-making processes of the institution or consequences thereof.

Theme 4: Responders’ observations regarding the institution and civil servants. The responders in this research were asked to share some of their experiences regarding the institution and its’ civil servants after observing executive payment abuse in the workplace. Fifteen responders (75%) perceived lower morale and higher stress among employees.

Theme 5: How payment abuse affected me. According to Nash [9], work-related stress on employees proved being highly costly. Stressors related to work negatively impact employees’ health, morale, as well as productivity and profitability of the institution. Responders described two major (negative) consequences which affected their lives due to having lived executive payment abuse phenomena at job: influences on personal life and on professional life. As far as the personal life is concerned, thirteen interviewees (65%) referred to stress as a result from experiences with executive payment abuses at job as an essential factor that affects in a negative manner their personal lives. 11 responders (55%) shared examples of personal financial crises as a result of leader payment abuse. As far as the influence on professional life is concerned, the volunteers in the research shared how public leader payment abuse had impacted their professional lives. 11 participants at the interview (55%) claimed noticeable differences through lower motivation and job satisfaction, these two representing direct consequences of experiencing payment abuse at the job.

Theme 6: Transparency is imperative. In a public institution, transparency represents public governance and this is imperative in the encouragement of ethical actions, behaviors, and decision-making at work. The participants in this research addressed personal knowledge of whether their institutions had in place formal codes of ethics or policies meant against public leader payment abuse. In spite of having lived executive payment abuse at the job, half of the respondents (50%) confirmed that their organizations had codes of ethics or policies run in order to discourage this phenomenon. Eight (40%) of the 20 participants in the research were not aware or did not remember if their institutions had formal codes or policies, at all. Only two individuals (10%) stated the institution where they had experienced executive compensation abuse had no code of ethics or policies to address this issue. However, to have formal and just policies in practice is by no means sufficient to prevent unethical actions, behaviors, or decisions. The use of enforcement strategies for the reinforcement of public governance initiatives is a means of actively fighting against ethical indiscretions at job. 12 interviewees (60%) considered that the creation and adoption of formal and just policies with enforcement as an initial method to curtail or stop top management payment abuse in the workplace. These findings proved that there are major gaps having to do with to transparency within a public institution and its civil servants or stakeholders due to the fact that employees seem ignorant of public governance initiatives aimed at managing workplace ethics.

4 Conclusions The responders in the research answered to the questions of the interview and questionnaire referring on

perceptions and lived experiences with regards to top public management payment abuse. The persons involved in the study cited various experiences with regards to leader compensation abuse at work. The 20 responders in the present research also shared their insight with regards to improving business ethics and deterring top


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management payment abuse. Information gathered from 20 semi-structured interviews and 20 questionnaires with employees offered, as seen above, six new themes.

Participants referred to the next conditions for top management payment abuses in the workplace: (a) not sufficient or the lack of corporate governance processes, (b) top management failure in honoring ethical obligations to other persons involved in the institution, (c) top managers who place self-interests above civil servants, and (d) the lack of shareholder authority in decisions within a institution. The outcomes of the research indicated top managers need to pay closer attention to the manner how their actions, behaviors, and decisions impact stakeholder groups, especially lower level civil servants. Participants in the hereby research showed adverse effects which resulted from top management payment abuses through executive actions, behaviors, and decisions. The findings from the research could lead towards the improved of management with regards to public executive payment abuses in the same time, establishing fair, ethical payment for employees.

References [1] Brown, Michael E., and Marie S. Mitchell. (2010). Ethical and Unethical Leadership: Exploring

New Avenues for Future Research. Business Ethics Quarterly 20:4 (October 2010); ISSN 1052-150X p. 588.

[2] Kranacher, M. (2006). Creating an ethical culture. The CPA Journal, 76(10), 80. [3] Verschoor, C. (2006). Surveys show ethics problems persist. Strategic Finance, 88(4), 19-20,

61. [4] Leap, T. (2008). When bad people rise to the top. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(2), p. 23. [5] Donaldson, L. (2008). Ethics problems and problems with ethics: Toward a promanagement

theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 78, 299-311. doi:10.1007/s10551-006-9336-6. [6] Bannon, S., Ford, K., & Meltzer, L. (2010). How to instill a strong ethical culture. The CPA

Journal, 80(7), 56-58. [7] Bruhn, J. (2009). The functionality of gray area ethics in organizations. Journal of Business

Ethics, 89, 205-214. doi:10.1007/s10551-008-9994-7 [8] Keller, C., & Stocker, M. (2008). Eyeing executive compensation. National Law Journal, 31(12),

S1; [9] Nash, J. (2010). Taking the stress out of work. Risk Management, 57, 42-47.


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Observations on Books of Testimony in Wallachia

Bădescu L.E.1 1 University of Piteşti (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The books of testimony covered by this article fall into the category of juridical documents written as a

result of the issue of curse books, as had become the custom of the time. Analysis of the two categories of documents, i.e., curse books and books of testimony, offers data regarding a normative mechanism validated equally by the ecclesiastical and the lay authorities in eighteenth century Romania. The ritual of testifying under a bishop’s malediction emphasises not only certain practices specific to common law, but also elements having contributed to a pattern of thinking and expression of religious sentiment at both official and extra-ecclesiastical levels. This study draws on a corpus of texts comprising curse books and books of testimony held by the Bucharest Metropolitan Church and the Romanian National Archives, as well as documents cited in other volumes on this topic. Conclusions have been formulated, based on analysis of this corpus, regarding the entire process of registering the testimony given under curse, formalised through specific paraphenalia, acts and gestures, choosing witnesses, and taking the oath prior to the court testimony itself. Through this analysis, we seek to partially reconstruct the mechanisms behind the pre-modern legislative system, attesting not only to national acceptance of the Christian truth and the ecumenical tradition, but also to the complex links between church and laity.

Keywords: Book of testimony, Curse book, ritual, Mindsets, History of Romanian law

Introduction Books of testimony are juridical documents which served as the basis for evidential statements drawn

up for various legal processes. This article refers exclusively to books of testimony drawn up for land ownership cases, as a reaction to the demand or demands set out in curse books.

In the study on curse books — juridical acts of renunciation issued by in the old and pre-modern period by high prelates of the Orthodox Church in matters of dispute, especially with a view to establishing the boundaries of an estate—we highlight the existence of books of testimony, defined as depositions given under a bishop’s malediction [1].

Integrated into the institutionalised context on the basis of which the curse books functioned, the books of testimony recorded, amongst other things, the ritual of the boundary oath, a vestige of ancient customary practices. The probative nature of testimonies given under a bishop’s curse had juridical value and were used by the secular—and occasionally the ecclesiastical—authorities as a basis for the final settlements of various disputes.

Evidence and representativeness The existence of the books of testimony covered by his study is attested in Moldavia and Wallachia

until the latter half of the nineteenth century. We notice that they are frequently mentioned in other documents, for example in records of land boundary or property ownership cases.

On the basis of these records, but also in the absence of statistical data regarding larger corpuses of documents, we note that specialised studies of legal cases have made no clear-cut observations regarding the oral or written format of testimonies given under a bishop’s malediction at the time of their inclusion in the above-mentioned documents.

Even the most summary examination of published corpuses of documents indicates that there are few books of testimony corresponding to the number of extant or inventoried curse books. We use the term ‘inventoried’ here because nineteenth century documents testify to the careful attention paid by the Metropolitan Church to monitoring these documents, probably a consequence of the fact that they cost money to issue (in this


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respect, see Rom. Manuscript 3989 BAR [Romanian Academy Library], Register of the decisions of the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia in the issue of curse books in various disputes, especially those concerning property and trespass on estates from 1847 to 1850; Rom. Manuscript 3990 BAR, Register of the decisions of the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia regarding the issue of curse books in various disputes, especially those concerning liberties and trespass on estates (1859-1862). It is possible that such registers existed prior to the nineteenth century but, for the time being, we are not aware of the existence of records dedicated exclusively to the issue of curse books.

However, since the selection of documents for these corpuses may have been inconsistent, to the detriment of these documents, we have investigated some of the more representative stocks in the National Archives, more specifically those of the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia.

We note that although the 565 document packages in the possession of the Metropolitan Church contain seventy-seven curse books [1], the registers indicate only thirteen corresponding books of testimony. The diplomatic elements of these books of testimony indicate a relatively uniform chronological distribution, in relation to the reference text (i.e. the curse book): there is one book of testimony from the seventeenth century, eight from the eighteenth century and four from the first half of the nineteenth century; if we compare this to the stock of documents used as the basis for this study, the distribution of curse books over the centuries is as follows: seventeenth century, nine; eighteenth century, fifty-five; nineteenth century, thirteen.

These statistics, though made on the basis of a single corpus of documents, can help us reconstruct the general process of testifying under a bishop’s malediction.

Types of testimony, procedures for writing the books of testimony We may infer from the above that the term ‘book of testimony’ applied not only to written testimonies,

but also oral testimonies. The fact that oral testimonies were more numerous than written ones is proven not only by the extremely scarce extant examples of written testimonies (despite the frequent direct/indirect evidence provided by official documentation, princely resolutions, etc.), but also by the parties involved in the process of testifying. We ought to mention here the ‘profile’ of witnesses chosen to give testimonies; besides the criterion for impeccable morality, they were selected from among the elders of a community, since their age guaranteed the knowledge of the circumstances that had sparked the specific dispute. But it is common knowledge that literacy levels were very low in the eighteenth century, and it is very likely the elders themselves who contributed to the maintenance of this status quo, due to their own limited access to education.

In its written form, the testimony was written either as a standalone document or using the verso pages of the curse book for the testimonies. This latter format was considered representative of the procedures involved in testifying under a bishop’s malediction. The mere touching of the curse book supposedly had a powerful emotional impact on witnesses and this might indeed have been the reason why physical contact with it was integrated into the ritual of giving testimony.

On a particular note, based exclusively on the books of testimony given under malediction that still exist in the above-mentioned stock of documents, we notice that of the thirteen we inventoried, only two were written on the verso page of the curse book (see Romanian National Archives, Stock of the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia, Package 111: document 31, September 29 1801 - Curse book of Metropolitan bishop Dositeiu with the testimonies of the villagers of Futoaia on the back page concerning the boundaries of the Futoaia estate; Packet 111, document 34, March 17 1803 - Curse book of Metropolitan bishop Dositeiu with the testimonies of the inhabitants of Crivăţ and Futoaia on the verso page, for a public house erected in a location known as Bindocu (sic), the rest of documents being standalone.

Admittedly, the small number of documents we have studied (thirteen) does not allow us to claim that the manner of writing on the verso page was unusual at the time. This observation, whether validated or invalidated by other corpuses of documents might be useful to subsequent studies regarding the styles practiced in various eras by ecclesiastical offices. For the time being, the period in which this manner of writing was adopted is unknown. On the basis of the documents studied, we can only observe that, in the eighteenth century, the recommendation that the ‘the truth be written in the back of the curse book’ […] ‘and each and every party shall write in the back of the curse book if they are acquainted with the law and they shall sign’ [2] was a relatively widespread one. The fact that both books of testimony written on the verso pages of a curse book are from the beginning of the eighteenth century and commissioned by the same Metropolitan bishop might indicate a consistent writing style having originated in earlier practices. It might equally be explained by the involvement of the erudite Dositei, Metropolitan bishop of Ungrovlahia.


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Elements of the ritual of testifying under a bishop’s malediction. The fear of losing one’s soul

The ritual of testifying under a bishop’s malediction remains impressive today, due to its ritual, gestures and symbols. It is likely that in past centuries the mere suggestion of a forthcoming oath to be taken was enough to instill fear. This is because the tension that governed this ritual was one of accursed death with the body bearing the official marks of damnation, elements of the grotesque. It is known that under our canonic legislation, damned corpses were characterised by a relatively reduced chromatic palette (yellow, black, white) depending on the ecclesiastical rank of the person who had officially pronounced the curse. Mentions made in old Romanian normative codes could be taken as authentic evidence of ethno-juridical persecution: ‘He who is under an order or is accursed, i.e. under curse, will lie with his body whole and unchanged. He who is anathema shall turn yellow and his fingers will shrivel. As for the one who looks black, let it be known that he is anathema to the bishop. And whoever has a white body, this means they are anathema to the laws of God.’ [3]. We note that the notion of damnation in the realm of our imaginations was expressed through stigmatising teratology, a constantly recurring theme in both canonical literature (Correcting the law, Petru Movilă, Orthodox Testimonial, etc.), but also in overtly secular literature (The life of Saint Basil the New and heaven’s toll-houses, etc.). The visual arts also contributed to this through the cultivation and maintenance of an iconographical topos apocalyptically expressed through the terrible fear of death.

We note that anathema of the soul is never explicitly mentioned in curse books. It is only the torments of the body marked by the signs of anathema and the calamity which will befall the house and future generations that may be said to represent the prevalent topoi, although these do not appear in books of testimony. Ultimately, the topos used—almost exclusively—is ‘care for the good constitution of the soul.’

We thus become aware of the perception individuals living in past centuries would have had of the bishop’s malediction, since the threat of corporal damnation made individuals testify honestly, for fear of losing their souls. We should note that all categories of witnesses alluded, in one way or another, to the link between the testimony and the soul: ‘We took the book and put it on our chest and put earth on our shoulders, we went further on, to the boundary and all the others followed us and after we showed the boundary we’d spoken of before [...] Once the damnation had been cast, we thus proceeded so as not to lose our souls’ [4]

In the sixteenth century, testifying under the peril of anathema was assimilated to swearing in church with a hand on the Four Gospels, which takes us back to the line of customary law. ‘And they (150 freeholders and twelve priests n.n.) took an oath in front of Dragomir, the court marshal, while the people mentioned above, and the priests, all gathered in the church and swore on the Four Holy Gospels’ [5].

The few records of cases in which the integrity of the witness was challenged show that the formalism of the gestures had a dominant sacred component oriented towards achieving justice. In order to give testimony, it was not sufficient to keep one’s word; one actually needed to be consciously positive that what one said truly corresponded to reality. To illustrate this issue of consciousness, we cite Catrina Spătăreasa’s refusal to stand as a witness before the Metropolitan Bishop Iacov: ‘As for me, father, I pray of you not to put me in your curse book, because I do not need that estate: all I needed was three acres of land, wherever God should wish them to be. And I beg of you, Holy Father, don’t put me in that curse book of yours, because I am expecting a blessing from you, not a curse… And know this, father: I’m not going to renounce my soul, because of my sons’ [6].

The fact that the topos of the anathema body does not appear in the books of testimony shows that the typical nature of the bishop’s malediction, although having lost the soul-related component, or knowingly having neglected it, had not altered the significance of the ritual presented in Greek writings whereby, in cases of perjury, the mention of anathema of the soul was ever-present.

The fact that the testimony was preceded by symbolic gestures, some of these associated with the funeral ritual, others with the piacular (mourning) ritual, for instance, walking the disputed boundary with the head, lap and shoulders covered in dust or taking an oath with one hand on the Bible, curse book, etc. completed the ritual of giving testimony: ‘we took the book and put it on our chest, and scattered earth on our shoulders and we went further on, to the boundary, and all the others followed us [7], [8], [6]. The entire scenario, the paraphernalia, the gestures made and the words pronounced, all underline the idea of a strict need to establish the truth. In order that the correlation between words and gestures should be efficient, both the religious framework (the church) and the magical one (the boundary) appear to have been necessary. The fact that the body participated symbolically in the testimony, via the parts or sections deemed to be the most important in the cognititive process (the upper part of the head) or emotions (the chest), but also the gestural ritual of movement in itself, was founded upon the conscience that the earth is sacred and that the earth can always turn against anyone who is guilty of perjury. We notice a gradual trend towards swearing on the curse book itself; evidence in support of the perception that this kind of book held a sacred value [6]

The corpus of published documents gives evidence of material sanctions for lying under oath as early as the sixteenth century and we note that perjury is most often detected in lege peste lege (‛law above the law’) cases, i.e. cases in which application is made for annulment of a sentence, bringing a larger number of witnesses


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before the juridical authority than was present during the preceding trial [5]. Establishment of the so-called Register of the sly, the first register of criminal records in the history of Romanian law, appears to suggest that the number of cases of perjury rose considerably during the eighteenth century.

Conclusions In proposing a diachronic study of curse books via books of testimony, we have tried to situate our

analysis in the contemporary context of the event, thus partially reconstructing the functional mechanisms underlying the coercive institutions that governed this Orthodox civilisation. Revisiting the source documents, we suggested that certain data be revised regarding the writing of books of testimony under a malediction pronounced by a bishop and gave evidence of customary institutional legal practices. Certainly, during this process of national acceptance of the Christian truth, the care and effort invested by the individual during the Middle Ages to maintain a ‘good constitution of the soul’ is most remarkable—an aspect that Pierre Chaunu subscribes to a ‘theology of the soul’—and reconfirms the central role of religious sentiment for Romanians. It also explains why the notion of the bishop’s malediction was neither assimilated with the curses of folklore nor structurally associated with them.

References [1] Bădescu, L.-E. (2013). Mentalităţi, retorică şi imaginar în secolul al XVIII-lea românesc. Cărţile

de blestem (Mentalities, rhetoric and the imaginary in eighteenth century Romania. Curse Books), Bucharest, Editura Muzeului Naţional al Literaturii Române.

[2] Cronţ, Gh., Constantinescu, Al., Popescu, A., Rădulescu, T., Tegăneanu C. eds. (1973). Acte judiciare din Ţara Românească: 1775-1781 (Judicial Acts in Wallachia: 1775-1781). Bucharest, Editura Academiei.

[3] Rădulescu, A. ed (1962). Îndreptarea legii, 1652 (Correcting the Law, 1652). Bucharest, Editura Academiei.

[4] Ionaşcu, I. (1934) Biserici, chipuri şi documente din Olt (Churches, faces and documents in Olt), with 43 illustrations, foreword by Professor N. Iorga. vol. I, Craiova, Editura Ramuri.

[5] Ştefănescu, Şt., Diaconescu, O. eds. (1985). Documenta Romaniae Historica, Ţara Românească (=Wallachia). (1985), vol. VI, Bucharest, Editura Academiei.

[6] Iorga, N. (1931). Anciens documents de droit roumain, vol. II, Paris-Bucarest. [7] Mototolea, D. (1922). Jurământul cu brazda în cap (The oath taken with the furrow on one’s

head). Revista de istorie, arheologie şi filologie (Journal of history, archaeology and philology), vol. XVI, pp. 211-223.

[8] Iorga, N. ed. (1903). Documente privitoare la familia Calimachi (Documents regarding the Calimachi family). vol. II, Bucharest, Institutul de arte grafice, Editura Minerva.


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Underpinning Assumptions of Social Balance. The Principle of Non-Discrimination as a Guarantee of Social Rights

Berna B.1 1 Titu Maiorescu University (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The rule of law is the fundamental criterium within whose references human rights are applied. If the

just exercising of human rights (in concurrence with law and morality) favors the satisfaction of social needs, then the deviance – in the form of discrimination – will always appear within the lack of the application and of the legal guarantee of human rights.

Discrimination cannot represent the focus of a debate, in the absence of the principle of equality; equality – as a social reality – performs a realization of justice and of balance within inter-personal relations. With intense clearness, equality cannot exist independently from social justice and justice cannot be cancelled from the formative equation of equalitary substance.

We understand social balance, as the enactment of social relations, which takes place only if social rights are guaranteed and ensured equally for all individuals. In this sense, non-discrimination is the most eloquent moral-juridical argument. Otherwise, we would not be subsuming to regard and concern, within our dissertation, only the illustration of juridical provisions referring to the principle of non-discrimination (even if this section will benefit from an extended space of analysis). We aim to highlight the moral stratum, of philosophical nature, localized behind the principle of non-discrimination and explore it in connection with the legal layer of meaning.

Our thesis is built on a simple construct: social balance describes a state of social justice, both concepts assuming a state of individual wellfare within society, as well as the full and unrestricted exercise of social rights. The ensuring of social balance through: equal access to work, to health and security work conditions, by the guarantee of a decent life standard, and of the development of dignity and human personality, is instrumentalized, at the juridical level, by the principle of non-discrimination.

Keywords: Social Balance, Human Rights, Social Rights, Non-Discrimination Principle, Equality Principle.

1 Preliminary aspects: methodology and research hypothesis The first hypothesis of our research prescribes the fact that, philosophical precepts highlight the rightful

manner of perceiving the juridical process. The social issue can be plenary understood by reference to the idea of solidarity and human communion – aspects that cannot be found in the juridical approach. Likewise, we’ve embraced the hypothesis according to which, the juridical process is encouraged and guided by philosophical precepts; philosophical precepts precede the juridical process and galvanize the spirit of the normative process. Finally, our intagrative hypothesis establishes that, social balance is obtained by safeguarding social rights, considering the conditions imposed by social justice.

In our disquisition, we’ve opted for the cross-disciplinary method. We’ve probed philosophical and juridical references in order to obtain a general perspective upon our subject of research. On the other hand, for ensuring the logic of the presentation, we have implemented the deductive methodology; we’ve attempted to explain the extend to which a general frame of reference (the philosophical paradigm) engenders and/or influences a peculiar frame of reference (the juridical paradigm).


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2 The Equality Substantiation in the demonstration of the Thesis of Social Justice

Equality is the gist of the debate regarding the subject of social justice, given the fact that, there can be no justice where there is no equality between individuals. Equality and justice are deeply related to the individual, pertaining to subjective modes of conception. In the paper A theory of justice, Rawls presents man as the being who possesses an innate sense of good and the ability to behave according to morals. [1] Certainly, it is impossible to deny various beliefs that man have in relation with equality and justice but, it is possible to imagine a sole sense of justice that results from the diversity of approaches. Even if some individuals have a diminished capacity of understanding the sense of justice, this does not mean that they will be deprived of the benefits of social justice. The most important aspect is that, every individual has a minimal understanding of the concept of justice.

Rawls philosophy is able to explain the inherent bond between equality and justice : if all individuals possess a sense of Good and Truth, they can find the rules and regulations that arise from these values. By virtue of rules and regulations that are universally accepted, objective institutions are created and justice in society is assured. [2]. Additionally, equality – as the leit-motif of the process of legitimation of social justice,- appears in three main principles: (1) the principle of the greatest freedom – according to which each individual has an equal right to access the most extensive system of freedoms; (2) the principle of equal opportunities – which is based on two criteria: the freedom to elect a function/position and the freedom to compete for a certain function/position; (3) the principle of difference – by means of which, social-economical institutions must be organized in order to maximize the benefits of the poor. [3]

Hayek, like Rawls, accepts the logic of the normative process but abides by the idea that, rules and regulations are created independently of human common sense, appearing naturally in the social construction. In this point lies the non-humaniste version of social justice if we consider that, social justice, does not exist as an autonomous concept that comes into being from the beliefs of the individuals. In fact, the expression of social justice bears a rich lyricism and not a practical existence. According to Hayek, social justice cannot exist in pure form because there are no universal principles to guide it. Even if such principles exist, the freedom of thinking would make impossible the absolute adhesion to the objectives of social justice. Nevertheless, in explaining the concept of eqaulity, the subjective spirit is reiterated. In this vision, social justice implies to give each individual what is needed. The merit is the focuse point of the concept of equality and the criterion of distribution of righteousness. In order to decide in the question of merit, we must be able to judge if people have used as they should their opportunities and if they have engaged abnegation and effort of will. [4]

The two philosophical views recognize the normative power of the rule of law. Also, the idea of equality has normative power if we have in mind the manner in which all society members must be treated. Therefore, equality is the common denominator between prescribing legal rules and ensuring social justice in a prescpritive manner.

3 Equality and Inequality. Discrimination and Non-Discrimination Weˈve opted for a sub-title with dialectic temp in order to highlight the idea that, we cannot fully

understand the substance of a concept if we do not clearly distinguish it from its antonym. Hence, we cannot debate upon the subject of equality if we cannot comprehend the sense of inequality, just as we cannot have a coherent discussion on the discrimination theme if we don’t state the meaning of non-discrimination. Paraphrasing Engels, any concept is subjected to a set of activities and phenomena that can misrepresent its own identity. Therefore, the identity of a concept implies the difference from the rest. [5] The oscillation between the essence of a concept and its opposite is surprised by Aristotel as he affirmed, in the paper The Nicomachean Ethics that injustice apperas when equals are treated unequally and the unequals are treated equally. [6] But what does equal mean? What is the meaning of inequality? The answers are difficult to acheive.

As we’ve already stated, it is clear that everyone has a personal sense of equality. In addition to that, the evolution of the equality concept brought to light several meanings of the concept. At first, there was the natural law thesis – by virtue of which equality stems from nature. Likewise, justice is a gift which is given equally to all people. We deem as representative Cicero’s point of view that delivered as irrefutable truth the ideea that : we are all born to enjoy justice and this is not based on opinions –it is based on nature. [7] The modern perspective of natural law follows the classical perspective of natural law and thus, unfolds the idea according to which, individuals are equals because they possess the same rights which derive from nature as inalienable fundamental rights. [8] In other terms, we add, to the classical conception of equality, the notion of inalienable rights. These inalienable rights are rendered to individuals due to the equality that ties them.

Inequality – the opposite of the equality concept- was thoroughly analysed by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau qualified the inequality concept as the obliteration of human beings from the perfect natural state. As a


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remedy to this, Rousseau advances the social contract – by means of which, the sovereign people subscribes to rules that give essence to the coexistence inside a space of inequality and aggressiveness. [9]

The correlation discrimination-nondiscrimination can be explained by analogy with the correlation between equality and inequality. Equality and non-discrimination are ought to be perceived as complementary concepts; meanwhile, discrimination is the denial of equality and is the corresponding concept to inequality.

4 The normative transposition of the concepts of equality, social balance and social justice

Philosophical writings attest that, social balance results from abiding by social rules. As a result, human actions will be considered fair and in accordance with the principle of non-discrimination if social norms are equally applied.

The international community gives legal strength to the equality concept. The Declaration of Philadelphia1 places the social problem in the center of the human rights issue, claiming, through its provisions, the objectives of the International Labour Organization. The International Labour Organization focuses its actions on the social aspect, defining social justice as the state of social balance which implies the respect for human rights, dignified conditions of life and work, positive prospects for employment and for providing security at work. In the same direction, the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations2 provides that : We, the people of the United Nations, are determined to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in equal rights of men and women and of large and small nations.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights3 applies an extensive analysis of the ideal of equality, reporting from general to peculiar aspects. Article 7 of the Declaration is a political-philosophical plea for equality: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. A full reading of the document foresees the social sense of the equality concept. Article 23 stipulates that: (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

At the international level, the legal provisions that assure the protection of the equality principle are also comprized in the International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.4 Article 2, paragraph 2 of the International Convenant circumscribes the equality dimension in protecting social rights : The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to guarantee that, the rights enunciated in the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

At the regional level, the most visible legal instrument that contains express provisions in the field of equality is the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – ECHR5. We observe that, by virtue of the Convention, it becomes obvious an evolution concerning the aplication of the equality rule. Originally, article 14 of the Convention defined the general framework of the equality concept. It was limited to the protection of some human rights that were expressly and specifically provided in the Convention. With the adoption of Protocol no 12, the equality concept was transformed into a legal value that was applied to all the rights that enjoy legal recognition.

Revised in 1996, the European Social Charter prescribes the principle of equality in the social field by expressly stating equality in employment and the prohibition of discrimination based on gender.

The European Union endorsed the legislative evolution related to the equality principle. Although the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community6 provided, at the begining, economic regulations, it also prohibited the discrimination based on gender criteria. Even under these conditions, the objective of the normative process was not centered on the problem of human rights. The objective pursued by legal provisions consisted in avoiding market advantages by exploiting the female population. The guarantee of social equality is

1 This document is also known as the Declaration concerning the Aims and Purposes of the International Labour Organisation, adopted at the 26th session of the ILO, Philadelphia, 10 May 1944

2 This document was signed on 26 June 1945 at the United Nations Conference for the International Labour Organization, acquiring legal force on 24 October 1945 3 This document was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization on 10 December 1948 4 This document was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1996 5 This document was signed on 4 November 1950 at Rome 6 This document was signed on 25 March 1957 at Rome


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a demarche that will be supported by the framework of the European directives. At the same time, we cannot overlook, The European Charter of Fundamental Rights. In Title III, article 23 of this document is stated the principle of ensuring equality between men and women in all the fields, including in the sphere of hiring, working and remuneration.

In Romania, the general legal framework of the equality principle is contained in the Ordinance of the Romanian Goverment no. 137/2000. This piece of legislation brings into national laws, the social values promoted by the specialized international and regional bodies. To this framework, we added the provisions of the Emergency Ordinance of the Romanian Government no. 31/2002 regarding the prohibition of the fascist, racist and xenophobic organizations and the rules comprized in Law no. 202/2002 concerning equal opportunities and equal treatment between men and women. It is worth mentioning that, in the evidentiary matter, Romania adopted, in 2006 Law no. 324 which states that, in demonstrating discriminatory facts, any evidence is allowed. The plaintif must prove the presumption of discrimination and the accused must prove the contrary.

5 Final remarks. The analysis of the contribution brought by philosophical benchmark to the normative framework

The current legal regulations hide philosophical precepts. It is clear that, we discuss a formal transposition that comes in addition to the philosophical perspective. What was desired to be achieved by philosophical precepts is transposed in juridical rules and, mostly in the spirit of juridical provisions. Whether it expresses the ban of discriminating on certain criteria, whether it stipulates the equality of individuals, the legal provision aims to maximize the equal protection of the individuals.

In light of all the above, we can state that, social rights may be found at the junction of normative prescriptions and philosophical stimulations. The balance of those two aspects produces the social balance and the protection of social rights.

Philosophical norms become a parallel standard of the juridical process, meaning that, philosophical regulations establish the ideal of the juridical process. Thus, philosophical precepts not only follow the norm-building process, they also guide it.

Social rights are protected by means of juridical regulations because juridical regulations are the bearers of the ideal of justice. The social balance is reached when social rights are guaranteed in favour of all individuals. We must specify that, this protection system is dictated by philosophical norms as juridical norms are only an informative tool.

References [1] Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of Justice, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 506 [2] Iliescu, Adrian Paul, (1999)., Rawlsˈ Encapsulation of Justice, Vienna, IWM Working Paper, pp.

1-60 [3] Iliescu, Adrian Paul, (1999)., Rawlsˈ Encapsulation of Justice, Vienna, IWM Working Paper, pp.

1-60 [4] Miller, E. (2010). Hayekˈs Constitution of Liberty, Institute of Economic Affaires, London, pp. 76-

88 [5] Engels, F (1959)., Dialectica naturii, Editura Politică, București, pp. 196 [6] Aristotel, (1988), Etica Nicomahică, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, București [7] Cicero, M, Despre legi, Cartea a II-a, secțiunea 28 [8] Hobbes, T. (2001), Leviathanul, partea I, Capitolul 14, Editura Paragon House, Londra, pp. 64 [9] Rousseau, J.J. (1958), Discurs asupra inegalității dintre oameni, Editura Științifică și

Enciclopedică, București


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The Social Construction and Re-Construction of EU`s Foreign Policy. A Critical Discourse Analysis

Berna I.B.1 1 Associate Assistant National University of Political and Administrative Studies (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract

The normative foundations of EU`s foreign policy, their oscilloscope, context, challenges and structure have been discussed in relevant studies almost in a total clear-cut manner. This study, under current presentation, wants to define debates further than the commonsensical positions taken by foremost analyses. Social construction has congregated enough explanatory power to proof its instrumentalism in foreign policy analysis. On the other hand, discourse analysis enhances the interaction between power and knowledge, especially in the manner in which they inter-condition each other. Most decisively, Critical Discourse Analysis can be used in recurrent observation of how social practices are built and re-built and how they embedded an opposite or a circumscribing direction, compared with the one adopted in the past.

Throughout this article, we aspire in target to plug in the social construction and re-construction of EU`s foreign policy, with elements from Critical Discourse Analysis. We bring into a reflecting condition how the form and function of language, utilized in the discourse of different political elites in office, in different structures of the European Union, may assert conclusions and inferences about the transformations suffered by EU`s foreign policy, after the Lisbon`s Treaty coming into effect. We will commence our evaluations within how the social construction of EU`s foreign policy appears within the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty and continue with how much stimulating information can be provided by Critical Discourse Analysis of EU`s foreign policy, that can foreground testing consistency for a circulating and/or future reconstruction, as applied in the discourses of relevant political elites of the European Union.

Keywords: Social Construction, Normative Foundations, Social Re-Construction, EU`s Foreign Policy, Lisbon Treaty, EU Political Elites, Critical Discourse Analysis.

1 Research hypotheses and methodological employment The foremost research hypothesis of this paper is to delineate the most important pillars of external

action, within the employment of EU`s foreign policy and to pinpoint the main girders, that can be reunited the tracing of EU`s identity-construction process. The paper entails two transversal research hypotheses. The first one considers the manner in which the pilasters of social construction produces a normative export, through the rendition of foreign policy roles.

The second one regards the manner in which the concept of role is attached to the way of manifestation of EU`s foreign policy. The most important qualification, that we will give, throughout this study, is to the episodes of juxtaposition or of rejection, that exist between foreign policy roles and the process of identity-construction.

As methodological employments, we will be using the channel of discourse analysis, being specifically concerned with the modular explanations acumens, by taking into account the fact that: The elements of orders of discourse are not things like nouns and sentences (elements of linguistic structures), but discourses, genres and styles (I shall differentiate them shortly). These elements select certain possibilities defined by languages and exclude others - they control linguistic variability for particular areas of social life. So orders of discourse can be seen as the social organization and control of linguistic variation [1]. In the economy of our analysis, we will encapsulate how the form of language and how its administrative functions can coagualate the relationship between discourse undertakings and social practices, in the discourse of the political elites of the European Union.


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2 The Lisbon Treaty – Social construction and normative foundations for the European Union foreign policy

In a laconic rendering, the Lisbon Treaty provided the dissolution of the three-pillared structure, that accompanied the European Union`s decision-making and normative underpinning, by providing an old functional investiture for the Common Security and Defense Policy, with the principle of unanimity still lingering in the final outputs of this field of action and by introducing two important innovational structural creations: The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European External Action Service.

These two institutional novelties are meant to circumscribe the future of the European Union foreign policy, by being placed at the mainstream of its agenda-making. They are meant to strengthen EU`s external role and the slides of its definition. The tentative allure of the Lisbon Treaty is manifest in itself: the essence of compromise of not being actually a failure for the euro-skeptics and for the promoters of the European integration alike: For some supporters of integration, Lisbon was a major backwards step. On the one hand, there are those who saw it as a failure, even a betrayal of the essentials of integration, because it strengthens the role of the member states [2]. The Lisbon Treaty did not bring forward the sort of somersault step that was actually awaited for, after the annus horibilis, that marked the rejection of previous, more far-fetched reproductions of goals and achievements. Signed at Lisbon, on the 13th of December 2007, and having started to produce legal effects from 2009, the Lisbon Treaty is not a breakthrough of sorts. Still, it was considered to be a last-minute antidote for those that lost the incentive to hope that the European project would ever make transformative steps, measures that were actually required for its virtual survival. One major change is the fact that the European Union, after the coming into force of the legal provisions, has obtained a legal personality.

The main issues for the social re-construction of the European Union foreign policy, certainly regard, as areas of manifestation, the three enclosures: trade policy, cooperation for development and humanitarian aid policy, the actual common foreign and security policy.

Likewise, the European Union external action has to supervise the progressive abolition of international trade restrictions, sustain emerging actors in reaching high-level skills in brokering global deals and their global-status transformation, in order to maintain the relevance of the European Union, of the defense structures and of a European defense policy, after the Council of the European Union had pronounced its decision, within the aegis of unanimity. These elongated functions, assumed in the areas specified, are defined as roles. When an actor ascribes a role for himself, that role has, amongst its final justifications, the fact that it represents a sample of the actor`s identity, in a given interaction. An actor can role-play one single role, or multiple roles, in one given circumstance or in a plurality of circumstances. An actor-as an entity with full power of identity-building - assigns for himself a role that may prove to be very dynamic in action. The role assigned and conceived by an actor holds many indications of the status of development that the actor`s identity has reached.

According to the Lisbon Treaty, the aforementioned roles have to be played, with the respect for the principles that have inspired its own creation, development and enlargement, and which it seeks to advance in the wider world: democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity, and respect for the principles of the United Nations and the Charter of international law [3]. The process of identity-construction is more than the sum of roles assumed by an actor. They regard the manner, in which they are conjugated and transformed, in the interaction with other actors, or by the unitary will of the actor in actions, when time is considered to have consummated their appropriateness.

3 Main findings and their interpretation Modular explanations - as prerequisites of discourse analysis – embody the extent to which roles can

be defined through the language used, and through the different modes of their combination for status and essence-redefinition. Modular explanations are an inter-disciplinary tool of discourse analysis. They envision the fact that language is autonomously functioning as a part of the human mind. As part of the mind, language-rendering and language-learning is based on acuity and on the perceptual ability of elements drawn from reality. Language is not a repetition of facts, that are ubiquitous in reality. It is more like an interpretation, through a multitude of inter-linked cognitive processes of the seizing elements, of semiotic deciphering, and meaning collocation. As Chomsky sees it, the nature of thought and the rendering of the thought are the most important variables and curtailments of human language: Chomsky postulated back in the 1960s that the human language faculty was an autonomous module of mind. In part, the claim was based on analogy with other human cognitive and perceptual abilities that were regarded on empirical grounds as modular, in particular vision and facial recognition [4]. Human language implies a cognitive operation or several operations that are cognitive in core and scope. In other terms, the central mechanisms of the mind are remotely accessible in the professing of human language, as the many compartments of the mind act independently and limit the accessibility of the


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neural commands emanated from the center. Consider, for instance, one parent directory that has plenty of files that, given the marks of modularity, are hardening the performing of tasks for the root directory. Their tenure for the root directory is innate. Even more precisely, the interpretation is quintessential in the export of results, as far modular explanations are concerned. The conclusion of explanations, in a rather self-sufficient manner, is thought to have been developed for survival purposes. In the evolutionary scheme of things, the impetus of a natural evolutionary selection has been so grand for the human language, that modular explanations have replaced environment as the uttermost trigger for change.

In our approach, we aimed to link the modular explanations to the role-definition endeavors for the foreign policy of the European Union. Consequently, the right manner in which modular explanations can be conceived is the fact that they are social practices, not only in-taken by the member states, but, in fact, taken by the institutional groundwork of the three-devised areas of external action for the European Union. As such, there are three modules of perception for role-definition and, more importantly, for role-assumptions: trade policy, cooperation for development and humanitarian aid policy, and last but not least: the actual common foreign and security policy. We have already elaborated on the display of roles that each dimension of action has been associated with. For the three macro-roles defined, there are three modules of perception. These can also be called macro-modules of perception. In the issues of the external actions of the European Union, a common knowledge trivia is the fact that member states reign supreme. They are still the main decisive factors, despite the innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty.

We will turn now to the three modules of perception and to the three characteristic ways of bearing between role-assumption and role-definition in each of them. We will, also, make a transactional illustration regarding EU`s identity, as it is reflected by the three categories of macro-roles, keyed out in the field of its external action. In-between we will discuss the manner in which EU`s foreign policy is re-constructed, through the means of modular explanations. By re-construction, we imply the re-arrangement of social roles, on the one hand, or the re-definition of roles. We will also be referring to beneficialization and classification in order to sketch out better our analytical purposes. Beneficialization may be realized by participation, in which case the beneficialized participant is recipient or client in relation to a material process, or receiver in relation to a verbal process[...] Classification is an instrument of control in two directions: control over the flux of experience of physical and social reality… and society’s control over conceptions of that reality [5].

The first module of perception is the module of trade policy, associated to the macro-role of anihilating progressively the trade barriers. In our previously made expostulations, we considered the fact that an identity is much more than a collection of roles. In order for our ratiocination to be implemented, we will consider identity as the degree of oneness and sameness between the different modules of perception. The theoretical report says that the modules of perception have to be considered as having individual powers, different from the dictation lines of the mind. In our case, the agent striving to be the mind is the EU`s identity – an element of recognition, under whose engaging an actor`s existence is recognized by other actors. Identity has to be more than a mingle of elements in order to be given the benefit of continuance and animation. It has to be produce a unitary certification, among the many roles assumed, defined and played.

First, let us contemplate upon the manner in which the enhancement of the policy-scope and of the institutional capacity of the European Union has produced sufficient means for an autarch existence of the macro-role assumed, defined and played. If this is the case, then the process of identity-construction will be made more difficult: it is possible that the sovereign existence of a module perception to affect identity and, more importantly, identity-construction, given the fact that passivity of reaction to the inducements from the expert system – neural identity-pulsation – may surface. In the field of trade policy, the EU has been acting faihful to its defined role. It is an integrated block of member states, that created a one-of-a-kind form of regionalism, starting by the elimination of trade barriers. Furthermore, EU has been endorsing the elimination of trade barriers in its relations with other integrated blocks: namely, with the integrated economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with the block economies of MERCOSUR – in order only to instantiate a little bit. EU trade policy has suffered one of the most serious challenge when the 2008 global recession hit! The concern for the public debt levels, conjoined with the concern for the measures that had to be taken to further economic growth by the plucking up of free trade. Different postures are recently emerging from the approaches utilized by France - the promotion of the packages of economic growth and by Great Britain – the increase of private spending by the reduction of taxes. The deals proposed to counter the crises were of national origin. As a result, they were meant to be applied in differentiation. Also, in the trade relations with China, diverging views have obliterated the development of the lifting of barriers. China is exemplified as it is the second largest partner of the European Union. Protectionist attitudes have impelled the progressive steps taken to exalt this bilateral relation. The arms` ban on China is also one of the main discurive hot-spots in the European Union trade policy. The EU foreign policy in the field of trade relations has one of the most elongated in time macro-roles: The longest-established agenda for action at the European level is that of trade and commercial relations. As the EU has evolved, it has spawned an extensive set of international trade and aid agreements, which some have described as a ‘pyramid of privilege’. The extent and complexity of this network reflect the


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centrality of the trade and aid agenda to the EU; after all, this was the original raison d’être of the EEC, and the focus of the earliest common policy efforts of the Community in the international field [6]. All in all, the trade policy macro-role of the European Union is implemented based on modular explanations, that flow out from a medium degree of beneficialization and classification. Diversions from the admittances made arise from miscalculated events- such as the forestalling economic recession, from the specificities of and from the classification progrenies of national approaches, including their different classification of EU`s external relations and the due notice and appreciation for each of them.

In the field of cooperation for development and humanitarian aid, the beneficialization has a high level. Also, classification ranks virtually high. The macro-defined role of EU`s foreign policy, in this field, does not have dissimilar perceptions, nor is it self-designing from the matters of EU``s sameness of elements chose for identity-construction. The member states, together with the European Comission and the Council and the European Parliament are the foremost decision-makers. Nevertheless, the rhetoric has been consistent in this field. The control over the resources engaged is divided between the national capitals the European institutions, despite the fact that the European institutions share almost equal financing with the member states.

In field of the common foreign and security policy, the degree of beneficialization is high. Classification from the European institutions is low. The macro-role of the relevance of defence structures is a controversially implemented macro-role, given the paramount position of the nation-states. The opposing ways of the rhetoric regard the intensifying of the partnership with the transatlantic defense structures and, on the other hand, the escalation of a fortified European defense structure, with much more pooling than in the past. The modular explanations are intrinsically national.

Concluding Remarks Throughout this article, we did not attempt to render a technical acquisitions of methods, in order to

underline the process of EU`s identity construction. We only wanted to indicate that this process must start with the reunification of roles. Discursive practices – mostly taken for application – show that modular explanations underscore different perceptions of the manners in which the macro-roles can be assumed. Also, the degrees of beneficialization and classification have to be proportionate not to curtail independence, but, in order to reduce the differences in perception. Among all the fields of external action considered, the least independent modular perceptions have to be conferred to the cooperation for development and humanitarian aid –where both beneficialization and classification are proportionate.

The fluctuation of the degrees of beneficialization and classification shows the degree of sameness lost between definition and practical assumption. Certainly, one of the research premises on which this paper is built is that roles are pointers of identity. Ergo, the effectuation of harmonization between the macro-roles assumed creates identity and not their deviance.

References [1] FAIRCLOUGH Norman, Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research, Chapter 2-

Text, Social Events and Social Practices, Routledge, London, 2003 [2] CHURCH Clive H., PHINEMORE David, Understanding the Treaty of Lisbon, Romanian Journal

of European Affairs, Vol.10, No.2, June 2010 [3] OJ 2007/C 306/01, Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty

establishing the European Community, signed at Lisbon, 13 December 2007, Volume 50, 17 December 2007, accession in informatics system, date of accession: 23rd of October 2013, accession time: 13:23 p.m.

[4] WODAK Ruth, CHILTON Paul, A New Agenda in Critical Discourse Analysis, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Philadelphia, 2005, pp.44

[5] VAN LEEUWEN Theo, Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008

[6] RICHARDSON Jeremy, European Union: Power and Policy-Making, Routledge, London, 2001


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Social Re-Construction and Post-National Constellation – The Formative Period of the European Project


Abstract

This paper seizes to demonstrate the realities of survival that Europe experienced after World War II and the originating ideas behind the efforts made for the social and political reconstruction of the Old Continent. It strives to highlight the measures taken by the political leaders of Europe and the ideational foundation for the introduction of post-war social reconstruction, under the aegis of post-national constellation.

We are aiming to highlight the fact that the interdependence between the foreword of politics and the impetus for social reconstruction was stark and not at all cleft. The undivided responsibility for the anatomical preparation of a socially reconstructed Europe and a Europe that was committed to give up power politics for good could, indeed, be interpreted in the key of post-national constellation. The nation-state proved to be a long-wearing experiment, but also an experiment that engendered an aching stenosis to inter-state cooperation.

With this argument brought in scope, the idea of post- national constellation worked as a panacea, in the years preceding World War II, and was thought to bring both political and social reconstruction for the people of Europe, representing the jumping-off place for the creation of the European Union. The theoretical underpinnings of post-national constellation were coined by Jurgen Habermas much later. However, we are pledging to bind cognitive detections of post-national constellation, that existed even during the years, when the European project was concocted for the ideational reunification of Europe, to the virtual table of contents of this concept, in the manner in which it was unveiled by Jurgen Habermas.

Keywords: Political Reconstruction, Social Reconstruction, Reunification, Post-National Constellation, Europe, European Project, European Union

1 Research hypotheses and methodological employment The main research hypothesis of the paper is to evaluate the phylogenesis of the European project, in

the manner in which it was detached after World War II. In the sum of the evaluation terminologies, that we are going to use, throughout this paper, we reckon the fact that the post-war period, in the first decade of its unveiling, gave headway to the social re-construction of the European continent, thus contributing to the formation of a post-national constellation.

The paper channels, besides the central research hypothesis, two other secondary/transversal hypotheses. The first secondary hypothesis refers to the stereotyped and to the superannuated use of the concept of nation-state, as a project of an exterior expression of a deeply-rooted social identity.

The second transversal research hypothesis refers to the post-war reconstruction of Europe, within a structure of cooperation. This change of perspective derived from the aegis of the social identity and also from the manner in which an attachment for this kind of a model was embraced and further propelled.

The research scope of this paper had to imply in the methodological usage the likes of post-positivism as a methodological tool. The set of practices of post-positivism regard the fact that context is a dependent and, also, variable for the purposes of experimentation. Post-positivism represented a modified dualism, inasmuch as post-positivists believed that reality is constructed and that research is influenced by the values of investigators. However, at the same time, they believed that some lawful, reasonably stable relationships among social phenomena prevail. Notwithstanding, proponents of this school of thought tended to emphasize deductive logic, with much of their research being influenced by theory/hypothesis, which was reflected in a predominantly formal writing style using the impersonal voice [1].


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In order to coincide with the paradigm we pledged allegiance to, we will be inferring, in our study, the use of the experimental method, most specifically, the use of the experimental design. In order for the European project to be disclosed as a post-national constellation, we will be referring to the social practices that forebode the nascence of the European project, that were communicated among the founding members of the European Union, in terms of the characteristic of standardization, randomization, placebo effects and the surmounting of the experimental bias.

Standardization remains crucial in experimentation because it ensures that the same stimuli, procedures, responses, and variables are coded and analyzed. This reduces the likelihood that extraneous factors, of which the experimenter might not even be aware, could influence the results in decisive ways. Standardization requires that the same set of experimental procedure, or experimental protocol, is administered in the same way to subjects across conditions; only the independent variable (or variables) of interest is manipulated […] Randomization refers to the assignment of subjects to experimental conditions. Experimenters assign subjects randomly to ensure that no unrelated or spurious factors vary consistently within a given population and therefore bias the results. The idea is that background differences cancel each other out in the course of random assignment, since each individual is as likely to be placed in one condition as in another […] Placebo effects, in medicine, account for patients whose condition improves as a result of a fake treatment, such as a sugar pill. These effects can cause quite powerful changes in outcome based on an individual’s belief that the treatment will work. Control conditions are important in experimental verification precisely because they help determine the extent of placebo effects in an experimental manipulation […] Experimental bias. Although experiments seek to maximize experimenter control over the independent variables in a study, the experimental process itself can introduce potential sources of bias. Three important forms of experimental bias are expectancy effects, experimenter bias, and demand characteristics [2].

With this being said, the paper aims to operate with the manner in which the ambitions of externalization of the post-war re-construction of Europe have departed from the reinvention of the ways of accommodation f the nation-state and from the amending of its status by producing a post-national constellation.

2 From nation-state to the post-national constellation…with Post-Positivism World affairs are transforming themselves (or, some say that they are getting transformed!) into multi-

stake holder forums. As such, the panoply of actors interfering in world affairs, whether by influencing or by actually affecting the proving of world affairs, is multiplying at a very fast pace. The fastest it multiplies, the bigger the questions for state-centrism in the natural unveilings of world politics.

The most intricate point of this debate regards the questions of sovereignty and of the fact that sovereignty is becoming a divided and, as well, a divisive trait of world politics. The etymon of sovereignty is the social contract: The idea of the social contract when examined carefully is seen to have very few implications, and is used for all sorts of reasons, and generates quite contrary conclusions. The reason why it is such a flexible tool in the hands of the theorist is that the choice posited, when one is posited, is variable. The choice may be to create society; civil society; a sovereign; procedural rules of justice; or morality itself. It may be a choice of contract that binds in perpetuity, or one renewed with each succeeding generation. The choice may be historical, ideal or hypothethical, its expression explicit or tacit, and the contractees may be each individual contracting with every other, individuals contracting with their rulers and God (and the various permutations to which such a combination gives rise), the heads of families agreeing among themselves, corporations or cities contractually bound to a superior, or the people as a body contracting with a ruler or king. Furthermore, the motivation for the choice may be a religious duty, personal security, economic welfare, or moral self-righteousness [3].

Contractarianism is one of the cornerstones of what sovereignty stood and stands for: the image of constructing a powerful institution, that would have a moral ascendant upon types of institutional organization and, that, at the same, that would use its pool of prerogatives for its creators and for their inheritors.

What Habermas depicts in his study– The Post-National Constellation - Political Essays – is the fact that, when adducing the ideas of post-national experimentation, there is a degree of inquietude. After all, if revolutions in sovereignty create new international constitutions, orders that empower or diminish princes, empires, colonies, nations, minorities, and intervening authorities, if they legitimate fresh ideologies and novel notions of justice, this hardly means that ideas or philosophies themselves bring the revolutions about [4]. The idea of the simple existence of the nation-state gave important reassurances to making the democratic mechanisms work and produce beneficial outcomes for the population. The idea of a post-national constellation incorporates fewer elements of the accepted overview picture. What important consequences can be triggered by the loss of self-control and self-governance, as experienced by nation-states?

As Habermas denotes, as we consider the “disempowerment” of the nation-state, we think in the first instance of the long-established transformations of the modern state that first emerged with the Peace of


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Westphalia. The features of this system are reflected in the requirements of classical international law just as much as in the descriptions of realist political scientists. According to this model, the world of states consists of nation-states regarded as independent actors within an anarchic environment, who make more or less rational decisions in pursuit of the preservation and expansion of their own power. This picture changes very little if states are seen as economic utility maximizers instead of accumulators of political power [5]. In the last section of this paper, we will try to confirm the corroboration of Habermas` description of what structural conditions were conjugated for the creation of a post-national constellation, in the immediate post-war period in Europe.

3 The Nation-State – No longer its own natural excellent in the post-war period?

The first image, that was detached during the post-a period in Europe, was that of continental re-conciliation. Having been the foreground of balancing politics, Europe was experimenting with a form of pleasing national interests, but in a post-national construction. The states of Europe had proven the fact that they could be exquisite accumulators of power. However, at the same time, this did not mean that the challenges posed to the concept of sovereignty were terminated.

The mere concept of sovereignty being at stake, the first item of consideration was its re-evaluation, in a manner in which the national interests were given support and adaptation to. A new immanent form of contractarianism was born in the post-war Europe! This new form of immanent contractarianism procured elevation from the fact that a theoretical substitution for the countervailing procedural effects of sovereignty and of its exercising. This meant that the collective consciousness of real politik inferred from the fact that the ideology of the nation-state had traversed plenty of historic processes that did not work on the behalf of inter-state cooperation.

The nation-state was not successful in providing the requirements for morality-related questions to vanish once and for all! More than that, it gave descending to new forms of power expansion, in the form of modern empires: the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, on the one hand, the delimitation of spheres of influence, cultural and political colonies of the state, that had the structural circumstances to exercise a primus inter pares type of sovereignty. Europe was, in its ideological milieu, a place where the tradition of statehood had long anointed disciples of power-accumulation – be it in the form of kings, of empires, of modern empires and of neo-colonies. All of this cemented the idea that the state could have a regressed presence in European affairs!

The nation-state was then and still is the most engaging political structure ever invented. The European project, in its early beginnings was a form of living up to the responsibility of European historical memory and of limiting power accumulation for a state that was beginning to pay its dues for the post-war situation of the continent: Germany. Perceptions of Other as an enemy had dominated the immediate post-war period of Europe. For instance, since the end of the Second World War, Lithuanians have believed that Poland would seize Vilnius if given the chance, while Poles recall Ukrainians (after the Germans) as the greatest and most vicious wartime enemy. Since 1989 Poland and its eastern neighbours Lithuania and Ukraine have successfully negotiated issues of past conflict, in large part because of awareness of the problems memory must pose for statesmen [6].

The grand design of the incipital European Communities was no longer a survival of the fittest! It was the mannerism of forcing a mute display of harmony and harmony-inbreeding in a space previously tormented by violence. More than that, the design of the European project was meant to underline the ability of self-help that the European countries could have and render available. The reconstruction per se had taken place with a lot of extraneous help from the part of the US. The intentions to create such a post-national constellation regarded the fact that power could be accumulated for non-belligerent purposes also. It was a statement in that sense. The method utilized for it was highly experimental.

First of all, it was randomized. Some of the founding member of the European Union were former empires – with reference to France and also to Germany (whose territorial unification in the XIX century was called upon with the nomination of the German Empire). Holland and its colonial, overseas possessions could also be counted in. When talking about colonies, Belgium could not be lapsed from the equation. For these countries even the nation-state was a rather anew form of experimentation. Now, they conjured to experiment something with more power liquefaction than the previous form of power and identity manifestation. It was also standardized as a matter of rules-delineation for the national posture in a post-national structure.

The experimental verification had a very low standard! No-one could have foreseen the fact that the degree of norm-transaction could have become so high in the future. Also, the experimental verification mattered more if it was projected in very small doses, as any sovereignty exercise could suffer from reverence lost. It was also an important prescription, at the very early stages of the European project and so that it could, at least, not be extinguished earlier than allowed

The placebo effect had a very humble individuality for the beginnings of the European project. Despite the mitigation for the contrary, in the idealistic pennants of a reconciled Europe, the trigger of the experimental


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bias was quite high. Nothing like this had ever been trialed. More than that, the tokens of the Cold War made the experimental bias even higher. Also, the experimental protocol envisioned a lack of tightness before the procedural endeavors began for the European project.

In its primary period, the European project was less concerned with the effectiveness of administration, respectively, with the regulatory functions of the new form of political organization. Its mere existence indicated the fact that Europe was ready to abandon a heavy past and regard the political future with empty hands, as far as its institutional annotations were regarded. This entails actually the fact that the small degree of technical investiture was not a noble speculation.

Marginal comments The transactional step towards a post-national constellation was made by Europe in order to extract

from its memory the ill effects of what the experience of the nation-state meant. Its creation was the sheer will of a handful of states. Its experimental bias was consequential. Did globalization begun from the European continent? It is too much to utilize such a theoretical substitution. This would mean that the approach of globalization as a process, inspired from Europe, is genuine. It was none of our research intents to expose such a relation of anteriority!

What we meant to show is that the pedant manufacturing machine of Europe created, in the cognitive laboratories of thought, some form of political shrilling that inspired all the post-national projects ever developed with the same aim in sight. At first, it was a play-upon-words-and-facts gist –respectively, upon the historical memory of Europe highly-engendered in conflict. In turn, it ramified into a well-rounded political assemblage. The spirits of the post-national high-pitched debate made this possible!

References [1] ONWUEGBUZIE Anthony J., Why can`t we all get along? Towards a Framework of Unifying

Research Paradigms, Education, Spring 2002, Vol.122, No.3 [2] MCDERMOTT ROSE, Experimental Methods in Political Science, Annual Review of Political

Science, 5, 2002, pp.31-61 [3] BOUCHER David, KELLY Paul, The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls, Routledge,

London, 1994, pp. 2 [4] PHILLPOT DAVID, Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International

Relations, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2001, pp.46 [5] HABERMAS JÜRGEN, The Post-National Constellation, translated, edited and with an

introduction by Max Pensky, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 2001, pp.69 [6] MÜLLER Jan-Werner, Memory and Power in Post-War Europe: Studies in the Presence of the

Past, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2002, pp.39;


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Romania’s Network of Strategic Partnerships. A Case for Methodological Nationalism


Abstract

Cultural approaches in foreign policy are not adamant to strangeness. On the contrary, in many parts of the world, they celebrate profusion and relative majority. Throughout this paper, we will be entagling these prerequisits in order to tackle Romania`s network of strategic partnerships. Much has been said about the potency of the normative foundations of EU member countries and about the renewed tendency, that they posess to emulate the neural impulses from the European Union. Our research aim, within this paper, is to demonstrate the fact that Romania is now fleshing out the carpentry of a specific model of strategic partnerships, with a sort of specific protrusion, that emanates from the geostrategic security environment, from the historical assembling of the most important bilateral relations, cherished as such, throughout the years, and from the contemporary strategic options.

Keywords: Network, Strategic Partnerships, Bilateral Relations, Peculiar Singularities, Contemporary Strategic Options.

1 Research hypotheses and methodological employment The central research hypothesis of this paper is to limn the specificity of the network of strategic

partnerships, developed by Romania, during the last period, by incorporating the rubrics of strategic partnership in the ensemble of the privileged bilateral relations, that Romania gears up. The central research hypothesis is assorted in two transversal hypotheses.

The first transversal hypothesis underlines the construction of the network of strategic partnerships, developed by Romania and the manner in which it recruits, within the background of inclusion, a series of European strategic specificities, determined by the quality of European membership, that Romania concords. The second transversal hypothesis derives from the demonstrations of the first hypothesis. Despite the fact that there are some clutching similarities within the manner in which the network of strategic partnerships, grasped from geographical determinism and also from the capacity of emulation of European instantiations and prerogatives, Romania retains a modeling construction autonomy, with an engrossed specificity.

The methodological body of the paper will use the works of Kuhn - as a medium of paradigm-building, being connected also with the manner in which mixing the construction elements, produces, in the end, a unique building-pattern. The paradigmatic conceptualization will also use the Constructivist paradigm in International Relations. We also reckon that the data reduction method is the best for our analytical purposes.

2 Building on a paradigm shift A paradigm shift is an alternation that changes the direction of a status-quo – an acknowledgement that

an event can have transubstantiation qualities, in the manner in which neither theoreticians, nor practitioners had expected. A shift in professional commitments to shared assumptions takes place when an anomaly undermines the basic tenets of the current scientific practice. These shifts are what Kuhn describes as scientific revolutions - "the tradition-shattering complements to the tradition-bound activity of normal science" New assumptions –"paradigms" - require the reconstruction of prior assumptions and the re-evaluation of prior facts. This is difficult and time consuming. It is also strongly resisted by the established community [1]. Progress cannot be achieved through marching along linear lines. As the result of his studies, Kuhn emphasized the role of community in scientific "development." He challenged the brick-to-building metaphor endorsed by normal science textbooks, suggesting instead that scientific progress occurs in the form of revolutions and does not follow an uninterrupted linear path, as traditional schoolbooks would lead us to believe. These scientific


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revolutions erupt not as the direct result of the emergence of new data, but only after a scientific community embraces a new model in place of an old one. Kuhn identified these "universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners," as "paradigms" [2]. But is it a paradigm a concept that nurtures a true belonging only to science? How can a paradigm be created and transformed? Thomas Kuhn considers the patterns of time and of temporal events a matter of cause for the creation of paradigms. Kuhn describes two types of science: normal science and crisis or revolutionary science. According to his paradigmatic view, normal science is an orderly, highly functional state firmly based upon the guiding principles acknowledged by a particular scientific community as scientific achievements. Normal science involves long periods of calm in which a community of scientists work to broaden and deepen the explanatory scope of a theoretical account based on a single set of fundamental beliefs (Gholson, 1985). It is intellectually isolated from influences outside the discipline, including the operating belief systems of other scientific disciplines and nonscientific (social) events and values. For Kuhn, normal science is a dynamic process interrupted by explosive, intermittent crises or revolutions that change the direction of growth within and across the discipline. These brief periods of chaos are characteristic of revolutionary science when the fundamental beliefs that previously supported normal science are relinquished and replaced [3]. For Kuhn, a paradigm represents a set of identification marks, that can be attached to a breakthrough, or that can, moreover, give identification to a scientific breakthrough. In our case, we will be inferring the conceptual use of paradigm in order to showcase the methodological nationalism, revealed in Romania`s pattern of strategic partnerships construction.

3 Romania`s strategic thinking in the design of strategic partners – A paragon for the emergence of a paradigm?

In Kuhn`s length of analysis, for a paradigm to be born, it has to be credited with an acceptance. The acceptance can only come from elderly knowledge, from a community of scientists or to be provable by the string of facts emerging from reality. As such, a paradigm has to be recognizable and with an immense sense of scientific visibility. In order to outperform any sense of ambiguity, a paradigm is not an elusive, static concept. It is a concept that has to be proven, but, at the same time, it is a concept that corroborated plenty of empiric issues for validity certification. In our study, strategic thinking is mostly connected not with the emergence of a paradigm – an all-too-embraceable, dynamic concept. It is, moreover, connected to strategic culture and to the justification of the register of connections, that generate structures of practice and of meaning.

A decisive and well-versed definition of strategic culture is given by David Hanglung, when quoting the explanations of Alastair Ian Johnson: strategic culture consists in an integrated system of symbols (i.e., argumentation structures, languages, analogies, metaphors, etc.) that acts to establish pervasive and long-lasting grand strategic preferences by formulating concepts of the role and efficacy of military force in interstate political affairs, and by clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the strategic preferences seem uniquely realistic and efficacious [4]. In a manner congenial to the explanations presented by Alastair Johnson, Jack`s Snyder definition is invoked by Jeffrey Lantis, in order to expatiate the concept of strategic culture: Snyder suggested that elites articulate a unique strategic culture related to security-military affairs that is a wider manifestation of public opinion, socialized into a distinctive mode of strategic thinking. He contended, as a result of this socialization process, a set of general beliefs, attitudes, and behavior patterns with regard to nuclear strategy has achieved a state of semi-permanence that places them on the level of ‘cultural’ rather than mere policy [5]. The buzzword for the conventional understanding of the concept, by the workmanship of the two definitions, that we put forward, is the fact that strategic culture is projecting a system of values, attitudinal and behavioral modes, able to de redefined, but, at the same time, that have acquired a dependable duration, given their almost on-going use. The most feasible to theorize this socialization process, that is received by the concept of strategic culture is the Constructivist approach - Constructivism is a way of studying social relations--any kind of social relations. While it draws from a variety of other ways of studying such a broad and complex subject, it stands on its own as a system of concepts and propositions. Constructivism is not a theory as such. It does not offer general explanations for what people do, why societies differ, how the world changes. Instead, constructivism makes it feasible to theorize about matters that seem to be unrelated because the concepts and propositions normally used to talk about such matters are also unrelated [6]. What connotations can be drawn for our case study?

The spur of information for Romania`s strategic culture is indicative of the two main pillars of influence: the European membership, on the one hand, and East-European geopolitics, on the other hand. Given the fact that the European Union gushed from the overthrow of inter-national discordant elements and that it was not an actual contender in the world confrontation for power (with reference to the Cold War!), its strategic culture identifies a lack of antagonizing and of peace-recounted approaches. Can we tell that the European strategic culture is actually reporting results? Or, is it, perhaps, now that the European Union is starting to share a commitment towards the definition of a strategic culture?


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The trends towards multiplicity of this answer make stagnant a progress of choosing. Yet, indeed, EU is only currently emerging as a global actor and is now enshrining its global tenure and strategic objectives. Yes, EU has ascertained strategic objectives in different sector areas of the collective action. However, only now EU is traversing a period of a more determinable foreign policy and external actions, in terms of creating valves for its global presence. EU` versatility in terms of a paradigm of usage for its strategic culture reclaim, most importantly, the challenges that the European authorities issue in negative terms.

They include trespassing the record of human rights, encroachments to the rule of law, erroneous actions upon functional services – all of this are present as strategic objectives of EU`s foreign policy and, at the same time, have been present for decades in EU`s line of thinking. Older prerequisites include the objectives mentioned in the Millenium Declaration: eradicating poverty and hunger in the world, achieving universal primary education, strengthening gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, developing a global partnership for development [7]. In terms of defense, the bargaining allure of EU` foreign policy underlines the fact that EU cannot yet take a straight road ahead as far as the deployment of its presence in military missions is concerned. There are multiple national strategic cultures in the EU, but, noteworthy, two dominant clusters or strands can be identified. The first strand is represented by smaller and non-aligned states with strategic cultures that favour the current status quo – consensus-driven, regionally orientated crisis management in which co-operation with partners is confined to this limited ambition. The second strand consists of large former colonial great powers – France and the United Kingdom – which have the capacity and are willing to undertake full-spectrum missions globally, including taking decisive military action when necessary (as has been the case during the Libyan crisis in 2011). Both want to have their preferred national strategic culture more or less replicated at the level of the EU and each is subject to incremental Europeanization of their foreign and security policies [8].

On a second front of evaluation, Romania delivers some traits of strategic culture, that are indicative of the East-European region. In this geographical space, the influence of power politics has been stringent and ubiquitous. If for East Asia, Japan was envisioned as the leading goose, for the East European space, all the major hopes were place on Poland`s shoulders, seen as the regional catalyst for change. Romania was not ranked in any positive of negative hierarchy. Eastern Europe is an area of eternal political and security transition, given the ex-influence zone standing. More than that, East Europe is a region where the forces of nationalism, giving the impending, undesired interference of external actors in domestic affairs, have been gaining potency. Geopolitically speaking, in the post-Cold War period, Eastern Europe was also a place of an enhanced rank of repair for the geographic determinism. Borders were changed and re-designed, as multi-national states took the fate of XIXth centuries mighty empires. Eastern Europe is a space that experienced long-term threats of instability and also of the action and the counteraction of separatist forces. Preserving statehood was an utmost objective, given the fact that the ambit of violence and conflict was stark.

Romania`s strategic culture did not and could not negate the powerful East-European variables from its current grade of condition. Romania`s strategic culture put in motion – like many times during the key events of its history – an olympian nature in the region. It managed to seek open doors of detachment, by inoculating a disunion with region, and by appealing to bilateral relations, within which the cultural and civilizational element had a coalescing power – namely to the relation with France.

From a cultural standpoint, Romania is a Latin exhibitive of an Orthodox culture. The main inquiring point about the methodological nationalism in the case of strategic partnership-construction is the fact that Romania is one Latin pillar in a Slavic surrounding. The trait of secularism is often surpassed by the pooling of religion: religion has assumed center place in electoral campaigns, and turned the voters’ attention away from the candidate’s concrete policy proposals to their readiness to perform religious ritual. In the weeks preceding elections, growing numbers of politicians make almost limitless use of religious symbols and call on support from priests and bishops in order to win seats in government, parliament, and county or local councils. Although repeatedly declaring its neutrality, the dominant Orthodox Church is happy to oblige and give support to various politicians, if certain that its demands will be met. Is association with the political elite repeatedly reflected negatively on the church when it supported corrupt, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, or antidemocratic politicians [9]. Also the consanguinity relation with the Republic of Moldova is one of the centralizing influences of Romania`s un-confounding strategic culture.

Final evaluative annexations about Romania`s network of strategic partnerships

Romania` s network of strategic partnerships and of privileged relations includes: the United States of America, Azerbaidjan, South Korea, France, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, Poland, Turkey, Hungary and Spain. Six of these states are EU members. Quintessentially, the relationship with Hungary is due to the geographical proximity that the two country share. France was Romania`s natural ally during the last two centuries and had a


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cultural and civilizational larn-position, that Romania always invoked in relation with France. One of the latest and newest additions is the long-sought for elevated relation with China. But how can these choices be bind in a solid- block framework? Romania`s methodological nationalism, in terms of strategic partnerships-building, regards several hot spots: the transatlantic relation, Central Asia and East Asia. Each of these choices, by their numbers and ascending position, steers importance. As far as strategic culture goes, eclecticism is the most adequate explanation.

As far as geographical stretch, it shows depth of inclusion. As such, Romania`s methodological nationalism is eclectic in nature, it places a hierarchical ascendant upon the transatlantic sphere of affairs, and, at the same, given the last relations introduced with accentuated proclivity, has been expunged by a preoccupation with Asian affairs – this a paradigm shift, lately unwrapped. This paradigm shift is not at all altered by regional or by European membership sways. It does not have a civilizational, nor a cultural precedent, like in the case of the relation with France. Nonetheless, it seems that Romania is prospecting Asia as a design for partnership-building – a space recognized by the cultural and civilizational counter-position, with the European space. In this way, the check of eclecticism embodies the fact that neither the influence of European strategic culture, nor the regional strategic culture have compelled Romania`s methodological nationalism to be bi-directional! With a stronger emphasis added, it is Eurasian in stretchiness and eclectic as far as strategic culture goes.

References [1] KUHN Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions – A Synopsis from the Original by

Professor Frank Pajares, http://stripe.colorado.edu/~yulsman/paradigms.pdf, documentation made in informatics system, date of accession: 24th of October 2013, accession time: 19:10 p.m.

[2] ROBERTS Lisa J., Thomas Kuhn`s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, ETC:A Review of General Semantics, Vol.57, No.1, Spring 2000

[3] ANTOGNOLI-TOLAND Paula L., Kuhn and Reigel: The Nature of Scientific Revolutions and Theory Construction in Nursing, Journal of Theory Construction and Testing, Vol.3, No.2, Fall 1999

[4] HAGLUNG David G., What is Strategic culture? A Modest Defense of An Immodest Concept, International Journal, Vol.59, No.3, Summer 2004

[5] LANTIS Jeffrey F., Strategic culture: From Clausewitz to Constructivism, Strategic Insights, Volume IV, Issue 10, October 2005

[6] KULBAKOVA Vendulka, ONUF Nicholas, KOWERT Paul (et.al), International Relations in a Constructed World, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 1998, pp.58

[7] The EU`s Contribution Towards the Millenium Development Goals, http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/development/general_development_framework/r12533_en.htm, documentation in informatics system, date of accession: 10th of September 2013, accession time: 20:39 p.m.

[8] BIAVA Alessia, DRENT Margriet, HERD Graeme P., Characterizing the European Union`s Strategic culture: An Analytical Framework, Journal of Common Market Studies, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford, 2011, pp.1-22

[9] STAN Lavinia, TURCESCU LUCIAN, Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007, pp.202


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The Documentary Basis of the INQUISITION TRIBUNAL in Medieval Europe

Bezus S.1 1 Ph.D. in Pedagogy, Associate Professor, Piatigorsk State Linguistic University, Department of Hispanic Studies and Intercultural Communication (RUSSIA) [email protected]

Abstract The word “Inquisition” is translated from the Latin word inquisitio, which means “investigation”. In the

Middle Ages the Inquisition was a judicial and punitive institution of the Catholic Church. It was set up to combat heresy and spread over almost all the countries of Medieval Europe. Heresy (from Greek hairesis – “choice”) was considered to be all views that differed in opinion from the Church, or such religious beliefs that did not coincide with the doctrine determined by the Roman Catholic Church. The organizational and legal bases of the Inquisition in Europe were made in the XIIth century. This report provides an overview of the first documents that laid down the foundations of the Inquisition in Medieval Europe, in particular, the papal letter “Ad abolendam” of 1184 and the royal edict in Spain, according to which the Catholics, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, appointed the first inquisitors. The report also compares constitutional articles of some modern European countries concerning religious matters.

Keywords: Medieval Europe, the Inquisition, documents, papal letters, royal edict, constitutions of European countries, religion, religious freedom

1 Documentation of religious matters in Modern Europe Religion causes considerable concern for many democratic countries. On the one hand a democratic

state must give certain guarantees of religious freedom; on the other hand most governments remember and understand that many world wars began and were fought because of religion.

Nowadays, all European constitutions guarantee religious freedom. In almost all European countries, the Church is disestablished. For example, Article 1 of the Slovak Republic constitution reads: “The Slovak Republic is a sovereign, democratic, and law-governed state. It is not linked to any ideology or religious belief” [1]. Point 2 of Article 13 of the Bulgarian constitution states: “The religious institutions shall be separate from the state” [2], as well as point 3 of Article 60 of the Hungarian constitution: “In the Republic of Hungary the Church functions in separation from the State” [3].

Nevertheless, there are countries that have documented their religion.

1.1 Constitutional Basis for Official Religion in some European Countries Some European countries have written down their official religion in their basic law (i.e. in their

constitutions). Greece, Iceland, Malta and the Kingdom of Norway are among them. Thus, Greece regulates relations of Church and State by Article 3 (Section II) of the constitution: “1.

The prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ.” [4]. Article 62 of the constitution of Iceland reads: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the State Church in Iceland and, as such, it shall be supported and protected by the State” [5]. The constitution of Malta determines the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion as the religion of Malta (Article 2, Chapter I) [6]. Under the constitution of the Kingdom of Norway (Article 2) “The Evangelical-Lutheran religion shall remain the official religion of the State. The inhabitants professing it are bound to bring up their children in the same” [6].

Despite the existence of official religions, the constitutions of the countries mentioned above give religious freedom to their citizens. Article 13 of the Greek constitution reads: “1. Freedom of religious conscience is inviolable. The enjoyment of civil rights and liberties does not depend on the individual’s religious beliefs” [4]. The same ideas are written down in Article 63 of the constitution of Iceland: “All persons have the right to form religious associations and to practice their religion in conformity with their individual convictions” [5]; in Article 40 of the constitution of Malta: “All persons in Malta shall have full freedom of conscience and


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enjoy the free exercise of their respective mode of religious worship” [6]; and in Article 2 of Norway’s constitution: “All inhabitants of the Realm shall have the right to free exercise of their religion” [6].

Bulgaria doesn’t determine the official but traditional religion in point 3 of Article 13: “Eastern Orthodox Christianity shall be considered the traditional religion in the Republic of Bulgaria” [2].

The constitution of Macedonia gives a list of the most popular religions of the country in point 3 of Article 19: “The Macedonian Orthodox Church, as well as the Islamic Religious Community in Macedonia, the Catholic Church, Evangelic Methodist Church, Jewish Community and other Religious communities and groups are separate from the state and equal before the law” [7].

1.2 Constitutional Guarantees for Religious Freedom in European Countries For the majority of European countries, religious freedom occupies one of the highest places in the list

of personal and political liberties and rights. Thus, in the basic law of Germany, the article that protects freedom of faith (№ 4) precedes even the article about marriage, family and children (№ 6).

Table 1 summarizes the constitutional articles concerning religious freedom in some (because of the page limitation in the report) of the countries of Eastern and Western Europe.

Table 1:Religious freedom in the constitutions of some European countries

Country Article Brief content Countries of Eastern Europe

Albania 24 1. Freedom of conscience and of religion is guaranteed. 2. Everyone is free to choose or to change his religion or beliefs… .

Belarus 31 Everyone shall have the right to determine independently his attitude towards religion, to manifest any religion..., or to manifest none at all... .

Bosnia and Herzegovina

2 3. Enumeration of Rights g) Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

Bulgaria 13 (1) The practicing of any religion shall be free. Croatia 40 Freedom of conscience and religion and the freedom to demonstrate religious or

other convictions shall be guaranteed. Cyprus, Republic of

18 Appendix D- Part II

1. Every person has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. 2. All religions whose doctrines or rites are not secret are free. 4. Every person is free and has the right to profess his faith… .

Estonia § 40 Everyone has freedom of conscience, religion and thought. Everyone may freely belong to churches and religious societies. There is no state church.

Hungary 60 (1) In the Republic of Hungary everyone has the right to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Latvia 99 Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion, consciousness and religious conviction. The Church is separate from the state.

Lithuania 26 Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion shall not be restricted. Every person shall have the right to freely choose any religion or faith...

Macedonia 19 (1) The freedom of religious confession is guaranteed. Moldova 30 Everyone shall be guaranteed the right to freedom of conscience, to freedom of

religious worship, ... the right to profess any religion, or to profess no religion. Montenegro 46 Everyone shall be guaranteed the right to freedom of thought, conscience and

religion, as well as the right to change the religion or belief … . Poland 53 Freedom of conscience and religion shall be ensured to everyone. Romania 29 (1) Freedom of thought, opinion, and religious beliefs shall not be restricted in

any form whatsoever. No one shall be compelled to embrace an opinion or religion contrary to his own convictions.

Serbia 41 Freedom of religion, which includes the freedom of belief, confession of faith and performance of religious rites, shall be guaranteed.

Slovakia 24 1) The freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, and faith are guaranteed. This right also comprises the possibility to change one’s religious belief or faith.

Ukraine 35 Every person has the right to freedom of conscience and religion. This right includes the freedom to profess or not to profess a religion... .

Countries of Western Europe Andorra 11 1. The Constitution guarantees the freedom of ideas, religion and cult, and no

one is bound to state or disclose his or her ideology, religion or beliefs. Austria 7 All Federal nationals are equal before the law. Privileges based upon birth, sex,

estate, class or religion are excluded.


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Belgium 21 The State does not have the right to intervene either in the appointment or in the installation of ministers of any religion whatsoever…

Germany 4 1) Freedom of creed, of conscience, and freedom to profess a religious or non-religious faith are inviolable.

Italy 8 All religious denominations are equally free before the law. Portugal 41 Freedom of conscience, religion and worship is inviolable. Spain 16 Freedom of ideology, religion and worship ... is guaranteed... .

2 The documentary basis on religious matters in Medieval Europe In Medieval Europe, there was no legal regulation of religious freedom, but the dogmas of the Christian

Church were not the only dogmas among uneducated people. The lack of religious tolerance among the “top management” of the Catholic Church led to the foundation of the Inquisition, which spread across almost all the countries of Medieval Europe. The main purpose of this judicial and punitive institution of the Catholic Church was to combat heresy, i.e. all the religious beliefs not coinciding with the standard determined by the Roman Catholic Church. One such belief was that of the Cathars.

2.1 Preconditions of the Inquisition Beginning in Medieval Europe In the medieval religious landscape, there stood out one sect that had great popularity among the

population – the sect of Cathars (from the Greek word meaning “pure”). By the XI-XIVth centuries the creed of Cathars had spread over northern Italy and France.

2.1.1 Cathars’ sect as the reason for the Inquisition beginning The Cathars believed that the world, the Catholic Church and secular power were created by Satan and

the pope was declared the vicegerent of the devil. The Cathars didn’t take into consideration the Catholic doctrines and sacraments, they denied ownership and demanded the elimination of church resources. In everyday life they preached celibacy, the overcoming of carnal desires and passions, forbad animal food and allowed suicide. The Cathars’ doctrine adversely affected both society and the Catholic Church. The disorders caused by the Cathars, especially in northern Italy and in the south of France, frightened the Christian leaders. The Cathars were supported not only by the handicraftsmen and the peasants but also by the noblemen who quarreled with the church feudal lords. The noblemen’s main motive was the return of their lands, which had been captured by the Church. In 1165 solemn competition between the catholic clergy and Cathars’ preachers took place in France. After this event the Cathars were announced heretics. The Cathars themselves declared complete separation from the Roman Church and founded their own organization.

2.1.2 The first papal bull against heresy Consequently, it was the Cathars creed that caused the appearance of the first document that legitimized

the persecution of heretics. The question is about a bull of pope Lucius III (1181-1185) Ad Abolendam of 4 November, 1184. Here is a translated fragment of the text of the papal letter or edict written in the Latin language [8]: “In order to eradicate the depravity engendered by the various heresies... So, we hereby order that anyone who was clearly exposed in heresy, whether being a priest or someone who at least by outward signs belongs to a religious order, he will be deprived of all privileges of the religious order, and relieved of his post and deprived of church income and he will be brought to the clergy trial to be punished properly, unless after having acknowledged his mistakes he immediately returns voluntarily to the Catholic faith, and agrees to acknowledge his mistake publicly, with the approval of the bishop, and unless he presents sufficient evidence of his loyalty. However, if it is a lay person who secretly or openly has acquired one of these sins, it is the ecclesiastical judge who will decide his or her (lay person’s) fate, so that he or she would be punished according to the gravity of his or her crime, unless he or she promises on oath to renounce heresy, and presents sufficient evidence of redemption of his or her guilt, as it has been mentioned above, and immediately returns to the true faith. The same punishment will be applied to those who will appear before the Church just as suspected persons, unless they can prove their own innocence with sufficient (according to bishop’s opinion) evidence, depending on the degree of the suspicion and the status of the suspected person.

But if he who is after the admission of his errors or after the verdict of “not guilty” is again exposed in heresy which he had denied, we order such clergy people to be brought to the clergy trial without any additional hearing of the case, and the property of the convicted clergy people to be alienated in favor of the church where they had carried their service according to the church rules. (..........)

Being guided by the opinion of the Council of Bishops and the higher power of the empire we would like to add to the foregoing that every archbishop or bishop himself in person or in the person of an archdeacon or other honest and competent men, twice or even once a year must go around his parish where under the rumors


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there is heresy; also he must oblige three or more reliable people, including the locals, to swear that if they find out that someone organizes heretical meetings, they should inform the bishop or archdeacon about it... (the translation is mine – B.S.)”.

As shown above, religious freedom in Medieval Europe was out of the question.

2.2 The Beginning of the Inquisition Activity in Spain The Inquisition in Medieval Spain (in Castile) began to act only at the end of the XVth century, during

the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Despite its tardy appearance, the Spanish Inquisition is the most well-known Tribunal of Europe (suffice to mention the name of the great inquisitor Thomas Torquemada, auto de fe (public execution of the sentence), expatriation of Hebrews) and the only one that remained in existence until New Times, i.e. until the second quarter of the XIXth century.

The first step in establishing the Inquisition in Spain was carried out by Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484). He sent a bull to the Catholic Kings indicating that it was necessary to establish the Inquisition in Castile.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella didn’t pay any attention to the pope’s letter but to be sure they ordered the organization of a special commission that would analyze the situation concerning heresy in Seville. In the report of this commission, they read that heresy had infected not only Andalusia but also Castile. The concern was not about the Cathars but Jews and Moors. The conclusion was that it was possible to save the country but only by establishing the Inquisition.

In such circumstances, the Spanish monarchs had to ask for official permission from Pope Sixtus to establish the Inquisitional Tribunal in the country, in order to eradicate the false new Christians.

Castile and Rome began to negotiate. The result of these negotiations was the bull of the 1 of November 1478. The papal edict permitted the Crown to appoint as inquisitors three bishops, or other worthy men, from the secular or regular clergy, not younger than 40 years old, with a clear conscience and a perfect service record who had a master’s or bachelor’s degree in theology, in short, people who felt trembling to the Lord.

The next document that created the legal basis for the Inquisition in Spain was the royal letter of the 17 September 1480 appointing the first inquisitors, Juan de San Martin and Miguel de Morillo. This document, signed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, limited the authority of the Inquisition within Seville and its neighbourhood. However, the first edict of the 2 January 1481 signed by the new inquisitors extended the sphere of influence of the Supreme (another name for the Inquisition). This edict made the representatives of Andalusian power render assistance to the Tribunal in discovering heretics and eradicating heresy.

To sum up, the first documents which stipulated the foundation of the Spanish Inquisition are: 1) Pope Sixtus’ bull to the Catholic monarchs; 2) King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s petition to Pope Sixtus; 3) the pope’s bull (permission) of the 1 November 1478; 4) the royal appointment letter of the 17 September 1480; 5) the edict of the first inquisitors of the 2 January 1481.

3 Conclusion We can observe the clash of interests because of religious differences in Medieval Europe. This can be

explained, to a certain degree, by the ignorance of the population and their dark consciousness. It is funny, and strange, that in the XXIst century when science and technology have achieved unprecedented success, some European countries continue having problems on religious grounds (let’s remember the events with hijabs in France and the massacres carried out by young Moslems). In most cases, it is basic laws that oblige civil societies to demonstrate religious tolerance and not enlightened consciousness. Constitutions can guarantee religious freedom on paper but only people can ensure peace and stability in reality.

References [1] The Constitution of the Slovak Republic. URL: http://www.slovakia.org/sk-constitution.htm [2] Constitution. Republic of Bulgaria. URL: http://www.online.bg/law/const/const0.htm [3] Republic of Hungary Constitution. URL: http://www.lectlaw.com/files/int05.htm [4] The Constitution of Greece. URL: http://www.hri.org/MFA/syntagma/artcl25.html#A3 [5] Constitution of the Republic of Iceland. URL: http://www.government.is/constitution/ [6] Constitutions, treaties and declarations. URL: http://www.politicsresources.net/const.htm [7] Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia. URL: http://www.constitutionalcourt.mk/domino/ [8] Gonzalo Martínez Díez, S.I. (1997) Bulario de la Inquisición Española. Hasta la muerte de

Fernando El Católico, р. 4.


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The Peculiarities of Date Setting in Medieval Europe (by the Example of Business Letters in Ancient Spanish)

Bezus S.1 1 Ph.D. in Pedagogy, Associate Professor, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Northern Caucasus institution-branch, Department of Humanitarian, Historical and Mathematical subjects (RUSSIA) [email protected]

Abstract There are different types of calendars and systems of putting matters into a chronological order. A date

is a chronological marker which shows the exact time of an event. This paper starts by looking at one mistake made in the interpretation of a date in a French Revolutionary calendar, which gave the main principles to our chronological system. It will also describe some chronological systems used in the Middle Age in Europe (medieval chronological system), the so-called Hispanic era, and the Roman calendar. This essay will illustrate methods of calculating dates with example of business letters written in ancient Castilian and Latin. The ‘date-line’ in a business letter is a very important element as it is the starting point of the creation of a letter. The paper analyses characteristic features of dates given in business letters written in medieval Spain which contain general introductory, spatial, chronological and theological components. The author proposes her own version of the Hispanic era origin.

Keywords: Medieval Europe, the date, the system of chronology (Hispanic era), French Revolutionary calendar, Roman calendar, Medieval Spain, documents, business letters, the date-line, Castilian, Latin.

1 Some chronological systems in the history of Europe A document, as a rule, reflects a historical moment, describes real historical events and refers to

historical persons. In a letter of business it is the date (day, month, and year) which shows the moment of writing, i.e. the temporal coordinates of the letter. The date shows when the text was started and indicates the exact time and place of events.

1.1 French Revolutionary Calendar Sometimes translators make mistakes in interpreting dates. One such an error can be seen in the book

‘Napoleon’ by Yevgeny Tarle (a Soviet historian and academic at the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1874-1955) where the date of the first Vendemiaire of the IXth year is indicated as being the 20th of October 1800. This is wrong. On the 5th of October 1793 the National Convention decided to establish a new revolutionary calendar for France. The Christian chronological system was removed. The National Convention ordered that years should be counted from when the monarchy was destroyed and the republic proclaimed, i.e. the 22nd of September 1792. The poet Fabre d’Églantine invented new names for each of the twelve months: ‘vendémiaire’ vintage, ‘brumaire’ mist, ‘frimaire’ frost – autumn; ‘nivôse’ snow, ‘pluviôse’ rain, ‘ventôse’ wind – winter; ‘germinal’ seed, ‘floréal’ blossom, ‘prairial’ meadow – spring; ‘messidor’ harvest, ‘thermidor’ heat, ‘fructidor’ fruits – summer. September became Vendemiaire as it is the month of vintage. Thus, the first Vendemiaire can be only in September, not before the 22nd and not later than 24th, i.e. on the 22nd or 23rd of September.

1.2 Hispanic Era: The Medieval System of Chronology in Europe One can also encounter difficulties when decoding dates in letters of business from Medieval Spain. For

example, a letter written by the abbot Pedro from the monastery of Onia is dated as ‘Facta carta en el mes de Deziembre. Sub era millesima ducentesima octuagesima tertia’ [1]. – The letter was made in December in 1283


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of the era (here and further the translation is mine – B.S.). In the original text the year is expressed in Roman figures and clearly reads MCCLXXXIII [1] (M=1000, C=100, L=50, X=10).

However while decoding the letter we found it difficult to interpret. The author mentions Fernando III (‘El re don Fernando con su mugier la reina donna Juana regnant en Castiella et en Toledo, et en Leon, et en Gallizia, et en Cordoua’ [1]. – King Fernando and his wife, Queen Juana, governors of Castile, Toledo, Leone, Galicia and Cordoba…).

This indirect temporal indicator (king’s name) does not allow for the consideration of the numbers 1283 as a real year from the point of view of modern chronological system because King Fernando III died in 1252 AD and so was not on the throne in 1283.

Before Christian system of chronology, known as Anno Domini (AD) or the ‘years of the incarnation,’ a pagan system was used. This was the medieval chronological system, the so-called Hispanic era (in the document this is indicated by Sub era). It is also called the chronology of Visigoths. This chronological system was widely used in Europe (not only in Spain) from the Vth till the XVth century. To bring the years by Hispanic era (o just ERA) into accord with the modern chronological system one should subtract 38 years as the Hispanic era began in 38BC. This must be kept in mind when decoding the date on which medieval documents were written. Thus, the letter by the abbot Pedro from Onia was written in 1245AD. Many researchers have attempted to explain why it is this period of time which separates the modern era from the Hispanic era. A. Vila, for example, believes that the Hispanic era began with the conquest of the peninsula by Emperor Augustus. According to Vila, the Pyrenees were conquered by the Roman Empire 716 years after Rome was founded, i.e. in 38BC [2]. R. Chao Prieto, a specialist in the medieval kingdom of Leon, does not agree that the beginning of the Hispanic era is linked to Augustus because the dates do not coincide. Also, the Asturian-Cantabrian wars had not begun yet [3]. U. Topper also argues that the true reason for choosing 38 years BC as a starting point for the Hispanic era has not been determined until recently [4].

Thus, it must be noted that the problem of date decoding in the Hispanic era system has not yet been resolved. Nevertheless, we will offer our own version. There is a point of view that the word ‘era’ (‘aera’ in Latin) is an abbreviation and that the initial letters come from the Latin phrase ‘Ab exordio regni Augusti,’ which translate to ‘From the beginning of the Augustus’ reign.’ It is known that Caesar Augustus (63BC - 14AD,

born Gaius Octavius) became the Roman emperor in 27BC. The title ‘August,’ which means ‘exalted by God,’

was given to him by the Senate. With regards to his personal life, 38BC is an important date for Augustus as he married Livia Drusilla. We can assume that the Hispanic era is linked to this date because Livia Drusilla was not simply his third wife. She took an active part in state affairs, acting as an advisor and an assistant to Augustus. She is responsible for some of the most famous personalities of the period: she was the mother of Emperor Tiberius, the grandmother of Emperor Claudius and the great-grandmother of Emperors Caligula and Nero. Livia was even deified by Emperor Claudius. Commonly, the wives of great people stay in the shadows but concurrently have a great influence on their famous husbands. It is they who are the real creative or destructive power behind changes to the world; ‘Cherchez la femme,’ as the French say.

2 The date-line as one of the basic parts of letters of business from Medieval Spain

In letters of business written from the Middle Age, written in the Castilian Romance (ancient Spanish) the date-line consists of two standard components (as in modern business letters): the geographic (spatial) component, formed with concrete and / or non-concrete elements, and the temporal (chronological) one, generally formed of three parts in the following order: day, month and year of letter writing.

2.1 The Date-Line in Letters of Business according to the Hispanic Era Since the reign of Castilian King Fernando III (1217-1252), who initiated the use of the national

Castilian language in royal documentation, the date was introduced by the words ‘Fecha’ (the literal meaning of which stems from Castilian Romance, and is ‘done’) or ‘Dada’ (‘given’). The name of the city (spatial component) and the date (chronological component) follow after a general introduction such as: ‘...mando dar esta mi carta abierta et sellada con mio seello colgado dada en la ciutat de Castiella veynte et cinco dias de Febrero era de mill et tresientos et dies et nueue annos …’ [1]. – I order you to hand over this open letter certified with my seal, written in the town of Castilia on the 25th of February in the year 1319 of the era (1281AD) … . In this letter, the spatial component consists of two elements. One is concrete, the name of the


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town, and the other non-concrete, the word ‘la ciutat’ (town) which contains the spatial meaning. The day, month and year are the direct chronological component.

2.1.1 Explicit date expression The direct chronological component expressed by Roman figures, or by the letters, represents the exact

date explicitly. As a rule, the date contains the day, month, year and sometimes the day of the week: ‘In era de mill e trescentos vinte e seis años, Martes vinte e oito dias dabril’ [1]. – [The letter is written] in the year 1326 of the era (that corresponds to 1288 AD), on Tuesday on the 28th of April.

2.1.2 Implicit date expression In some letters the authors don’t state the numerical markers of the day but instead mention the name of

the saint linked with this day. This can see in the following letter: ‘Fecha la carta en el era de mill doscientos setenta et nueve, el dia de Sant Ysidro, en el mes de Abril’ [1]. – The letter is made in the year 1279 of the era, on Saint Isidro day, in April. It is possible that the letter was written on the 4th of April when Saint Isidro was born.

Another letter states: ‘Esto fue fecho en Bizuezes en el mes de Iulio, el dia de Sancti Jacobi, delant estos testes: Iohan Ferrandez, Alfonso Roiz de Loma, don Gil de Andino, Juan Martinez de Andino, Pedro Diaz, Simon de Cornejo, Garci Roiz de Camego, Pedro Martinez Çoceda. Facta carta era milesima ducentesima octuagesima quarta. Anno domini millesimo ducentesimo quadragesimo sexto’ [1]. – This letter was written in the town of Bizuezes in July on Saint Jacobe day in the presence of the following witnesses ... (names). The year is 1284 of the era and so 1246 AD.

Saint Jacobe’s day is on the 25th of July. Here there are two years indicated in one letter, one from the Hispanic era system and one from the Christian chronological system. The names of saints can be found only in civil and ecclesiastical documents and never in official royal letters.

2.2 The Date-Line in Business Letters according to the Roman Calendar One more feature can be noted in letters of business from medieval Spain dated by the Hispanic era

system. In all letters written in Latin, and in some letters written in Castilian, the date is given by the Roman calendar. Decoding the date therefore requires another approach. In the Roman calendar there were three specific points within each month, ‘kalendae’, ‘nonae’ and ‘idus.’ The first days of the months are called ‘kalendae.’ The fifth day in January, February, April, June, August, September, November and December and the seventh day in March, May, July and October are called ‘nonae.’ The thirteenth days of the months (when ‘nonae’ fell on the fifth days) or the fifteenth days of the months (when ‘nonae’ fell on the seventh days) are called ‘idus.’

Today the usual way to count days is forwards (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 31). The Romans counted days backwards from ‘kalendae,’ ‘nonae’ and ‘idus.’ It should be remembered that the starting date itself is always included in the counting of days. For example, the date ‘Facta carta era millesima ducentesima undecima. Die sexto decimo Kalendas Aprilis’ [1] is interpreted as the following: Written in the year 1211 of the era. The sixteenth day of the April Kalendae. To bring this date into accord with the modern calendar it is necessary to count backwards from the 1st of April (the April ‘kalendae’) by sixteen days, including the 1st of April (1, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27 ...). The date will therefore be the 17th of March. We must also subtract 38 from the Hispanic era year. Therefore, the letter was written on the 17th of March in 1173 AD.

Looking at another date: ‘Facta carta ista quinto idus Nouembris. Anno Domini millesimo ducentesimo vigesimo tertio’ [1]. – The fifth day of the November ‘idus’ in 1223 AD. In November ‘idus’ fell on the 13th. If we count five days back from the 13th, including the 13th (13, 12, 11 ...), we calculate it as the 9th of November.

2.3 The Theological Component in the Date-Line At the end of the XIVth century, the system used to set dates in correspondence with the Hispanic era,

disappears and is replaced by the Christian system of chronology. There is also an additional, theological, component in letters of business, (from the Greek ‘theos’ which translates into ‘God’). This is the name of the Lord (Noso Senor, Senor, nuestro Saluador, Jesu Christo, anno ab incarnacione Domini, era de encarnacon, nascimiento, anno Domini). For example: ‘… tres dias de Junio, era de encarnacon de Noso Senor Jesu Christo de mill é tresentos é oytenta é quatro anos’ [1]. – On the 3d of June in the year 1384 of the era of our Lord Jesus Christ incarnation.


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3 Conclusion Schematically, the full date in letters of business from Medieval Spain (the place and the time of

writing) can be represented the following way: - General introductory component (fecha, dada, sub era) - Spatial component (elements: concrete / non-concrete) - Temporal component: - Direct temporal indicators (four basic elements of the full date) day of the week plus day (explicit

numerical expression / implicit expression by the name of a saint) plus month plus year (Hispanic era system / Christian chronological system) plus

- Indirect temporal indicators (name of kings, mention of events, etc.) - Theological component (starting from the end of the XIVth century) During the analysed period, Roman numerals were used to express the day and the year. The use of the

Arabic numerals has only been used fully since the end of the XVIIth century.

References [1] Muñoz y Rivero, J. (1889) Manual de paleografía diplomática española de los siglos XII al XVII.

Madrid, P. 389, 161, 389, 398, 399, 388, 388, 381, 384, 410. URL: http://ru.calameo.com/read/0001070443cb1783f23bc.

[2] Vila, A. (1999) Cálculo de las fechas en los manuscritos medievales de la Península Ibérica. URL: http://www.phistoria.net/reportajes-de-historia/Calculo-de-las-fechas_42.html

[3] Chao Prieto, R. La era hispánica. Un ejemplo de mala datación en el libro “EL señorío y marquesado de VILLAFRANCA DEL BIERZO”. URL: http://corazonleon.blogspot.com/2008/08/la-era-hispnica-un-ejemplo-de-mala.html

[4] Topper, U. (2006) Medieval chronological system in Spain known as ERA. URL: http://artifact.org.ru/sravnenie-versiy/topper-u-srednevekovaya-sistema-letoschisleniya-v-ispanii-izvestnaya-kak-era.html


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Community Structures - Expression of the Transylvanian Saxon Identity

Borcoman M.1 1 Transylvania University of Brasov, (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Since its establishment as a state entity, Transylvania has been a cohabitation space for a multitude of

ethnic communities. With the province’s integration into the Hungarian Kingdom, later into the Habsburg Empire, and finally into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the rights granted to the Szekely (Szeklers) and the Saxons allowed these two large ethnic communities to evolve into autonomous structures in specific areas of Transylvania. By the middle of the 14th century, the Szekely Territory (in the South-Eastern corner of the province), as well as the Fundus Regius (the land inhabited by the Saxons including the areas of the Secaşe, the two Târnave, and the fortified mediaeval cities of Sibiu, Bistriţa and Braşov) are two such areas. The autonomous structures of the Saxons included a series of other forms of community association, carefully organized and monitored by religious and school authorities. Chronologically, these structures were established prior to their political counterparts, constituting an exclusive element of Saxon ethnic unity in both urban and rural areas. This study focuses on the specific structures known as neighbourhoods (civic entities comprising the inhabitants of a street), a vivid example of mutual help with respect to the unwritten rules within the community; the children and youth associations (organized by age categories and observing gender differences). These were intended to involve the local children and youths in various after school activities and prepare them for religious confirmation within the Reformed Church, as well as for family life and sports activities. Alongside these there were also women’s and youth’s reading associations bringing together higher educated members from a Saxon locality, dance ensembles and instrumental formations. All these elements of the Saxon structures lasted a long time after 1876, thus providing a unique model of community life to their Romanian and Szekely neighbours.The information included in this paper is based on the research conducted on a brief period in the history of the Saxons from Transylvania and on their community structures. The scientific investigation focused on the Sighisoara and Rupea Settlements and relied on documents from the Romanian State Archives, the County Directorates of Brasov, Sibiu, Sfantul Gheorghe, Cluj and Targu Mures, as well as from the National Archives from Budapest and from the archives of Haus, Hof und Stadtarchiv Wien.

Keywords: neigbourhooods, Golden Bull, Bruderschaft, Schwesteschaft.

1 Landmarks of Saxon history High Middle Ages German groups of settlers arriving in Central and Eastern Europe largely contributed

to the economic homogenization of these regions, a process which resulted into the creation of socio-political structures aligning to the Western European higher evolved societies. The kings of the relatively young Hungarian state, established in the Pannonian plains only two centuries ago, attempted to expand the bounds of their kingdom and strengthen their influence by conquering new territorios. However, confronted with the massive resistance of the firmly established Western kingdoms, they considered turning to the East as a easier and more profitable option. This colonization policy was regarded by the Hungarian kings Geyza 2nd and Andrew 2nd as an issue of central importance. Their plans materialized through sending so-called locators to inform the German population living in Western Europe about the offer (which was indeed extremely tempting and included numerous facilities) of the Hungarian royalty. Under a joint initiative of the papal authority and the Hungarian royalty invited the Teutonic Knights to Transylvania where they settled in Ţara Bârsei, in 1211. Here they stayed for four decades but were expelled because of expressing aspirations for autonomy. The German colonists who replaced them, had their rights confirmed by king Andrew 2nd of Hungary through the Golden Bull (1224) which granted privileges but provided as well obligations with respect to Hungarian royalty: the annual tax known as Martinzins; the obligation to provide military forces and reinforce the fortifications during wartime along with money and products contributions needed for sustaining military campaigns. In exchange to these, they enjoyed organizational autonomy and self-administration (within administrative structures called Chairs


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(Seats) and Districts, while Saxon towns enjoyed the status of free cities (recognized as such by the Hungarian kings). Head of the Saxon community was a so-called Count (Gräf) residing in Sibiu (Hermannstadt) while the territorial administration was assured by royal or chair judges. The Saxons had the right of the first instance in justice; most criminal cases were tried by either the Count or by the University. The professional associations (guilds) were craftsmen organizations in urban and rural areas with their own status, which had to be acknowledged by the University. These associations constituted the bedrock of the prosperous economic life in Transylvania. The influence and authority of the Evangelic Church within the community was the warranty for preserving the moral and social standards. The development of an educational system was another important achievement of the community because the schools were the space where, under the auspices of the Church, the first boys’ and girls’ associations were formed.

2 Community structures - expression of interethnic relationships The research underlying this paper focused on information from two important documentary sources on the Saxon Settlements of Sighișoara și Rupea that are yet unpublished, published to a rather insignificant degree or edited by myself for the aims of this paper and archived in the Romanian State Archives, the County Directorates of Brasov and Sibiu, as well as in the archives from Vienna and Budapest. The descriptions of the Saxon neighborhoods in the Tarnave and Homoroade Valleys are but a part of the overall social and community structures of the Saxons established in Fundus Regius.

2.1 The Neighbourhoods Since their arrival in Transylvania, the Saxons organized themeselves in social communities resembling

tribal associations. Among these there were the neighbourhoods, the boys’ and girls’ community associations, the brotherhoods/sisterhoods including youths or adults organized by certain criteria, and associations of various nature. Their existence has continued since the Early Middle Ages until the present day.In accordance with the initial German typical pattern of the social Western community structures, the changes occurring over time were rather adaptations of these structures to the space occupied by the German population. The common idea of these organizational forms was the civic spirit of mutual help, organization and order within the community in urban spaces, down to the smallest communities.

2.2 Historical Data on the Establishment of Communities The oldest written information’s regarding the existence of neighbourhoods in Transylvania are found

in documents mentioning the Prejmer neighbourhood, in 1498. Within this neighbourhood „people defended themselves and their cattle against fires and stocked provisions in pits in the fortified church’’ [1]. The city was defended by a paramilitary formation operating in association with the guilds for the defence and maintenance of the city’s bulwarks and towers. Following the period of this first neighbourhood of Prejmer, more information became available: in 1533, in Braşov - the neighbourhood was in charge of the valley beyond the city walls as well as of the streets; similarly in Sibiu, in 1563; as well as in Sighişoara, in 1601 (their regulations and items were stipulated in the municipal statutes while in 1740 these are attested in Bistriţa and Mediaş (in 1752- relatively late but were probably already functioning for some time). The neighbourhoods will continue to exist officially on the „king’s land” until 1857.The number of the neighbourhoods varied, depending on the size of the city and its quarters, the number of inhabitants etc. For instance, in Sibiu „in 1626 were 31 neighbourhoods in the Joseph quarter and in the city centre” [2]. In Bistriţa existed 10, in Braşov 19 inside the city walls, and the same number in the suburbs (1799). Consequently, they included a whole street, in general, but longer streets were organized in two neighbourhoods.The activities of the neighborhoods in Sighisoara were tightly linked to the Church and “…(after the Reform) they confirmed the children and took care of the sick in their area” [3], organized the choires interpreting the Christmas carols and celebrated Easter altogether. In Rupea, the Saxons were organized in six neighborhoods and “in 1640 the Magistrate and the Old Men’s Council drew up the articles recording the establishment of the Rupea fair” [4]. These articles also included the obligation for these neighborhoods to provide mutual aid in building houses, anexes and to organize weddings, baptisms, funerals. In addition, there were also articles mentioning the assurance of the dwellers’ security at night (people had to light their way at night using flash lights and were not allowed to light their yards or sheds). The provisions of these articles were renewed in 1704, 1774 and 1902. To be part of one of Markt Reps’ (Rupea, in Romanian) neighborhoods one had to comply with several requirements: to be a local, to have a house and a yard (as proof of being a good manager of one’s household), to bring written proof of moral conduct from the nieghbors in 14 days. Each neighborhood from Rupea gathered when celebrating its founding (usually established for hundreds of years around Christmas), during fair days or on the occasion of neighborhood family members’ birthdays. All these events were also attended by the Reformed priest, since the Church vouched for the moral and civic conduct of the community.


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2.3 The Establishment of Neighbourhoods – Rules and Attributions The structure of Saxon communities was based on both written and unwritten rules. One of the first

rules for admission regarded the applicant’s German ethnicity and the affiliation to the Catholic, later Reformed Church. The most detailed collection of internal regulations of neighbourhoods was devised in Sibiu (1696) as well as the oldest (1563) (the documents were retrieved from the Archives of Sibiu). This rule was preserved in the Transylvanian cities until the 18th century, when after the intervention of the Austrian authorities, due to the large Romanian population in these territories, the latter were allowed to adhere to these neighbourhoods. In „1796 the government of Transylvania decided that all the inhabitants regardless of nationality should join the neighbourhoods” [5]. However, the neighbourhoods were abolished in 1891 as follow-up of a decision issued by the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior. Such a neighbourhood included only married men and women from the same street. These were mainly aimed at assuring mutual help and maintaining public order within the community. Thus, in cases of family events such as: weddings, baptisms or funerals the members of the neighbourhoods offered their support (for adorning the gates, digging the grave). A neighbourhood owned a certain inventory consisting of vessels, seating facilities and other utensils, which were available for those who needed them. The neighbourhood also helped people to build their houses, but also maintained small squads of firefighters who helped in case of fires. In rural areas, neighbourhoods had more specific attributions: „...they decided about how to use fields and pastures, hired the shepherds, settled the pasturing and harvest periods” [6]. Apart from these attibutions, in cities, alongside with the guilds, neighbourhoods were entrusted with the formation of guard squads for patrolling the streets at night. These were instructed by satellites (Trabanten). They ensured that nobody walked the streets after a certain hour and that the city gates were locked.

2.4 The Authority of the Neighbourhoods Every neighbourhood held 2-3 meetings anually at commonly agreed dates. The date of the meeting

always marked a certain event. For example, in Viscri they gathered „on Saturday before harvest, on the anniversary date of the neighbourhood and on advent Sunday” [7]. The foundation date of the neighbourhood was celebrated in a festive manner. Usually, Ash Wednesday was dedicated to the settling of judicial matters within the neighbourhood. New members were admitted within a festive ceremony. Fines were also charged for different situations: to latecomers to meetings and to those who refused to perform community works. Every neighbourhood was header by two persons: the oldest person called The Neighbours’ father (germ. Knechvater, or elder - when aged over 60) and the youngest person from the neighbourhood. The elder’s attributions were: to summon the assembly; to elaborate the neighbourhood statute; and to supervise the common actions of the neighbours. Attributions were shared among the two leaders. A secretary made the entries in the neighbourhood’s book and a cashier collected the contributions and the fines (one annual contribution could be as high as 24 dinars). The elder kept the money and documents locked in a chest. He was the only one to receive a remuneration for this office. These cash amounts were the source of annual subventions that were granted to widows and orphans. A „Council of the oldest” functioned in cities, apart from the two leaders who were elected for a period of 1-2 years. The cities also employed the services of „fountain masters, an old one and a young one” [7] as attested in Sibiu in 1596. The neighbourhood assembly solved the litigations that arose among neighbours. In villages the meetings of the assembly were often headed by the Hann (mayor). The assembly also designated Sundays as rest days of the community. Among the most important obligations of the rural neighbourhoods was road construction across waterways. Neighbourhoods were required to maintain the church and the priest’s house and to contribute to the endowment of the church and the school. From a broader perspective, similar neighbourhoods continued to persist during the whole Middle Age period: in France along the Moselle as well as in Luxemburg. With the dissolution of the Saxon University, neighbourhoods continued their existence under the auspices of the Church.Starting as sample structures of people living next to each other, during the Middle Ages neighbourhoods have evolved into well-structured organisms engaged in civic and religious activities of the community.

3 Boys’ and girls’ associations (Bruderschaft and Schwesterschaft ) The members of these associations were mainly young people of the same age: in every locality they

functioned in schools and later, after leaving school, under the close supervision of the Church. Their aim was to involve the youths in various events, to supervise their behaviour and to guide them in accordance with moral principles towards marriage and family life. It appears that both these associations as well as the neighbourhoods date back to the same period (XII – XIIIth century). Among them, a special place goes to the Johannisbruderschaft from Sibiu which dates back to 1372. Here, young boys from all over Transylvania came to learn the craft of shoemaking. However, the boys’ association was a distinct entity apart from the direct supervision of the shoemaker guild. Only reformed Christians were admitted. Participation to religious service was mandatory and members also had to pay annual contributions. In general, boys’ and girls’ associations


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comprised all youths until marriage. The meetings took place 2-3 times annually. The association was headed by a boy-judge: a big innkeeper, a small innkeeper and a secretary who kept record of all decisions. Both boys and girls were required to clean and maintain the church, the priest’s courtyard, help the priest and bring the tree at Christmas. The sisters’ associations were strongly „submitted” to the moral principles that were observed within the community as they were prepared for marriage. They organized literary evenings and social meetings. The dancing parties occasioned by religious celebrations were organized together with the boys and were given the priest’s blessings. Children were raised within the community and their confirmation constituted an event wherein everyone participated.The Saxon community’s activities included dance and instrument formations. Every locality had one of these formations. Dancing was allowed after Easter and Christmas or in summer and was part of a more ample festive event including popular theatrical representations, shows with professional actors, small shows including poem recitations organized at school.

4 Conclusion In larger towns and cities entertainment was ensured by brass bands. These offered short outdoor

concerts in public parks on Sunday spring and summer afternoons. All these activities were intended to strengthen the community, to involve the children and the young, with a special focus on leisure time spending. These events were announced in advance by the local papers appearing in every Seat’s (Chair) or district’s capital town. Romanians and Szekely were prohibited from these events as they were reserved exclusively for the Saxon community. But the former also had their own neighbourhoods and music associations. The German model was preserved and lived on even after 1990 when large sections of Saxon population emigrated to Germany where they continued to cultivate their community traditions.Based on the research conducted on the old documents on the Ruera and Sighisoara Settlements, I was able to outline what daily life was like in the Saxon communites, as well as to unveil important aspects of the latter such as the complex organization of the neighborhoods, the associations of the boys and girls from Rupea organized by age groups, the reading committees, the small groups of instrument players consisting of school attendants and guided by the village priest, to name just few. The constraints this investigation had to tackle were raised by the disparate documents and the very old references concerning the topic of this paper. Therefore, one of the aims of this research was to collect and share the information on the community structures of the Saxons from Transylvania and thus complete the overall image of how such a community was organized in the XVI and XVIII centuries. Sadly, the once thriving and prosperous Saxon communities have disappeared, leaving behind only a few families or individuals that can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

References [1] Müller, E. (1941). Stühle und Distrikte als Unterteilungen der Siebenbürgisch Deutscher

Nationuniversität (1141-1848) Verlag Krafft und Drotttlef, Hermannstadt, p. 118. [2] Müller, E. (1941). Stühle und Distrikte als Unterteilungen der Siebenbürgisch Deutscher

Nationuniversität (1141-1848) Verlag Krafft und Drotttlef, Hermannstadt, p.119. [3] Linert H. R., (1998), Schäburg, Reautenburg Verlag, München, p. 326. [4] Müller H., (1910-1911), Zur Geschichte von RepserNachbarschaften, în ,,Archiv des Vereins”,

nr. 37, p. 113. [5] Müller, E. (1941). Stühle und Distrikte als Unterteilungen der Siebenbürgisch Deutscher

Nationuniversität (1141-1848) Verlag Krafft und Drotttlef, Hermannstadt, p. 120. [6] Ban, I., Depner, I. (1993). Lebalger. Heimatbuch, Manuscris, Ernepenthal, p. 123. [7] Wagner, M. (1993). Schicksal und Erinnerungen, Hora Verlag, Sibiu, p. 12.


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The Environmental and Social Development of Human Settlements near the Danube

Buhociu D.H.1, Florescu T.C.2, Crăciun C.3, Popa A.4 1 Assistant Prof. PhD, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 2 Associate Prof. PhD, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 3 Associate Prof. PhD, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 4 Assistant Prof. PhD, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Problem Statement: The continuous degradation of the living factors in the Gropeni Commune in Brăila

County, Romania (GC), calls for a social-oriented environmental study, aiming to highlight the main territory development issues. Purpose of the Study: The goal of the study is to provide decision makers at the local and county level and the population in general with the necessary data to formulate correct opinions about the interdependence of natural and social factors for sustainable development. Methods: The scientific approach is based on an inventory and analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of human pressure indices, aiming firstly to point out stressors depending on the size, importance and extent of the impact on environmental components, and secondly to evaluate the perception of the local rural community on the main categories of the anthropic environment failures that induce discomfort. Findings and Results: Current rural changes are significant, as they are imposed by the spatial and functional development of GC, and of its influence area among the network of rural settlements. Conclusions and Recommendations: The paper proposes prevention and mitigation of natural hazards, as well as conservation and restoration of the environmental conditions, for proper and sustainable use of the natural and social potential.

Keywords: Human settlement, Environment, Development, Danube

1 Introduction The rural environment analysis stresses the idea that human settlements are not just focal points for

housing, commerce, industry and culture, but are living ecosystems whose natural components - green spaces, waterways and other natural areas - focus on humans, and their social and economic activities. The relationship between the ecosystem and rural development inevitably involves knowledge of its specific conditions [1], as well as the dynamic of risk factors (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - The location of Brăila County in Romania; Image source: Spatial Plan of the National Territory


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2 Methods To highlight critical areas in terms of environmental protection several methods were used:

descriptive methods to synthesize the data series, in indicators and statistics [2]; qualitative methods to detect environmental quality parameters, but also for the perception of different

aspects that characterize the human habitat; data analysis techniques to enable data classification and results interpretation.

In this context, the paper identifies and applies on the territory of GC, evaluation methods that mean to: assess the current state of the environment and the causes that generate it [3]; evaluate its projection in the status of the domestic habitat conditions; correctly assess the affordability of the environment for human activities [4]; highlight the importance of a healthy natural and social environment; prioritize the intervention measures.

The approach intends to sketch a rural spatial dimension to address environmental issues reflected in social conditions, thus enabling the identification of evolutionary trends of the territory amid a continuous education for a sustainable environment [5].

3 Findings and Results

3.1 The Development of Human Settlements

The development of human settlements has had a continuous and natural base derived from the geographical position of GC (see Fig. 2):

a continental temperate steppe with an insignificant climate risk; surface water resources (mainly the Danube) and groundwater resources, both quality rich and easy to

operate, providing long-term consumption needs; multiple, varied land surfaces with high fertility for agriculture; the presence of nearby forest areas, involved in refreshing air, absorbing pollutants, reduction of

pollution and revival of ecological systems; the vicinity of a main road of national importance, providing links between human settlements; its key location on County Importance Paths and Touristic Paths.

Fig. 2 - The network of human settlements in Brăila County; Image source: Author original work

3.2 The Hydrographic Network

The main watercourse in the area is the Danube. Its natural valley is wide, presenting the phenomenon of a division course in the two main arms, arm Măcin and arm Cremenea, that close together the Pond of Braila.

The arm Cremenea gives birth to a series of smaller arms (arm Mănuşoaia, arm Pasca, arm Calia, and arm Arapu), which unite again with the main arm after a few miles.

Currently, in Brăila County, the river Danube is almost completely dammed, thus protecting a large area of farmland, human settlements and communication paths from floods.


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3.3 The Balance between Anthropic and Environment The situation analysis of the natural landscape of GC currently shows existing failures caused by natural

factors but whose action is enhanced by a strong background of anthropic factors, and highlights geo-spatial based arguments, which form the basis for the development strategy. In most of the administrative territory, especially in the urbanized areas, natural elements are in agreement or in a neutral relationship with the built environment, but there are also conflicts, due to the quality of this relationship.

3.4 The Climate Dysfunctions

The climate dysfunctions [6] are related to extreme weather events. A temperate continental climate determines both moderate climates and climate risks in GC. The patterns for weather risks have a random character and a moderate impact on the human body and the environment components.

The frequency and intensity of weather events are relatively moderate, according to the climatic character of the region. There are several climate phenomena with greater frequency and intensity:

cold waves, temperature inversions and absolute minimum values, together with the range of processes associated with transition seasons (early autumn frost and white frost, late spring ice and frost);

heavy rainfall and excess moisture inducing hydrologic and geomorphologic risks: early and late snow, heavy rain in 24 hours;

heat waves and positive maximum values associated with precipitation deficits that emphasize extreme dryness or drought.

4 Conclusions Natural conditions are positive factors in the evolution of both spatial development and social

development in GC as impulses that condition and subsequently direct the anthropogenic changes. The situation analysis highlights on the one hand the great opportunities related to natural components of the territory as elements that favor development, and on the other hand various failures related to select natural components. Fixing these black dots in territorial development requires the setting of priorities for the future rural development.

The general objective resulting from the diagnosis stage, to be followed in the future urban strategy, is the sustainable exploitation of natural resources, while paying attention to the conservation and protection of social and environmental components, in the context of balanced economic growth and urban expansion. To achieve this objective, the development strategy targets the following areas:

reducing the land impact of natural hazards; improving or eliminating anthropogenic environmental risks; environmental protection for economic and urban growth [7]; smart exploitation of natural resources; optimizing the urban-rural relationship; improving the relationship between social functions and landscape components.

The urban planning strategy should be oriented towards putting together a fully adapted urban planning structure that uses natural resources, for the entire territory of GC.

5 Recommendations

5.1 Diminishing the Geomorphologic Risks

External agents create geomorphologic risks (freeze/thaw, water from precipitations), and their actions are exacerbated in the context of a favorable geological substrate and current land use.

Measures to reduce the negative effects of geomorphologic processes are: improving natural drainage of the substrate by leveling and terracing works, planting new orchards,

forestation and planting of vegetation to remove moisture; seeding with medium sized species that compact the vegetal cover to reduce erosion; reconsidering agriculture work techniques [8]; prohibiting deforestation.

5.2 Diminishing the Hydropogic Risks

The recommendations aim at reducing the risks from both stationary and active hydrodynamic processes:


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removing excess water from the marshes and meadow areas by planting vegetation that eliminates excess moisture;

designing and planting parks to exploit and redistribute water surplus from meadows, utilizing the role of green corridors;

designing controlled meadow areas to capitalize on the role of leisure or tourism [9]; making marginal channels and surface drainage systems, especially for sloping streets [10]; ensuring the transfer of surplus water to collectors or to natural underground sewers.

References [1] Ianoș, I., Humeau, J.B., Tălângă, C., Braghina, C., Ancuța, C. and Bogdan, L. (2010). Ethics of

space and the treatment of most disadvantaged areas. Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 5(2), pp. 211-217.

[2] Buhociu, F.M., Moga, L.M., Ioniță, I., Vîrlănuță, F.O. and Zugravu, G.A. (2009). Qualitative and quantitative analysis for the evaluation of the informatics systems projected by value-based concepts. Innovation and knowledge management in twin track economies: Challenges and solutions, 1-3, pp. 653-657.

[3] Petrișor, A.I. (2007). Looking at the deterioration of the environment. Romanian Journal of Bioethics, 4(2), pp. 82-90.

[4] Lewis, D.J., Provencher, B. and Butsic, V. (2009). The dynamic effects of open-space conservation policies on residential development density. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 57, pp. 239-252.

[5] Heacock, E. and Hollander, J. (2011). A grounded theory approach to development suitability analysis. Landscape and Urban Planning, 100, pp. 109-116.

[6] Ebert, S., Hulea, O. and Strobel, D. (2009). Floodplain restoration along the lower Danube: A climate change adaptation case study. Climate and Development, 1(3), pp. 212-219.

[7] Petrișor, A.I., Ianoș, I. and Tălângă, C. (2010). Land cover and use changes focused on the urbanization processes in Romania. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 9(6), pp. 765-771.

[8] Moga, L.M., Buhociu, F.M., Ioniță, I., Vîrlănuță, F.O., Antohi, V. and Zugravu, A.V. (2009). The internet as a business environment in Romanian agriculture. Journal of Food Agriculture and Environment, 7(2), pp. 651-654.

[9] Pantelic, M., Durdev, B., Stankov, U., Dragicevic, V. and Dolinaj, D. (2012). Water quality as an indicator of local residents' attitudes towards tourism development: A case study of settlements along Veliki Backi Kanal, Vojvodina, Serbia. Knowledge and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems, 404, Art.09.

[10] Dorner, W., Porter, M. and Metzka, R. (2008). Are floods in part a form of land use externality? Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 8(3), pp. 523-532.


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Autonomy - Social and Ethical References

Caras A.1 1 Research assistant at Lumen Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences, Iasi; PhD Candidate at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Political Sciences (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Autonomy of the individual is the basic moral and political value, around which modern Western

society was formed. This paper aims to expose in a descriptive manner the autonomy as a fundamental principle debated of social and philosophical theories. We will identify a number of frameworks of individual autonomy in relation to the specific social intervention ethical supervised.

The autonomy of a person is given the ability to act as his/her reason dictates, being guided by considerations and requirements other than those imposed from outside, but rather those that are part of what is authentic self.

Autonomy is the central value both in Kant's moral philosophy and the John Stuart Mill's utilitarian liberalism. Autonomy is the subject of moral and political theories and referential framework in building educational, social and health policies, biomedical ethics, theories on the freedoms and fundamental rights of individuals, being perceived as operational value, but also as a fundamental principle.

Keywords: autonomy, ethics, human reasoning, utilitarian autonomy, relational autonomy.

Autonomy and human reasoning Autonomy is a reference to a series of moral teaching, both as a model of moral person and as part of

those underlying obligations of others for them. Practical reason is for Kant, the ability to use reason in choosing our own actions, by virtue that we understand ourselves as free people. Freedom is understood by Kant as meaning the lack of any barriers in our actions, which in practice becomes the moral agent autonomy. The moral agent guides the moral consciousness only after the moral law, which allows him to act as his own maxim will. For Kant, self-imposed universal moral law is under both of moral obligation in general and the respect of others owes it to us, and we owe it to ourselves in the same time. Self-imposed moral law is autonomy [1]. We owe ourselves moral respect by the virtue of our autonomy. But to the extent that this capacity does not depend on any particular thing or contingent ourselves, then we owe similar respect to all other persons, by virtue of their ability.

On Kant, the autonomy is defined as the principle of the dignity of human nature, dignity is understood as unconditional, incomparable value, for that "the only word respect itself gives the due expression to appreciation that a rational being should have on him" [1].

In conclusion on Kant, the autonomy will be treated as a supreme principle of morality, which is the property of the will by which it is very law.

We consider the dignity as constitutive value of contemporary welfare practices that operate on the principle of the autonomy. Models of social practices based on empowerment, public policy and social programs aimed at building client autonomy should involve supervision practices as the meaning of ethical gatekeeping.

Utilitarian Autonomy Kantian vision of autonomy was an ethical foundation of freedom theory proposed by John Stuart Mill.

While for Kant autonomy primarily targets the moral conscience, for John Stuart Mill, freedom acts in social and political area [2: pp. 272-306]. Mill argues that autonomous individuals who are able to act rather rational and deliberate, to self-govern and self-control, rather than being subordinated to external forces, have an equal right to be treated with respect [3: p. 557 582] . Equal respect for all individuals can be considered a starting point liberal vision of autonomy.

Practical reason in Kant is defined as the ability of individuals to understand themselves as free people, the philosopher constructing the concept of autonomy of the will. Starting from this approach, Mill understands


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free will as resident in the independent actions of the individual in relation to the forms of government. In the introduction to the work On Liberty, Mill supports the idea that human freedom "includes first inner field of consciousness, report the existence of freedom of conscience in the broadest sense of the word: freedom of thought and spirit of absolute freedom of opinion and attitude in all practical or speculative, scientific, moral or theological aspects " [4: p. 20.].

The idea of individual freedom understood by Mill was associated with Kantian view of autonomy, resulting utilitarian vision of autonomy. Unlike Kant, who put practical reason on the base of quality of moral agent, Mill proposes foundation of agent ability in pursuit of individual happiness. Mill rejects the hedonistic happiness and adopts the idea of higher spiritual pleasures, as the foundation of individual motivation for action.

Autonomy as stage process Theories of moral development are developed since Aristotle, who proposes in Nicomachean Ethics [5:

p. 38], a logical structure of virtues which conduct to moral development of individuals. Moral development was the subject of interest and modern philosophers, including John Rawls, who in his Theory of Justice [6: p. 3] addresses the issue of education in terms derived from psychological studies of Piaget and Kohlberg. In the following we treat Kohlberg's theory of moral development, which we consider significant in terms of the possibility of building models of ethical expertise and counselling of ethics, based on development process of individual autonomy under a welfare process.

Kohlberg treats in his work Moral Development: A review of the theory, the morality as the object of study implicit of educational institutions, in the context in which the individual believes that the moral foundation was given to development within the family and the Church. Kohlberg moral development of the individual approaches by conceptualizing and facilitating moral development in a cognitive sense, in order to enhance the sense of moral autonomy and a more appropriate conception of justice [7: p. 54].

Analysis of responses received from respondents representing different cultures to hypothetical moral dilemmas, Kohlberg's proved that moral reasoning develops over time through a series of six stages. Stages of moral development are defined by the following characteristics [7: p. 54].

Pre-conventional level is the level at which the child is responsive to rules and labels of good and evil, right and wrong, but interprets these labels in terms of physical or hedonistic consequences of action. This level comprises two stages: Stage 1 - punishment and obedience orientation and Stage 2 - instrumental relativist orientation.

Conventional level - at this level to maintain family expectations of the individual, group or society of which the individual belongs, is perceived as valuable on its own rights in relation to the immediate and obvious consequences. This level implies the existence of two stages. Stage 3 - Interpersonal concordance or orientation and Stage 4 - orientation "law and order".

Post-conventional, autonomous or in principle level - at this level is observed a clear effort to define moral values and principles that have validity and enforcement authority outside groups or persons holding these principles, and outside individual identification with these groups. At this level it identifies two stages. Stage 5 - legalistic orientation and the social contract and Stage 6 - orientation towards universal ethical principle [7: p. 55].

The stage model sustained by Kohlberg proposes the understanding moral development of the individual as a gradual development of moral conscience, from distinction heteronomy - autonomy and implications of behaviour on moral conduct and agent ability. Kohlberg’s model can be considered as a model of ethical relations in the context of the exercise of power. Moral socialization, which Kohlberg is gradual basing, can be transposed to any power relations that involve a stage socializing process. Organizational integration is such an anticipatory socialization process and establishing authority.

Based on the model application of stadiality in doctor - patient relation [8: pp. 846-853], we seek to outline a stadial model of supervision relationship as a form of relationship with authority.

Pre-conventional level - the relationship of authority is based the consequences of abuse of authority. Supervision relationship is seen as one of control, the role of the supervisor is the manager of ethics. Supervisee expects from supervisor sanction, namely rewards. This type of relationship can be of two types, corresponding to the two stages described by Kohlberg.

The first concerns the respect for power, in the sense of institutional power, the supervisor is perceived as hierarchical superior, and the second has a transactional characteristic, accomplishment of the job tasks constituting the objects of the transaction. Power relations are established contractualist, the supervisor being the representative of superior power. Efficiency is instrumental, expecting a supervisor-supervised reciprocal relationship, oriented rather towards covering dysfunction, than teamwork.

Conventional level – the member of organization adheres at its values, individual building their own development strategies within the organization. Attitude is one of institutional fidelity, individual building their own social identity, based on professional identity. The supervision relationship is expected using supervisor as


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partner. The supervisee seeks approval of the supervisor, exposing his/her professional skills in front of the supervisor, who is perceived as a legitimate structure. The fourth stage is a stage of formal recognition supervisor authority and understanding the need for ethical professional conduct.

Post-conventional autonomous or principled level makes the supervisee to become autonomous and real partner of supervisor. Organizational Ethics is internalized, its values being acquired by supervisee and becoming the subject of ethical reflection, the supervisor is seen as ethics counsellor with whom the supervisee exercises his moral reasoning.

In the sixth stage, ethical reflection is dominant, ethical practice of the supervisee being carried out independently of the supervisor.

Relational autonomy. Moral agent theory Human morality is constructed and discussed both individually and collectively, in terms of

philosophical, social, psychological, each approach allows its perpetual construction. In the sphere of applied sciences, it had been emphasized the analysis of moral thinking. The obvious neglecting of moral behaviour reflects the rationalist bias of many theories of morality and convenience of the method of investigation, says Albert Bandura in his Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action [9: p. 46].

Bandura argues that it is much easier to examine how people reasoning on hypothetical moral dilemmas than studying their real moral behaviour. Coming to develop a practical moral thinking, Bandura claims need to build a comprehensive theory of morality, explaining how moral reasoning, in conjunction with other psychosocial factors, leads to moral behaviour [9: p. 46].

Following the applicability of previous stage theory of moral development of the individual, Albert Bandura argues that how individuals develop morally, from childhood to adulthood is influenced by a significant number of cultural factors. There are some universal cultural characteristics of changing the development standards of conduct and moral agency locus. The increase of personal competences and autonomy changes the types of situations morally relevant with whom the growing child must struggle and social structures in which these transactions take place [9: p. 51].

People develop moral standards from a variety of influences. They form the standards for judging their behaviour in part on how significant people in their lives react to their behaviour. Bandura, in exemplifying this statement, refers to the fact that parents, and others, are generally pleased when children meet or exceed the standards of value, and disappointed when the standards are not fulfilled or are missing from their behaviour. As a result of this evaluative differential side, children finally come up with their own behaviour by self-approval and self-critical, depending on how it is compared with the evaluative standards set by others [9: p. 54].

Bandura argues that moral agency has dual aspects manifested in both the power to refrain from an inhuman behaviour and the proactive power to behave human. Moral agent is embedded in a broader socio-cognitive self-theory which includes affective self-regulatory mechanisms rooted in personal standards linked to self-sanction [10: pp.101-119]. Regulation of human behaviour involves much more than moral reasoning. A complete theory of moral agency must make the connection between knowledge and moral reasoning and moral conduct. The social cognitive theory of moral self, moral reasoning is linked to moral action through affective self-regulatory mechanisms through which the moral agent is exercised [10: p. 101-119].

Social services by their nature should aim to create relational autonomy of the beneficiary. Beneficiary relational autonomy is his/her ability to act autonomously in the social space in accordance with the limits of community and the ability to negotiate these boundaries with other community members. For the beneficiary, the society is not a given constraint, but is a system of communicative actions in dynamic equilibrium. Ability of moral agent is therefore, that balance between individual will and socializing agents.

Social responsibility on the individual autonomy In his work on the absolute alterity of the Other and the ethical relationship as infinite responsibility,

Emmanuel Levinas proposes a radical rethinking of the central categories of ethical life, the philosopher was not that interested in ethical constructs or individual autonomy, but rather his heteronomy. The emphasis on autonomy philosophy has been criticized by Levinas, who sees autonomy as part of our selfish and limited desire to strive for our own fulfilment and self-satisfaction rather than being open to meet the needs of the other [11: p. 62].

The I – Otherness relationship on Levinas relies mainly on the issue of community and individual moral responsibility for other [12: p. 42-71]. Reporting to the other in Levinas's approach, does not refer to the relationship of Self to something similar to itself, and unlike the traditional approach, identifying and likeness as a foundation of ethics, Levinas turns to the uniqueness of each individual, as argued in Totality and infinity work [11].


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Levinasian responsibility contrasts to Kantian autonomy, the fact that the responsibility lays the frames of the Ego of being in the world, while autonomy supports freedom. Differences between autonomy and responsibility are only apparent, they really acting in the Ego representation, for Self and Other. Addressing the issue of responsibility in the context of the ethics of care, the authors Wolf Diedrich, Roger Burggraven and Chris Gastmans makes a parallel between the ethics of care as supported by Joan Tronto and potential transposition of responsibility to Levinas's alterity in such an ethical model [13: pp. 33-61].

The authors refer to the responsibility of the third party in our inter- social relationships, starting from the Levinasian statement, and that responsibility for all other individual can manifest itself, by limiting it: the individual ego can be called on behalf of unlimited liability, that to regard itself on itself. Levinas refers to the status of the third party, the fact that each of the others to which we refer is a third party in relationships with the others.

Call to Levinas and the third significant enables us to justify ontological the supervision relationship as triadic relationship: client-supervisee- supervisor. In practice, caring for the other, justifying social practices originated in the theory of care. Care supervision, from ethical perspective, discusses the dilemmas generated by the I-Alterity relationship between counsellor and beneficiary.

Autonomy as self- development In the context of applied ethics, reporting individual and social autonomy we appeal to the client-

centred therapy of Carl Rogers to expose the construction of the relationship between autonomy and psychological development. Carl Rogers uses client-centred therapy terms to highlight the fact that "the subject is an active, voluntary and responsible person" [14: p.51]. According to him, any psychological theory rests on an implicit conception of human nature, the theory being based on a humanist philosophy [14: p. 52]. The actualizing tendency as understood by Rogers is manifest throughout the body, comprising more than balance the needs outlined by Maslow. Personality development is driven toward autonomy and unity, by this self- development natural tendency [14: p.53].

Rogers argues that the actualizing tendency aims to develop all capacities in ways that maintain or enhance the body's orientation toward autonomy. Actualizing tendency concept is the only driving force in theory. It includes all motivations, tensions, needs, and limitations on action and creative tendency or pleasure-seeking [15]. We cannot fail to notice the coincidence of the landmarks set by Rogers on the relationship I - Alterity, and the same relationship seen as the ontological foundation of ethics by Levinas. Both thinkers agree that the relationship I - Alterity is fundamental to the development of both individual autonomy and responsibility in the ontological and existential level seen by Levinas, and on the level of social development by Rogers.

Another determinant of the construction of individual autonomy in the context of mental development is the vision of Rogers, the non-directivity correlated with the self-evolution of individual as a result of the therapeutic relationship. Obstacle identified by specialists in the development of individuals into adulthood, is the actions that determine and maintain emotional dependence [14: p.77]. Emotional dependence appears and develops in the context of individuals seeking help, who previously started the process developed under a system of interpersonal relationships based on dependence. The answer in such a situation, for such clients, will be to receive immediate facilities, under a directive attitudes adopted by clients, which lead to more difficult solving of future difficulties [14: p.77].

Rogers believes that the negative result of the intervention is often given by the directive behaviour that maintains client in a state of dependency, counsellor not favouring his/her development, but rather prevents the construction of autonomy and maturity, by substituting the client. A solution to this situation is given by Rogers by eliminating the influence of the counsellor on the subject, building a method of intervention that prevents the tendency to influence and eliminates any attempt to create dependency on counsellor. This method has been called non - directive or client-centred [14: p.79]. Non - directivity is developed as a theory of his disciple Rogers, Elias Porter, who by trying to define operational non - directive attitude starts from a primary therapeutic classification behaviours [14: p.86]. The notion of psychological climate is central to this classification, understood as implicit perception. Analysis of therapeutic behaviours led to the establishment of five categories of professional and ethical attitudes:

- Estimative attitude - is made to the action, expressing an evaluation or assessment to what other / interlocutor expresses. The expression of this attitude is the position of judge states.

- Interpretive attitude – through this attitude is transmitted the subject an explanation of his behaviour, pursuing client awareness of his/her problems. It is a directive attitude, but of intellectual nature.

- Attitude of affective and moral support - aims to communicate the subject counsellor intention of refreshing.

- The attitude of exploration - is intended to give additional information to clarify the situation the client is facing.


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- The attitude of empathic understanding - requires understanding from inside of the client’s perspective, of all personal and emotional issues that he/she is trying to convey. [14: pp.86-88]

The non-directive model will allow us to build both an ethical approach to counselling in terms of resolving ethical dilemmas and a constructive model of ethical supervision of that a professional ethicist can provide other social services professionals, who face ethical dilemmas in their practice with clients.

With Levinasian and Rogersian model, the principle of autonomy of the individual correlates with the principle of responsibility, outlining the axis I - Other, to which ethical supervision occurs in the formation of a triad. The third point of the triad represented the supervisor is on the one hand unseen Otherness, from the perspective of the client, and the court of co -creation of social work meaning ethical for social worker. Thus we have a series of triadic links, on the helping side being the beneficiary - counsellor relationship, on the professionalization side being supervisor – supervisee relationship, and there is a third aspect, the relationship between client and supervisor - defined by ethical gatekeeping.

Conclusions Autonomy of the individual is basic moral and political value, around which modern Western society

was formed. Modern society is a society of individualism, with the starting point landmarks in Enlightenment, putting full confidence in the ability of human reason to self-government and self-determination.

Autonomy is the central value both in Kant's moral philosophy and the liberalism of John Stuart Mill's utilitarian. The concept of autonomy is subject to moral and political theory and reference in the construction of educational, social, health policies, biomedical ethics, theories on the freedoms and fundamental rights of individuals, etc. On the basis of these theories are based civil rights such as the right to an opinion or to privacy, the right of education, right to health.

References [1] Kant I., (1972). Întemeierea metafizicii moravurilor in Immanuel Kant, Critica rațiunii practice,

Editura Științifică, București [2] Gaus, G., F., (2005). The Place of Autonomy within Liberalism, in John Christman, Joel

Anderson, (eds.): Autonomy and the Challenges to Liberalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[3] Cohen-Almagor, R., (2012). Between Autonomy and State regulation: J.S. Mill's Elastic Paternalism, Philosophy, 87.

[4] Mill, J., S., (1994). Despre libertate, translated by Adrian-Paul Iliescu, Editura Humanitas, București

[5] Aristotel, (1988). Etica Nicomahică, translation, introductory study, comments and index by Stella Petecel, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, București, II. IV, 1105b.

[6] Rawls, J., (1971) A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. [7] Kohlberg, L., (1977). Moral Development: A review of the theory” in Theory into Practice, vol.16,

No.2, April, 53-59. [8] Sandu A., Caras, A., Nica, E-A., (2013). Stadiality of Moral Development and the Levels of

Doctor-Patient Relationship in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 92, pp. 846-853

[9] Bandura, A., (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action in W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development (Vol. 1, pp. 45-103). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum

[10] Bandura, A., (2002). Selective Moral Disengagement in the Exercise of Moral Agency”, Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp: 101-119

[11] Lévinas, E., (1969). Totality and Infinity, trans. Alphonso Lingis, Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

[12] Carlson, T., A. (1998): Ethics, Religiosity and the Question of Community in Emmanuel Levinas, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics 37, no. 1 (March-April 1998): 42-71.

[13] Diedrich, W.W., Burggraeve, R., Gastmans, C., (2003). Towards a Levinasian Care Ethic: A dialogue between the thoughts of Joan Tronto and Emanuel Levinas, Ethical Perspectives: Journal of the European Ethics Network 13, no.1, pp. 33-61

[14] Dorofte, T., (1991).Orientări și tendințe în psihoterapia contemporană, Editura Științifică.


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[15] Rogers, C. R. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships, as developed in the client-centered framework, In S. Koch (ed.). Psychology: A study of science, N.Y.: McGraw Hill, pp. 184-256.


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Administrative Divorce. The Divorce Certificate - a Legislative Omission. Analysis and de Lege Ferenda Proposal

Cetean-Voiculescu L.1 1”1 December 1918” University, Alba Iulia, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract In this paper, we analyse the concept of civil status, especially divorce, as proved by a divorce

certificate, which is ignored by the law on civil status and book one of the new civil code. All people of a specified age, who meet legal requirements, and who have a marital status of celibacy, widowhood, or divorce, have the right to marry, which is established in the constitution, the civil code, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and other national and international laws

Although the legislative administration procedure for divorce is new in Romania, the appropriate administrative bodies, students, and practitioners of law should understand it. It is important to adopt clear and explicit rules that are useful for both Romanian citizens, at home or abroad, and for foreigners or stateless citizens.

Keywords: The right to marriage, divorce certificate, civil status, administrative divorce procedure

Introduction According to the constitution of Romania, the civil code, the ECHR and other national or international

laws, all persons of a specified age who meet the legal requirements, and have a marital status of celibacy, widowhood, or divorce have the right to marry.

Article 12 of law 119/1996 (republished in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 339 of 18th May 2012), says civil status registers and marriage certificates prove a persons’ civil status.

Therefore, civil status registers and certificates of civil status are two documents by which we determine marital status.

The acts that establish civil status are governed by both the civil code, Book One – About the persons, and the law on civil status.

The chapter referring to individual identity says that the civil code governs persons’ name, residence, and civil status documents. Civil status registers of birth, marriage, and death, and civil status certificates provide proof of status.

The Act regarding civil status documents defines these as the authentic documents that prove a persons’ birth, marriage, or death. Therefore, divorce and the provision of associated legal documents are not proof of civil status, from the point of view of the legislature.

As proof of marital status, Act 119 lists, like the civil code, civil status, and civil status certificates. Therefore, the concept of divorce is associated with the notion of certificates and evidence of marital

status, but not with the notion of civil status.

Jurisdictional competence in the procedure and conditions of administrative divorce

Law 119 lists civil status officers who administer divorce, as follows; the mayor of the municipality, Bucharest district, town or village, the head of the diplomatic mission and consular offices of Romania, the commander of the ship, those designated by the Minister of National Defence or, where appropriate, the Minister


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of Administration and Interns. We removed aircraft commanders from the list as they only deal with births or deaths, but we have not removed heads of diplomatic missions and consular, and we give our reasons below.

Divorce, as ascertained in the administrative procedure is by agreement between the spouses1; this procedure is the most restrictive regarding the conditions required for the dissolution of marriage.

First, spouses have to agree to divorce, unlike fault divorce, which the court pronounces and for which there is no agreement between spouses.

Second, the spouses must have no minors born in wedlock, out of wedlock or adopted. We are satisfied that the legislature has corrected a serious mistake in the old law (Family Code), which referred only to minors resulting from the marriage. At that time, we made de lege ferenda proposals to remove this discriminatory provision from the legislation. We must apply the same law in cases where there are natural children of an unmarried couple or adopted children of married couples. We welcome the decision to take account of different doctrines when undertaking legislative changes.

Thirdly, the civil status officer, and the notary may carry out the simplified administrative procedure for the dissolution of a marriage. In addition, the public notary may pronounce a divorce, in agreement with the spouses, where there are minors resulting from the marriage, out of wedlock or adopted, provided that the spouses agree on surname, parental authority, the home of the children, how to preserve personal ties between parent and child and establish parental contribution costs for education, growth, and training.

Mention of divorce in the marriage act According to the 377th article, third paragraph of the civil code, if the public notary establishes divorce,

they issue a divorce certificate and submit a certified copy to the municipality where the marriage took place. According to the eighth article of law 119, the civil status officer should communicate any change in the

civil status of a person - whether due to preparation of an act of civil status, a final and binding judgement, or by an administrative act - within ten days. The communication should be sent to the local Public Service Office or, where appropriate, to the civil status officer of the municipality that prepared the birth, marriage, or death certificate, in order to transcribe the appropriate terms.

If the court pronounces the divorce, the eighth article of law 119, and the 101st article of the civil code, applies. This states that the court or mayor should decide on the cancellation, completion, modification, and rectification of civil status, with the final decision communicated as soon as possible.

If the civil status officer grants the divorce, and the divorce application is filed in the same municipality that pronounced the marriage, they issue the divorce certificate, and record it on the marriage act.

Conversely, the civil status officer who ascertained the divorce and issued the divorce certificate is required to submit a certified copy of it to the place where they pronounced the marriage, and to record on the marriage act, if they filed the application for divorce in a different municipality to the one in which they were married.

In the previous paragraph, we analysed the issue of administrative divorce with agreement between the spouses, but a problem arises in the context of the territorial jurisdiction to address such requests.

According to the civil code, the power belongs to the civil status officer at the place of marriage or the final common home of the spouses. Law 119 states that the municipality of the final common domicile of the spouses does not have the jurisdiction to declare divorce.

Another problem arises regarding the ship commander who pronounces divorce during a trip outside Romanian territorial waters, as the seventh article of law 119 refers only to occurrences of birth, marriage, or death on a ship.

From ad literam interpretation of the law, it appears favourable to the request of spouses, whilst travelling, as ship or aircraft commanders are officers of civil status, who have the authority to grant a divorce. If a civil status officer refuses to carry out such a request, it is punishable by law, as follows:

a. According to the ninth article of law 119, where a civil status officer refuses to produce a document or to enrol a reference that falls within his remit, it can be referred to court;

b. According to the 378th article of the civil code, compensation for damage due to denial by a civil status officer to dissolve a marriage agreed between the spouses and to issue a divorce certificate to either spouse, can be referred to court.

It is clear that the legislature, in the spirit of the law, did not want to have the possibility of divorce on board a ship, and like birth, death, or marriage, which are sometimes delayed; divorce can be postponed until the end of the sea journey. The divorce administrative procedure takes 30 days from the date of application so should only refer to those trips exceeding one month. I think the ship’s commander would recognise the right of

1 For more details on administrative and notary divorce - Laura Cetean-Voiculescu, "Family Law. Lecture notes and seminar manual", Hamangiu Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, p.132-137.


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spouses to dissolve the marriage, on journeys of over 30 days, with proof of registration carried out upon return, when the Harbour Captain submits an extract from the logbook at the Local Community Public Service for Persons Evidence, in the first district of Bucharest.

Divorce pronounced by the Head of the Diplomatic Mission or Consular Offices of Romania

According to the 75th article of law 119, settlements relating to preparation of acts of civil status, release of certificates, and terms of enrolment and communication, in relation with other states apply unless otherwise provided by agreements, treaties, and conventions to which Romania is party to. The civil code contains a number of provisions relating to divorce with extraneous elements and conflict rules provide more options to choose the law applicable to divorce.

Provisions of the civil code relating to divorce may apply where the spouses have joint residence in Romania, at the date of the agreement on the choice of applicable divorce law. Whatever their nationality, if the spouses had their final common residence in Romania, and at least one of them lives in Romania, where at least one spouse is a Romanian citizen or if the spouses have lived in Romania for at least three years, certain aspects of the civil code apply.

According to article five of Methodology, from January 26, 2011 on consistent application of provisions on civil status, published in the Official Gazette number 151 of March 2, 2011, the diplomatic missions, and consular offices of Romania, registers civil status acts and the deeds of Romanian citizens abroad, and issues certificates of marital status.

Although not apparent in law, I think the inability of registrars in the diplomatic missions and consular offices of Romania, to pronounce divorce, when not specifically assigned these duties, although de lege ferenda, should be considered, as if they can pronounce marriages they should also be able to dissolve them. According to the 375th article of the civil code, if there is agreement between the spouses and they have no minors, (it is easy to set conditions for the dissolution of marriage), the civil status officer at the place of marriage or at the final place of housing, can dissolve the marriage and issue a divorce certificate.

Under these conditions (presence, consent, childlessness, marriage at the diplomatic or consular office, or their final common housing in the geographic area of the diplomatic mission or consular offices of Romania) it is appropriate and legally possible to declare dissolution through the diplomatic or consular mission.

Marriage act and divorce certificate After 30 days from the date of the application for divorce, the civil status officer can dissolve the

marriage and issue the divorce certificate, without mention of fault. There are three civil status acts and four certificates related to birth, marriage, death, and divorce that provide proof of marital status. Divorce requires a valid marriage and is mentioned in the act of marriage, regardless of the procedure followed (judicial or administrative notary).

However, it is not obvious this is the opinion of the legislature, as the 48th article of law 119 provides that we give divorce by reference to the act of marriage and the birth of former spouses, thus linking divorce to both civil status acts, not just to marriage.

The regulation of marriage Act, contained in law 119 does not include a certificate of divorce, but in chapter III, entitled "writing entries in the civil status", we find that birth, marriage, or death is registered and there are many entries for changes in marital status, including marriage, dissolution, termination, or annulment.

Ignoring the mistake related to the change of name, which means only relative nullity, not absolute nullity of marriage (recommended to replace the term dissolution of marriage, which includes both), we find that the legislature considers divorce as a change in a persons’ marital status.

We think it would be appropriate to amend the current regulation by introducing a divorce registry, including the act of divorce, from where we issue divorce certificates, which will confer divorced persons, with all arising rights and duties, including the right to remarry. The lack of this civil status act prevents changes to surnames on identity cards (due to former spouses changing their names upon divorce), a change that requires a divorce certificate. The only possibility that exists at this time is to consider a fact of marital status, the effect of marital status.

Despite long experience of legislative scripting in Romania, we consider it favourable to set up a system of registration of civil status acts and deeds. The 45th article of law 119 states that along with providing the necessary information infrastructure, communications concerning civil status acts and those on writing entries on civil status is also carried out within the system. Law 119 ensures the achievement of the necessary IT infrastructure, communications concerning civil status acts and those on writing entries on civil status.

Mention of divorce is given by default, based on: - Final and irrevocable court order,


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- Divorce Certificate passed by the civil status officer, - Divorce certificate sent by the public notary, - Application of the person concerned. We have no doubt that the legislature will act soon to review law 119, in accordance with the provisions

of the new code of civil procedure, which came into force on 15 February 2013. (For more details, refer to Government Emergency Ordinance four of 30 January 2013, amending law 76/2012 for the implementation of law 134/2010 regarding the civil procedure code, and for the amendment of some related acts). This Act refers only to final judgements, and is not irrevocable. The fourth paragraph of the 924th article provides that the court where the divorce procedure judgement was finalised, should send the certificate to the civil service where the marriage was enclosed, to the national register of matrimonial regimes provided by the civil code, and where one of the spouses has been a professional, to the trade register.

The divorce certificate is an exception to the legal status of other civil status certificates because its date and release sequence differ. Usually we draw up civil status documents in civil status registers where we issue certificates and the civil status officer or public notary writes the divorce only after the release of the divorce certificate.

The legislature does not refer to the physical form of the divorce certificate and only regulates certificates of birth, marriage, and death. According to the sixth article of Methodology in 2011 on the consistent application of provisions in the civil field, third paragraph, "certificates of birth, marriage, and death are made of special paper with watermark letter "R" enclosed in a grid. We do civil status certificates with a touch of blue for birth, pink for marriage and grey for death. Colour applied to the base material must be distributed uniformly… to avoid disappearance of manufacturing colour tint". They include a sample of a divorce certificate in the annex, but without any form as for other certificates (for example, divorce certificate in Moldova).

Conclusion The divorce certificate is, in legal terms, evidence of civil status. We use it to change marital status, and

it is important for those involved and for society in general. Due to the frequency of divorce, we should pay rigorous attention to the legislature’s regulations, and consider a range of doctrines that may lead to a change in the legislation. We propose analysis and correction of the many errors of expression and content in the legislation, especially in law 119, some of which we have reported in this paper and others that have appeared in the legal literature.

References [1] Tudoraşcu, M., Cojan, M. & Gânfălean, I. (2013). The Protection of Human Rights in the

European Union. Zeszyty Luksemburskie, Lublin, Cywilizacyjne uwarunkowania Kulturowe statusu jednotski, ISBN 978-83-7270-972-1.

[2] Cetean-Voiculescu, L. (2012). Family Law. Lecture notes and seminar manual, Bucharest: Hamagiu Publishing House.

[3] Hurbean, A. & Cetean-Voiculescu, L. (2012). Considerations regarding the amendments to legislation on child protection through the new civil code. Bucharest: CKS e-book.


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Elements of Legal Orders

Ciongaru E.1 1 Ph.D., Associate scientific researcher, Institute of Legal Research ,,Acad. Andrei Radulescu” of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Various categories of norms implemented at the society level result in specific types of social orders.

This order is directly or implicitly guided by the value system that clearly, visibly and consciously or in confuse, invisible and unconscious manner is at the basis of each legal order. This is the explanation for the fact that within the same society economic, moral, legal and other orders exist. Within each society, full compatibility exists between these different normative orders. Their synthesis is what we generally call the social order. In the broader framework of the social order, any human society drafts a grounded legal order that operates according to the legal norms implemented in that society, such norms are made up of legal principles, notions and institutions, and elementary legal particles. The elements making up the basic structure of a legal order are classified in determining elements and perishable or fungible elements. Therefore, the legal order is the nucleus of the social order, the fundamental condition of social balance, and the guarantee for achieving the vital rights of the members of a society and for the normal operation of its institutions, being an organic entirety and an integral legal reality corresponding to that collectivity.

Keywords: social orders, legal order, normative orders, determining elements, fungible elements

The concept of legal order From conceptual point of view, the legal order should not be confused with the legal order, these being

distinctive, as the sphere and content. Thus, the legal order implies more or less visible manifestation of the state as political organization of society implies permanent activation of institutional resources for the exercise of coercion, both in the private sector as well as in the public sector of activities of the person and always implies sending to the legal order, the existence what conditions being of legal order. Report between the law order and the legal order is not of a perfect two-way, but assumes a certain position of determination from part of legal order.

The legal order is a synonymous term with that of the normative order. Preaching that any state represents a law order, such attribute is, however, relatively, because, under specific the socio-political determinations, the law order can be rebutted and replaced, sometimes brutally, with a different order of law, without the State to stop its existence as a political organization of specified society; at most it can be appreciated an involutive stage on that would put the state in question as a result of changing its law order, this order understood to be a public order.

The legal order represent only normative stratum, which legitimizes the law order, a formal legitimization because the legal rules by which acts as a unitary building, the law order are produced in accordance with a procedural requirement prescribed by the norm assumed to be the fundamental. As such, law order can be violent suddenly and changed on the path some social facts actions, be they called armed insurrection, revolution, counter-revolution or civil war. As a new law order can be imposes and strengthen on the exercise of its substance is necessary to establish a set of primary rules to ensure, in terms of validity, the occurrence of procedural rules which, in their turn to be capable of to impose a fundamental rule based on which to establish in the substance and in actu new law order.

The concept of legal order is not only an attribute of the internal sphere of law [1] since any legal order and any state public law order comes next to any other such orders in the existence of a more and more internationalized international society as an effect of a general globalization [2]. Consequently, symmetrically to an internal legal order, in the doctrine they have affirmed that there is a general international legal order [3], with certain particular notes that are given by the very nature of the public international law and its specific manner of creation as a normative field.

Starting from such a generic definition [4], in the current doctrine of international public law legal order signifies the body of legal norms, both the norms of customary nature classified as principal norms in the


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development of the international public law and the conventional norms classified as secondary norms, and institutions to which such norms are afferent and which have as a finality the organization and ordering of the universal [5] international society and the subassemblies thereof.

But even if they take into account the doctrinarian and construction particularities of some specific regional systems of international public law or if we consider only the universalism as an essential property, the contemporary doctrine accepts today almost unanimously that the finality of all these law systems or subsystems represents the international legal order, a concept complementary to that of the internal, state or national legal order.

It has been shown in the doctrine that it is not acceptable to project a disruption between the internal legal order and the international legal order [6], that there is a certain logical-theoretical unity between these two orders, most opinions related to the doctrine leaning today towards legal monism with the preeminence of international law in relation with the internal one being an extremely visible position taking specially in the domain of the fundamental human rights and liberties.

Legal order is a word synonymous to normative order [7] but, sustaining the fact that any state is or represents a law order, such an attribute is however relative because, under certain socio-political determinations, the legal order may be turned upside down, replaced sometimes brutally with another legal order without the state’s ceasing to exist as a political organization of the given society [8]; one might consider the state in question in an involutional stage at most following the change of its legal order, this order being understood as a public order [9].

Legal orders are far from opposing to one another totally or characteristic by characteristic. Most often, if not always, they simultaneously oppose each other and draw near one another. The observation is precise for the legal orders belonging to the same legal system and for the legal orders belonging to different legal systems. It is crucial to know what the elements by which legal orders resemble one another or oppose each other are, because in the end their typological interrelationship and the classification of two or more legal orders in one and the same legal system or in different legal systems will depend on such elements.

At the core of any legal order [10] there is a fundamental nucleus made up of legal norms, principles, notions and institutions, which nucleus is made of determining elements, and many other elements called fungible or perishable elements gravitate around this nucleus also being the most numerous ones.

Determining elements This type of elements of legal order have an ideological and teleological significance explained by the

fact that they are directly related to the system of values on which any legal order is consciously or rationally built or accidentally expressing, collectively and individually, the systems of principles and values as the teleological finality of the reference legal order.

The main characteristics of the determining elements hallmark such elements but also allow their differentiation from the fungible elements and they are uniqueness, their irreplaceable character, their determining character and complementarity.

Another characteristic of the determining elements is that they give any legal order a specific identity and determine it by imposing their own fundamental structures and conditioning these fundamental structures and, by this, their own profile and morphology specific to any legal order.

Taking into account these characteristics, the most important determining element is the concept about law and the role of law within the reference legal order. This element determines, directly or indirectly, the assembly of all elements that form such legal order. From one legal order to another, the concept about law may vary, thus its functions and role may be different, but this concept is influenced by another determining element, namely ideology or doctrine that also mentions its relations with the power besides the influence on law.

Another element of a major importance for the understanding of each legal order and for the social order is the economic constitution of such legal order. The importance of the economic constitution is that it dominates the issue of property, inheritance, the freedom in transferring the property, the problem of contracts ad contractual liberty, the liberty of trade, the liberty to exercise a profession, a multitude of very important implications not only in the civil law but also in the commercial and economic law.

Another determining element of a vital importance is the ideology and role of the state [11]. The concept of a state [12] contains a series of elements which, in the European system, may be designated by the idea of the rule of law [13]. The role of the state, an element that must be added to the concept of state, consists in its relations with the law, the position of the political parties in the state, the principle of unity or plurality of powers, the state’s relation with the power [14], and citizens’ fundamental rights.

The determining element related to the legislative system is made of the juridical sources and their systematization and hierarchization since they are not the same in all legal orders.

The interpretation of legal norms and law, judge’s position and role [15] in the process of interpretation is another determining element for any legal order.


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Another determining element refers to juridical notions, the fundamental juridical categories that may exist in some legal orders and may not exist in others. From the viewpoint of this element, there is a highly important point of divergence between the European system based on notions, classifications and categories coming from the Roman law, and the Anglo-American system which elaborated its own notions and classifications.

These determining elements are the ones that generally characterize the ideal of most legal orders but, besides these general determining elements, it is possible to exist some determining elements specific to certain legal system and it is also possible for some determining elements to exist in certain systems and to miss from others.

Fungible (perishable) elements The other elements, namely the fungible or perishable elements order and combine around these

elements that make up the central nucleus of any legal order having a preponderantly technical role. Such elements have only a secondary importance since they complete the profile of such legal order without determining it.

They are fungible due to the fact that their modification or replacement does not change the fundamental structures leaving intact the original and specific morphology of the legal order containing them. Their importance is mainly limited to the respective norm or the legal institution; their influence does not reverberate in any way on the entire legal order. Their significance is not only general but also limited, not only central but also peripheral, and not only determining but also subordinated.

Fungible elements [16] are rather accessorial than fundamental for each legal order; they are rather determined than determining. Instead of uniqueness, the basic characteristic of the determining elements, the fungible elements are characterized by the pluralism of solutions meaning that the elements under discussion as well as the solutions resulting from them may be replaced by others without such legal order’s suffering any fundamental change. This is due to their weak connection to the legal order. Or, since the fungible elements are characterized by the plurality of solutions and by the fact that they have only a poor and accidental relation with legal order, one may explain why these fungible elements may be replaced and why, when replacing them, the morphologic profile and the fundamental characteristic of the legal order under analysis do not change as well.

Conclusions The states’ legal order and international legal order are two different law systems that intertwine

through the states, which create both of them. International legal order represents in a great measure the projection in the realm of international relations of the states’ legal order, which lends its fundamental concepts and techniques to international legal order, and some norms from the domestic legal order can be accepted by the states as sources of international legal regulation. International legal order in ins turn, has a great influence on the domestic legal order enriching it through its norms, that are incorporated in domestic legislation. In the sense of unifying some concepts and regulations already existent in different countries so that they be in consensus with the norms of international legal order, thus existing a process of internationalization for the domestic legal order.

The study of legal systems must start by distinguishing the determining elements from the fungible elements, identifying the determining elements, specifying the determining structures, understanding the typological interrelationship of legal orders, and classifying legal orders into legal systems according to scientific and not arbitrary criteria. The distinction between the determining elements and the fungible ones allows us to discover the determining structures, therefore of the central nucleus whose value resides in the fact that it contains the elements that determine the specific morphology of the legal orders. The theory of determining elements brings objective criteria capable to order matter thus substantiating an important component of the study of law, the science of comparative law. The existence of the comparative law, as an autonomous subject, depends on this theory which allows understanding the exact position of the legal orders and legal systems ones compared to others and finally helping to understand the existing juridical universe by a synthetic and coherent vision resulted from a change of perspective. The role of the science of comparative law [17] as an autonomous subject is to try ordering and classifying in a coherent whole the chaotic multitude of micro results that the micro-comparison method supplies to it only on the basis of fundamental scientific criteria that are offered by the theory of the determining elements.

Globalization of law and of justice, leads to the birth of a global procedural law which is imposed, on the one part, it is of need to establish and maintain a social peace at global level, just of need to establish and maintaining a social peace at the global world and, on the other part, of a certain attraction between the legal cultures as well as trying to ameliorate the differences between legal systems. The main motivation of this latter aspect is that, at basis of different national systems of law are common and global principles of justice. Being


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under the influence of some international documents, regional or international and of the transnational/regional courts, these principles prevail over the national legal cultures representing a certain return to the origin, a jus commune. This pillar will be the foundation of building a judicial global system accompanied by a legal community.

References [1] Bobos, Gh., (1983), Teoria generala a statului si dreptului, Didactica si Pedagogica Publishing

House, Bucharest, p.186. [2] Supiot, A., (2011), Homo juridicus, Rosetti Educational Publishing House, Bucharest, p.238-

239. [3] Mihai, Gh.C., (2003), Fundamentele dreptului, vol. I, Stiinta dreptului si ordinea juridica; vol. II,

Teoria normei juridice si a interpretarii ei, Bucharest, ALL Beck Publishing House, p.252 and the following.

[4] Constantinesco, L.J., (2001), Tratat de drept comparat. Vol.I, All Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, p.231.

[5] Bolintineanu, A., Nastase, A., Aurescu, B., (2000), Drept international contemporan (second edition reviewed and enlarged), Bucharest, ALL Beck Publishing House, pp. 97-101.

[6] Kelsen, H., (1992), Doctrina pura a dreptului, Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, p. 383 and the following.

[7] Craiovan, Ion, (2010), Filosofia dreptului sau dreptul ca filosofie, Universul Juridic Publishing House, Bucharest, pp. 36-39.

[8] Djuvara, M., (1941), Precis de filosofie juridica. Fascicula 1, Publishing House of “Universul” Journal, Bucharest, p. 44 and the following.

[9] Muraru, I., Iancu, Gh., (1995), Constitutiile romane (Texte, note, prezentare comparativa), 3rd edition, Bucharest, “Official Journal” Autonomous Administration.

[10] Constantinesco, L.J., Op.cit, pp.232-233. [11] Losano, M.G., (2005), Drept comparat, C.H. Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, p.72. [12] Ceterchi, I., and Craiovan, I., (1993), Introducere in teoria generala a dreptului, All Publishing

House, Bucharest, p.116. [13] Popescu, S., (1998), Statul de drept in dezbaterile contemporane, Bucharest, Publishing

House of the Romanian Academy, pp.36-37. [14] Del Vecchio, G., (1993), Lectii de Filozofie juridica, Europa Nova Publishing House,

Bucharest, p.292. [15] Allard, J., Garapon, A., (2010) Judecatorii si globalizarea. Noua revolutie a dreptului, edition

reviewed by Mona-Maria Pivniceru, Rosetti educational Publishing House, Bucharest, p.113. [16] Constantinesco, L.J., Op.cit, p.234. [17] Zlatescu, V.D., (1997), Curs de drept comparat, 2nd edition, Fundatia Romania de Maine

Publishing House, Bucharest, p.197.


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Considerations Regarding the Amendment to the Civil Code

Ciucă L.B.1 1 Faculty of Legal, Social and Political Sciences, “Dunărea de Jos” University, Galaţi (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Praised or criticized, the New Civil Code has been implemented! Being waited for with enthusiasm or reluctance, received with confidence or fear, implemented in

hesitation or with courage, the New Civil Code has became a normative reality governing social relations for two years now. It has been implemented by the professional practitioners for two years. Two years since the New Civil Code has been interpreted and assessed by theoreticians. Two years for the New Civil Code to reveal its share of performance and vulnerabilities. The date of 1st of October 2013, when there have been two years since the implementation of the Civil Code, gives us the change of highlighting some general observations on the importance and the effect of the civil legislative reform.

To this end, we intend to draw this paperwork on fourth sections. The first section shall review the reasons which determined the change in the Civil Code. The second section shall indicate the social background and the procedure used in the amendment of the civil law. The third section shall indicate both the criticism generated by the implementation and the enforcement of the New Civil Code and the reactions against that criticism. The fourth sections shall introduce the main amendments in the civil legislation brought until October 1, 2013.

Keywords: code, civil, implementation, effect, reform.

1 The need for legislative reform The Civil Code, as any other normative, in order to be useful and valuable for the society it governs on

its legal relations, must be in line to its times. The profound and fast changes faced by the entire Romanian society brought a consistent legislative

reform. New social values appeared and we had to protect them. New types of social relations occurred and we had to regulate them. Liabilities generated by the obligations taken within the relationship with the European Commission concerning the Verification Mechanism in compliance with the Resolution of the Commission 2006/928 EC on December 13, 2006, obligations that must be found in our national civil law.

Following the technological development modern procedures for the performance of such procedures appeared. Both new institutions and competence appeared within the institutions already existing. Mentalities, perceptions and opinions on the subjects that were approached in an old style have changed. Priorities in the legal proceedings in general and the civil legal proceedings in special have been redesigned. Such requirements, social changes and linguistic changes, superannuation of certain terms, the fact that certain words have disappeared from the common language, becoming archaic should have a correspondence in the legal matters. We think that all such reasons, generically structured, fully support the amendment intent of the civil legislation starting with its main element – the Civil Code.

2 The historical context Since the old Romanian unwritten law code, consisting of rules that were not issued by an authority, but

established gradually and in time as being imposed by practice and traditions preserved, through different historical stages, the Romanian law code took shape and articulate, evolving under the influence of foreign law and under the pressure of social needs. Passing the unwritten law code, the customary land, “Calimach Code”, the Organic Statute of the Romanian Country and updated by the "Napoleon Code" in 1864, the Civil Code has somehow managed to successfully resist the communist period.

“Almost miraculously, Romania is the only country in the former communist space that had not a socialist civil code, on the contrary, during the entire communist period (1945 – 1989) the Civil Code from 1864


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was in force at all times, an exact copy of the French Civil Code (the Napoleonic Code)”. [1] As a matter of fact, with insignificant amendments, the French influence Civil Code resisted, miraculously survived the communist regime. This survival “ability”, is noted both in the interwar period and after this period. Practically, if during the interwar period, the decision on the amendment of the Civil Code came from the need to have a unified civil legislation, we can say the period after 1945 is dominated by its “mutilation” by Law no. 4/1945; Decree no. 31/1954; Decree no. 167/1958. Concerns regarding the legal unification was motivated by the fact that regarding the civil law, the legal norms were different for each of the three major legislative regions.

The first region - representing a part of Transylvania and Banat and the whole Bukovina was influenced in terms of its civil law by the Austrian General Civil Code. If we wanted to be more exact, we can note that “in Bukovina, the Austrian code was enforced with the amendments introduced by the royal novellaes 1912, 1915 and 1916, in Transylvania these novellaes are not in force, amendments to the code will be sought in the special Hungarian laws about marriage, guardianship, trusteeship, missing persons and last will”. [2]

The second region - is made up of parts of Banat and the western part of Transylvania, a region where the Hungarian customary law applies.

The third region – is represented by the Old Kingdom and Basarabia and it is practically the territory where the Civil Code from 1864 was applied with all subsequent amendments (1906, 1921, 1928 and 1932). Regarding this region we can mention that, as Mihai Popovici stated – the Minister of Justice at that time in his Recitals on the draft of the Civil Code from 1933 – in the Old Kingdom only the Civil Code from 1864 was applied (amended as mentioned), whereas in Dobrogea, the Mohammedan Romanians were dominated by the Coran rule in marriage, parental power, divorce, and inheritance where there was no will.

In a contextual legislative diversity, the law was not equal for everybody, unfortunately it was enforced depending on the region, thus creating difficulties as people did not know the law and for the magistrates, notaries and freelancers of the time in its implementation. The period after 1945 maintains the concern regarding the amendment of the Civil Code, a concern determined this time not by the need to have unified laws, but driven by the need to support through civil legislation a new social order and an economy based this time on centralization and on the new concept of socialist property. Thus, the year of 1971 brings the publication of a Draft of the Civil Code dominated by legal socialist relations generating obvious advantages for the socialist organizations. “We still have to admit that this project, with a scientific approach, following the German Civil Code also contained modern rules, especially in matters relating to liabilities, so that it was one of the internal sources of the New Civil Code”. [1]

Finally, reaching the period after the Revolution from 1989, bringing Romania in line with the democratic states naturally brought the need for a legislative reform in general and a civil law reform in particular determined by the new geopolitical context. The transition to a market economy, rejection of the socialist ownership concept, the need to strengthen the ownership right, modernization of the legislation regarding the civil and commercial liabilities, assimilation of European standards in the field, and the need for a linguistic reform are just some of the reasons that justify the amendment of the civil law transforming the Napoleonic Code from 1864 into the New Civil Code adopted by Law No. 287/2009.

In his paperwork, CODEX IURIS CIVILIS, published by the Universul Juridic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, Marian Nicolae, PhD, Associate Professor provides a very accurate and detailed scan with all the necessary explanations and data of the entire story behind passing the New Civil Code.

3 The enactment of the New Civil Code – critical remarks No doubt about it, on that matter we can say that the same kinds of events seem to happen over and

over! If someone had the curiosity to browse the specialized literature during the passing of the Civil Code from 1864 will be surprised to find that most critics and concerns about the need and modalities to do the civil law reform from that date largely overlap with fears and criticism brought to the modern law reform when the New Civil Code appeared in compliance with Law no. 287/2009. On the adoption of the Civil Code from 1864 criticism was brought on the influences of the French Civil Code provided that there were recommendations that the main source of inspiration to be the Italian Code. In response to this criticism it has been argued that “the influence of French law manifested long before the Civil Code by drafting laws, inspired or copied from the former. It is enough to quote: laws for exemption due to seniority, rental and lease act, and a law drafted under Stribey, which followed in large extent the French Code; the draft on marriage, drafted also under Stirbey, etc.etc”. [3]

Both during the adoption of the Civil Code from 1864 and during drafting, discussion and implementation procedures of the New Civil Code there were many critics who complained that the New Civil Code (from then or now) is a “mere copy”. [4] At the time, as specified by the Academician Andrei Rădulescu in several works on the history of Romanian law that those who drafted the Civil Code took as inspiration by: the Belgian Law as of December 16, 1851 for the mortgage scheme, the French Code, draft of the Italian Civil Code, and certain provisions of our old law. However, based on the theory that modern people’s rights development


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was based on both the original law and under the influence of Roman law, the Academician Andrei Rădulescu argues that the Romanian law is a complex product composed of domestic law normative (written or unwritten) and rules of other countries which, directly or indirectly are rooted in the Roman law!

“In our opinion, we must not forget, as I have said before, that the laws of foreign origin as further amended, by doctrine and jurisprudence developed, implemented for nearly 70 years, were Romanianized. Even if things would not appear so, how many times do we have to say that we do not have an original law, when the law of all people has so many common parts which they borrowed? And how - in the end – can we draft an absolutely original law when there is so much interdependency in the human community and when people strive to create an unified international legislation and serious projects are drafted to this end?” [4]

Taking into account that the people that drafted the New Civil Code were influenced during the development of this New Civil Code by the Civil Code of Quebec, and the French, Italian, Spanish, Swiss, German and Brazilian Civil Code and the Old Romanian Civil Code, Family Code, the draft of the Civil Code from 1940, the draft of the Civil Code from 1971, Romanian Constitution, republished, Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ratified by Law no. 30/1994 published in the Romanian Official Gazette no. 135/1994, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Law no. 18/1990 republished in the Romanian Official Gazette, no.314/July 13, 2001 adopted by the UN on November 20,1989, the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of International Adoption concluded at The Hague on May 23, 1993, ratified by Law no. 84/1994 published in the Romanian Official Gazette no. 298/1994, can we take the views of those who accused this approach as lacking in originality?

We consider that the answer given by the academician Andrei Rădulescu to those who, at the time expressed their criticism is a perfect answer valid for today too. We have a Romanian civil law with influences common to civil legislations from all countries with Roman civil legal roots! The allegations that it is a hasty step, under the pressure of time, we have to notice again an overlapping with the accusations against the legislative reform from 1864.

“When it comes to our Civil Code, they easily repeat that it is a law made in haste – just in 6 weeks – that it is nothing but a translation, a copy of the French code etc”. [3]

At the time the counterargument was expressed that the “six weeks” were not dedicated to drafting the Civil Code but were dedicated to “talks and proofreading” as the Civil Code from 1864 was based on works carried out for 1 year and a half by the Commission of that time which was operative in the interval 1862 to 1863. Regarding the New Civil Code, there were the same accusations that it was drafted in haste and it was a copy of the legislation of other states. Disagreeing with these criticisms, we remind that we are discussing specifically these two drafts of the Civil Code which started in 1997 and 2006 respectively. The two projects that finally became the New Civil Code promulgated by Law no. 287/2009 shows that there was an organized and institutional concern for the civil law reform, a concern that lasted approximately 12 years.

4 The main amendments of the Civil Code until October 1, 2013. Each time, legislative changes show on the one hand that the law is not perfect but it can be improved

and secondly that the legal system must keep up with the social and economic development of the community. In the following material, we shall briefly list the legislative changes that occurred directly both on the text of the Old Civil Code and on the text of the New Civil Code.

The amendments on the Old Civil Code: Law no. 61/1931 against extortion (cancelled by Decree-Law no.1700/1938; Decree-Law no.1700/1938 for setting and elimination of extortion; Decree-Law no.9/1989 on the cancelation of certain normative; Law no. 105/1992 on the regulation of private international law (cancelled by Law no. 76/2012); Law no. 7/1996 – Law on Cadastre and Real Estate Publicity; Law no. 213/1998 on public property and its legal condition; Government Ordinance no. 9/2000 on the level of legal interest for fiscal liabilities (cancelled by Government Ordinance no. 13/2011); Government Emergency Ordinance no.138/2000 for the amendment and completion of the Civil Procedure Code (cancelled by Law no. 76/2012); Government Emergency Ordinance no. 290/2000 on the amendment of art. IX of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 138/2000 for the amendment and the completion of the Civil Procedure Code and for the cancelation of the Government Ordinance no.13/1998 on the amendment and completion of the Civil Procedure Code; Resolution of the Constitutional Court no. 573/2011 on the plea of unconstitutionality of art. 74 of the Criminal Code; Law no. 71/2011 for the implementation of the Law no. 287/2009 on the Civil Code; Government Emergency Ordinance no. 79/2011 on certain measures for the entry into force of Law no. 287/2009 of the Civil Code; Decree no. 205/1950 for the amendment art.1206 and 1906 of the Civil Code, for the cancelation of art.1200, para.3 and art.1207 to 1222 of the same Code, for the cancelation of art. 53 of the Commercial Code; Decree no. 131/1949 for the amendment of art.309, 311, 312, 313 and 314 of the Civil Code; Decree no. 32/1954 for the implementation of the Family Code and the Decree on natural and legal persons; Decree no. 185/1949 for the amendment and cancelation of certain provision regarding the age of majority, capacity in contracts of employment and emancipation.


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Amendments to the New Civil Code: Law no. 71/2011 for the implementation of Law no. 287/2009 on the Civil Code, Law no. 60/2012 on the approval of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 79/2011 for the regulation of some measures for the entry into force of Law no. 287/2009 on the Civil Code, Emergency Ordinance no. 80/2013 on legal stamp duties; Correction in 2013 on the Law no. 287/2009 on the Civil Code, republished in the Romanian Official Gazette no. 246/April 29, 2013; Resolution no. 4/2013 on the appeal on points of law published in the Romanian Official Gazette 226/April 19, 2013; Emergency Ordinance no. 79/2011 on the regulation of certain measures for the entry into force of Law no. 287/2009 on the Civil Code; Order no. 1903/C/2011 on the content necessary for the validity of testamentary dispositions regarding the amounts of money, valuables or securities deposited by customers of credit institutions; Ordinance no. 13/2011 on the compensatory and penalty legal interest for fiscal liabilities and for the regulation of certain measures in the fiscal and financial in the banking area, published in the Romanian Official Gazette 607/August 29, 2011.

Regarding the theory of “security at any cost” and of “sealing” of the Civil Code against any tendency of amendment, we believe that if we can find any blocking, confusion and inefficiencies generated by the standard of the Code, these changes are justified and expeditiously needed. At the same time, given the need for stability and predictability that the legal rule must generate, we consider the amendments that are intended to be initiated must be required and imposed by social reality as they cannot be a process of satisfying some pride or advocacy of questionable legal theories.

As Portalis said, one of the authors of the Napoleonic Code: “No people gave themselves a new civil code, a code drafted with no concern about what has been practiced before. History, that experimental physics of the law that tells us that the old sayings were respected everywhere, as they are the fruit of a long observation. Never people tried something as dangerous as to break from what made them civilized, to build new experiences in the embodiments of their entire life.” [2]

We cannot conclude this paperwork in a more suitable way than concluding the Recitals signed by the Minister of Justice at the time, Mihai Popovici, to the law draft on the Civil Code considering that both criticisms, fears, advocacy and motivation at the time overlap faithfully on the upheavals that accompanied the profound approach of modern legal reforms. “Borrowing our years to the needs, beliefs and hopes of the time, new principles have been designed on the old frame of the present code, reforms were introduced, the old texts were brighten up by modern democratic ideas. Thus drafted, respecting the tradition, yet animated by a bold spirit of reform, the draft of the civil code, a new look for the Napoleonic Code, a benchmark, not an abrupt interruption of the thread of history, precisely because it is based on the past experience will be - we hope - quite strong so that, facing the time it may last for many decades to come, the future life of our nation. With this intent in mind we submit it to your attention.” [2]

References: [1] Nicolae, M. (2012). CODEX IURIS CIVILIS.Tomul 1 - Noul Cod Civil - Ediţie critică, Editura

Universul Juridic, Bucureşti, pp. XXVI, pp. XXIX. [2] Ministerul Justiţiei, Proiectul Codului Civil – Expunere de Motive, Monitorul Oficial şi

Imprimeriile Statului - Imprimeria Centrală, Bucureşti, 1933, pp.1, pp.16. [3] Rădulescu, A. (1926). Şaizeci de ani de Cod Civil, Editura Cultura Naţională, Bucureşti, pp.13,

pp.1. [4] Rădulescu, A. (1970). Pagini din istoria dreptului românesc, Editura Academiei R.S.R, pp.35,

pp.69.


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Europe of Knowledge. Common Places of Thought

Ciulei T.1 1 Valahia University of Târgoviște (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The assertion that European history lies under the effort of knowledge can be considered as

fundamental? Yes, and the evolution of paradigms of knowledge is one of its indisputable premises. Since ancient Greece, in the space then we will call Europe, the thought is a continuous effort towards understanding and explaining reality and truth. During our trip we refer to Europe as a place of spirituality, an unpretentious geographic space, that, in general, the history of philosophy, at least, will have called continental thinking.

Keywords: knowledge, the given, truth, interpretation.

1 Signifying reality by establishing its epistemic Therefore, we refer to continental thinking, everything starts from Greek philosophy. The recourse to

the fundamental thesis of Greek thinkers will have to demonstrate still here for the first time we put the grounds of a paradigm of thinking that consumes us today: the world can be known. Achieving this goal has found different answers, depending primarily on metaphysical implications, thereof without confirming the thesis, thereby the Greek philosophy had been eminently cosmological, ontological and mainly focused on just deciphering the Being1 [1: p. 193], [2: p.110].

It is true that the theory of knowledge is not the main body of the Greek philosophy thesis (in the modern form that will strengthen later), but the knowledge of reality is invariably the point where any philosophical investigation starts and returns. We do not attribute to the Greeks all the responses to the above question in empiricist or rationalist, but we can find here, for the first time, affirming or denying the possibility of knowledge by appealing directly to the senses.

We do not share such argument that Greek philosophy had been, in its entire hymn to reason and rational knowledge, the evidence is in Heraclitus, Democritus and Aristotle philosophies2 [3: pp.79-80]. Without expressing distrust in the powers of reason, they would have stated, however, that pure knowledge, intellectual, without any appeal to the information provided by the senses is doomed to incompleteness. However, this lack of limits taken, specific to the philosophy of Kant, has its basis in solving the fundamental gnoseologic distinction: that between sources of knowledge and its foundation [4: p. 78].

Based on these assumptions, we find ourselves in this attempt to explain the world’s need for knowledge. And to do this through a program in which we find the common places of forever philosophical thinking: the problem of given, the analysis and criticism of the theory of innate ideas and a priori judgments, the knowledge of the absolute inability of truth and world, the need for a antimetaphysical program designed to move the center of gravity of philosophy towards the linguistic dimension, the preeminence of the sensory knowledge (at least in deciphering the immediate world) and the need for abandoning the inference (as a method of knowledge) for induction. We insist on the given because there is, in our opinion, the beginning.

Traditionally, it is considered that all empirical concepts developed around three central reasons: the idea of the given, the primacy of abstraction and the induction. In the same interpretation, the given (talking about your immediate senses, sensory impressions) is considered an irreducible order, directly and final in knowledge. In other words, we can question the descriptions we give to the sensory impressions, but not these as such.

1 Dumitriu, A. wrote: „knowledge is ontological because notifies in universal the very being” 2 J. Piaget believes that though „to Greek thinking has remained foreign the notion of active epistemic subject and only two powers that Aristotle assigns the subject are becoming conscious that the forms and that the abstraction from perceptions that allow provide a content of forms. Sophists, of course, insisted on a certain form of subjectivity, but for a particular purpose and non critical to rise to the epistemic subject. When Protagoras argued that man is the measure of all things, he, or did not exceed the individual subject or foresaw an epistemological relativism.”


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The experience, based on the notion given in general, is how privileged knowledge of the universe, for now it is open to all the factors that once were reserved to reason: ideas, judgments, reasonings. Experience embraces all that is real, but the experience exceeds it, clarifies it. “Going from dark to clear, wrote M. Florian, do not change the object itself instead it deeply modifies the consciousness. Clarification is an operation, a development, an activity, sometimes intense, that does not affect the object thought, but the thinker subject – makes it more analytical, keen in the facts of global information. What we are entitled to claim experience is not a hindrance to reason, but a support, the solid support of it” [5: p. 7]. Moreover, the Romanian thinker, thinking of all creative activity is actually a spelling activity, for “thinking remains recessive to experience” [5] being a mere human experience annex, an annex without which, it is true, culture would not be possible. Consequently, the “thinking is man’s nobility, because it is also a noble experience” [5].

2 Propensity to truth Along with modern thinking, the answers and solutions lose measure so far, exaggerating the

gnoseologic size assumed as the only truth. This radicalization of solutions in an almost romantic way, has the gift to draw attention to the importance of the issues raised, and effort of authentic knowledge. If Plato still attracted the attention to the distinction between true knowledge and affected opinion, even during times of modernity appears, besides deepening this distinction, the problem of the method of knowledge.

Compared to the Greek thought, it is, in our opinion, the big news: the need for a method in conferring knowledge, inspired by the mathematical method which is circumscribed to direct knowledge, can provide authenticity, veracity, and, ultimately, measure the value of truth for a judgment.

Secondly, modern epistemology, unlike the Greek one, develops a second dimension of a knowing effort: how we know what we know. The answer given to this question, bases the knowledge, charging it with the truth, whether the solution lies in the intellectual intuition or in the sensorial knowledge.

But there are few objections to the experience, and, generally known: covering the particular, the singular or the individual, it can only be particular, changing, fragmented, limited and therefore subjective. It is circumstantial and contingent. Consequently, the universality and life experience is not needed because it does not have universal and necessary elements that are a priori, and there are only in the consciousness of knowing.

And we face a free-choise paradigm for the history of philosophy: or the universe is an immanent experience and then we can explain the order of things, or it does not reside in things and we have the right to impose from outside. The answers to this dilemma devided philosophical thinking into two: the skeptical solution, which denies any policy or conduct of experience subjected to a law, and the solution a priori, for which the order is imposed to the experience of thinking itself.

But this rigourous separation of views rooted in the basic gnoseology: the narrow separation of the knowing subject from the known object. Once this distinction is made, they constantly sought to demonstrate that the object to be known, must undergo the objective conditions of knowledge, being transformed into a simple representation, in a variety of consciousness’ content. The consequence of this assertion would be that the experience itself is rational, it opted for not being of chaotic proportions, but rather organized and founded on the rational possibilities.

As a result, we never needed, in the explanation of the world, two distinct sources of knowledge, but one, namely rational experience. For this, however, thinking will have to overcome the right given, being able to add foreign elements of his own thinking. But can thinking make such an effort, or it is presented only as an explanation of a more general point, being an immanent process to the given? The answer may be affirmative, if one understands that there is a beyond experience, but only a conscientious relations between thinking and object, on the one hand, and objects, on the other. In other words, we can only know objects, never influencing their existence itself.

Once this limit assumed, philosophy can exceed the paradigmatic distinctions that concern it, and also make it exist. We are not talking here about an antimetaphysical program, based on the dissolution of the epistemic distinction as a subject of knowledge – an object of knowledge, but only a doomed attempt to challenge the truth value of individual experience. Not in the sense that individual experience could glimpse the truth, but in the sense that it can be considered as the basis of true knowledge.

3 Conclusion: trying to interpret the reality and its false hermeneutics The dominant feature of the Greek philosophy regarding the answer to the question of knowledge is

balance; its radicalization has lacking answers, a current major trend that characterizes modern philosophy and will calm down in contemporary philosophy. Greek thinkers would not radicalize any answer, would not


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preclude any knowledge, so far as their measure would determine their attitude. The loss of measure is, for the Greek thought, the only modern dimension that is missing.

The return to the contemporary thinking and the regain of the balance, of the Greek measure, was done by exceeding the direct knowledge perspective. The emphasis ought not to fall on gnosiological effort, but on the expression on semantic constructs, true, of the results of philosophical investigation. The language, on which sophists still insisted, becomes a favorite preoccupation of philosophy. Yet, empiricist or rationalist foundations are easily discerned, whether it’s the philosophy of Carnap or Popper.

But the most authentic note of this new type of philosophical investigation remains the critical metaphysics, a humanic background program seen as a discipline ground of contradictions, and, using meaningless language assumptions. To this philosophy the theoretical and methodological stubbornness of modernity is missing, but it lacks both the corollary: the communication with the Being. For, what is happening today in communication is, in our opinion, the failure of all that continental thinking characterizes: the location of the genuine effort or knowledge in expressing and explaining the reality in truth.

What is happening today in public communication space (especially) is a hymn to the (un)authentic and (in)consistent. We participate in creating a hermeneutic monster in which the circumstantial truth becomes an epistemological foundation, even through its availability. The relationship with the truth is lost in favor of interpretation. We go back to Plato’s cave for an easy explanation and interpretation of knowledge is not an effort, if that red thread of continental thought is respected: knowledge must explicitate the authentic and not the circumstantial.

Knowledge no longer carries neither in the analytic area, nor in that of the synthetic. The personal interpretation, the abolition of any hermeneutical keys are signs of our alethic decay. The immanence is so far circumstantial present in the investigations, that spend public communication, as Plato would reconsider the notion of dóxa3. The revulsion against any interpretation criteria is done today, in what is happening in public a refurbishment of the Tower of Babel.

The idea is that gossip has always existed, just that it has never been an epistemological basis.

References [1] Joja, Ath. (1971). Epistemologie şi ontologie. In Studii de logică, t. III, Bucharest: Editura

Academiei. Ath. Joja noted that „the target of all knowledge is Being. Knowledge is not an end in itself, but outside itself. Epistemology implies, is based and has its purpose in the theory of being, in ontology”

[2] Dumitriu, A. (1974). Philosophia mirabilis. Încercare asupra unei dimensiuni necunoscute a filosofiei greceşti, Bucharest: Editura Enciclopedică Română, p. 110.

[3] Piaget, J. (1970). Înţelepciunea şi iluziile filosofiei, translated into Romanian, Bucharest: Editura Științifică. Flonta, M. (1994). Cognitio. O introducere critică în problema cunoaşterii, Bucharest: ALL.

[4] Flonta, M., (1994). Cognitio. O introducere critică în problema cunoaşterii, ALL Publishing House, Bucureşti,

[5] Florian, M. (1932). Metafizica şi problematica ei, Bucharest: Societatea Română de Filozofie.

3 Dóxa and Epistḗmē (gr.) = view , opinion / scientific knowledge. This gnoseologic distinction is certainly one of the most interesting of Greek philosophy and the responses forever influenced the relationship of the epistemic subject with the world to know. Plato’s Republic seems to be the beginning, though the beginning is still standing at Xenophanes. He is the one who speaks first about the distinction between true knowledge (epistemics) and a lower knowledge. Parmenides had to take the theme and emphasizes the distinction which comes from the ontological status of the reflected objects. Doxa dealing with feelings (aisthesis) remains outside the authentic knowledge that objects of sense perception have been excluded from the true being and therefore can not generate true knowledge. Yet, in Plato’s Republic we find the statement that true knowledge is the true reality (eide) while ignorance is about unreal. Between the two, Plato accepts a third: doxa. This is an intermediate knowledge with sensible things, and people’s opinions as object of research.


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The Principle of Proportionality Applied in Case of Freedom of Expression Restraint in the Jurisprudence of the European Convention on Human Rights

Coca G.1 1 PhD Associate Professor, Spiru Haret University, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The freedom of speech is a right included in article 10 of European Convention on Human Rights

(ECHR) and in articles 30 and 31 from The Romanian Constitution (The freedom of speech and the right to information)

When the member states of ECHR adopt restrictive measures concerning the exertion of this right, the International Strasbourg Instance has the competence to establish whether these measures are justified.

Keywords: European, convention, human, rights, principle, proportionality

Introduction The European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter named ECHR) enshrines and guarantees in

article 10 one of the fundamental rights, namely the freedom of expression. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions and freedom to receive and impart information and ideas without interference of the public authorities and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the broadcast, cinema or television companies to obtain a permit. The exercise of these rights, since it implies duties and responsibilities, can be submitted to some formalities, conditions, restraints or sanctions provided by the law, which, in a democratic society, are necessary measures for national security, territorial integrity, public safety and prevention of crimes, protection of health or morals, protection of reputation or others' rights, in order to prevent the disclosure of confidential information or to guarantee the authority and impartiality of judiciary system.

When member states adopt restrictive or derogatory measures on the exercise of this right, the international court from Strasbourg has the competency to establish whether these measures are justified, analyzing the aspects mentioned below, in the following order: whether there is or not an interference with the exercise of the right guaranteed by the Convention; whether the interference is provided by the national legislation; whether the restrictive measure aims a legitimate purpose established by the Convention; the need in a democratic society and the proportionality of the interference with the legitimate purpose pursued.

Analysis of principle of Proportionality The European Convention on Human Rights analyzes the observance of proportionality criterion, after

it establishes that the interference in the exercise of the freedom of expression is provided by the national legislation and pursues the attainment of a legitimate purpose, provided by the Convention.

The provisions of article 10 from the European Convention on Human Rights are also found in the Romanian Constitution, in two articles, as it follows: article 30 – The freedom of expression1 and article 31 – The right to information.2 1 The freedom of expression of thoughts, opinions or faiths and freedom of all kinds of creations, orally, written, by images, sounds or other public communication means are inviolable. Any kind of censorship is forbidden. The freedom of the press also implies the liberty to found publications. No publication can be suppressed. The law may impose the mass communication means the obligation to make public the founding source. The freedom of expression may not affect the dignity, honor, particular life of a person, nor the right to his own image. The law prohibits the defamation of the country and nation, instigation to aggression war, national hatred, racial, class or religious hatred, instigation to discrimination, territorial separatism or public


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According to ECHR, the constitutive elements of this right are: the freedom of thought; the freedom to seek information; the liberty to impart the ideas and information without interference by public authority, as well as the liberty to benefit of information regardless of frontiers. ECHR jurisprudence stated that article 10 also guarantees the artistic expression, the activity of the radio, television, and cinema companies, and especially the press. A democratic society is characterized by pluralism, tolerance, openness, and the possibility to express a minority opinion is the essential component of a democratic society. The protection of the liberty of expression must also protect the information which can offend the public authorities or a part of the population. This fundamental human right, namely the freedom of expression is autonomous, namely it has a value that is not subordinated to the general interest, thus guaranteeing the principle of pluralism and exclusion and the state in the act of creation, information and expression of the individual. The state has more obligations regarding the exercise of this right: thus, the obligation to refrain from limiting freedom of expression in all its forms; the positive obligation to ensure the exercise of this right by ensuring the existence of guaranteed media (the state is one which must oppose to excessive concentration of the press and to provide the diversity of the communication means).

Paragraph (2) of article 10, also provides certain “duties and responsibilities” in the exercise of the freedom of expression, as well as restrictions, formalities and exercise conditions. ECHR stated that article 10 may be violated by measures ruled by public authorities against the persons who exercised their freedom of expression by: criminal actions and civil actions; confiscation of properties; refusal to grant authorizations to publications or television stations; interdiction to disseminate some information, etc.

ECHR jurisprudence considers the freedom of speech one of the essential and fundamental rights of a democratic society, but it must not be used only for favourable information and idea, harmless to the state, but also for those which disturb the state or a part of the population, provided that any specific formality, condition or restriction may be proportional with the legitimate purpose pursued. When ECHR analyzes whether the restrictive measures imposed by the national authorities are adequate to the legitimate purpose invoked, it analyzes the observance of principle of proportionality. Even in such situation, ECHR recognizes a certain margin of discretion to member states, which differ depending on the legitimate purpose and the manifestation means of the freedom of express and considers that domestic authorities are better situated than the international judge to rule upon the precise content of the exigencies imposed by the morale of a society, so that they have a wide discretion margin.

The press is one of the most efficient means by which the public can be informed about the political leaders' ideas and opinions or about social realities. This has the role to communicate information on the issues debated in public life, which is why the limits of acceptable criticism are wider for a politician or the government, than for an ordinary citizen. Media restrictions must be strictly proportionate and focused on allegations that have actually exceeded the limits of permissible criticism.

ECTHR ensures the protection of the press, considering that the public interest is best served when offering the most comprehensive public information and as such the proportionality ratio is interpreted strictly, in the sense that there must be a pressing social need in order to justify a restriction on press freedom.

In the cases “Unabhangige Initiative Information - Sviclfalt v. Austria, Dichand and others v. Austria, Krane Verlag Con & Co.K.G. v. Austria”3, the Court from Strasbourg made the difference between facts and value judgments, in the sense that if the facts can be proven, value judgments are not fit to be demonstrated in terms of their accuracy. Thus, the conviction of a journalist for expressing value judgments is not justified in terms of proportionality, but even if we are in the presence of a value judgment, it must have a factual basis to support it.

The activity of the public servants conducted in the performance of functional represents a particular aspect of freedom of expression. In such a situation, the state may limit the freedom of expression of its employees, as long as their views are related to their tasks or duties, but nevertheless, the principle of proportionality must be taken into account, so that the measures should not be restrictive.

ECHR analyzes each case, depending on its circumstances. In the case Sunday Times versus United Kingdom4, ECHR noticed that the ban on a publication of an

article on a case pending before a court, ban ruled by the High Court and supported by the House of Lords

violence, as well as obscene manifestation contrary to morality. Civil liability for the information or creation brought to public knowledge falls upon the editor, or producer, author, organizer of the artistic performance, owner of the multiplication device, of the radio or television station, as provided by the law. Press offences are established by law. 2 A person’s right of access to any information of public interest can not be restricted. Public authorities, according to their competence, shall be bound to provide correct information to citizens in public affairs and matters of personal interest. The right to information shall not be prejudicial to national security or protection of young people. Mass media, public and private, are required to provide correct information to the public. Public radio and television are autonomous. They must guarantee the exercise of the antenna right to the social and political groups. The organization of these services and parliamentarian control upon their activity is regulated by organic law. 3 Decisions on 26 February 2002 4 Decision on 29 April 1979


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represents a violation of article 10 of the Convention, because the principle of proportionality was not observed. In this respect, the Court found, “Not only it is the media's mission to communicate information and ideas on matters that courts judge, but the public is also entitled to receive them.” Responding to public interest in being informed is essential to determine whether a mixture of public authorities in the exercise of freedom of expression is justified. Depending on these situations, ECHR found that the interest of maintaining the authority of the judicial authority did not represent such an urgent social need, in order to counteract the public interest in receiving information. The condemnations ruled against journalists for articles published in press represent a restraint of the freedom of expression. That is why the Court rigorously examined the observation of the proportionality condition, considering that the sanctions were imposed for critics against politicians or state authorities.

ECHR jurisprudence found that the observance of the principle of proportionality is attained in relation with the following coordinates: “In a democratic system, the Government’s actions or omissions must be under the attentive control, not only of the legislative power, but also of the public opinion. Actually, its dominant position requires the government to show restraint in the utilization of the penal way, especially if it has other means to answer the unjustified attacks and criticisms of its adversaries” (The case of Seker Karatos v. Turkey5; the case of Ayse Ozturk v. Turkey6).

On the other hand, we must admit that the liberty of the press is not absolute; it must not exceed certain limits, especially on others’ reputation and rights, as well as the need to prevent the dissemination of confidential information. Although it is admitted that the freedom of journalism includes a certain extent of exaggeration, even of challenge, the limits of admissible criticisms are narrower to a private person, than to the government or a public personality.

ECHR makes a distinction between the abusive phrases and acceptable criticisms, when establishing whether the proportionality principle has been observed.

In the case Tammes versus Estonia, the applicant was condemned for using in the press offensive terms to the wife of a former prime minister and minister. When analyzing the proportionality of the sanction imposed and the legitimate aim pursued, ECHR found that the offensive terms used by the journalist represent value judgments expressed in an offending manner, not necessary in order to express a negative opinion and the utilization of such terms to describe the privacy of a person is not justified by the public interest pursued. Compelling a journalist to reveal his sources of information represents interference in the exercise of the freedom of expression. Thus, in the case Goodwin v. United Kingdom7, in order to verify the compliance with the principle of proportionality, ECHR took into consideration the importance of the journalistic sources’ in the protection of the liberty of the press and the negative effect that might be caused by an order of disclosure. Thus, it has been established: “It is appropriate to give more importance to the interest of democratic society to assume and maintain press freedom, when it comes to determining whether the restriction is proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued. Limits to confidentiality of journalistic sources require the Court most scrupulous examination”.

ECHR jurisprudence also considered [the case of Plan (Company) v. France] that the time represents an important criterion in order to appreciate whether the proportionality principle was observed in case of restraint of freedom of expression, by forbidding the publication of papers likely to reveal confidential data on the evolution of a disease of which suffered an important political figure. The passing of the time must be considered when analyzing the compatibility with the freedom of expression with such a serious decision to strictly forbid the publication of a book.

A particular aspect is the application of the proportionality principle in case of restriction to the freedom of expression for civil servants. In such situations ECHR held that the state may restrict the right to freedom of expression of its officials, to the extent that their views refer on the tasks or functional attributions.

A special situation occurs when we are in the presence of persons who have the status of soldiers, because in this case the European Court must examine the concept of “order”. It is about military order and discipline, which means more than the public order, because it refers to a certain social group, with certain conduct rules, limitations and privations.

The States have a wider discretion, and the rule imposed to militaries on freedom of expression are adequate to the legitimate purpose pursued (the case Engel and others v. Netherlands8). The obligation of political loyalty imposed to civil servant is extremely important for the constitutional order of a state. ECHR considered in the case Vogt versus Germany, that the dismissal of a teacher on the grounds of lack of loyalty to the Constitution is disproportionate to the aim pursued, especially that national authorities also had other lighter sanctioning measures.

5 Decision of 9 July 2002 6 Decision of 15 October 2002 7 Decision of 27 March1996 8 Hotărârea din 8 iunie 1976


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One of the particular aspects of the freedom of expression is represented by the freedom of public debate. The maintenance and consolidation of the pluralist democracy imposes constitutional guarantees, aimed to restraint for some professions the liberty to perform political activities. Thus, it was considered in ECHR jurisprudence that the interdiction for policemen to perform political activities observes the principle of proportionality.

The rights and responsibilities stipulated by article 10, paragraph 2 are especially important when it deals with the freedom of expression of high rank magistrates.

In the case Wille versus Lichtenstein,9 it was considered that “it is expected from legal servants to make use of their freedom of expression with restraint whenever that the authority and impartiality of the judiciary might be put into question. Any prejudice to freedom of expression of a magistrate requires a careful examination of the principle of proportionality. The premise of this analysis is that there is a just balance between the individual's fundamental right to freedom of expression and on the other hand the legitimate interest of a democratic state to ensure that a public official act for the purposes stipulated by article 10, paragraph 2.”

In this case ECHR noted that there was an infringement caused to the applicant, a senior magistrate in the exercise of his freedom of expression, as the national authorities criticizing the content of his speech, informed him of the intention of national authorities to punish him for having freely expressed his opinion. ECHR considered that the reasons of the national authorities to justify the infringement to the applicant's right to freedom of expression are not sufficient to demonstrate that the interference was necessary in a democratic society, since the speech at issue dealt with constitutional issues.

Even if the existence of a discretion margin is admitted, the reaction of the national authorities, namely the removal from office of the magistrate, was not proportionate to the aim pursued, and consequently Article 10 of the Convention had been violated.

Conclusions

Finally, we submit to your attention another aspect of the freedom of expression, namely artistic expression. ECHR jurisprudence stated that article 10 of the Convention “includes the freedom of expression, which allows the participation to the public exchange of information and cultural, political, social ideas and of any kind”. In such cases, the application of the principle of proportionality implies and it characterizes the morale concept and thus the recognized possibility of the states to adopt restrictive measures. In the matter of morale, the European countries do not have a uniform concept of the protection exigencies against attacks to religious convictions.

9 Hotărârea din 28 octombrie 1999


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Cultural Territoriality in the Age of Globalization

Cojanu D.1 1 Valahia University of Targoviste, Faculty of Political Sciences, Letters and Communication, (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This essay advances a moderately skeptical argument against a global culture, an argument based on the

distinction between culture and civilization. On one hand, such a culture already exists, but as a planetary civilization of modern communication technology, of global economy and tourism expansion. It is also the international community based on the recognition of human rights. On the other hand, this culture does not resemble ethnic cultures, it is not a community based on shared values, on a collective sense of continuity, local specificity and self-determination. Ethnic cultures are governed by the intrinsic principle of self-limitation that allows the expression and the preservation of their identity, visible across all cultural practices. Local cultures talk about human territoriality. This paper will compare some anthropological and philosophical arguments concerning cultural territoriality. Instead, the global culture is conditioned by the very experience of deterritorialization (of anthropological places, of ethnic, national or regional cultures). Even if people are interconnected on a global scale, they have no common memory, no sense of belonging to these cultures and that they differ from those of other cultures: the global culture does not allow an exterior side. That is the risk of extending a particular culture, the Western one, which tends to become hegemonic, to challenge the diversity and thus to deny its own specificity.

Keywords: cultural identity, territoriality, globalization, network communication, recognition policy

1 Introduction. The inner contradictions of a notion: global culture This essay is based on the following hypothesis: if there is a global culture, it has not the same structure

and the same functions as the ethnic cultures. First, I intend to analyze three concepts - territoriality, culture and globalization - and the relations between them, the analysis whereby i aim to highlight the normative dimension of cultural anthropology. I will take these notions as ideal-types, as regulative ideas and operational categories. I believe that the applicability and their heuristic significance depend upon the way they are interpreted. My assumption is that only after this analysis it could be argued that there cannot be a global culture in the way that local cultures are. Thus, I will give a moderate skeptical argument against the global culture. The local cultures are usually associated with concrete historical communities, which have continuity, cohesion, collective memory and destiny.

The global cultural is possible only as civilization, a civilization that responds to the new challenges of the late modernity (communication technologies, economic system, human rights, migrants, tourism). Global culture, which is rather a communicational synchronization of different cultures, therefore a label, just a name for a form of civilization, appears as a compromise to accommodate the existing cultures to these phenomena. We cannot call it culture (because it lacks the essential features of a culture: the values) cannot perform the structuring function of a culture to a community. The analysts / apologists of information society, predicting the abolition of all political or ethno-cultural borders in the Internet age, have imagined such a culture in the hypostasis of the "global village" (McLuhann) - which can be at most an aspiration or a metaphor for expanding communication. Commonly, the village is the administrative unit which circumscribes the actual existence, be it cultural or economic of a traditional organic community and a certain kind of experience of social relations and interactions effectively regulated by neighborhood which is sometimes stronger than kinship. Therefore, as a metaphor for global culture, the village should mean the neighborhood as social structure reiterated at the planetary level

Because of the unprecedented accessibility to information, some talk about the feeling of compression of the planet, about the reducing of distances and about space which become a function of time due to modern technologies of communication and high-speed transport by air or land. Also, due to the connexity carried out by


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communications, due to the instantaneous circulation of information, linking anthropological place of our daily existence with other places and events on earth, some authors talk about the “awareness that the world becomes for the first time in history an unique social and cultural framework "[1:21] "Even the term global has strong connotations of totality and inclusion, deriving both from metaphorical use (global in the sense of total) and from the semantics of the geometric shape: for example the connection between terms such as enrollment and the spherical form of the globe." [1:22]

2 Global communication and the self-limitation of ethnic cultures

„Modernity is inherently globalizing.” [2:63] Modernity supposes the loss of a type of face-to-face interaction characteristic for pre-moderns societies, of the purely local existence of man. „Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” [2:64] The widening of social relations as cultural experience affects the specificity of localities in which we live normally. People continue to live concretely in real places, but these are affected, perturbed, altered. The cultural places, the landscapes and cultural environments which are familiar and comfortable, favorable to life are imperceptibly affected by influences, events and social processes located at great distance.

This is not an experience of alienation, but of ambivalence. The feeling of familiarity to local contexts that we experience daily remains, but it is accompanied by the increasing awareness of integration. It is about the integration of the place in socio-economic processes and mechanisms of global institutions. The familiar shop on the corner, where we do everyday shopping is also one belonging to chains of stores that can be found in other cities and have a specific and even a similar design.

This represents the globalization of capital. The place is losing its influence on public space. Deterritorialisation (i.e. delocalization, dislocation) is taken for granted in the flow experience. We are familiar with it not only in the public space but also in the private thanks to the Internet and TV. Tomlinson shows that globalization does not destroy the settlements, but only transforms them, in fact transforms the way we experience them, replaces many of the familiar places, to which we had in the past different expectations and different experiences, with non-places. [3:78] [1:156-157]

In short, there is no global culture because there is no global community. Regarding the planetary village, it would mean that distant places turn into neighborhood by the informational flow and by the influence of information and images about events and facts that happen in various and remote regions.

The phenomenon would also involve a disappearance of boundaries and borders. Metaphorically, it can be understood and imagined as a condominium, as a neighborhood without fences. This vision is interpreted by skeptics rather gloomy as a mixture of cultures, as homogenization, as extinction of local specificity, traditions, diversity of lifestyles, as evanescence of the cultural rootedness, of loyalty to the communities of belonging and inherited identities. Instead, many enthusiastic advocates of globalization believe that the disappearance of communities is something natural. They believe that the whole world must become a society (Gesellschaft), a voluntary and contractual association between individuals, people without a past and without roots which have appeared from nowhere. It is a mystery why people with liberal inclinations would prefer the anomy, the anarchy, the amorphous things, the anguish solitude, the uprooting and a freedom often useless because it lacks the conditions for exercising, the disorientation, relativism of values and choice criteria, the instability, the indistinction. Postmodern man is the man who agreed to have no face, to be no longer recognized because he consented to cut the roots that he found as limiting and oppressive. But cultures and communities are inevitably characterized by locality, just as they are characterized by their specificity.

For sociologists like Giddens, modernity implies the gradual disappearance of the old Gemeinscaft, the traditional communities, which are culturally homogeneous. [2:64] [4] It also involves the generalization of those human associations of Gesellschaft type that characterizes the urban lifestyle, which define themselves by individualism, impersonal and contractual ties, the growth of communication and the absence of group solidarity. The modernity of this form of social existence differs from the communitarianism of the traditional societies living in relative isolation and having a strong sense of solidarity. [5:32]

If we talk about community and global culture is just as meaningless as if we talk about human nature. At the dawn of romanticism, Herder argued that humanity can express itself only as difference and irreducible ethnocultural specificity of peoples. They're right the romantics and those who advocate the cultural relativism and the necessity of hermeneutics as an approach for understanding other cultures. But the autonomy of local cultures does not mean autarky, isolation. And being in contact and communication with other cultures should not jeopardize the specificity and the identity of a culture. [6]

Tomlinson stresses the existential dimension of globalization. Globalization is an attitude towards life, an overlapping of experience mediated by communication and influences over immediate experience, an ambivalence of experience that gives to anthropological places a certain transparency, availability and possibility to resonate with the vast spaces of networks, informational flows and remote representations. Tomlinson


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examines in a very nuanced and optimistic note the possibility that from contact, adaptation, and communications to result new mixed cultures. He overlooks a fundamental fact, that the cultures of ethnic communities are not an accident, that they have a destiny as they have a soul. [1:49]

The syncretic cultures that appear, if any, emerge through contact, acculturation and crossbreeding. Community means communion of destiny, local specificity, style and shared values. Cultural identity means therefore identity self-limitation, loyalty to a particular guiding principle, for certain formative patterns, generating structures and stylistic coherence of its practices and lifestyles. Every culture has its own internal coherence and logical integrity. Every culture is an interdependent system of values, attitudes, beliefs and norms that give meaning to both individual and collective identity. Each person is bound, culturally dependent; and culture is a regulator of behavior: „we may speak of long-term persistence through changes of both ethnies and nations – something that cannot be derived simply from the choices and predispositions of their members. For, just as we cannot read off the character of individual members from the political culture of the nation, so the latter cannot be deduced from the sum total of their individual preferences or dispositions, because the political cultures of ethnies and nations have their own norms and institutions, symbols and codes of communication.” [7:25]

There are different networks that threaten the localities, penetrate and disturb them, synchronize them culturally: the international relations, the capitalist economic system, the Internet. Globalization means the disappearance of barriers; therefore it means the disappearance of places. [8:63-64] The barriers, therefore the boundaries are logically correlative to place because they make possible the dimensions of interiority and exteriority. It’s important to understand the culture of an ethnic community as place and to relate to it as being inside or outside its boundaries, to have a sense of belonging or that of difference. And communication (whose god is Hermes) threatens local identities (represented by Hestia, the goddess of the fireplace of the house) „Hestia symbolizes the circular hearth placed in the center of the house, the closed space of the group withdrawn into himself (and thus in a sense of its relations with itself); while Hermes, god of the threshold and the door, but also of crossroads and town gates, represents movement and relations with others.” [3:58]

Besides the disappearance of boundaries, there is the danger of cultural standardization, of homogenization of tastes, criteria for evaluation, preferences and needs, by imitation or manipulation.

Charles Taylor defends the identity based on difference, a version of multiculturalism sensitive to the preservation of cultural diversity, lifestyles, which in his opinion represent sources of authenticity. Taylor defends and supports the politics of recognition against the cultural imperialism and the hegemony of Western culture. Taylor has shown how the respect for social rank and hierarchy turns into recognition of personal dignity and cultural identity. [9:43-44] The most interesting is that not recognizing the other as different means to cancel or abandon your very own identity. Culture, whereas it should have face and identity, is self-limited as expression and spread. Culture cannot express and extend itself until the annihilation of other cultures. Thus even the western culture cannot expand at the expense of other life-forms and cultural identities without self-denying. I am interested in the other not for what is similar to me, but for the difference that reinforces my identity. Not the other as myself, but myself as another, „soi-même comme un autre”. [10] Understand the other does not mean to reduce him to me, to annihilate as identity or to find both of us in a broader identity, vague, utopian, such as European identity.

3 Cultural identity as human territoriality: some anthropological issues The unsurpassable localism of cultures, their inextricable connection with the real and concrete

communities makes me think to the territoriality of cultures as a form of human territoriality. Tomlinson examines pertinently the deterritorialization performed by the modern communications, by their connections, by the influence that events from other cultures have on us, or the effect which the economic decisions in transnational companies have on local destiny of their employees.

In contrast to animals which have vital territory, man discovers a world that culture opens for him. Territoriality is a feature of the existential condition of animal species, an extension of their habitat. The animal territoriality is proved, it's linked to adaptation and to the relevance that a specific environment of existence has for a particular animal as a species. Jakob von Uexküll showed that each animal species is related to a specific environment through its physiology. Each animal species has therefore its ambient environment (Umwelt) and the environment is always limited: it determines the limit of the connection of the animal with its space, and also determines the limits of what is meaningful to him. [11]

The characteristics of this environment have certain significance for the species who live inside, but not for others. Different environments of the animals are not transposable: each species is trapped in its environment. The natural environment of animals is their world since it is only for them the bearer of meaning. [11]

In contrast to animal, man can adapt to all environments. Arnold Gehlen believes that just because it has a specific environment man get something far superior: the openness to the world. (Weltoffenheit). [12:38] Among all living beings, only man is not guided, constrained, limited by the belonging to species. He is


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adaptable to new situations and can create new situations. Because it lacks a specific environment, man has to give meanings to the world that surrounds him. He is compelled by its very nature to configure the world in order to give it a sense, to understand it. Man has no environment (Umwelt), but has a world (Welt), because it is the only being capable of presence and aware engagement in the world (Befindlichkeit).

The culture (as opening and emancipation, in the Enlightenment terms), the language, the communication should make man to overcome his biological condition, his animal nature that involves territoriality. But human territoriality is exactly a cultural one.

My hypothesis is that the territoriality of cultures is exactly the human territoriality. Thus I go beyond the argument of Arnold Gehlen. He claimed that man has a dual nature and explained the human ability to exist anywhere on earth, despite the lack of specialization comparable to animals, by the concept of Kulturwesen (cultural being). Man can create anywhere the cultural space where to live, no matter the natural environment. Because it is able to learn from experience, man is always active and the lack of biological specializations forces him to create that environment, his own environment, which for him is natural. The cultural world, said Gehlen, is actually man's world [12:40]

However the emancipation that the culture realizes as compensation does not mean deterritorialization. Humanity, culture, language and communication open, free and emancipate man as animal from his biological territoriality, but they create a specific milieu, a culture, thus a symbolic territoriality, in which he feels at home, and express differently as it seems destined to do in terms of Herder. [6]

Another conclusion of this argument is that the species is irrelevant to humans. However, man couldn’t be defined as individual, but only through its cultural specificity and belonging, therefore by symbolic rootedness, cultural placement, by the locality as an a priori of all human experience (be it cultural, cognitive, symbolic, existential). Isolation doesn’t define man, but its rootedness, its participation in the specific, unique destiny of a community and culture, cultural identity defines man rather than human rights, some Enlightenment generous but dangerous postulates. Human nature does not defy cultures, rooting or diversity, human nature is cultural and expresses itself as difference. This is his vocation, the unsurpassable condition of its existence.

References [1] Tomlinson, J. (2002). Globalizare și cultură, Timișoara, Amarcord, p. 21, 22, 49, 156-157. [2] Giddens, A. (1990): The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press, p. 63, 64. [3] Augé, M. (1995). Non-places. Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity, London,

Verso, p. 58, 78. [4] Tonnies, F. (1887) (1957), Community and society, New York: Harper. [5] Poutignat P., Streiff-Fenart, J. (1995). Théories de l’ethnicité, Paris, Presses Universitaires de

France, p. 32. [6] Herder, J.G. (1973). Scrieri, Editura Univers, Bucureşti. [7] Smith, A. (2008). The cultural foundations of nations: hierarchy, covenant and republic, p. 25. [8] Castells, M. (1997) The Power of Identity, vol. II of The Information Age: Economy, Society and

Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, pp.63-64. [9] Taylor, C. (2009). Multiculturalisme. Différence et democratie, Paris, Flammarion, pp. 43-44. [10] Ricoeur, P. (1990). Soi-męme comme un autre, Seuil. [11] Uexkull, J. (2010). A foray into the world of animals and humans: with a theory of meaning,

University of Minnesota Press. [12] Gehlen, A. (1988). Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt, p. 38, 40.


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European Reconstruction by National Identity’s Conservation (Sociocultural Reflections)

Cojocaru M.C.1

1 Researcher Asistant, Dr., Academic Institute „G.Călinescu”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This study proposes analysing and debating two aspects of the reception and reform in contemporary

society. The first starts with the premise that nowadays Europe is before a new crucial moment. On one hand, this is caused by the economic crisis manifested with particularly intensity in later years. On the other hand, as a consequence of this situation, the increasing wave of immigrants coming from ex-communist countries and their situation in the adoptive society affects this, too.

The second aspect is generated by the social reality itself. The leading class broached a new strategy to prove and demonstrate its concern in defending the interests of their own citizens, because it is interested in keeping the personal benefits. Furthermore, in this context and at large scale, in Europe there were established or have come to light political factions of radical and extremist orientations. They undermine exactly the idea of national identity by exploiting and manipulating the people's increasing dissatisfaction, using a speech in which nations and nationalist elements play an important role.

Thus, it reached to a paradoxical situation. Public assumption to what defines people's self-consciousness, such as tradition, culture, spirituality leads to considering it conservative manifestations, refractory to progress. In the other words, Europe pretends to be a perfect body, which, in reality, has diseased organs.

Keywords: national identity, Europe, culture, extremism, people.

1 European identity or national consciousness? In our approach regarding the social European reconstruction by means of the preservation of the

national identity, we will make use of theoretical, ideological concepts only if they can be found and they can reflect in the concrete, human level. The reason is very simple. Whereas the specialist approaches this matter in a detached, objective, lucid way, the ordinary man, interested in what we might call close, familiar reality, understands his new European identity in a different way.

Different, we may say, from what Robert Frank considers it represents: “the awareness of being a European, as opposed to those who are not, the awareness of a similarity, a sense of community. This European identity competes with other identities or mingles with them particularly with the national identities.” [1] Let us try and imagine how this matter would be interpreted by people with a strong self consciousness, a solid culture and emancipated as well. For example the French people who in 1792, during the battle of Valmy shouted: “Long live the nation!”. Or the Italian people who in 1842 sang the famous aria “Va pensiero” (“Nabucco” third act) together with the artists at La Scala in Milan. This was their way of expressing the revolt against the Austrian domination and against anyone or anything that threatened their national identity. What are the citizens of the same nation doing today? Do they consider themselves Europeans or what they are in fact- French people, Italian people, to mention only them?

“The European consciousness means something else, as well”- adds Robert Frank. “It cannot be reduced to the sense of community or similarity. It does not represent only the awareness of being a European, it is the awareness of the necessity to build Europe.” [2] What does this mean for the small countries emerging from the communist bloc after 45 years of dictatorship, of moral and spiritual oppression? How can the Romanian, the Bulgarian, the Pole, the Czech, or the Slovakian understand the necessity of being firstly a European citizen and only then a part of his people? Is not there a danger of interpreting this as an inherent way towards denationalization? Emerging from an absolute, abusive power, these people would have the feeling that they are under the oppression of another power which, in exchange for an economic and social protection, wants them to be Europeans before being anything else. Is such an affective reorientation, such a spiritual transmutation possible?


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2 European Integration - a cause of Extremism? After the Second World War, many people considered the movement for European integration as a way

to get free from the extreme forms of nationalism which devastated the continent twice during the same century. Yet, today, at the beginning of a new millennium, a number of extremist parties and groups exist, manifest themselves and have more and more followers in the European world, under the legislation of the European Union. Due to the deepening of the economic crisis and the emigration of the people from the poor countries to the rich ones, these parties and groups, using a nationalist, populist discourse, have succeeded in attracting the attention of the citizens affected by the economic crisis or by the large number of the emigrants from the poor countries. This is the case in Holland where the Liberty Party has a radical position towards the Eastern Europe emigrants, winning 24 seats in the Parliament at the latest elections and in 2010 the votes of over 15% of the voters. Other political parties with similar positions are the North League in Italy, the Progress Party in Norway, in Switzerland the People’s Party, UKIP in the UK, and in France, the National Front with a declared moderate attitude.

In the east, there are two political parties which have borrowed elements from the Nazi symbolism and ideology: the “Golden Dawn” in Greece and “Jobbik” in Hungary. With more and more followers among the unemployed young people, the party in Greece has extremely violent manifestations against the Muslim immigrants whom the Greek hold responsible for the serious economic situation of the country. The Hungarian party, alongside the government led by Viktor Orban, has an aggressive nationalist policy and its consequences can be seen in a series of events taking place even on the Romanian territory. Although they are still incipient, groups with fascist ideology similar to that of their predecessors start to organise and express themselves in Romania. We cannot avoid thinking that the problems during the economic crisis of the thirties started in a similar way and led to real disasters. And if the politicians do not prove to be careful and lucid, if they do not take into account the dissatisfactions that set these factions in motion, if they do not defend the national interest, the consequences can be extremely serious, for history has the tendency to repeat itself and the civil societies are the first to be affected.

But we ask ourselves if the increasing popularity of these groups is only due to the economic crisis or to the massive emigration of the people from Eastern Europe. Why do people insist, first and foremost, on showing a European identity? And, moreover, why have the open expression of a national feeling and the assuming of one’s own national identity become synonymous with nationalism? As long as one’s own national identity is not stated to the detriment of another, as long as the promotion of a nation’s culture is not based on the defamation of another, as long as the aim is not to generate a complex of inferiority, and the privileges of the powerful ones do not show disregard for the rights of others, we believe that it is more than necessary that Europe should understand that its power resides in the diversity of the nations which compose it. The more subtle methods are searched and used in order to annihilate the national identity and consciousness of the less economically developed countries, the greater the danger for the extremist formulae to develop. At first, due to the need for defence and self defence, and later, wishing to impose themselves on their own citizens. As long as the tension generated by insecurity becomes greater, the peoples release it through popular uprisings. In other words, in the globalization and Europeanisation process the struggle of the small peoples to preserve their identity will be stimulated. The methods can be surprising most of the time. It is important, as well, that each government should understand that they cannot negotiate the individuality, the essence of a nation for some momentary economic advantages.

3 The European Integration - a new challenge for Romanian political class In order to have and play an active role in the twentieth century Europe, even if the size, the position

and the human, social and political resources do not offer her a main part, Romania should behave as a nation with self consciousness, capable of exploiting the potential and of overcoming the inertia. For, the power of a nation does not depend only on the dimensions of its resources, but it increases due to the nation’s capability to use them for a mission on which its very existence may depend. Thus, we may say, the number gains value and the dimension gains substance. Our future and our position in the world depend on taking up an objective, collective mission, on engaging the national Romanian soul and spirit in this new historical context. The century- long desire of the Romanians to resist, to last, will have eventually to be replaced by the wish to impose themselves by means of resources, culture, spirituality, traditions. At the same time, Romania must learn to exploit any advantages efficiently, must understand that the interest shown in our country by personalities such as Prince Charles-- to mention only the most promoted one --is meant to arouse our own interest in the neglected artistic values. The mere existence and the duration do not mean anything and we cannot be proud of them as long as they do not achieve a purpose, and they do not evolve. This is how we must understand Caragiale’s statement: “We should not be upset and worried thinking that the Romanians are worse than others. No, this


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nation is not a bad one; it is only not ripe enough.” In other words, the Romanians are advised to let the gestation take shape, to grow up, to give an end to their capabilities.

Only if we know ourselves in an objective way, only if we educate the people accordingly, can we become aware of our role in history, can we assume our own tasks in the social European reconstruction. The preservation of the national identity is achieved by exploiting and promoting the culture by those in charge with this, and also by relating with other cultures. A national soul which is aware of the fact that it springs from a popular culture and from an ancient spirituality, felt and expressed by means of the language, can become universal- considered Constantin Noica. “Only in the words of one’s mother tongue”, he said,” is one able to remember things one has never learned“, for “the words and the collocations of the mother tongue have a miraculous power.”

But this is only the first stage, important to mature the individuals belonging to the same nation, yet insufficient if it is solitary, as it neither engages them, nor seats them at the table of universal history. United by the same customs, sometimes rhapsodic about their own spiritual values, which they tend to consider more profound than others investing them with a mystical soul, the Romanians have oscillated between two extreme attitudes, in our opinion, neither constructive, nor beneficial. They have either appeared as strenuous traditionalists, always looking back at their past seeing a form of a divine intervention in every event, or they have disowned it, demolishing, together with the past, the sound pillars of strength of a nation only to place it on an artificial basis.

Relating with other cultures does not lead to the disappearance of our own, and it does not “kill the national soul in us”, only if, by doing this, we get a form without a content and if we turn the values upside down. It is the duty of the Romanian people to demand that the ones who work for them should defend their values, and ultimately it is what each and every one of us must do. Emil Cioran says: “If Romania does not aim to her solemn moment, if everything this country experienced in a past of humiliation and a present of compromise will not revenge itself in the willingness to assert, to define a destiny, then everything is lost.” And in the same volume, “The Transfiguration of Romania” the philosopher suggests a solution: “The people become a nation only when they achieve an original outline and impose their particular values as universally valid.” [3]

4 The culture - a way to affirm the national identity In order to achieve such a goal, the rightful ones should make use of all the instruments which lead to

the affirmation and promotion of our own spirituality, of our artistic values, which “give universal outlines to the individual consciousness.” [4] And the best way to impose ourselves as a self-conscious nation among the other European nations, to be a notable partner in the process of social European reconstruction, seems to be the promotion of what individualizes us as a country. And what can be better than the culture which reflects the soul of a millenary nation, its unique consciousness regarding life and death, its capacity to understand the meaning of time in the flow of times, the fascination of the unborn, the divine light which cradles childhood and eternity.

We are going to demonstrate it, in short, referring only to Eminescu’s impressive anthropogenic vision which places us among the great artistic European visions. It is about Eminescu’s obsessive literary and philosophical preoccupation to understand what man is, to clarify the meaning of his existence, the aspiration to perfection, and to fulfill his supreme desire, to “learn to die”.

The poet’s thinking perceives the human being in a permanent development. The human being is not threatened by disappearance, by disintegrating in the void because, in this case, his existence would be meaningless. The man is, above all, an essence resulted from two contradictory entities: substance and spirit, ontic and anthropogenic. Getting the consciousness of his infinity, Eminescu’s man understands, even if he has to endure his own tragic fate, that “antitheses are life”, in other words, the contrasts, the opposites, the two fundamental opposing experiences, life and death, mean life, mean “living to live”, and that he has eternity written in his destiny, but not in a common, human way, but as it is proper for a “part” of a “whole”. By means of this essential attribute, of a “part” of a “whole”, man could “lead” his own way, as Pico della Mirandola writes in “. On the "Dignity of Man”, stressing in his turn the ambivalence of the human nature. Becoming equally aware of his anthropologic, subjective side as well as his ontic one, man-Eminescu emphasizes repeatedly- ould remain in the body and connected to heaven as well.

This fact, beyond the imposed necessity, shows something else, too: as long as he lives, man is connected to heaven, to the energy of his sovereign guarding celestial body, together forming an indestructible unity, for, although he is a “part” of a “whole”, he becomes an “eternal birth”, (Ms.2257), thus a grain of eternity.

Disobeying the laws of development, freed from the permanent fear of transience and of the instinctual enslavement, he will understand himself as being a part which is aware of itself, in connection with what Heidegger names Das Sein- “the Being”.

So, life, meaning existence, is for Eminescu “the ontic updated in a field of his own or another, getting, for certain periods of time, into a cosmotic state, due to the complementary-antinomic energies which are


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inherent; death is the ontic remained indistinguishable, chaotic, in a state where matter and its inalienable energies are expanding in certain areas and for variable periods of time” [5] Getting to know Claudius’s theory of the energetic metamorphoses at the age of about thirty, Eminescu wrote the following in his manuscript 2270 pg. 140: “Various levels and various directions of forces are born out of the combination of these two movements of the constitutive parts of the molecule, and this intersection is life itself.” This shows that the poet-philosopher was attracted by Mayer’s and Claudius’s theories in which the concepts of life and death gain other meanings capable of changing the old views significantly. Seven pages away, there is a note that demonstrates an exceptional intuition, preceding Einstein, referring to the “curve of the universe in the infinite”.

As far as death is concerned, Eminescu gets it out of the commonly accepted meanings and shows it as a return to the true nature. “From the holy sea of death flow the springs of life / To come back to it.” Being more than a simple physiological process, the idea of death becomes a way to know life, its utmost experience. This is the deep meaning of the human existence and the comprehension of all the “mysteries” depends on it coming true. With such a perspective, Eminescu reaches the highest level of understanding life as an essence springing out from a long range of other essences making the most complex, staggering confession in “Ode (in antique metre)”: “I little thought that I would learn to die” as “to learning to die” is the supreme meaning of the entire existence. “To learn to die” includes the idea that one has learned to live; “to learn to die” means that one is in the state of consciousness taken away from the Great Universal Consciousness, in the state of an earthly “part” torn from an eternal “whole”; it means that one has already chosen life, that one has understood the existence in a body and beyond it! It seems to me that everything the Poet tells us must be deciphered in this key and that this is where the subterranean springs of Eminescu’s thinking emerge, thinking which seats us at the table of the great universal cultures.

Searching the meaning of life and time, of birth and death, and according to his “antropogonic obsession”, Eminescu tries to find out what is beyond the “closed gate” where” above it, in a triangle, there was a fire eye, above the eye a proverb of dark Arabia written with crooked letters” (“Wretched Dionis”). “Isn’t the life of mankind looking for you?” ("Andrei Muresan") Although he thinks that “in vain does my nature struggle to understand your nature”, in manuscript 2267, we find an answer to the question “Who are you?” “God. He masters the three categories of our thinking. He is everywhere – he has the space; he is eternal- he has the time; he is almighty- he has the entire energy of the Universe.

The human being resembles God; he reflects in his mind – in ortum- all his three qualities. That is why at first there was the Verb, and the Verb was God, and God was the Verb.

I have presented here only the main ideas of a work which can seat Romania next to the great cultures of the old continent. It is also necessary that this “original outline” should be imposed as “universally valid’, together and at the same time with the other artistic Romanian outlines. And they are not few! In the time of advertising and media, our county is obliged to put on the proper clothes which can emphasize her intrinsic beauty.

Bibliography [1] Girault, R. (2004). Identitate și conștiință europeană în secolul al XX-lea, Ed. Curtea Veche,

București, p.140. [2] Ibid., p.144. [3] Cioran, E. (1990), Schimbarea la față a României, Ed. Humanitas, pp. 31-32. [4] Ibid., p.35. [5] G. Munteanu - “The History of the Romanian Literature” The Period of the Great Classics, Porto

Franco Publishing House, Galati, 1994, p. 207.


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Innovation Solutions for a Sustainable Competitiveness Recovery of the Romanian Enterprises on the International Markets

Constantinescu L.M.1 1 Valahia University of Targoviste (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract According to "Strategy 2020" provided by the European Union, a key objective of the each member

state economy is to promote innovation and we must retain that Romania belongs to those countries of the European Union called "modest innovators group" by the experts, being followed only by Lithuania, Bulgaria and Latvia. Notably the other 24 European Union countries belong to the middle group of innovative countries (9 countries), then to the group of countries called "co-leader in innovation" (10 countries) and to the “leader in innovation group” – Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany.

This paper aims to highlight some innovation vectors to allow the drafting of a competitive advantage portfolio for the Romanian enterprises, in order for them to move from sustainable regional competitiveness to sustainable global competitiveness. This will allow the enterprises to improve their organizational abilities concerning their long term relation with their clients and other stakeholders, placing them in a “win-win” position.

Keywords: New Economic Intelligence Model, business intelligence services, reengineering process, company, strategic advantage, competitiveness sources.

1 Introduction After October, 2008, when the international crisis triggered its first effects in Romania, the companies

have been faced with unprecedented economical-financial difficulties and the economic recession created many problems for society in general and for the average consumer in particular. The economic recession of Romania during the last years may mean a significant deterioration of the living standards, the rise of unemployment and the decreasing of funds. According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics (2011), Romania is among the countries with the lowest economic performance in the EU27, being followed only by Bulgaria, a country which registered the lowest economic growth of the countries acceding to the EU after 2002, as it has been shown in Chart 1 [1].

0

50.000

100.000

150.000($)

2009 7.500 11.273 12.927 29.240 18.139 21.903 31.774 6.233 104.5122010 7.542 12.300 12.879 27.302 18.288 21.559 30.639 6.334 108.832

2011 7.495 11.975 12.678 26.456 18.345 21.990 30.373 6.217 109.788

RO PL HU EL CZ PT ES BG LU

Chart 1. Data processed by the author regarding the GDP/habitant of the EU member states (ex-socialist) between 2009 and 2011


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The contribution of the SME sector to the Romanian GDP was 50%, being 8% lower than the European Union (EU) average (which is 58.4%). This has had consequences on the labor productivity in the economy of Romania, although SMEs have become the main provider of added value in the Romanian economy, with a 50% contribution to the GDP. Romania is relatively well placed in the business environment and in point of entrepreneurship, in the case of SMEs. Romania’s most significant problem refers to the progress towards a sustainable industry, because four of the SBA indicators do not reach the European average. A negative find is the progress towards a modern and competitive industry, where for 6 out of the 7 indicators considered, Romania is below the EU average, with significant differences. The European economy is creating a separate market, with a predetermined operating performance. According to the "Strategy 2020" provided by EU, a key objective of each economy of the EU member countries is to promote innovation. So, we must admit that, for Romanian companies, the problem is their focus on emergence, which requires process-related transformations aimed at the initiation of new sources of competitiveness, to support a trend of increased productivity on the level of the Romanian economy. The most promising way for an enterprise to outperform its competitors and obtain a sustainable competitive position is to implement competitive innovation solutions, because in the economic systems based on the existence of efficient markets, companies can be considered a tool meant to meet the needs and expectations of consumers, which means that [2]: • the company produces only what it wants to sell, its main function becoming the sale ; • supply and demand grow, in the sense that economic subjects - individuals and businesses - become more numerous, but many are of limited size, so that the company can no longer impose its prices on the market , on the contrary - supply and demand impose limits ; • the offer should be personalized, because the market is defined mainly by the way consumers perceive the offer of the firm, and the central problem in the practice of marketing is now the "portfolio of attributes that define the product", in the case of utilities / services this portfolio giving the quality of the product ; • the ratio of power between producers and distributors moves in the direction of distributors, who bear most of the marketing risk; • market liquidity is guaranteed by a set of premises, the most important being the liberalization of international trade (the free input / output of any economic agent on the market, the freedom of action of buyers and sellers, perfect mobility of the inputs and outputs).

2 Romanian competitiveness world index trends The specific typology of the European economy is particularly distinguished by: “emergence -

convergence, growth - development, and integration - globalization”. We could say that the European economy is creating a separate market, with predetermined operating performance.

A company can obtain a profitable position if it is able to create at least one market advantage called strategic competitive advantage. For this reason, it is absolutely necessary to move from "knowledge" (the knowledge to beat the market) towards finding the sources and resources that give the company the certainty that its marketing strategy allows it to reach success on the international markets.

In the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 of the World Economic Forum, Romania ranks 77th among 142 world countries, and, in front of Romania, there are countries such as Brunei (28), Bahrain (37), Barbados (42), Hungary (48), Panama (49), Montenegro (60) Morocco (73) and Bulgaria (74). Romania is ahead of Albania (78), Botswana (80), Ukraine (82) and Greece (90) [3].

Romania is relatively well placed regarding the business environment and entrepreneurship in the case of small and medium enterprises (SME). The worst problem of Romania is in terms of the progress towards a sustainable industry, because four SBA indicators do not reach the European average. A negative find is the shift towards a modern and competitive industry, where for 6 out of the 7 indicators considered, Romania is below the EU average, with significant differences. To implement the "Strategy 2020" provided by the EU, a key objective of each economy of the EU is to promote innovation and we must retain that Romania belongs to those countries of the European Union called by the experts "modest innovators group", being followed only by Lithuania, Bulgaria and Latvia. Notably, the other 24 European Union countries belong to the middle group of innovative countries (9 countries), then to the group of countries called "co-leader in innovation" (10 countries) and to the “leader in innovation group” – Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany [4].

3 Romanian enterprise innovation towards competitiveness recovery In a changing global landscape, characterized by continuous structural changes and enhanced

competitive pressures, the SMEs’ role in Romania has become even more important, as they provide employment opportunities and are key players for the wellbeing of local and regional communities. The “Small Business Act” (SBA) for Europe provides a comprehensive SME policy framework, promotes entrepreneurship and anchors the “Think Small First” principle in law and policy, aiming to strengthen the SMEs’


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competitiveness. The European Commission adopted the Annual Growth Survey (AGS) in 2013, setting out five priorities: pursuing differentiated growth; friendly fiscal consolidation; restoring normal lending to the economy; promoting growth and competitiveness for today and tomorrow; tackling unemployment and the social consequences of the crisis and modernizing public administration [4].

The performance of the Romanian economy and that of the management of our country are reflected in the SMEs’ competitiveness. The page on Romania in the Annual Report of the EU "the performance of the Competitiveness of the EU Member States and its policies" for 2011 indicates a significant gap in the economy and the business environment in Romania. The international trading environment has forced the Romanian companies understand that SMEs need to take into account their "moral and social responsibility" [5]. The differentiation is confirmed by the value chain of the company. Gilligan and Wilson argue that the methods for creating strategic competitive advantage differ according to the value chain, especially in the area of marketing and management [2]. The Romanian modern enterprises must be updated continually as new roadmaps appear regarding the vectors of the sustainable competitive advantage portfolio. This will lead to “a win-win position”, including: an integrative marketing vision focused on clients; "customer-supplier relationship” internalization (resulting from a new marketing policy and a better personnel management); a reengineering process of the company. To equilibrate the balance between “commitment-risks / control-profit”, a company has several possibilities to implement a multi-country strategy. In an increasingly globalized economy, information technology is one of the competitiveness key-factors of the enterprise. Firms become more competitive on the basis of their knowledge rather than based on their natural endowments or low labor costs. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the role of traditional sources of comparative advantage (a large labor force and abundant natural resources) in determining international competitiveness is diminishing [6].

3.1 Information, Open Source Fostering Innovation towards Sustainable Competitiveness

According to De Meyer and Garg (2005), innovation designates “an economically successful introduction of a new technology or a new combination of existing technologies in order to create a radical change in the value/price relationship offered to the customers”. To explore a new development and have more opportunities of competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy, the strategic management should improve the creation and sharing of information [7]. In the Information Evolution Model levels, a new element has emerged, namely information, which can be used as a strategic asset of the company [Fig.1].

Figure 1. New Economic Intelligence Model

Business intelligence and Data warehousing provides a method for the users to foresee future trends from analyzing past patterns in the organizational data.

Conclusion The interdependence between technological innovation and organizational changes is obvious, even

though it is difficult to disentangle the organizational innovation influence on the company. According to Th. Levitt’s thesis - Think Global, Act Local -, each company focused on business internalization must implement a new business vision focused on innovation, information and the control of the organizational growth and change, in order to improve the company’s sustainable competitiveness on the international markets.

Competitive Advantage

Organizational Intelligence((Structural intelligence) Organizational Innovation

Business Intelligence (Technological intelligence)

Information technology and R&D

Knowledge intelligence (Human intelligence)

Informational Innovation Info

rmat

ion

and

Com

mun

icat

ion

Competitive intelligence

Economic Development & growth


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References [1] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/graph.do?tab=graph&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tec0

0115&toolbox=type open 02.12.2012 [2] Danciu V, (2008), Marketing international - de la traditional la global (International Marketing,

from Traditional to Global), Economica Publishing, pp.35-40 [3] http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GCR_Report_2011-12.pdf open 20.10.2013 [4] http://ec.europa.eu.enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/index_en.html open 30.10.2013 [5] http://web.hec.ca/aireme/image.File/MARTIN-CIFEPME2010.pdf open 21.06.2012 [6] Constantinescu, L.,M., Qorraj, G., Stefan, C., M., (2012), Enterprise Marketing Risks Into the

Selection by the Different Strategically Position Alternatives to the International Markets, pp 189-194; available online: http://www.rce.feaa.ugal.ro/sites/default/files/ConstantinescuQorrajStefan.pdf

[7] Neffati, M., (2012), ICT, Informational Innovation And Knowledge-Based Economy, Annals’ Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica 14 (1), pp. 247-249


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An Assessment of the Romanian Social Policy Supporting the Integration of the Discriminated Groups in the Social Community

Constantinescu L.M.1, Dumitru F.2, Tănăsescu D.3 1 Valahia University (ROMANIA) 2 Valahia University (ROMANIA) 3 Valahia University (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The social integration process designates the interaction between the individual /groups and the social

environment through which a functional balance is reached between the social partners. The joint declaration of the social partners of the Laeken Summit (2001) recognizes "the double role of the social policy as a productive factor and a key tool meant to reduce inequalities and promote social inclusion”. The Lisbon Summit conclusions focus on the modernization of the European social model regarding social integration and on the actions required in this area in terms of investing in people and fighting against social exclusion, while maintaining a healthy dose of macroeconomic policy for sustainable growth.

This paper assesses the Romanian citizens’ perception concerning the discriminated groups and the willingness of the Romanian population to accept the proximity of theses minority groups and refers to the national policies aimed specifically at the inclusion of the discriminated groups, via governmental actions meant to improve the economic and social cohesion in Romania, according to the Lisbon Agenda priorities.

Keywords: Strategy 2020, discriminated groups, social inclusion, social cohesion.

1 Introduction The right of all the citizens to equality in the eyes of the law and to protection against discrimination is

a fundamental and essential human right for the normal functioning of any democratic society and contributes to the economic and social progress by increasing social cohesion.

In order to guarantee that each Member State adapts the "Europe 2020" Strategy to its own situation, the European Union Commission proposes that these goals should be turned into national goals and trajectories, reflecting the present situation of each EU Member State and the level it may reach in this European effort of accomplishing three priorities reinforcing one another, namely:

intelligent growth, meant to develop an economy based on knowledge and innovation ; sustainable growth, meant to promote a more efficient, greener and more competitive

economy; a growth favouring social inclusion, meant to promote an economy with a high employment

rate, able to ensure social and territorial cohesion. The Joint Inclusion Memorandum (JIM) promotes social inclusion and fights against poverty in Europe,

aiming to support the development of a cohesive and inclusive society, to increase the population’s welfare by rapidly finding solutions to the serious problems of extreme poverty and social exclusion, in order to realize a functional balance between individual/group and the social environment. For Romania, a EU Member Country, the accentuation of the need to train qualified human resources able to support and to promote social inclusion has turned into objective functions of the social policies implementing measures meant to foster the social inclusion of the vulnerable groups in order to: prevent failure and school abandonment, give a second chance of tuition to adults and eliminate discrimination of gender, promote the integration in the social community, etc.


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2 Background As soon as the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force, employment has become a priority goal for the

European Community, in order to integrate on the labor market the people who, for different reasons, have no work place, and in order to assure equal chances of access on the labor market for all the citizens. The goals of social policy aim not just to promote employment, but also to improve work and labor conditions, to assure an adequate social protection, social dialogue, a development of the human resources allowing a high and sustainable level of employment and to support the fight against any form of marginalization and social exclusion.

According with the 2010 data study undertaken for the National Council for the Fight against Discrimination [1] in brought before the governors of our country the priority to “improving the Romanian social policy quality”, the most vulnerable groups of our country, prone to marginalization and hence to social exclusion are: sexual minorities, Roma people, people infected with HIV and people with disabilities [fig.1].

Fig. 1.Ratio of the people prone to marginalization in Romania

The data study indicates the fact that, according to the opinion of the population interviewed, the situation invoked most often for generating discrimination is related to the obtaining of a job [1]:

22% of the respondents who participated to the survey declared that they had been discriminated at least once, when they had tried to obtain a job;

13.4% were discriminated when they tried to access different public services; 8% stated that they felt discriminated when they tried to enter a shop, restaurant or public area. The “Discrimination concept” at the job interview and at the work place penetrated into the population’s

conscience and people shall talk more and more about discrimination, as far as equality on the labor market is concerned1, and the discrimination criteria, in case of activity restraint are, in this order: age, ethnic belonging (Roma people), and physical disabilities. Personal experiences concerning discrimination at the present work place and during the entire career refer to situations related to the respect of the rights agreed upon according to the contract, qualification, specialization and employment (47% of the employees who participated to the survey had problems related to the work program and over 36% had salary-related problems).

According to the information provided by the Urban and Regional Sociology Center (2010), 49% of the employees consider that discrimination is a common phenomenon on the market place in Romania and one out of ten employees declared that they witnessed at least one situation of discrimination at their present work place.

The targeting type of approach concerns the “groups vulnerable to social exclusion”, which include women, young people, women taking care of young children, elderly people, Roma population, people with mental or physical disabilities and people with a less pleasant aspect, homeless children, to whom financial resources are allotted to increase the adaptability of the labor force to the demands of the market and the active fight against social exclusion.

1 In Romania, according with the Law no.324/2006 citizens have the right to “exert their right to work and to freely choose their occupation, they have the right to equitable and satisfactory work conditions, to protection against unemployment, to equal salary for equal work and to an equitable and satisfactory remuneration”.


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3 A mainstreaming approach of the social policy focused to the social inclusion of the persons/groups discriminated in Romania

The development of the human capital and the increase of competitiveness on the Romanian labor market by assuring equality of chances for lifelong learning, and the development of a modern, flexible and inclusive labor market, until 2013, for the people of the groups considered discriminated mentioned among the target groups of the POSDRU program, determined the following priorities [2]:

The promotion of lifelong learning and the assurance of a high quality for the labor market through the development and implementation of reforms in education and professional training systems;

The development of a modern, flexible and inclusive labor market, allowing the young people of the vulnerable groups to have more chances of finding a job / getting sustainably integrated on this market and promoting the creation of work places;

The increase of the adaptability of the workers, enterprises and entrepreneurs; The promotion of an entrepreneurship spirit and culture; The improvement of the access to employment for women on the labor market, the decrease of

the discrimination based on gender; The increase of the social inclusion of the vulnerable categories. Based on strategies, programs, projects, measures implemented on a national level, the following are

considered converging strategic priorities: the education system redressing especially in the areas and for the social groups with very low

participation rates; investing in the development of the human resource through the implementation of continuing

education strategies, to increase the adaptability of the labor force; developing adequate institutional structures (including NGOs), to assure an efficient

management and consolidating the regional and local structures in order to elaborate policies aiming to reduce the regional imbalances of the labor market and leading to a higher degree of involvement of the economic and social partners in the elaboration of a policy supporting the employment.

The strategy of fight against social exclusion is joined by the reinforcement of the social service system, addressed mainly to the vulnerable people of the poorest areas of the country. This system will include as well the social infrastructure related to: aid in case of emergency, support for the elderly and for people with disabilities, health system and support given to orphans and abandoned children. In order to support the accomplishment of the commitments in the Common Memorandum of Social Inclusion signed by the Romanian Government with the European Union (June 2005), which aims to improve the living conditions and the social inclusion for some of the most disadvantaged categories of population in Romania, which include the Roma minority, the Social Inclusion Program for vulnerable groups2, included in the country partnership, implements four priority strategic action directions [2]:

1. Emergency interventions in the community infrastructure, including roads, water supply and sewerage system in underprivileged communities (including Roma communities), social services (education, health and social care) and technical assistance and training for the realization of these sub-projects. This component will be implemented by the Romanian Social Development Fund [3].

2. Early education and access to preschool education for children between 3 and 6 years of age, including children from disadvantaged groups (e.g. Roma minority), concomitantly with the rehabilitation, consolidation, extension of and supplying of furniture and teaching materials to a number of 70 kindergartens situated in disadvantaged areas, including some zones inhabited by Roma population. The program will be implemented by the Ministry of Education and Research and Innovation [2].

3. Social protection for disabled people, for young people over 18 leaving the institutionalized care centres and for victims of domestic violence. The project aims to rehabilitate the care facilities for people with disabilities, to create new institutions providing care services, to train personnel and to provide consulting for people with disabilities looking for a job. Similarly, it will establish a national network of integrated services for young people in risky situations and will support the services for the victims of domestic violence.

4. The development of the institutional capacity of the National Agency for the Roma (ANR) to evaluate and monitor projects related to the Roma minority needs [2].

2 Program financed by the loan contracted by the Romanian Government at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BIRD), worth 59 million euro (47million euro borrowed from BIRD and 12 million euro as a contribution from the Romanian budget).


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4 Conclusions Social inclusion by mainstreaming approach of Romania in point of social policy adopted for the

discriminated groups are aimed at: modernizing and improving social care, ensuring a secure income, ensuring the security of a

retirement income by creating sustainable pension systems and developing a health system based on performance;

promoting social inclusion, which aims to prevent and eradicate poverty and promote the participation of all the citizens in the economic and social life;

promoting gender equality by stimulating women's participation in the economic, scientific, social, political and civic life;

strengthening the fundamental rights and fighting against discrimination by ensuring the development and the respect of the basic social rights.

The multidimensional processes of social exclusion can be prevented, only, by social measures assuring the grouping of the social economy and economic measures, so as to attain common goals of the European Commission (1994) like:

promote a “friendly employment environment” for these groups; develop active labour market policies, including for the development of an efficient operation

of the Public Employment-related Services; establish an appropriate institutional framework; ensure the access of the ethnic minorities to jobs on the labour market; provide the "solidarity and social cohesion of all the citizens”

References [1] www.cncd.org.ro/files/Fenomenul%20%discirminari%202009.pdf accessed on 31.03.2012 [2] E. Zamfir, (2010), Gender perspective in the National Reform Programme for Employment,

available online http://www.revistacalitateavietii.ro/2010/CV-1-2-2010/07.pdf accessed on 31.03.2012

[3] S. Cace, S.M. Stănescu, (2013), Role of the Social Economy to Increase Social Inclusion, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 92, pp.119 – 120 available online www.sciencedirect.com accessed 02.12.2013


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Considerations Regarding the Ethno-Cultural Identity of the Aromanians in Dobrogea

Cozaru G.C.1, Papari A.C.2, Sandu M.L.3 1 Spitalul Clinic Județean de Urgență, Constanța (ROMÂNIA)

2 Universitatea “Andrei Șaguna” din Constanța (ROMÂNIA) 3 Universitatea “Andrei Șaguna” din Constanța (ROMÂNIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Representatives of the Eastern Romanity, the Aromanians are, together with the Megleno-

Romanians and the Istro-Romanians, the most vigorous branch of the southern Danubian Roman world, keeping alive the consciousness of their identity. The Aromanians have preserved and perpetuated a system of values by profound cultural techniques and practices with emblematic functions for the definition of their group specificity.

The purpose of this paper is the development of a comparative approach - the Aromanians in urban vs. rural areas, which aims to determine which aspects / traditions - after switching from the traditional rural culture to the cultivated and urban environment - have been reformulated, reactivated, ideologized, multiplied by mass communication means and thus retransmitted with tenfold force in the cultural space that generated them.

Keywords: Aromanians, identity, culture, traditions, urban, rural.

1 Aromanian cultural identity Within the Balkanic context of Aromanians cohabitation among other Balkan nations, the diffusion of

the Aromanian immaterial forms of culture in the patrimony and archives of the sovereign states within which their communities live is almost generalized [1]. The last half-century brought many fundamental changes to the land of Dobrogea and in the Aromanians way of life. Even if Aromanians in Dobrogea originate from different geographical areas that are parts of several national states, among them they affirm their solidarity and cultural and linguistic unity [1], [2]. The Romanians cohabitation with other ethnic groups (Ukrainians, Lipovans) even before the nineteenth and twentieth century, has caused - in Dobrogea area - similarities in the manifestation of facts and aspects of traditional life, but also the maintaining of differences that become distinct aspects, individualizing one or another ethnic group who lived and live at the same time in the same environment (natural and social) and the shaping of particular and unique socio-cultural forms of life compared to the rest of Dobrogea.[1] Thus, within the complex panorama of the Romanian popular art, the Aromanians folk creation represents an important segment, integrated into the plastic vision that defines our people, but marked by certain characteristics related to their places of origin.

The history, language, material and spiritual culture of the Aromanians constituted the subject of numerous studies and researches conducted over time by Romanian and foreign scientists. Many historians and linguists paid special attention to the research of Aromanian people, in order to satisfy the need of knowledge, certainty of the origin of this nation, to confirm the self-reliant identity of the Aromanians. Aromanians have always had an inclination toward culture, although pastoral occupations were predominant; regarding this fact Pericle Papahagi said: "Aromanians are not illiterate shepherds ... for you will not find a single one among them who does not know to read and write and to make the necessary reckonings" [3]. As N. Iorga wrote, Aromanians were considered "the great creators of culture in the Balkans" [4]. Also, the historian Neagu Djuvara [5] has a significant contribution to the knowledge and the promotion of Aromanians culture. From him we learn that the Aromanians are merchants from generation to generation; their fame reached to Vienna and Budapest, where they became bankers, such as the families Sina, Dumba, Darvari, Belu, and others. Lucian Hecto, too, writes about the origin of the Aromanian language in his book "The Romanian Aromanians from the south of the Danube", which states that it was formed as "a dialect of the old language of oriental Romania" from which were formed at least three other dialects: Macedo-Romanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian. Outstanding contributions also had St. Mihaileanu, Gh Murnu, O. Densusianu, Al. Phillippide, Tache and Pericle Papahagi, Theodor Burada, N. Saramandu, Chirata Iorgoveanu and many others. Following their studies, they concluded that the Aromanians, although still scattered in many parts of the Balkan Peninsula, kept their language, music,


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customs, physical and moral traits, not without some influence and transformation from the peoples among whom they live [6], [7]. However, they managed to maintain defining elements, due to living in more or less isolated communities.

About the occupations and traditions of Aromanians from past times we find out from Emilia Luchian's book, Aromanians: everywhere - anywhere" [8]: "... the South-Danubian Vlach was a transhumant shepherd. Was seen everywhere, descending from the mountains. In autumn, with his family, she flooded the valleys and the plains with flocks and herds. The pastoral life was conducted in the mysterious greatness of the Aromanian valleys and mountains, in the majestic solitude that inspires poetry. Even urban Aromanian life is still a veritable continuation of the ancient pastoral life: the same national clothing, the same respect for customs and traditions maintained with severity by patriarchal morals, the same work will, the wise savings, the same autochthonous cities, the sacred cult for nature's beauties, the same desire to have."

In 1927, N. Iorga [9], after a visit to Skopje, Yugoslavia, mentioned in his travel reviews: "In their homes there is order, peace, respect for traditions. The young girls bring sweets on the tray. Returning from the Serbian school, the children speak their ancestral idiom." The boys, after getting married, most often are not separated from their parents and live together, even if they are very numerous. Moreover, they are very prolific. Frequently, the Aromanian families, be they shepherds or merchants, have 4 to 6 children and boys are preferred.

Customs related to life cycle as birth, marriage or death reveal that the Aromanians have ancient practices, preserved by isolated and relatively closed groups. Birth, marriage and burial were, in traditional communities, events that marked the life rhythm of its members and at the same time an occasion to express the community solidarity [10].

Currently, the popular costume is rarely worn, especially by the elders, in those communities where the religious sentiment and the respect for traditions is strongly maintained [2], [10].

2 Methodology Our research aimed to identify customs and cultural traditions of the ethnic Aromanian population from

Dobrogea and to carry out a comparative study between urban and rural population, based on the hypothesis: It is assumed that cultural and environment identity are more pronounced in rural Aromanian

population compared to the urban population. The study is of descriptive-exploratory type, being conducted on a sample of 100 Aromanian subjects,

aged between 20 and 75 years, originated in equal proportions from urban areas (city of Constanta) and rural areas (Stejaru, Tulcea) with a gender ratio of 1: 1. In order to perform the research we used as instruments: the interview – with both opened and directed questions – that allowed the collection of anamnestic data and data with eco-mesologic content (related to marital status, professional training and employment), and a questionnaire for the identification of ethnocultural values (own construction) with 54 items: 31 closed questions, 11 open questions and 12 semiopen questions, to assess - family cycle: habits over the year, the traditional calendar, traditional occupations and community life, spirituality, the use of the Aromanian dialect.

3 Data analysis and interpretation of the results In the research related to the Aromanians we started by analyzing the bibliographic data, by direct,

unmediated observation of the ethno-cultural reality and psychosocial behavior and by conducting field investigations in the cities and villages with Aromanian population of Constanta and Tulcea. The present approach is based on the collection of demographic and ethno-cultural data, regarding the cultural traditions of Aromanian population, which were subsequently processed by means of the statistical program SPSS 19.0.

When asked "Do you feel integrated in the community where you live?", the results showed that for the Aromanians in rural areas the sense of belonging is more accentuated (87% vs. 42%); also, 75% of them considering that there is community cohesion, while only 36% of those in urban areas share the same opinion.


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Fig.1. Scores chart for the label

„How often do you use the Aromanian language?”

Regarding the use of the Aromanian dialect, the results showed that the Aromanians from the urban environment, aged between 20-40 years speak rarely / very rarely / never Aromanian, compared to those over 40, that speak Aromanian rather frequently and even daily (in both environments). Also, it was noted that urban youth do not use the native language even when talking with parents, while rural Aromanian youth use it even when talking to friends (see Fig.1). In relation to the identification of the member / family members who speak the traditional language, in about 50% of the rural families all members speak Aromanian, while in the families from urban environment, most commonly only the second and third generations use the language.

Regarding the compliance with traditions and the specific holidays, we analysed the way in which the attitudes and behavior of young people and families shape with respect to traditional culture, in the two areas. The sources from which they learned about holidays / traditions are in this order: family, school and friends; 45.4% of rural Aromanians state that they preserve the specific habits of their ethnicity, compared with 23.5% of the Aromanians in the urban areas. Up to 93.3% of the Aromanians in rural areas know the specific habits of their ethnicity, and only 33.3% of urban Aromanians. Also, according to the results, we could conclude that it appears that in urban areas Aromanians largely abandoned the old customs; in rural areas, most of the customs are followed strictly.

In rural areas, most marriages are endogamous, being made exclusively between members of the same community. A surprising fact was that, though not all participants in the study were forced by their parents to marry a person of the same branch, all respondents chose to marry a partner of the same origin.

Old Aromanian families were numerous, and the birth of a child was welcomed and occasion of great joy, especially if the first born was a boy, or, in general, the birth of a boy. The boy, at baptism, was given his father's name, while girls received their mother's name; if grandparents were dead, the children were to receive their names. The results obtained in the present study showed that in choosing the name of the newborn, the tradition is preserved in rural areas compared to those in urban areas where most commonly the name is chosen by the parents, followed by the godparents and grandparents.

In recent decades, the birth rate decreased in both environments, so that most respondents aged 20-40 years have a maximum of 3 brothers, while older people were raised in large families with 4, 5 and even 6 brothers.

Regarding the specific Aromanian habits, the majority of urban respondents have never heard or do not practice the custom of the "fates", while 48.7% of rural Aromanians said that they still keep this habit in their community. Another question that has caused amazement, especially among the youth, was related to whether they know how the "matchmaking" custom is called. The Aromanians from urban areas responded in relatively equal percentages I know / do not know, while in rural areas, 58.7% were able to answer this question.

The artistic and folklore tradition is maintained - in both areas of residence are known and listened specific Aromanian songs and folk dances are known. The specific genres of Aromanian folk music are the ballads, songs about popular outlaws, dancing songs, lyrical, epic-heroic, distinguished between them primarily due to the texts. A line of distinction is given by group singing, which is traditional and most often used by Aromanians. Also, the songs and dances are known by almost all respondents in rural areas and only by 60% of the Aromanians from urban areas. Of those who listen to Aromanian music, 47% say they do so on their own initiative, and the rest just listen at parties, weddings, etc. (so not on their own initiative); 19% listen daily and around 28% every week. In 73% of cases, the subjects do not know if their family have ever been to a popular Aromanian music festival and in 34% of cases they have never been to a festival or traditional art exhibition.


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Thus, we can state that it can be observed that Aromanian families do not have a very active attitude and behavior towards assuming symbols of traditional / popular art.

4 Conclusions The results showed significant differences in terms of preserving the traditions and customs between the

two residence environments, these being much more respected by Aromanians in rural areas. The Aromanians in rural areas behave much more in the direction of respecting traditions and customs, of preserving and transmitting them to future generations. Also, cultural symbols are invoked and displayed more frequently, and people relate to them when talking about themselves.

The village community world revolve around three essential elements, repeated in all speeches: work, religion and specific customs. An essential component of the traditional culture is religious behavior. Although modern elements entered in the two residence environments, both of these are characterized by a strong religiosity. However, we can state that at an individual level (especially the new generations), we find a certain detached attitude towards the rituals, for example, and there is a more pronounced negative image regarding the loss of religious holidays’s signification.

Although the investigated group is not statistically significant in order to extrapolate the results and only 42% of the subjects could be investigated on 2 or 3 generationsit may be established that the Aromanian people still keep the characteristics of a community with traditional features, but within a social context with elements of modernity– an option for small families and individualistic values (which increases with education and income level and decreases, obviously, with age). The economic progress, a wider social life framework, the entry of the modern and new in a traditional organization, are all factors that gradually impose the proximity to socio-cultural values of other members of the community, leading to a characteristic pattern throughout Dobrogea.

References [1] Ţîrcomnicu, E., (2004). Identitate Românească Sud-Dunăreană, Aromânii din Dobrogea. Ed.

Etnologică, Bucureşti [2] Papari A., coord., (2003). Perenitatea Vlahilor În Balcani, Ed. Fundației „Andrei Șaguna”,

Constanța [3] Papahagi Per., (1913). Aromânii din punct de vedere istoric-cultural, în România și popoarele

balcanice, Tipografia Românească, București, p.33 [4] Iorga N., (1967). Oameni care au fost, București, p. 297 [5] Djuvara N., coordon., (1996). Aromânii – istorie, limbă, destin, Ed. Fundației Culturale Române,

București [6] Cușa N., (1990). Macedoromânii pe văile istoriei, Ed. Europolis, Constanța [7] Papanace, Ctin., (1995). Geneza şi evoluţia conştiinţei naţionale la macedo-români, Ed.

Brumar, Timişoara [8] Luchian E., (2007). Aromânii: pretutindeni – nicăieri, Ed. Premier, Ploieşti, pg. 16; [9] Iorga N., (1927). În Serbia după război, București [10] Papari A.C., (2013). Aspecte identitare ale populației multietnice din Dobrogea, în contextul

globalizării – studiu antropologic pe populația aromână, Ed. Muzeului Național al Literaturii Române, București


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Collateral Consequences of Imprisonment on Offenders’ Lives. A Focus on Inmates’ Relationships with their Families

Damboeanu C.1 1 Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The paper presents the findings of an exploratory study conducted in Romania with the purpose of

investigating the influences that imprisonment exerts on offenders’ lives. As the title suggests, the focus is on identifying the consequences of incarceration on prisoners’ relationships with their life-partners and children. The importance of addressing this issue is indisputable, since extensive literature from abroad continues to draw attention to the strong correlation between the quality of inmates’ familial relationships during imprisonment and their future chances of social reintegration and desistance from crime. The study was based on qualitative research methodology. A group of 20 inmates held in Giurgiu Prison was interviewed using a semi-structured, in-depth interviewing technique. The paper concludes by discussing the future directions of research for this relevant topic.

Acknowledgement: The study is part of a research project financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-RU-PD-2012-3-0116.

Keywords: imprisonment, collateral consequences, prisoners’ family, Romania

1 Introduction Imprisonment is often seen – by policymakers as much as by the general public – as an efficient

strategy for crime prevention and control. Although this view has led to the increasing use of incarceration in Europe and worldwide, international academic literature has shown the argument to be weak, if not incorrect. Numerous studies conducted over the past three decades in the United States and Western Europe have revealed that imprisonment has not only failed to achieve its main purpose of deterring and/or rehabilitating offenders, but also has a wide range of negative collateral consequences that severely affect the lives of people experiencing detention [1].

Unfortunately, in Romanian criminological literature, the topic of imprisonment and its side effects remains largely unexplored. This proves to be a major deficiency, from a social as well as a scientific point of view. National data [2] reveals that, in the last 20 years, the proportion of reoffenders in the overall custodial population has increased by almost three times, from 14% in 1990 to 43% in 2003 and has remained stable at this high level until present, despite important legislative measures being implemented during this period [3]. Certainly, much remains to be known about how to improve correctional policies in Romania and a study that examines both the intended and unintended impact of incarceration may prove to be a relevant scientific basis for that.

Starting from this premise, a recent exploratory study was carried out precisely with the aim of investigating the influences of imprisonment on Romanian offenders’ lives. It is part of a larger post-doctoral research project, funded by the Ministry of Education and Research, whose main purpose is to identify the extent and nature of the prison impact on detainees’ lives, the aspects of life most likely to be affected by incarceration and the mechanisms that underlie the prison effects. The research focuses on four important spheres of prisoners’ lives: a) criminal activity; b) familial relationships; c) affiliation to conventional social networks; d) human capital and future opportunities for employment. This paper will discuss only one of these potential consequences of incarceration: the impact on the relationships of prisoners with their life-partners and children. It explores three main themes: a) the forms of maintaining family ties during imprisonment; b) the changes that have taken place in the prisoners’ relationships with their partners; and c) the changes that have taken place in the prisoners’ relationships with their children. The relevance of addressing these issues is indisputable, since extensive literature from abroad continues to draw attention to the strong correlation that exists between the


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prisoners’ relationships with their families and their future chances of social reintegration and desistance from crime [4].

2 Research methodology Considering that research on the collateral consequences of incarceration is largely absent in Romanian

literature, an exploratory study was conducted in July 2013. Its aim was to identify the key aspects of the topic that should be included in the main research. The study was based on a cross-sectional research design and employed a qualitative research methodology.

A group of 20 prisoners held in Giurgiu Prison, all men, were interviewed using a semi-structured, in-depth interviewing technique. All the interviews were tape-recorded, but only after the prisoners had given their written informed consent. The interview guide covered several themes centred on identifying how the lives of the inmates were shaped by the current and, if applicable, previous experiences of incarceration. One set of questions was specifically designed to elicit the prisoners’ assessments of the quality of their relationships with their partners and children, before and during current/previous prison terms. The average duration of the interviews was three hours.

Respondents were selected according to the period of time they had already spent in detention, as follows: long-serving prisoners, who had spent in prison more than five years of their current sentence (n=5), medium-serving prisoners, who had served between two and five years of their term (n=10) and short-serving prisoners, who had served less than two years of their sentence (n=5). This classification allowed us to examine whether the longer the prisoners had been in prison, the more (negative) effects of imprisonment have been shown. One additional selection criterion was the prisoners’ marital status. Only those who were married or in stable cohabitating relationships were recruited for the study. Due to certain security concerns and bureaucratic issues invoked by the prison responsible, the participants were not selected from the general prison population, but from a small group of inmates who were involved at that time in various educational programs or professional training courses.

2.1 Location Giurgiu Prison is located 65 km from Bucharest, in the Southern part of Romania. It is a new and

modern maximum security prison, which holds three main categories of inmates: a) those who, due to the length of their sentence, are classified to serve their term in maximum security and closed regime; b) those who are classified to serve their term in open and semi-open regime, but who are transferred to closed or maximum security regime for institutional misconduct; c) those who represent a high level of risk for prison security. Giurgiu Prison is one of the largest correctional facilities in Romania. At the time of the study it was the fourth largest prison by population of detainees, with over 1400 inmates.

2.2 Sample Description Most of the participants were young adults (the mean age of the interviewees was 34). None was

illiterate, however more than half (54.5%) had finished no more than secondary school. Over one-third had completed between nine and 12 years of school and only two respondents had obtained a university degree. With the exception of these two men, the remainder had had a poor employment history before their current incarceration. More than one-third (36.4%) were not employed. Those active in the labour market had worked in low-skilled jobs, in most cases illegally and for short periods of time. The majority were in cohabitating relationships; only a quarter were married. Almost two-thirds of the respondents (13 inmates) were parents; over half had only one child and nearly 75% had at least one child under 18.

For most of the inmates (15 respondents; 75%), the current prison term was at least the second custodial sentence they had received during their criminal career. The offences for which the inmates were serving their custodial sentence ranged from the most sever ones, such as: homicide, rape or robbery, to drug traffic, tax evasion, fraud and theft. All respondents had been convicted for long-term prison sentences, with the exception of one respondent who had been sentenced to three years of imprisonment for robbery but who had been transferred from a semi-open regime to a closed regime owing to his misbehaviour. The average length of the interviewees’ sentences was 11.4 years, while the average period of time already served was 3.68 years.


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3 Research Findings

3.1 Forms of Keeping Contact with Family According to Romanian penal law, prisoners held under a maximum security regime are entitled to two

visits per month and those under a closed regime to three visits per month. Still, most of the respondents admitted receiving visits from members of their families only once a month, once every two months or even less frequently. The main reasons cited for this low frequency were: partners’ work schedules and poor health; the separation devices preventing direct contact between the prisoners and family members during the visit; the distance and lack of transportation directly to the prison and the cost of travelling to the prison. However, most of the prisoners mentioned that they had decided to give up family visits after a simple, rational calculation, weighing up all the social and financial costs of visiting. They claimed to have reached the conclusion that they would rather have the money their families spent on travelling to the prison deposited into their personal accounts to be used for purchases from the prison store.

Neither letters nor calls via the prison telephones were considered by the respondents to be viable alternatives to visits. For example, although the prison administration allows them to use the phones for 20 minutes every day, the respondents mentioned that they rarely do this due to the high cost, timing problems and the lack of privacy when talking to their families, since their conversations can be overheard by all the other prisoners waiting in line to use the phone. The majority admitted relying instead on the illegal use of mobile phones, claiming that – via mobiles – they can talk at any time, even at night, for more than 20 minutes per day and not only with one family member; they can also send and receive photos and/or emails. It is worth mentioning that the illegal use of mobile phones in prison is not a specific practice of this group of respondents, but extends throughout the entire prison population. Data from the National Administration of Prisons showed that, in 2012, over 10,000 mobile phones were discovered in prisons; relative to the number of prisoners, this figure means one mobile phone for every three detainees [5].

3.2 Consequences of Incarceration on Prisoners’ Relationships with their Partners

The impact of imprisonment on inmates’ relationships with their life-partners was felt differently by two relatively equal subgroups of respondents. For some, incarceration had a damaging influence on those relationships, putting an end to them, while for others, it brought positive changes. At the time of the interview, almost half of the respondents who had been in a stable relationship prior to their current incarceration were separated from their spouses. Those most affected included both long-serving prisoners, who had already served more than 5 years in detention, and those who, although relatively newly imprisoned, were facing longer prison terms (over 20 years).

Asked when the separation occurred, some of the participants stated that their partners had left them immediately upon hearing of the sentence. For others, separation came at the same time with the respondents’ transfer to another prison outside the city of residence, as a result of a change of the detention regime or fictitious legal arrangements made for various reasons (e.g. to overcome boredom, meet new people, find better conditions of confinement, increase the chances of conditional release etc.). Some respondents, however, mentioned that it was they who had ended the relationships with their partners. Some claimed somehow altruistic reasons saying that they thought about their partners, the fact they were young and had to move on with their lives in their absence. Others invoked the partners’ infidelity as main reason of separation. Some of these respondents admitted that they realized that their spouses were unlikely to remain faithful to them during the entire period for which they would be in prison. For them, separation is just a coping strategy to prevent a potential emotional break-down which could prove devastating if they were to hear about their partner’s infidelity. Others argued that the infidelity of their spouses would be detrimental to their status among the inmates and liable to discredit and compromise them in the criminal entourages to which they belong.

The other half of the interviewees had managed to preserve their relationships with their partners. They argued that their imprisonment had had beneficial influences to the extent to which it had brought the couple even closer together and induced several positive changes in their partners’ personality. These respondents mentioned in this context that their spouses had become more mature, stronger people since their incarceration. Only two men complained that their relationships with their wives/concubines had deteriorated during their prison term due to numerous criticisms from their partners.

While for the respondents unaffected by separation, their spouses were the main source of emotional and financial support during imprisonment, parents fulfilled this role for the others. However, the majority of men included in both groups stated that they were aware that the economic situation at home was not without difficulties. They experienced feelings of helplessness and guilt for being a burden on their families and considered that after release they would be indebted to return the financial support they had received during incarceration; this was one of the reasons invoked when they talked about the resumption of criminal activities.


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3.3 Consequences of Incarceration on Prisoners’ Relationships with their Children

The data that emerged from the interviews showed that incarceration harmed the prisoners’ relationships with their children in only five of the 13 cases of respondents who mentioned their parenthood status. Again those who suffered most from separation from their children were those who had served more than five years, and those who, although relatively newly detained, had longer prison sentences ahead of them. For most of these interviewees, separation from the children came together with separation from the children’s mothers, a finding consistent with those reported in international literature [6]. For the majority, this unfortunate event had occurred during the current sentence, as their (former) partners refused to mediate any form of interaction (visits, phone calls, letters) between them and their children. These men further argued that their ex-spouses were trying to exclude them permanently from the children’s lives and claimed that the women described them to their children as mean, dangerous persons whom they should stay away from. However, for one participant, separation had taken place may years before, after his release from a previous sentence. The man admitted that he had preferred then to abandon all parental responsibilities and have no more involvement, financially or emotionally, in the raising of his children, in order to go about his criminal affairs. Only one detainee stated that he had deliberately chosen to cut ties with his adult son in order not to burden him with the task of (financially) supporting him during his sentence.

Those respondents still in contact with their children claimed that they had kept their imprisonment away from them in order not to affect their emotional wellbeing; this could also be a coping mechanism for not being able to enact central elements of contemporary fatherhood and the associated stigma and loss of status in being a prisoner [7]. They preferred to invoke various reasons to justify their absence from home: usually working or hospitalised abroad. The men who had told their offspring about their legal condition mentioned that they preferred the children to come to prison only when they were entitled to visit without a separation device. These prisoners expressed strong confidence that after release from prison they will easily renew their relationships with their children by the virtue of the paternal bond.

4 Concluding remarks In line with the international literature, this study found evidence of detrimental outcomes that

incarceration brings to the family relationships of prisoners who have served a long sentence. In addition another group seems to be severely affected by imprisonment: prisoners who have served little of a long prison sentence. However, as mentioned before, the results of this investigation will be addressed further in the main post-doctoral research study, which will be based on a mixed-methods approach. These negative impacts of imprisonment will then be combined with those affecting other aspects of life (e.g. affiliation to conventional social networks) in order to assess the whole range of negative influences that could undermine the (ex) prisoners’ resettlement process.

Other important issues were raised by this exploratory study, such as the heavy reliance of prisoners on mobile phones to maintain contact with their families and the harmful influence of transfers from one prison to another on family relationships. All of these aspects should be properly addressed by policymakers when developing correctional policies aimed at preventing the negative effects of incarceration.

References [1] Liebling A., S. Maruna (2005). The Effects of Imprisonment, Willan Publishing. [2] National Administration of Prisons (2011). Public Policy Document Regarding the Improvement

of Prison Conditions. Available at www.cpt.coe.int [3] Law 275/2006 regarding the execution of penalties and measures taken by the judicial bodies

during the criminal trial, published in the Official Monitor, Part I, no. 627/20.07.2006. [4] Hagan J., R. Dinovitzer (1999). Collateral Consequences of Imprisonment for Children,

Communities and Prisoners. In M. Tonry, J. Petersilia (eds.), Crime and Justice: A Review of Research 26, pp. 121-162.

[5] National Administration of Prisons (2013). Annual Report 2012. Available at www.anp.gov.ro [6] Shaw S. (1987). Children of Incarcerated Fathers, Hodder and Stoughton Education. [7] Clarke L., M. O’Brian, R.D. Day, H. Godwin, J. Connolly, J. Hemmings, T. van Lesson (2005).

Fathering Behind Bars in English Prisons: Imprisoned Fathers’ Identity and Contact with their Children. Fathering 3(3), pp. 221-241.


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Online News Production: Usability of Multimedia Content

Drulă G.1 1 Dr., Associate Professor, University of Bucharest, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This study is devoted to practices of reading and writing on news sites and on social media platforms. It

wants to show if the amount of voluminous information change the onscreen reading and writing. A research question is addressed to multimedia content that must be usable on news sites and also on social media platforms. Audience 2.0 has experiences and put in practices various practices with the multimedia content. This study takes the audience perspective and examines the patterns of usability and utility as writing and reading features of news media sites, and their Facebook pages, in Romanian virtual space. The study considers the method of content analysis of news online production for news sites and their Facebook pages.

Keywords: usability of multimedia content, online news production, news sites, social media platforms, audience 2.0.

Introduction This paper considers the relationship between three concepts: online news production, audience and usability. Usability is a term related to human-computer interaction used in audience’s studies. This is the particular aspect of this study. It is common to talk about audience and its relation to journalists or journalistic work, but in this paper, audience is related to the practices of writing and reading news sites and social media platforms, referring to the usability of multimedia content. Also, online news production is discussed, not in the relation to journalism and the production process, but in terms of the audience. In a broad sense, online news production refers to the processes, stages and actors that contribute to the creation, distribution and diffusion of information. News is addressed from the perspective of the usability of multimedia content that allows information to be sourced and considered by the online audience. The term ‘usability’ is not found very often in the specialized literature when referring to the audience. But this characteristic is absolutely necessary for online multimedia news because the online environment is very competitive. From this perspective, online content and news must meet both audience interest and the criteria for promotion on search engines. Usability is defined as the characteristics of multimedia content that make it as easily readable as possible. Thus, in relation to usability, we can talk about interactivity and participation, practices of writing and reading news on media sites and social media platforms. Usability also means ease of navigation. So, writing news for online purposes means making information easily navigable and easy to read. Writing for the Web means respecting the rules of usability and understanding how users read the news. In fact, users mostly scan titles, links and articles. Their reading practice with regard to news in online publications is not still linear. According to various studies on usability by the Stanford-Poynter Institute [1], Nielson [2] or Pearrow [3], users tend to read only about 75% of the text. Usability studies said that users scan the information, and screen reading is slower than the reading in print. Writing on news sites must meet the rules of usability that address both audience needs and those of search engines. But writing for social media is somewhat different to other types of writing regarding format, length, style, purpose and subject. Very often, much of the writing on social media or SEO and marketing, are similar. Combining both writing practices and reading practices on the Web as described above, we address the online news production from the point of view of the content usability with regard to the audience. Complementary to this, the online audience analysis shows the users’ profile, what information they need, and what tasks they must complete.


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The research objective is to determine the usability conditions for multimedia content both for news sites and also on social media platforms, in Romanian virtual space. Characteristics of usability mention various working practices with the multimedia content. This study takes the audience perspective and examines the patterns of usability and utility as writing and reading features of news.

1 Literature review The three concepts that are important for this study, audience, online news production and usability, are in a very strong relationship. Thus, the audience participate at online news production in terms of subjects and content. Online news production is addressed to an audience, and news must display the usability characteristics. Usability is the way in which information can reach and is consumed be the audience. Online news production is based on usability and is oriented to the audience/users. The role of the audience in online news production is defined in the context of interactive media and is related to user-generated content. Napoli [4] considers that the most important aspect in the relationship between the audience and online news production is the possibility for the user to distribute the content to media companies. Otherwise the enormous quantity of content would be useless. Due to user ‘intrusion’ with content in the production of information, the production process is practically never-ending. Users and also professionals can put together content and comment, and can have opinions. Data found in large volume and with diverse structure, puts new challenges to the audience and media companies when it comes to managing, editing and diffusing them. Data and information sent by them are very quickly created and arrive immediately with the audience. In this context, Castilhos Karam [5] believes that the informative and communicational processes must consider this distinctive aspect. He also shows that the technical production of journalistic product determines its quality. The technical aspect of production is considered as the ‘…theoretical and ethical culmination of journalistic practice’. Its renewal ensures the strengthening of journalistic principles and also the globalization of journalistic practices. Online information, since it tends to be segmented, permits us to visualize many and diverse aspects of social life, and also permits the users’ presence in the information production and diffusion process [5]. The role of user-generated content and other aspects of online news production are identified by Mitchelstein and Boczkowski [6]. They examine online news production in a number of articles published since 2009, considering five distinctive aspects: historical context and market environment, the process of innovation, alterations in journalistic practices, challenges to established professional dynamics, and the role of user-generated content. Their study shows that several subjects based on aspects of online news are important, and cause changes in journalistic practices: ‘… modifications in editorial workflow, alterations in news-gathering practices, acceleration of temporal patterns of content production, and the convergence of print, broadcast, and online operations’[6]. Regarding topics related to practices in online news production, the authors noticed several aspects: multiskilling, ‘de-reification of media options’, earlier media selection, greater speed of communication in journalistic work, and convergence. In their study, Mitchelstein and Boczkowski [6] found that user-generated content is managed finally by professional news workers on the media sites. Authors consider that journalists preserve the traditional role of the media as ‘gate-keepers’. They also found that the Internet has a changing role in terms of the relationship between journalists and their audience, in the sense that online news production becomes a collective and collaborative work. Online news production processes have changed as a result of the transformation of the information architecture. Web2.0 platforms bring about the possibility for the audience to become both producers and consumers of information. The evidence that multimedia news is accepted more easily by the audience, brings into discussion the two paradigms of multimedia news sites: convergence and divergence. From this perspective, Vobic [7] examines aspects of online multimedia news production, considers the format of news or economic models of adoption. Considering these new paradigms, the author defines multimedia in convergence as a combination of information offered in various forms. The multimedia in the divergence paradigm says that it guides news site content to the audience through various platforms. Thus, the audience can obtain content in many ways: social media platforms, mobile platforms, news feeds, etc. But for all these ways, it is necessary to present and to offer information in a ‘usable’ manner. The Web and its technological changes have imposed important new pressures on journalistic practices and on news production. Technological pressure has led to changes and also doubts in terms of news production such as the need to continuously update stories, publishing different versions of information for the audience, addressing online audience research, and introducing multiple ways of information navigation for different categories of audience according to their needs. All these aspects are treated by Anderson and Egglestone [8] who show that news production must be correlated to the audience, in order to keep them ‘on air’. News is sometimes classified or differentiated as being ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. The production processes could be influenced by this classification. Thus, Reinemann, Stanyer, Scherr and Legnante [9] refer to hard and


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soft news and to the criteria for differentiation. The criteria identified by these authors in various studies which give ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ news their classification is that one is based on the style of news presentation and the other is based on audience or effect-related characteristics. Following both criteria, hard news is factual, text-oriented and focused on such aspects as business or politics. In the same way, soft news is considered to be presented more visually. It is described as being for personal use, or entertainment news. These criteria and categories of news, also influence the processes of news production, and are linked to the usability of multimedia content. It can be seen that, according to this classification, multimedia content is more suitable for soft news and for personal use. The style of presentation is just a part of the usability concept. Thus, it can be seen that the relationship between news production and usability is identified in many aspects, even when it comes to classifying news. Thus, Reinemann, Stanyer, Scherr and Legnante [9] refer to usability of content in the context of online news production, as does the present study. Another aspect for online news production that is important is interactivity. Sherwood and Nicholson [10] explore the Web 2.0 platform for sports journalism, and focus on interactivity characteristics in the journalists’ work. Reviewing the specialized literature, the authors, quoting Davies and Hirst, found that in online news, ‘speed is more important than the fact-checking’. Starting with the ‘producer’ concept, Sherwood and Nicholson [10] suggest that traditional news work is changing according to audience needs, which are more transparent and clearly defined in an online environment. They also noticed the relationship with the public in producing sport news, and with user-generated content On the Web, news production needs to meet a lot of criteria, but all of them, as the literature review shows us, related to the concept of content usability. In fact, the degree of usability ensures the fulfilment of quality criteria for online media products. A product without usability will not reach the audience. As Nielsen [11] describes it, usability is a quality attribute. Usability and utility ensure that the news is useful for the audience. Thus, while utility refers to content features that must reach the audience, usability implies the way in which these features are accessed. It should be noticed that online news production is very close to other activities that are not specific to journalistic work. This paper considers this specificity within the news production process.

2 Methodological framework The paper analyzes the patterns of content usability. In Romanian virtual space, this influences the

characteristics for writing and reading the news on media sites and on Facebook pages. The method that we have made use of is content analysis with regard to online news. As unit of analysis we will make use of Facebook pages and also the homepages of the most important general news sites according to audience indicators given by sati.ro, an Internet audience site. The corpus of the study consists of two television channels (antena3.ro, realitatea.net), three online publications (adevarul.ro, gandul.info and evz.ro) and one online news portal (hotnews.ro). This study started from the evidence that, in March 2013, on the Facebook pages of these news sites it was found that, on realitatea.net, antena3.ro, evz.ro, gandul.info, all posts had links to news on their sites. Also, users made comments, shares and likes on these Facebook pages. Meanwhile, on the Facebook pages of adevarul.ro (69 users posts) and hotnews.ro (72 users posts), users published both various stories, items of news, and also comments, likes and shares on the news that was published on the sites. The period of analysis is the week sampling during one month, June 2013. The coding scheme refers to patterns of usability that address the writing and reading features of news media sites and their Facebook pages. Usability through writing features considered in the coding scheme are subjects written by the users on Facebook pages and news sites; the frequency of writing pieces of news by the media company and by the users; the length of news items written by the professionals and users; the format of the written news (text, video, photo, link); the presentation and navigational characteristics for each format of the news. Reading features considering in the coding scheme are evidence of reading news by marking them with likes, shares, or comments; the frequency of reading items of news. These features are also linked to features of interactivity and participation. As a limitation of this study, the absence of time in the coding scheme might be a weakness. It could be necessary to develop a questionnaire to address questions related to time in the coding scheme, such as reading time and period of time involved.

3 Findings and conclusions Regarding writing features that ensure the usability of news, it can be seen that texts that introduce news items on Facebook pages, either written by professionals or by users, tend to be short in length, with an average of 20 – 40 words. However, the textual posts provided by users on Facebook pages (adevarul.ro or hotnews.ro) are longer, with an average of 50 – 60 words. The length of written text given on news sites varies from page to page. Thus, on the Facebook page of realitatea.net, the average length is 5-6 words plus a link. On the


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adevarul.ro and evz.ro Facebook pages, the average length of text is 20 words and links, and at hotnews.ro it is around 15 words and links. On the adevarul.ro Facebook page, users tend to write posts of more than 40 words with attached photos and links. Many of them write in capitals. From the perspective of text length, it can be seen that users are not preoccupied with usability. Rather, they are devoted to their subjects. The presentation aspect for each format of news, in all analyzed cases, is accomplished. For instance, the dimensions of photos in all posts are around 500 * 400 pixels (big format), or 149 * 100 pixels (small format). Texts are written with fonts and corps that meet the criteria of usability because Facebook platform requires writing with these usability characteristics. Subjects provided by journalists and found on Facebook pages, are the same as the articles on the homepage of the news sites. Users enter their interest-related topics or repeat topics from news sites. All news sites permit their users to post ideas and opinions, with the exception of evz.ro, where users prefer more to comment on this page. Generally, Facebook pages collect only a few comments, likes and share from users, and no news. All posts on the Facebook pages of news sites have a very short descriptive text, and a link to the article. The number of comments varies from page to page, but their length tends to be around of 25 – 30 words on average. Usability is accomplished in terms of the texts with a specified format (font, size and colour). The format of written news is a combination of text, photos and links, for all analyzed cases. Videos are very rarely used. Regarding reading practices and usability, as measured by the number of likes, shares, and comments, it can be seen that we have many differences within the analyzed cases. Thus, on the Facebook page of realitatea.net, it was found that there were an average of 7 ‘like’ on posts and 4 comments per post, while on the antena3.ro Facebook page, more than 300 ‘like’ and comments were found, with more than 40 words on average. At adevarul.ro Facebook page, the comments were also very consistent in terms of length (more than 40 words on average); on the evz.ro Facebook page, there were an average of 5-6 ‘likes’ per post, and 3-4 comments per post with an average of 20 words. On the hotnews.ro Facebook page, comments tended to have more than 40 words length on average, and an average of 12 per post while ‘Like’ counts averaged 20 per post. The general conclusion of this study is that online news production is influenced by the usability of multimedia content, as it is defined by the features of writing and reading news on Facebook pages and news sites. As the literature review shows, users are part of the process, and the process of news production is changing. But the role of this study is to define the specificity of the content involved in this process. As particular conclusions in the cases studied, it was noticed that news coming from users is dependent on the topics covered. The frequency of news posted is very small. Usability is not important for users in that they write long texts and in an inappropriate way in terms of presentation. Professionals (news sites) write short items of news, with a good deal of multimedia information and links. They are preoccupied with having readers react to their content, either through comments, or either through ‘share’ and ‘like’. Usability for the news production process is assured by the writing platforms who implement reduced possibilities of information presentation, and thus the conditions of usability are achieved without any problems.

References [1] Poynter Institute. Eyetracking the news. A study of print&online reading. Retrieved from

http://www.poynter.org/extra/Eyetrack/previous.html. [2] Nielsen, J. (2000). Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis.

New Riders. [3] Pearrow, M. (2007). Web usability handbook. Boston, MA. Charles River Media, 2nd edition. [4] Napoli, P. M. (2010). Revisiting 'mass communication' and the 'work' of the audience in the new

media environment. Media Culture Society. 32(3): 505–516. DOI: 10.1177/0163443710361658. [5] Castilhos Karam, F.J. (2009). Journalism in the age of the information society, technological

convergence, and editorial segmentation: Preliminary observations. Journalism 10(1). 109-125. DOI: 10.1177/1464884908098323.

[6] Mitchelstein, E. & Boczkowski, P. J. (2009). Between tradition and change: A review of recent research on online news production. Journalism 10(5). 562-586. DOI: 10.1177/1464884909106533.

[7] Vobic, I.(2011). Online multimedia news in print media: A lack of vision in Slovenia. Journalism 12(8). 946–962. DOI: 10.1177/1464884911398339.

[8] Anderson, P.J. & Egglestone, P. (2012). The development of effective quality measures relevant to the future practice of BBC news journalism online. Journalism 13(7). 923–941. DOI: 10.1177/1464884912457533.

[9] Reinemann, C., Stanyer, J., Scherr, S. & Legnante, G. (2012). Hard and soft news: A review of concepts, operationalizations and keyfindings. Journalism 13(2). 221–239. DOI: 10.1177/1464884911427803.


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[10] Sherwood, M. & Nicholson, M. (2012). Web 2.0 platforms and the work of newspaper sport journalists. Journalism 1–18. DOI: 10.1177/1464884912458662.

[11] Nielsen J. (January 4, 2012). Usability 101: Introduction to Usability. Retrieved from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/.


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Dishonest Testimony - Assessment and Prevention

Dutu A.1 1 Ecological University of Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The problematic of bad-faith testimony has made this the subject of study for a number of researchers in

various fields of science. In the present study, we have approached the institution of false testimony from an interdisciplinary perspective, picking concepts from the fields of psychology, law and criminalistics. The psychological aspects encountered in researching bad-faith witness are of a great variety, being determined both by the diversity of cases, as well as by the multitude of levels pertaining to the personality and behaviour of those involved.

Keywords: Forensic testimony, witness, forensic psychology, bad-faith.

1 Preliminaries This study aims to help identify bad-faith witnesses and diagnose false testimony, and to examine the

psychological facts of good faith, the guarantees and legal means for identifying dishonest witnesses and the criteria for testing the veracity of forensic testimony. The fidelity of the witness’ deposition, with respect to that person's confidence in his or her own memories, post-event reconstruction, the effects of outside suggestions, false memories created by repeated interrogations and the role of emotional factors in forgetfulness represent the thrust of our analysis.

2 The concept of testimony Testimony is an oral statement made by a person before a court of law, regarding litigious acts or deeds

committed in the past of which he or she has personal knowledge. By defining testimony from the forensic psychology perspective, we may say that it is the result of a

process of observation and involuntary memorisation of a forensic fact, followed by its replication in oral form before the courts of law [1].

Testimony, or testimonial evidence, represents one of the oldest means of probation and it is among the most used within a forensic trial.

Witnesses are strangers to the trial who report conclusive facts or circumstances before a court towards solving a case of which they have personal knowledge [2].

The account given by this person is called a witness statement or witness deposition. The witness statement represents a form of evidence [3].

Witnesses have been given various names, among which the most significant is that mentioned by J. Bentham, who considered them the "eyes and ears of justice" [4]. Regarding testimony, various conclusions have been reached, for example: "evidence may be precise and at the same time completely false" and "fully faithful testimony is the exception, not the rule" [5].

In our Criminal Procedure Code [republished in 1997, subsequently amended by Law No. 28/2012 (published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, No. 189, 22 March 2012)], the witness is "a person who has knowledge of any act or fact likely to serve truth revealing in a criminal trial" (Article 78). From the analysis of the aforementioned text it follows that, in order to have the quality of a witness, a criminal trial must be conducted, the person must know data regarding the criminal act (facts or circumstances), this data must serve to reveal the truth and the person must be called before the forensic authority to report the facts that he or she has knowledge of [6].


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3 Psychological problematic of bad-faith testimony Bad-faith testimony is a testimony which, although made under oath, is untrue, arising from the bad

faith of the witness and thus falling under criminal law. Article 260, paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code (republished in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I,

No. 65, 16 April 1997, subsequently amended), specifies: "the deed of a witness which, in a criminal, civil, disciplinary or any other case in which witnesses are heard, make false statements or do not tell everything that he or she knows regarding critical circumstances over which he or she was asked shall be punished by imprisonment of one to five years.

(2) The deed provided in the preceding paragraph shall not be punished if the witness withdraws testimony, in criminal cases before the defendant's arrest occurs or in all cases before a judgment or another solution is given due to false testimony.

(3) If withdrawal of testimony in criminal cases occurred after the defendant's arrest took place or in all the cases when a judgment or another solution was given due to false testimony, the court shall reduce the punishment.

(4) The provisions of paragraphs (1) - (3) shall also apply accordingly to the expert or to the interpreter”.

The data supplied by the specialised literature sensed the complexity of the phenomenon and the necessity of encouraging certain interdisciplinary activities, in order to analyse the multiple problems manifested on both the individual and social levels, but they have conferred priority to specific factors of the field concerned. Thus, we are witnessing an issue which refers essentially to the same phenomenon: the use of different terminology, often confusing, which results from a gradation, a specific reflection in a given field of observation and research or in some stage of evolution of the problematic under examination; terms that overlap only partially, as they have been elaborated based on different criteria of characterisation.

Although the views of psychologists, legal experts and criminologists concerned in this field are divided, psychological methods, criminalistics tactical methods and so on have been created to combat bad-faith testimony.

However, we find ourselves in a field in which it is difficult to delimit error from lies and fidelity from honesty and in which insincere statements produce significant repercussions on truth-finding in a forensic approach, concluded by criminal liability.

The dishonest nature of a witness statement can be analysed from three perspectives [7]. A first approach would be the subjective one, which claims that false testimony exists whenever the

subject says anything other than what he or she thinks. Thus, a relationship is established between one's subjective perception of events and the way in which that person recounts what he or she has seen.

Another approach, namely the objective one, suggests as a guide for the assessment of the untrue testimony the difference between the physical reality and the one recounted by the witness. Typically, this approach is found in the law courts’ solutions. From this perspective, if a witness recounts something that happened although he did not perceive the reported events in this manner, his deed does not constitute an untrue statement from the objective point of view but is a violation of the legal obligation to be honest. His lack of honesty does not mean a perversion of the possibilities of finding the truth.

Finally, the last approach emphasises the normative dimension of the witness' obligation to be honest. In this hypothesis, the way in which the witness has fulfilled his or her obligation to moral probity is analysed.

Starting with these approaches, we can attempt to identify the main reasons for a testimony that is not in accordance with reality.

The cases where good-faith witnesses’ testimonies are not entirely in accordance with reality are almost impossible to identify in practice in courts of law, since the judge is forced to eliminate witness statements that are not corroborated by the other evidences provided in the case, without having to state that the witness was in bad faith. A reference is made in the judgment considerations about this finding, without producing other juridical consequences.

We have identified certain case studies from legal practice under the category "the history of great trials" which are relevant to the research into good-faith witness depositions. At the same time, however, these cases studies reveal major miscarriages of justice, which, unfortunately, still happen nowadays due to dishonest testimonies influenced by feelings of fear and terror. Witnesses may be induced by pressure or threats exerted against them or against their families, in order to obtain depositions with the desired content; there is a multitude of objective and subjective factors which, in one way or another, may have an influence on the testimony.

A legal error in the Ţundrea case occurred in the Romanian courts. Marcel Ţundrea was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1992 for the murder and rape of a girl aged 14, Mioara Gherasie. The victim lived in the Pojogeni village, in Gorj County, and was a neighbor of Marcel Ţundrea's parents. The girl was raped and then murdered by thrusting several stones into her oesophagus.

At that time, Ţundrea's guilt was established based on the statements made by an old woman from the village, Elena Negrea. It was claimed that the statement of this witness represented the main prosecution


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evidence, but the forensic authority did not notice or refused to pay attention to the fact that the statements made by Elena Negrea were, at times, contradictory.

It is certain, however, that a DNA analysis report made in 2004 proved the innocence of the convicted person who, by that time, had served twelve years in prison. Ţundrea Ilie Marcel's conviction for the murder of Gherasie Mioara on 16 June 1992 is the biggest miscarriage of justice in the history of Romanian justice.

There is also another well-known miscarriage of justice, the Vişan case, comparable to that of the famous Ţundrea case, in which Viorica Vişan was convicted for murder in 1995 for killing her mother-in-law.

The only evidence came from relatives (with whom she was at odds) and a neighbour who stated that the daughter-in-law was often seen arguing with her mother-in-law.

During the investigation, the statements of several relatives were taken into account, which were subsequently determined to have been made whilst they were handcuffed and forced, and the statement of the accused was made while she was constrained and under threaten of having her children, including a seven-year old girl, arrested: she "confessed" to a crime she did not commit and was then sent to court and sentenced without evidence.

No other evidence was provided, such as biological traces on the body (which was buried near her house in the same yard) and DNA tests, and no reconstruction was carried out.

Subsequently, it turned out, based on confession, that the old lady was murdered by her nephew, the son of her unjustly convicted daughter-in-law.

4 Criteria for verifying the authenticity of a suspected bad-faith testimony From the very beginning, it is necessary to emphasise that these criteria have a certain degree of

relativity. However, they require attention, in order to fulfil the forensic authorities’ obligation to verify testimonies that might have arisen dishonestly and suspicions of non-fidelity [8].

Criteria for verifying the authenticity of a suspected bad-faith testimony are: the source of testimony; the position of the witness in relation to the parties of the trial; their social, moral, psychological and temperamental characteristics; the concern that the witness manifests towards probation issues and good faith in evaluating the witness.

5 Strategies and attitudes towards identifying and combatting a bad-faith witness

The reasons leading to the adoption of a bad-faith attitude and therefore to giving false testimony can vary and, depending on these, the investigator will have to adopt a certain position in order to prevent this from occurring or to cause the witness to abandon such an attitude [9].

Witness credibility is established by examining the way in which that person lives, being a social product that reflects a certain social reality. In assessing the testimony, the environment must be taken into account, as it provides the legal authorities with valuable information on the probability of partiality or impartiality on behalf of the witness [10].

Thus, the witness might declare the truth because he or she knows it; he or she might not tell the truth because he or she does not know it; he or she can lie in order to help the person concerned or to disadvantage a litigant or he or she can lie in order not to reveal him or herself, and so on.

The bad-faith attitude of the witness is usually revealed at a later time in the hearing, following the confrontation of his or her deposition with other existing evidence. In this case, the forensic authority should adopt a specific attitude, namely the same as that used in the investigation of the defendant, as the psychology of the false witness is similar to that of the defendant.

If there are grounds to consider that the witness' statement has been given in bad-faith because of contradictions or inaccuracies in content, its disclosure is not recommended. It must be recorded precisely and kept safe until the best psychological moment for exposing this dishonest position can be found, for which skilful questions about circumstances of details may be addressed, such as identifying accessories to the fact, actions and people that are in a specific relationship with the crime committed or to its perpetrator.

We can add to this the procedure of listening repeatedly to witnesses at various time intervals, whilst watching the completion of initial statements. It is possible to obtain new information by this process, which presents the possibility of generating comprehensive and accurate depositions, as a result of creating a state of disturbance. By using this process, the facts in witnesses' memories are ordered so that, from the first deposition, a witness comes to replace the memories of what he or she actually perceived.

The tendency to compare subsequent depositions with the initial one can also be justified by the psychological factor, namely, the witness’ fear of being considered in bad faith if subsequent depositions include new elements not disclosed on the occasion of the first hearing, or elements which do not tally with those already reported. This phenomenon is called "persistence in error" [11], according to which the witness, being in a state


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of uncertainty, chooses one of the possible alternatives and tends to maintain this in his or her deposition, even if it may be incorrect or false. Such an attitude is found in bad-faith witnesses where a lengthy deposition is accompanied by a long memory effort of learning the statement "by heart."

The thrust of forensic psychology is directed towards detecting weak points, where errors may occur more easily and where additional instrumentation is necessary, by extra testimonial means and by appropriate forensic and psychological research.

6 Conclusions Most importantly, we should keep in mind the fact that the memory of a witness is of crucial importance

to the way in which a trial is concluded; however, no one can objectively assess whether or not the witness remembers correctly, provided that there are no alternative objective accounts of the event that is being testified to. The main causes of false testimony in a witness statement under analysis are:

- the existence of pressures and threats to the witness in order to obtain a deposition with the desired content;

- the fear of negative consequences on the trial procedure, namely the fear of justice and of a potential conviction;

- family relationships and emotional ties.

Bibliography [1] Stancu, E. (2010). Treatise on Criminalistics, Fifth Edition, Universul Juridic Publishing House,

Bucharest, p. 412. [2] Leş, I. (2008). Civil Procedure Law Treatise, Fourth Edition, C.H. Beck Publishing House,

Bucharest, p. 532. [3] Tăbârcă, M. (2008). Civil Procedure Law, Vol. I, Second Edition, Universul Juridic Publishing

House, Bucharest, p. 561. [4] Bentham, J. (1823). Traitè des preuves judiciares, Vol. I, Bossage Prères Publishing House,

Paris, p. 93. [5] Butoi, T. (2011). Forensic Psychology. University Treatise – Theory and Practice, Solaris Print

Publishing House, Bucharest, p. 92. [6] Buneci, P. (2008). Criminal Procedure Law - an Overview, University Publishing House,

Bucharest, p. 262. [7] Bogdan, S. (2007). Short considerations on some offenses about achievement of justice, in

„Studia Iurisprudentia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai”, No. 2, p. 78. [8] Mitrofan, N., Zdrenghea V., Butoi, T. (1992). Forensic Psychology, Şansa-SRL Publishing

House and Press, Bucharest, p.139. [9] Ciopraga, A. (1996). Treatise on Criminalistic Tactics, Gama Publishing House, Iaşi, p. 225. [10] Ciopraga, A. (1979). The Evaluation of Testimonial Evidence in A Criminal Trial, Junimea

Publishing House, Iaşi, p. 188. [11] Bogdan, T., Sântea, I. (2010). Forensic Psychology,Themis Cart Publishing House, Bucharest,

p. 256.


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Ethnic and Confessional Metamorphoses in Habsburg Transylvania

Floroaia M.1 1 Ph. D., "Spiru Haret" Technological Highschool, Piatra-Neamţ (ROMANIA) [email protected], Phone: 004-0751212811.

Abstract The metamorphoses of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional space in Transylvania during the XVII-

XIX centuries led to the creation, definition, evolution of, and inter-relationship among, ethnic and religious groups. These can be studied, analysed and researched from the historical, religious, geographical, socio-cultural and psychological point of view.

The analysis of ethnic and religious identity in Habsburg Transylvania is a new way of approaching this topic within the cultural, ecclesiastical and religious history of our people.

The objectives of the present study (identifying the features of ethnicities, studying the existing inter-ethnic and religious relationships, analysing multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Transylvanian space between the 17th and the 19th centuries) were accomplished using the following methods: analytical and critical study of sources (documents, manuscripts, inscriptions), historical analysis, sociological and psychological method, consulting an extensive specialized bibliography, study of the specialized press of the time, study of existing documents in the Archives in Cluj, Sibiu, Mures, Brasov, Alba.

The research aims at some directions less exploited by historians, theologians and sociologists so far: the spiritual, cultural and identity preparation of the faithful, socio-cultural development, inter-faith relationships, collective mentalities, religious confessional literature, and the place occupied by the Transylvanian denominational churches in defining a specific identity. We will also take into account aspects of mass education of the faithful but also those contributing to the intellectual formation of the elites.

The elucidation of these matters is of great topical interest for the new European context, aiming at undertaking an objective analysis of the phenomena caused by the socio-economic, cultural, spiritual, juridical and demographic evolution and transformations of our time. Taking into account the socio-temporal, geographical, cultural and religious space analyzed in the present research and the complexity of the topics approached, we consider that such a study will provide some answers to new questions and issues of the current European context.

Keywords: identity, religions, Transylvania, conceptions, multi-confessional

Introduction The departure point of this study is the absence of large specialty works providing an objective

presentation of ethnic identity and inter-confessional relationships on Habsburg Transylvania territory. The works and studies we consulted that directly or tangentially tackled topics such as ethnic, cultural and national problems, were either general presentations of these issues or monographs of restricted geographical and temporal spaces, respectively. Through the proposed theme, we wish to identify and analyse the socio-demographic, cultural and spiritual metamorphoses in Habsburg period Transylvania.

The study of ethnic and religious Habsburg period in Transylvania is a path that will lead us to the explanation of the socio-demographic transformations that took place on this territory.

The metamorphoses of multi-ethnic and multi-confessional space between the 17th and 19th centuries Transylvania lead to the composition, definition, evolution, and interrelation of ethnic and religious confessions. These can be studied, analysed and researched both from a historical and religious, as well as political, geographical, socio-cultural and psychological point of view. The analysis of the socio-demographic, cultural and religious transformations taking place across Transylvania in the above-mentioned period has, as a starting point, the study of ethnic and religious identity in Transylvania's Habsburg period. In order to reach this goal, we proposed to meet the following objectives: to identify the specific features ethnic populations / nationalities living in Transylvania during the period mentioned; the study of existing inter-ethnic relations; the analysis of inter-confessional (religious) relationships; the analysis of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Transylvanian


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space in the historical period analysed and the identification of the factors leading to the appearance of inter-ethnic and inter-confessional conflicts.

This research follows the genesis, internal mode of operation and to the metamorphoses ethnic minorities (Romanian, Hungarian, German, Jewish, Russian, Serbian, Croat, Gypsy, etc.) and denominations (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, Jewish, etc.) went through in Habsburg Transylvania, as well as long-term consequences on Romanians as an Orthodox majority. The need to formulate a coherent identifying discourse, in the context of the epoch, meant to promote ecclesiastical traditions, inter-faith relationships among Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics and Protestants will be a red thread of the socio-cultural approach of the proposed theme.

1 Historical background Although 1660 marks the integration of Transylvania into the Habsburg Empire, a rather long period

(until 1867 and 1918, respectively), we chose to write about the period between 1815-1918, aiming at the analysis of the main historic events: the 1848 Revolution, the status of minorities in Transylvania after the Imperial Constitution in 1849, the Union of Principalities, the year 1853 when the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was founded, the period of liberalism, the year 1867 when Transylvania fell under Hungarian dualism, etc.

If revolutionary and national unification movements in the mid-19th century did not yield the expected results, and the Diet of Cluj in 1848 decided the incorporation of Transylvania into the Hungarian Kingdom, later creating the Austro-Hungarian dual state (1867), when Transylvania lost its autonomy, which meant an important consolidation of Hungarian domination, the Romanian cultural forces set up the “Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and Culture of the Romanian People” (ASTRA) in 1861 and, in 1890, the “League for Cultural Unity of all Romanians” (Cultural League) was founded in order to militate for the Romanians’ social, cultural and spiritual independence.

2 Ethnic and confessional pluralism Based on the points raised, we conducted an interdisciplinary study where we combined components of

historical, theological, psychological, pedagogical, literary and artistic studies, respectively. We also sought to develop a perspective open to events both prior to the proposed period under research and contemporary ones coming from various religious backgrounds. Thus, we conducted an overall research on historical, cultural, confessional, complex religious problems during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Topics such as confessional pluralism and identity discourse, great personalities of the main faiths in Transylvania, the development of religious education and inter-faith cooperation of the intellectual elite are some of the issues related to religious identity in the period studied. These will be treated interdependently with the ethnic identity in Transylvania around the 1848 Revolution and with the national status of minorities in Habsburg Transylvania.

The role of large collections and libraries in Habsburg Transylvania is an aspect insufficiently treated and the study of religious concepts alien to the religion accepted by the majority in the Habsburg Empire is a new topic relative to the psychological, social and cultural approach.

Considering the socio-temporal, geographical, cultural and religious space analysed in here, as well as the complexity of the issues dealt with, we believe that such a study will provide some answers to new questions and issues of the present European context.

The clarification of these topics in the context of the epoch is relevant and topical to the new European context, in order to achieve an objective analysis of phenomena caused by the evolution and socio-economic, cultural, spiritual, legal and demographic transformations of the period.

We must bear in mind the territories occupied by the Turks were in urgent need of Catholic missionaries’ activities. In Hungarian Christian communities under Turkish influence, the Catholic community was favoured by the Ottoman elite. Thus, there was a very good collaboration between Orthodox clergy and Turkish authorities in Balkans. [1] The Hungarian Kingdom was a Christian country governed by a Catholic sovereign. For this reason, the De Propaganda Fide Congregation acted in Transylvania and Hungary, areas which were under Turkish influence. The first mission of the Congregation began in October 1629, when the Italian Franciscan Vincenzo Pinieri da Montefiascone arrived in the County of Zemplén, which belonged to Prince Gabriel Bethlen. [2] On 15 November 1629, Gabriel Bethlen died and the County returned under the Habsburg and Hungarian jurisdiction. In 1632, due to illness, Pinieri returned in Italy and the Congregation sent other Italian Franciscans in Upper Hungary. Their activity in these areas was very intense, whence we infer the Franciscans played a very important part in the mission to convert the population to Catholicism [3].

The Romanians, who continued to be excluded from the political life reserved to the “three Nations” only, were not part of 17th century Transylvanian society. They had retained their Orthodox faith and traditional


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way of life, distinguishing them the other ethnic groups and contributing in this way to the creation of a multicultural image in Transylvania. [4]

Between 1691 and 1848, a so-called Transylvanian Principality period, Transylvania was part of the Hungarian Crown, which might seem a little bizarre for some researchers. The Banat region included villages of German Catholics, Romanian and Serbian Orthodox. [5: p.8] Between 1697 and 1700, owing to the Hungarian Jesuits’ initiative, a part of Romanian Orthodox clergy in Transylvania accepted their adherence to the Church of Rome (United Church). The Orthodox reorganized in the second half of the 18th century, while some of them migrated into Moldavia.

Around the 1848 Revolution, Fenyes Elek, in the Kingdom’s Statistics, mentioned: 55,000 noblemen, which represented 5% of the total population, and of the nearly half a million citizens, 85% were Hungarians, 11% were Slavs and 4% were Germans and Romanians. [6: p. 261] The Hungarian social and political Revolution in March 1848 turned into a war of independence.

After the defeat of the Hungarian independent regime in august 1849, Transylvania’s status was identical to the one between 1691 and 1848. Public functions were running into an Austrian, Hungarian, locally German speaking and Romanian framework.

With regard to rural areas, the Census in the 17th century renders the image of a split Transylvanian rural world, i.e., the village centre, where the wealthy lived, and the peripheral area, where the poor people’s houses were. [4: p.329] Practically, in this period, we witness the effects of reconstruction that changed the old image of the Middle Ages. However, there were differences from one place to another, from one village to another. For example, in the Făgăraş area, the number of people who could not earn their living ranged between 5 and 67. [4: p.319] In the first half of the 17th century, we can talk about a new aspect of the Transylvanian village community. By mid-17th century, rural houses were made of more durable materials, had several rooms and were surrounded by gardens (promenade areas), where roses could be found; these flowers, specific to nobility, were an indication of some welfare level.

3 The reforms of Maria Theresa In the legal, financial, military and political fields, the reforms of Maria Theresa influenced, naturally,

the territory of Transylvania. In 1745, she set up the High Court of Cassation and the reforms conducted between 1748 and 1749, Friedrich Wilhelm Haugwitz’s work created the true modern era.[7: pp. 18-20] Of all the reforms, the most important were those relating to education, considered the “heart” of the other reforms. Maria Theresa considered education a political matter, which was not subordinated to the Church and conducted by the State with staff trained for that purpose. In 1746, Maria Theresa asked the Jesuits to install an academy at Vienna’s Favoriten Castle, where the aristocratic young women were to be trained for public and diplomatic offices. The academy, called Theresianum, opened in 1797 under the leadership of the Piarists. [7: pp. 21-22] A few years later, in 1751, Maria Theresa founded the Military Academy for the officers’ training.

In 1755, Maria Theresa signed an Ordinance that banned all the suspicious practices, including witchcraft. The decision was caused by the fact that, in the same year, a group of priests in Moravia had been outraged at the burning of some bodies unearthed, as they were believed to have been vampires. Maria Theresa’s decision was followed by an even harsher decree, passed in 1766, against those who partake with witches. [8: pp.336-337]

After 1760, Maria Theresa has deprived the Jesuits of their intellectual monopoly and censorship of books, privilege that was to be given to the State by means of an aulic council called Studien-und Bücher-Zensur-Hofcommission. [7: p. 23] After 1773, when the Jesuit order was dissolved, the state could control also universities.

Between 1780 and 1790, the process of the emancipation of the Romanians in Transylvania reached its peak. Those transformations were part of the overall development of the Romanian society: administration, religion, education, justice, economy, etc.

Through the reunification with Hungary in 1867, which established the two-tier system of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Transylvania ceased to have unity in the political administration. Its departments became political-territorial units coordinated from the centre. This brought a turn in organizing the State: Romanian intellectuals (professors, doctors, priests, lawyers, etc.) would protest in Parliament against the newly adopted measures. The schools and social establishments of the minorities were managed by the Church and local authorities. The State intervened only in terms of public financing. Cultural foundations and associations developed owing to donations and contributions of the minority ethnic groups. Press in Romanian was financed and controlled by foundations and by some parties. [5: p.13]

In 1880, 266 state-run schools created besides the 1,669 primary schools in the rural area and 13.772 confessional schools. [9: p.29] Private schools were free to choose whether they applied the curricula of the public education. Those schools that did apply the curricula approved by the ministry conducted their activity in adequate locations, with qualified staff who attended training programmes, their regulations were similar to


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those in the State school, they granted certificates of completion recognised by the state. [9: p. 29-30] The Catholic Bishopric of Alba Iulia was supporting 189 primary schools, 10 lower secondary schools, 8 higher secondary schools, 2 commercial high schools and 2 teaching high schools. In all these schools, the teaching language was Hungarian. The Bishop of Timişoara was financing 2 high schools with German as a teaching language, one high school with Hungarian as a teaching language, 2 teaching high-schools with German as a teaching language, 4 schools with Hungarian as a teaching language, and 85 primary schools (61 in German, 17 in Hungarian and 6 in Slavic).[9: p.31]

Conclusions The study of the ideological conceptions about ethnicity, nation, people, religious confession needs new

approaches from the perspective of the current issues of the great European family so that it may provide solutions to meet the requirements of the contemporary society. The analysis of the shift in the value system during the Habsburg Transylvania explains some of the long-term consequences of the many ethnic groups living together.

The Franciscans sent by the Congregatia De Propaganda Fide in Hungary and Transylvania played a significant role in the converting many of the locals to Catholicism. After 1760 (when Maria Teresa deprived the Jesuits of their intellectual monopoly and the censorship of books) and 1773 (when the Jesuit order was dissolved), the state could control schools and universities.

Acknowledgements:

The study of the face is part of the Postdoctoral Research Project: POSDRU/89/1.5/S/60189, titled Postdoctoral programs for sustainable development in a knowledge society „Babeş-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

References [1] Steven Runciman, (1968). The Great Church in captivity, Cambridge, p. 165-226. [2] Tóth, István-György, (1998). Les missionaires Franciscains venus de l’étranger en Hongrie au

XVIIe siècle, în XVIIe siècle, (50), pp. 219-231. [3] Hermann Tüchle (édit.), (1962). Acta SC de Propaganda Fide Germaniam spectantia. Die

Prothokolle der Propagandakongregation zu deutschen Angelegenheiten. 1622-1649, Padeborn, p. 1-17.

[4] Béla, Köpeczi (coord.), (1989). Histoire de la Transylvanie, trad. Michel Soignet, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó Publishing House.

[5] Buza, Kristóf, (1998). La condition sociale des hongrois devenus sujets de l’Etat roumain en 1920. Analyse de discours, mémoire de fin d’études présenté en vue de l’obtention du titre de Licencié en Sociologie, Louvain-la-Neuve: Université Catholique de Louvain Publishing House.

[6] Barany, George, (1969). From aristocratic to proletarian nationalism, în P. Sugar şi I. Leder, Nationalism in Eastern Europe, Washington: Univ. Of Washington Press Publishing House.

[7] Pasteur, Paul, (2011). Histoire de l’Autriche. De l’empire multinational à la nation autrichienne XVIIIe - XXe siècles, Paris: Armand Colin Publishing House.

[8] De Villermont, le Comte, (1895). Marie-Thérèse (1717-1780), tome premier, Paris: Desclée, de Brouwer et Cie Publishing House.

[9] Transylvanus, (1935). Les Minorités ethniques de la Transylvanie, Paris: Les Presses Universitaire de France Publishing House.


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Tradition and Reform in the Romanian Inheritance Law, within the European Context

Gelei I.1 1 PhD Candidate, member of Doctoral Law School Council, School of Law, University of Bucharest, (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The present paper is focused on the questions of continuity and transformation (classic and modern),

with reference to the Romanian inheritance law, within the European context and will explore them from a theoretical and jurisprudential point of view. The overall aim of the study consists in the identification of positive and negative aspects and in identifying certain juridical solutions.

Keywords: continuity, transformation, Romanian inheritance laws, Human Rights

1 Introduction

In law science and practice, tradition means a classical approach to things, continuity, while the modern one focuses more on reform and modification. These are not necessarily in an antagonistic relationship, but, in such terms, in complementary positions.

2 Tradition in the Romanian inheritance law

The origin of the Romanian succession law is from the Latin law, as is the case with the entire Romanian civil law. There were subsequent modifications and innovations, except for some legal institutions which remained unchanged, such as ”principles (...) of universal ab intestate succession, those of legacies” [1]. Caragea Law and Callimach Code, albeit medieval legislative acts, constituted pre-modern tests of codification which preceded Civil Code from 26th of November 1864, entered into force on 1st of December 1865, named also Civil Code Alexandru Ioan Cuza and Former Civil Code. The model of this Civil Code was the French Civil Code from 30 Ventose year XII (21st of March 1804), named The Civil Code of the French people, then the Napoleonic Civil Code, which marked the beginning of the Romanian modern civil law. An important modification in the succession field of the Civil Code was realized by Law no. 3581 in 1921, concerning progressive taxation on successions and then by Law no. 319 on 10th of June 1944 concerning succession rights of survivor consort, also named Decree-Law. The Civil Code from 2009 – Law no. 287 from 2009 concerning Civil Code, was amended and is applied according to Law nr. 71 from 2011 concerning implementation of Law no. 287 from 2009 and amended by Law no. 60 in 2012 for approval of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 79 from 2011 concerning necessary provisions of law no. 287 from 2009.

Succession unworthiness institution, derived from the Latin law, is retrieved in the Calimach Code, then in the Civil Code from 1864 and Civil Code from 2009. Heir orders were taken over in medieval law and then in modern law, from Novellae Nos. 110, 118 and 127 – new laws issued by Latin Emperor Justinianus in Antiquity: descendants grade, ascendants grade, grade of ascendants in competition with primary brothers and sisters and their children and grade of other collaterals. These remain unchanged, having been taken over from Novellae by Former Civil Code and now by New Civil Code. The rule according to which Infans conceptus pro nato habetur quotiens de commodis eius agitur is emanated from the Latin law and it exists even now in succession matters, being stipulated by art. 36 from the New Civil Code. Succession representation institution, created in Novella No.118, is encountered continuously in Calimach Code, Caragea Law and Civil Code from 1864, as well as in Civil Code from 2009.

Within the succession option field, the principle according to which nobody can be obligated to accept an inheritance and become an heir stipulated by Calimach Code and Caragea Law, was kept in modern law, too. Acceptance under benefit of inventory, regulated by Calimach Code, was maintained in Former Civil Code and, according to The New Civil Code, it remained the single variant of inheritance acceptance. Seisin, created by legal advisors in pre-modern period, as a reaction against financial rights of seniors, was regulated in Civil Code


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from 1864. Return institution, derived from the Latin law, was maintained in medieval law and taken over from the Latin law in modern law. Portions of inheritance laws, which had to regulate certain aspects of the heirs institution which did not initially exist, were created by legal advisors, in the Latin law. It was regulated by medieval legislative acts: Ipsilanti Code, Caragea Law and Calimach Code, being assumed by Former Civil Code and New Civil Code. Appointment of heir in succession to another was created in the Latin law, persisted in medieval law too, in Calimach Code and then in modern law, in Former Civil Code and subsequently in New Civil Code.

3 Reform in the Romanian inheritance law The New Civil Code has, as models in succession matters, the French Civil Code and Civil Code of

Québec, with European influences, too. According to art. 91 from Law no.71/2011, inheritances opened before the date of entry into force of New Civil Code are subjects to Former Civil Code and Law no. 319/1944, while those opened after this date, to Civil Code from 2009. Substantial law is regulated by law which comes into force on the date of inheritance opening, but material law is regulated by new law.

Art. 954 stipulates the one-tier system in succession, opening an applicable law field, instead of two-tier system, which had been initiated by Law No. 105/1992 concerning regulation of international private law relations. In case of decedent with unknown last domicile, or abroad last domicile, this is the Romanian law. The same law is applied to decedent with last domicile in Romania, under the rules, obligations and conditions established by this legal text, as results from the systematic interpretation of paragraphs (2) and (3) of this article.

Within the unworthiness field, inspired by art. 726-729-1 from The French Civil Code and art. 620-623 from Civil Code of Québec, the legislator from 2009 institutes two kinds of unworthiness: legal and judicial, in art. 958 and 959, in contradistinction to The Former Code. The latter regulated only legal unworthiness. Legal unworthiness is also named by some authors in the literature of the field “absolute unworthiness” [2]. The meaning or scope of unworthiness is increased to testamentary succession and it is not limited to ab intestate succession only, as in the former regulations. It is a good solution, which allows the punishment of crimes committed by people in order to obtain an inheritance.

The unification of provisions of law concerning legal heirs and their survival in the New Civil Code, by absorption of provisions of Former Civil Code and Law no. 319/1944 is very important. The entire succession matter is thereby encompassed in a unique legislative act. In the representation field, art. 965 and 967 stipulate the unworthy’s representation. In contradistinction to former regulations, the unworthy descendants may come to inherit de cujus against which their ascendant was unworthy, by representation, in their quality of representatives. The condition of the place of the represented person’s place utility was eliminated from the conditions of representation. The legislator abolished an injustice according to which the descendants of the unworthy person had been punished for the facts they had not perpetrated. Their ascendant committed it. It is a critical response to previous provisions of law made by the doctrine.

In simulation matters, disguised in for valuable consideration acts or within which purchasers are intermediary, the sanctions are by relative nullity, not by absolute nullity. The presumed interposed person’s scope is enlarged with ordinary ascendants of incapability, while interposer presumption is relative, not absolute, according to art. 992, different from the former law. The substitutions of heir interdiction abridgement is important too, these being commonly prohibited and permitted by way of exception only if they are framed in cases stipulated by the law. By systematic interpretation of art. 993, 994 and 996 it results that only unique (simple) substitutions of heir are allowed. But the gradual and the timeless (perpetual) ones are not allowed. This solution is the same as the one found in the French law, which allows only gradual liberalities of first degree. That is the equivalent of unique substitution of heir from the Romanian law. Legislators’ sources of inspiration in 2009 are art. 1048-1056 from the French Civil Code.

In the portion of inheritance that must devolve upon the heirs institution matter, they define it directly in art.1086, as a part of goods from the inheritance to which heirs who cannot be totally disinherited have the right, even against de cujus willpower expressed by liberalities or disinheritances. They realized unification of fix quota from reserve quantum and the calculation of the mode of reserve, establishing for each reserve heir, at half from his quota which was taken in lack of liberalities and disinheritances, as legal successor. Art. 1091 establishes another order for the operations of fixing succession reserve and available quota, taken over from doctrines and case-laws and applied in practice. This consists in the following: the assessment of brute assets of an estate, by calculation of goods value from succession patrimony on the date of succession opening, assessment of net assets, by deduction of liabilities of the respective estate and fictional reunion to net assets of gifts done by de cujus. Art. 1091 enlarges the area of application of gratuity presumption concerning acts of alienation for valuable consideration with reserve of right of usufruct, right of use, right of habitation or instead of benefit or life annuity, consented by de cujus and his reserve successors. It modifies the area of application concerning purchasers, by adding survival spouse, but eliminating ordinary ascendants.


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In the field of succession option, art. 1102 stipulates, as a novelty, multiple titles to inheritance, acknowledging for the entitled to succeed who has more titles to inheritance a different survivance. The legatee has also this right, except for situations in which he is the reserve successor too and in which it results from the will that the decedent wanted to decrease the quota reserved for the legal successor, but provided succession reserve. Art. 1112 establishes the presumption of renunciation concerning assumption of the quality of the entitled to succeed, as abstainer of the succession, even if he knew the succession’s opening and his quality of entitled to succeed, being before cited, did not accept the inheritance. From this legal text results that the presumption is relative and it can be overturned by rebuttal.

Codification of certificate of succession in art.1132-1134 is a new one, too. The qualification of this certificate as title to property is important and it provides the quality of legal or testamentary heir and property right concerning succession goods. Thus it proves “quality of heir and quality of owner” [3] of succession goods. In the allotment field, the provision concerning constitutive effect of act of division which is subject to Civil Code from 2009, different from former law, according to which it had a declarative effect, is important. In return of gifts matter, personal character of obligation to return, according to art. 1149, which establishes the rule according to which the successor is obligated to return the gifts received personally from a de cujus donor, is new, too. The descendents of the donee, who are coming to inherit by his representation, are obligated to return the gifts received by this one from de cujus. The donee’s descendants, who are coming to inherit in their own name, are not obligated to return the gifts received by this one from de cujus.

4 The evolution of the Romanian inheritance law within the European context The European context of Romanian inheritance law’s evolution is expressed on two levels: the

legislative one and the jurisprudential one. The New Code “is enrolling in a rich tradition of codification and will trace the pace of Romanian civil law in the future” [4].

Regulation (EC) on Jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of European Certificate of Succession No. 650/2012 of European Parliament and European Council, was adopted in Strasbourg, on 4th of July 2012 and will enter into force on 17th of August 2015, except art. 77 and 78, which will enter into force on 16th of January 2014 and art. 79, 80 and 81 which have been applied since the 5th of July 2012. This has a mandatory character and is applied directly in member States, according to treaties, including Romania. The contact factor for establishing the competent court and applicable law to cross-border successions is the habitual place of residence of the deceased. The choice of the appropriate succession law by the citizen of one member state, different from the habitual residence place law, is allowed, but this one may be only the law of the state which he is the citizen of, that means the national law. This is the principle of controlled autonomy. The creation of European certificate of succession is very important. Its aim is the unification of legislation and practice on the European Union level. European certificate of succession will produce the same effects in all member States and will have evidentiary effects, not enforceable power. These provisions allow persons free circulation, but at the same time aim at ensuring security of civil circuit. “Historically, fundamental rights have been a Community law doctrine” [5].

In the case of Velcea and Mazăre versus Romania, by Judgement from 1st of December 2009, European Court of Human Rights reviewed violations of art.8 from European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Court considered the interpretation by national courts of rules from Former Civil Code concerning succession unworthiness “too restrictive” [6]. The courts decided there was no incidence of rules concerning unworthiness, because of death of person who killed the decedent, by his suicide, before his condemnation by an irrevocable judgement for crime. According to art. 655 from Former Civil Code, first case of unworthiness was one in which the convicted killed or attempted to kill de cujus. Interpretation by doctrine and jurisprudence of this legal text was restrictive indeed. We consider that a unique solution was an extensive interpretation of the legal text, which allowed unworthiness declaration by a civil irrevocable judgement. The reasons are based on justice and morality. New Civil Code, in art.959 paragraph (4) stipulates the possibility of unworthiness declaration in case of perpetrator’s death, amnesty and criminal responsibility prescription, by a civil court’s irrevocable judgement. Succession field “is (...) connected to family life [7].The European human rights protection system represents “a complete edifice” [8]. It is also “the most sophisticated” [9] one. Its aim is “assurance necessity of respect of human rights stipulated by Convention”[10].

5 Conclusions and lege ferenda suggestions Romanian ”Civil Code from 2009”[11] represents a progress in the matters that regard the problem of

succession. Although there are amendments which are necessary, our lege ferenda suggestions are twofold. Concerning art. 1035, with regard to the content of the will, this article must be completed: it is possible

to include in the contents of the will a clause about children’s recognition, which is the unique mortis causa


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disposal which produces effects starting from the closure date of the will. Other mortis causa disposals are effective from the date of the testator’s death. The aim of this suggestion is to correlate this article with art. 416 of the New Civil Code concerning forms of child recognition stipulated by the will, as a form of child recognition.

Concerning the marginal denomination of art.1036 Mutual will, this must be applied to joined will, because the legal text regulates the condition of the form of separate acts in testamentary matter and it is about two wills by two different testators, who dispose one in favour of the other or both of them in favour of a third person. A will which does not fulfil this condition is not valid. The aim of this suggestion is to correlate the marginal denomination of the article to its contents and to point out this marginal denomination of the article.

References [1] Nacu, C. (1898).Comparison between Romanian Civil Code and Napoleon Code. Bookshop

Leon Alcalay Publishing House, p.16. [2] Mrejeru, Th., Enache, M., Mrejeru, B. (2012). Reform of Romanian Justice. Universitaria

Publishing House, p.82. [3] Baias, F.-A., Chelaru, E., Constantinovici, R., Macovei, I. et all (2012). New Civil Code,

Comments on articles, Reviewed Edition until 1st of October 2012, according to legislative changes and speciality literature, C.H.Beck Publishing House, pp.1179-1180.

[4] Duţu, M. (2013). New Romanian Civil Code: Recoding, Reform, Legal Progress. Conferences of Institute of Legal Research of Romanian Academy. Legal Universe Publishing House, p.57.

[5] Chalmers, D., Monti, G. (2009). European Union Law, Text and Materials, Updated Supplement. Cambridge University Press, p.71.

[6] Călin, D., Vasiescu, M., Militaru, I., Militaru, S., Ţăndărescu, B., Lăcătuşu, R., Coţovanu, P.-A., Lăncrănjan, A., Ramaşcanu, B., Zaharia, L., Cârciumaru, L. (2010). ECHR Judgements in Cases versus Romania, 1994-2009. Analysis, Consequences, Potentially Responsible Authorities. Tome IV. Universitaria Publishing House, p.1708.

[7] Bîrsan, C. (2010). European Convention on Human Rights Comments on articles. C.H.Beck Publishing House, p.670.

[8] Chevallier, J. (2012). Rule of Law. Legal Universe Publishing House, Universitaria Publishing House, p.107.

[9] Montgomery, J., W., (2004). Christian Book Publishing House, p.38. [10] Bîrsan, C. (2013). Concerning unilateral statement of state-part and its effects in European

Court of Human Rights case law. Legal Universe Publishing House, p.28. [11] Rizoiu, R., Lupaşcu, D., Florescu, G., Florescu, E., V., Popescu. A., (2013). Annotated New

Civil Code. Second Updated Edition (20th of March 2013). Rosetti International Publishing House, p.22.


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A Few Critical Considerations Regarding Legacy by Universal Title

Genoiu I.1 1 “Valahia” University of Târgovişte, Faculty of Law and Social Political Sciences (ROMÂNIA) [email protected]

Summary According to the Civil Code currently in force, the main testamentary provision benefits from an

adequate definition, which succeeds, among other things, to delimit legacy from will. Yet, when it comes to the legacy by universal title, the Civil Code no longer provides flawless regulations, as it contains a contradiction among its texts. Consequently, the present work aims to analyze the notion of legacy and the issues related to the legacy by universal title, so as to point out the aspects which can be subject to criticism.

Keywords: legacy, will, legal universality, universality de facto.

1. The notion of legacy and the criteria for classifying it According to the provisions of article 986 of the Civil Code, “Legacy is the testamentary provision by

means of which the testator provides for one or several legatees to acquire, upon his death, a part or his entire patrimony, a portion of it or certain established assets”.

In our opinion, the Civil Code in force provides an adequate definition to legacy. We mention this, as in the 1864 Civil Code, at article 887, legacy (which represents only a testamentary provision) was overlapping with will. Thus, it was mentioned that: “Provisions can be made by means of a will for the whole or a portion of somebody’s patrimony, for one or several determined objects”. In fact, the former Civil Code was regulating legacy and not will on that occasion, while in reality legacy represents only one of the testamentary provisions, the most encountered one, true, and therefore the main one. Yet, legal literature, after acknowledging the issue mentioned above, defined legacy in a specific accurate way. Therefore, according to specialized literature before October 1st 2011, legacy represented the testamentary provision by means of which the testator nominated one or several persons who, upon his death, were to acquire by free title his whole patrimony, a portion of it or certain established assets [1]. In consequence, the current Civil Code in force takes over, at its article 986, the former and correct definition within legal literature.

The Civil Code in force does not reiterate the confusion made by the former Civil Code when defining legacy (although a certain discussion can be raised also by the way in which the current Civil Code defines will) and, moreover, is clearly stating at article 1035, named “The content of the will”, that legacy is only one (but the main one) of the last will act provisions and mentions also, as example, other provisions which a will can contain [2]. According to the provisions of article 1054 of the Civil Code, legacies can be classified on the basis of 2 criteria: their object and the ways they affect testator’s will. On the basis of the first criterion, there are: universal legacies, legacies by universal title and legacies by particular title. According to the second criterion, legacies can be: pure and simple legacies, legacies by term, conditioned legacies and legacies with impositions.

The present work will continue on analyzing the issues related to the legacy by universal title, one of the types of legacies classified according to their object.

2. Legacy by universal title The analysis will start from the definition provided by the 1864 Civil Code to legacy by universal title.

Thus, according to the provisions of article 894 of the normative act mentioned above, the object of legacy by universal title “… can be a portion of the inheritance, such as half, a third or all the immovable and movable assets, or a portion from the immovable or movable assets”. Consequently, according to the provisions of the former Civil Code, were considered legacies by universal title the following:

a) legacy of a portion from the inheritance, such as legacy of a half, third, and so on from the inheritance;

b) legacy of all immovable assets;


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c) legacy of all movable assets; d) legacy of a fraction of all immovable assets; e) legacy of a fraction of all movable assets According to specialized literature [1], the legacy of all immovable or movable assets and, respectively,

the legacy of a fraction of all immovable and movable assets were legacies by universal title, only on the reason that they were described like this by the provisions of article 894 of the Civil Code. In the absence of this legal qualification, the legacy having as object all the immovable and movable assets of the deceased, or a portion of all the immovable and movable assets of the deceased, would have been a genuine legacy by particular title, as were determined the assets concerned by the liberality in question. Consequently, the legatee of all the immovable and movable assets or of a portion of all the immovable and movable assets, by being a legatee by universal title, was bound to the debts and impositions of the inheritance within the limits of the share received from it. Legal literature considered that it operated the legal qualification mentioned above, only if it concerned all the immovable and movable assets or a portion of them. But if the share concerned something else (such as half of the movable assets from the apartment owned in locality “X”), legacy was by particular title.

Given that the legal list mentioned above evinced a limitative character, it resulted that all the others legacies, which were not by universal title, were legacies by particular title (single legacies, according to the former Civil Code). Yet, according to the provisions of the 1864 Civil Code, was considered legacy by universal title the legacy made by the person under age, between 16 and 18 years old, upon his entire fortune [3].

Nevertheless, according to the provisions of article 1056 paragraph (1) of the Civil Code, “A legacy by universal title is the testamentary provision which provides to one or several persons vocation to one portion from the inheritance”. The expression “portion from the inheritance” refers, according to the provisions of article 1056 paragraph (2) of the Civil Code, to the following:

- either to the property on a share from the inheritance; - either to a property prerogative upon the whole or a share from the inheritance; - or to the property or a property prerogative upon the whole or a share from the universality of the

assets determined according to their nature or origin. Consequently, it can be noticed that the current Civil Code sheds light upon the legal nature of the

legacy having as object a property prerogative upon the whole or a share from the inheritance, by inserting it in the categories of legacies by universal title.

The legacy having as object the property or a property prerogative upon the whole or a share from the universality of the assets determined according to their nature or origin is, according to law, a legacy by universal title too. It seems that it can be encountered here, at least in part, the equivalent of the provision from the former Civil Code, according to which is a legacy by universal title that legacy having as object all the movable or immovable assets of the deceased or a portion of the movable or immovable assets from the inheritance. Consequently, the opinion expressed within legal literature before the current Civil Code entered in force, that all the movable and immovable assets of the deceased can concern only a legacy by particular title, as they do not represent a universality and lack liabilities, was not accepted by the lawmaker.

Given the provisions contained by the Civil Code mentioned above, it must be pointed out what means the “universality of assets determined according to their nature or origin”. It is obvious that this concept is different from that of “universality of assets” (legal universality), indicating the totality of rights which compose a patrimony (subject to modification, either by expansion or restriction) and which include all the movable and immovable assets, corporal and not corporal, belonging to a testator at the moment of his death [4]. Consequently, legal universality comprises both the existence of assets and liabilities. Therefore, the universal legatee is liable for hereditary liabilities in a proportional way.

“The universality of assets determined according to their nature or origin” represents a universality de facto which, unlike the legal one, does not involve the existence of liabilities. But the essence of the legacy by universal title is the fact that the beneficiary of the liberality in question bears the liabilities of the inheritance within the limits of the share received. How could these two aspects be then reconciled?

According to their nature, assets can be movable or immovable [5]. It would thus emerge that the totality of movable assets or, according to the case, the totality of the immovable assets of the deceased can be qualified as the universality of assets of de cuius, determined according to their nature, and that it can concern the object of a legacy by universal title.

Recent specialized literature [6] considers that the term “universality” must be understood in a broader way, to concern also the “universality de facto”, therefore not only the legacy of the property upon a share from a share, but also the legacy of all (or of a share of) movable and immovable assets from the inheritance, and even the legacy of all (or of a share of) movable and immovable assets of an inheritance in a certain location.

In order to perform an analysis as complete as possible, it must also be taken into account the text of article 541 of the Civil Code, named “Universality de facto”, according to which “(1) Universality de facto is represented by all the assets belonging to the same person and having a common destination established by the


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will of that person or by law. (2) The assets composing universality de facto can, together or separately, be the object of some acts or distinct legal relations”.

Specialized literature [7] offers as examples of universality de facto the books reunited in a library, art or numismatic collections, herds, commerce fund and so on and extracts from the legal text quoted above the following conditions of universality de facto:

- the assets reunited to belong to the same person; - all of theses assets must have a common destination, determined by the will of the person or by law. Moreover, it is considered that “universalities de facto must be composed of movable assets” [8].

Taking into account this consideration, it would mean that immovable assets cannot be concerned by universalities by fact and that all (or a share of) hereditary immovable assets could not constitute a legacy by universal title.

Continuing our analysis, we ask ourselves the following question: if we consider an additional criterion for the universality of assets (other than the nature of assets and their origin, considered by law), such as all (or half and so on) of the movable assets of the deceased from the apartment owned in place “X” or all (half, and so on) the immovable assets of the deceased from the country “Y”, would that legacy still be by universal title?. Since an additional element to particularize assets interferes here, namely the place where they are situated, wouldn’t perhaps be more just to qualify that legacy as a legacy by particular title? As pointed out before, the lawmaker refers at article 1056 paragraph (2) letter c) of the Civil Code to the criteria regarding the nature and origin of assets. But in the example provided above, the second individualization criterion regards the place where assets are situated and, together with it, assets are individualized in an additional way in our opinion and could constitute the object of a legacy by particular title.

Comparing the text of article 1056 paragraph (2) letter c) of the Civil Code in force with that of article 894 of the 1864 Civil Code, which seem to have the same finality overall, that of considering that the totality of movable or immovable assets of the deceased can constitute the object of a legacy by universal title, we consider that the second legal text mentioned above has been more judiciously drafted. This statement continues to be valid only if the current lawmaker intended to determine, by means of the expression “universality of assets determined according to their nature or origin” the totality of movable or immovable assets of the deceased. And it seems that this exactly what the lawmaker wanted to consider. Consequently, we ask ourselves whether it wouldn’t have been more appropriate for the current Civil Code to have preserved the expression used by the former Civil Code.

According to recent doctrine [6], the “origin” of assets should imply, for instance, that those assets are part of the category of assets belonging to the deceased (those acquired by him with this legal regime before marriage or during marriage, in other words other than those resulting from the liquidation of all assets) or which come from an opened inheritance, not liquidated.

In relation to the opinion mentioned above, can be invoked the provisions of article 1114 paragraph (3) letter b) of the Civil Code, according to which the legatee by particular title “…is by exception…accountable for the liabilities of the inheritance, but only in what concerns the asset or the assets constituting the object of the legacy if: the right left by legacy has as object a universality, such as that obtained by the testator and not liquidated yet…”. It therefore emerges that the legacy of an inheritance obtained by the testator and not liquidated yet, but not only (as the legal text does not provide only for a limitative list, but only for an exemplificative one) presents a particular title [9]. Should it therefore be understood that the legacy of an inheritance obtained and not opened is a legacy by particular title? If this is the case, what should mean universalities of assets determined according to their nature or origin, which constitute the object of a legacy by universal title? Which should be the criteria on the basis of which the legacy of an inheritance is qualified as legacy by particular title and the legacy of a universality of assets determined according to the nature and origin is a legacy by universal title? Even the lawmaker, at article 1114 of the Civil Code, show in termins that the inheritance obtained by the testator and not liquidated yet represents a universality. What does then mean the universality to which article 1056 of the Civil Code refers to?

In our opinion, the issues under discussion are hard to deal with, as the texts of the Civil Code mentioned in the present works are obviously contradictory. On the one hand, we consider that it can continue to be upheld the opinion within legal literature, according to which the totality (or a fraction) of the movable/immovable assets of the deceased should constitute the object of a legacy by particular title, being individualized and not constituting legal universalities.

On the other hand, we mention that, unlike the 1864 Civil Code, by lege lata a person under age, of 16 years old, does not have the capacity to make provisions for half of his or her inheritance by means of a will. Consequently, legacies by universal title no longer include the legacy left by the categories of persons mentioned above.

Legacy by universal title is characterized by the vocation to a quota from universality, and not by the effective emolument obtained by the legatee. The legatee by universal title, with vocation to a portion from hereditary patrimony, will not take advantage from the fact that another legatee by universal title cannot inherit


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(due to impossibility or will), but will instead take advantage from the fact that another legatee by particular title or forced heir cannot inherit, if the presence of the latter to inheritance would have diminished the patrimony in relation to which is calculated the quota of the legatee by universal title.

As to us, we consider that legacy by universal title can also take the following forms: - legacy of a portion from the available quote from the inheritance; - legacy of a portion from the surplus of inheritance (legacy of a portion from what remains after the

enforcement of other legacies by universal tile and/or particular title); - legacy of bare ownership on a portion from the inheritance. Nonetheless, we consider that the current

Civil Force refers to this type of legacy in an implicit manner, at article 1065, paragraph (2), when exhaustively listing legacies by universal title. The first type of legacy by universal title mentioned by the Civil Code in this legal text is that having as object the property of a quota from the inheritance. Together with the content of this legal text, we consider that it is also included the bare ownership of a portion from the inheritance.

Conclusions Although the Civil Code in force manages to solve some issues raised by specialized literature in the

context of the former Civil Code (such as defining legacy and the legal nature of legacy having as object a property prerogative on all or a share from the inheritance), it still does not resolve the issue of the legacy having as object the property or a property prerogative on all or a share of the universality of assets determined according to their nature or origin. Regarding this type of legacy, the Civil Code provides at article 1056 paragraph (2) letter c) that is part of legacies by universal title, while at article 1114 paragraph (3) letter c) it qualifies legacy having as object a universality of assets, such as an inheritance obtained by the testator and not liquidated yet, as a legacy by particular title.

References [1] Deak, Fr. (2002). Tratat de drept succesoral. II edition, updated and completed, Universul

Juridic Publ. House, Bucharest. [2] Bob, M.D. (2012). Probleme de moşteniri în vechiul şi în noul Cod civil, Universul Juridic, Publ.

House, Bucharest. [3] Eliescu, M. (1966). Moştenirea şi devoluţiunea ei în dreptul Republicii Socialiste România.

Academiei Publ. House, Bucharest. [4] Alexandresco, D. (1912). Explicaţiunea teoretică şi practică a dreptului civil român, vol. IV, II

edition, Socec & Co. Publ. House, Bucharest. [5] Boroi, G.; Anghelescu, C.Al. (2012). Curs de drept civil. Partea generală, II edition, updated and

completed, Hamangiu Publ. House, Bucharest. [6] Macovei, C.; Dobrilă, M.C. (2012) Cartea a IV-a: Despre moştenire şi liberalităţi, in Baias, Fl.A.;

Chelaru, E.; Constantinovici, R.; Macovei, I. Noul Cod civil. Comentariu pe articole, C.H. Beck Publ. House, Bucharest.

[7] Chelaru, E. (2012). Cartea a III-a. Despre bunuri, Titlul I. Bunurile şi depturile reale în general, , in Fl. A. Baias, E. Chelaru, R. Constantinovici, I. Macovei (coord.), „Noul Cod civil. Comentariu pe articole”, C.H. Beck Publ. House, Bucharest.

[8] Ungureanu, O.; Munteanu C. (2010). Eseu asupra clasificării bunurilor în dreptul civil, Universul Juridic Publ. House, Bucharest

[9] Florescu, D.C. (2011). Dreptul succesoral, Universul Juridic Publ. House, Bucharest.


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Personal Bankruptcy in Romania versus Other Countries in Europe

Ginghină A.1 1 Department of Economics, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Romania is one of the few European countries that do not have a personal bankruptcy legislation

implemented. Though there have been active discussions about this type of legislation that should regularize the debt discharge process when the financial obligations can no longer be fulfilled by the customer, the final decision stated that personal bankruptcy is not a viable alternative at this point. But even so, other solutions are to be found for over-indebted consumers such as repayment plans, debt re-organization (rescheduling/refinancing/decreasing the interest rate, and therefore, the value of the monthly instalment) and grace periods from one to several months for paying the credit instalments etc.

This paper is in the form of an overview of the representative literature in this area of interest and it focuses on different political approaches of personal bankruptcy over Europe, insisting on special features for Romania. The general aim of this study is to analyze the impact of personal bankruptcy law among countries where this legislation is available and among those where it is not implemented yet, taking into consideration, both, advantages and disadvantages for the actors involved – over-indebted consumers, banking organizations, the remaining honest paying clients, the economy as a whole and other stakeholders.

Keywords: Personal bankruptcy, over-indebtedness and debt re-organization.

1 Introduction In recent years, credit has become available to a lot of people because the quantity of credit has

increased due to more relaxed credit conditions which are meant to stimulate the consumer, more clients are willing to trawl through bank rules with adjustments on income flyers or other documents, other banks with very ambitious operational targets, also sometimes set up risky contracts or offer supplementary banking products besides classical loans, those clients are not aware of things like loyalty cards or overdrafts. All these circumstances lead to a high number of unpaid contracts, because the easier the credit is offered, the more heavily the consumers become over indebted [1]. The high volumes of debts revealed the necessity of implementing new regulations regarding personal bankruptcy [2] in order to better adapt to the new paradigm. The easiest and most common way is to “transplant” the system from another country that has already implemented it with proven positive results and adapted it to the particularities of the receiving country over time.

The purpose of my study is to analyze debt clemency through personal bankruptcy, which is referred to in this paper as a process related to individual consumers that regulate the context of debt discharge for debtors who cannot fully repay their debts.

In most of the countries, the bankruptcy process is available for both companies and individuals with financial difficulties in repaying debts, whereas in a very few countries, only companies can go bankrupt. But even across the countries with accepted personal bankruptcy legislation, there are disparities between their approaches from pro-debtor attitudes to pro-creditor ones, which can also lead to bankruptcy tourism [3], [4], [5], [6] – travelling to another country in order to benefit from the legislation in place there.

2 An Overview of the Types of EU Bankruptcy Legislation

2.1 Europe Review Besides Hungary, that has had active discussions about the introduction of such legislation, Romania is

one of the few European countries that have no personal bankruptcy legislation implemented.


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The usual purpose of personal bankruptcy legislation is a fresh start for both debtor and creditor – the debtor will continue to be a productive member of society, whilst the creditor will receive a part of the due debt.

In most European countries [7], there are dedicated debt counselling organizations that provide support to debtors (Austria and Italy) free of charge and even negotiate contractual terms with creditors when necessary (Belgium and Ireland). In some countries, like Poland, free debt advice can be found on the internet, while most eastern European countries don’t have this type of facility.

The first step when a debt is registered is usually an amicable settlement for debt-reorganization between the debtor and the creditor (The Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Ireland and Sweden). If this agreement is not respected, the legal framework is enabled.

A third party, represented by the legal court, or a trustee appointed by the court, establishes the personal bankruptcy characteristics:

- The minimum value of debt that must be repaid to the creditors from current assets and/or future income (10% in Austria and 30% in The Czech Republic);

- The exemption value – minimum level of assets and minimum level of income remaining for the debtor out of his total income after fulfilling the bankruptcy plan obligations (minimum wages calculated so that it covers the basic needs: food, rent and fixed costs etc.);

- The number of years for the bankruptcy settlement (7 years in Austria, 6 years in Germany, 5 years in Belgium, The Czech Republic and Estonia, 3 years in France, Sweden and 1 year in The UK – the shortest period in Europe). The lower the period of good conduct is, the higher the number filing for personal bankruptcy.

If the requested amount is not entirely covered through the process of personal assets liquidation, there will be a payment plan established for a certain number of years.

At the end of this period, the remaining debt can be discharged, another settlement takes place or the debtor will continue to be responsible until the entire debt is repaid (Spain).

The consumer has to prove his good faith (Denmark, Poland and The Netherlands) under the premise of the “honest but unfortunate debtor” [8], meaning that the over-indebtedness that led to accumulation of debt was not generated by him, but independent of him with most countries penalizing fraudulent behaviour (The Czech Republic).

In most European countries, over-indebtedness is due to factors outside the consumer’s control (passive indebtedness), such as: unemployment, decrease of salary, accidents/illness of consumer or members of the family, separation/divorce, too much consumption and bad financial management (lack of experience with money/budgeting problems).

Once a personal bankruptcy has been established, consumers don’t qualify for another similar process for a specific number of years (10 years in Estonia and Poland, 5 years in Ireland and 3 years in Italy).

Some studies have shown that the bankruptcy filing rate is influenced by the exemption level [9], [10], others prove exactly the contrary [11], [12], by the quantity of credit card debt [13] and when talking about the financial benefit from filling, there are studies that show a positive correlation [14] and studies concluding that bankruptcies are generally involuntary [15].

2.2 Romania Even if Romania does not have a debt discharge process, in the last years strong efforts have been made

in order to prevent over-indebtedness, even before the crisis outburst in The USA, and then through NBR Regulation no.24 from 28.10.2011. The NBR approach is reflected in the difference between the credit given before and after 2008 in terms of default rate.

At the same time, in Romania there were 3 possible solutions of debt reorganization in the case of over-indebtedness: refinancing (opening a new contract with new financial characteristics and a more suitable instalment, while the old debt is being erased through the amount refinanced), rescheduling (extension of credit duration for the entire outstanding amount, including the debt in order to obtain a smaller instalment adapted to the new financial situation), restructuring (alter the contract terms in order to help the debtor with the appropriate solution: decrease of interest rate/monthly instalment and a grace period of one to several months etc.).

Regarding the possibility of personal bankruptcy implementation, there have been 2 attempts, one coming from a barrister and a senator with support from another 12 senators (2010) approved in Senate and some commissions of the Chamber of Deputies, but rejected by Parliament and another one coming from a deputy, but rejected by the Senate.

All banking and political authorities were against the validation, because of Romanian particularities: - Higher degree of criminality compared to the rest of The EU members (also based on examples

given by corporate insolvency cases) which might lead to opportunistic behaviour and moral hazards among debtors;

- The fragility of the Romanian banking system.


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2.3 Bankruptcy Tourism Because there are a lot of differences between the details of personal bankruptcy across the countries in

The EU, debtors from Romania, like debtors from other countries where personal bankruptcy is not implemented in an optimal formula, can choose to move to other jurisdictions in order to have access to the legislation in place there, according to the Council Regulation (EC) 1346/2000. This can be applied in all countries that are members in The EU, except Denmark, as long as some basic conditions are fulfilled (having the centre of main interest in the destination country: residence and a job/business/ongoing studies). The United Kingdom is the most desired destination for personal bankruptcy because the process is simpler and shorter compared to other countries.

3 Stakeholders – Advantages and Disadvantages Regarding Personal Bankruptcy

3.1 Bad Debtors Debtors, who face financial difficulties that led to loan debts and personal bankruptcy, have, in most

European countries, the advantage of filing for personal bankruptcy which guarantees them a fresh start. They will have assets liquidated and garnishment on their income for a certain period of time, but after that, they are usually able to reintegrate themselves into society and start over.

Some disadvantages may be felt, depending on culture and education: a certain stigma associated with the shame of having debt. Fortunately, this stigma has decreased in the last few years, once the number of personal bankruptcies started to grow, especially the stigma, in the context of the financial crisis has become less significant [16]. The likelihood of an individual filing for bankruptcy is positively related to the bankruptcy rate in the town in which they live [14]. Studies show that people who personally know other people who went bankrupt are more likely to file for bankruptcy, in case of financial difficulties [17].

Depending on the country, there are specific repercussions after being declared bankrupt [7]: - Disqualification from Parliament (The United Kingdom and Ireland); - Disqualification from local authority (Ireland); - Exclusion from employment through notices of termination (Austria and Ireland – in some specific

fields like finance); - Disqualification from managing positions (The United Kingdom and Ireland); - Public lists with the name of bankruptcy filers (France), information lasting for several years on

credit records (5 years France) or permanently, even after discharge (Ireland); - Reducing the debtor’s access to loans in the future – depending on bank’s policy; - Publication in national newspaper (Ireland and The Netherlands); - Implications for civil rights: in Ireland a person registered bankrupt should inform the Official

Assignee about his intention to travel abroad. But there are also countries where there are no implications for employment or civic rights (Greece,

Italy and The Netherlands).

3.2 Banking Organizations For banking organization, there are usually more disadvantages than advantages: opportunistic

behaviour – customers might file fraudulently for bankruptcy even if they don’t have any financial difficulties. Pro-debtor bankruptcy laws encourage opportunistic behaviour [14], but it can be punished by the court if discovered [11]. Opportunistic behaviour can lead to a higher cost of credit which is meant to discourage this kind of behaviour in the future, but which will reflect in a negative way on the banks’ lending activity, as well as, the entire economy being affected.

3.3 The Remaining Honest Paying Clients For the other honest existing clients and for the future clients the principal disadvantage is represented

by the higher costs for credit because banks also have to recover the losses coming from bad debtors from them.

3.4 The Economy The main advantages for the economy are that personal bankruptcy stimulates consumption because

individuals have the certainty that in case of financial difficulties, they can benefit from personal bankruptcy and sustains the entrepreneurship because individuals are tempted to open their own business, knowing that they will find support in the event of failure. There are studies that show that people are likely to own and start businesses if they live in states with higher bankruptcy exemption levels [18].


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4 Conclusion Any activity performed widely has a proportional margin of error, which means that after the credit

crunch in recent years, an increase of debtors was expected. When there is no possibility of debt reimbursement, both debtor and creditor should cooperate in order to find an optimal solution of debt reorganization. Financial difficulties can happen, which means that even if they assumed all the responsibility when signing the contract, the debtor can’t effectively still honour his contract in the present, in the event of financial mishaps. It’s not a matter of will; it’s a matter of lack of capacity to fulfil the obligation. To follow the debtor for his debt for an indefinite period of time can be exhausting for both banks – who use resources to maintain debtors under investigation in case new income or assets will appear in the future – and debtors who would be discouraged to find a better job or purchase new assets when knowing that the bank’s future action are directed towards debt recovery.

Therefore, personal bankruptcy represents a good solution for a fresh start.

References [1] Ziegel, J.S., et al., 1996. Consumer Bankruptcies and Bill C-5: Five Academics Claim the Bill

Turns the Problems on Their Head. 13 National Insolvency Review, pp. 81-85. [2] Efrat, R., 2002. Global Trends in Personal Bankruptcy. American Bankruptcy Law Journal 76,

pp. 81-110. [3] Moffitt, R., 1992. Incentive Effects of the U.S. Welfare System: A review. Journal of Economic

Literature 30, pp. 1–61. [4] Meyer, B.D., 1998. Do the Poor Move to Receive Higher Welfare Benefits? Manuscript,

Northwestern University. [5] Feldstein, M. Wrobel, M.V., 1998. Can State Taxes Redistribute Income? Journal of Public

Economics 68, pp. 369–396. [6] Buckley, F. Brinig, M.F., 1996. The Market for Deadbeats. Journal of Legal Studies 25, pp. 201–

232. [7] Study on Means to Protect Consumers in Financial Difficulty: Personal bankruptcy, datio in

solutum of mortgages and restrictions on debt collection abusive practices, Final report, (2012). London Economics.

[8] Jackson, T.H., 2001. The Logic and Limits of Bankruptcy Law. Beard Books, pp. 226. [9] White, M.J., 1987. Personal Bankruptcy under the 1978 Bankruptcy Code: An Economic

Analysis. Indiana Law Jurnal, vol 63, pp. 153. [10] Gropp, R. Scholz, J.K. and White, M.J., 1997. Personal Bankruptcy and Credit Supply and

Demand. Quarterly Journal of Economics 112, pp. 217–251. [11] Buckley, F. H. Brining, M. F., 1998. The Bankruptcy Puzzle. Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 28,

pp. 187-208. [12] Weiss, L. Bhandari, J. and Robins, R., 1996. An Analysis of State-wide Variation in Bankruptcy

Rates in the United States. Working Paper 96/56/AC, INSEAD. [13] Domowitz, I. Sartain, R.L., 1999. Determinants of the Consumer Bankruptcy Decision. Journal

of Finance, vol. 54, pp. 1241-1277. [14] Fay, S. Hurst, E. and White, M., 2003. The Household Bankruptcy Decision. American

Economic Review 92, pp. 706-718. [15] Sullivan, T.A. Warren, E. and Westbrook, J.L., 1989. As We Forgive our Debtors. Oxford

University Press. [16] The Insolvency Service., 2007. Attitudes to Bankruptcy Revisited

(http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/) [17] Gathergood, J., 2010. The Social Dimension to the Consumer Bankruptcy Decision. CENTRE

FOR FINANCE AND CREDIT MARKETS, Working Paper. [18] Fan, W. and White, M.J., 2003. Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity.

Journal of Law and Economics, 2003, 46, pp. 545-567.


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Community Legislation Referring to the Maintenance of Workers’ Rights in Case of Transfer of Business or Business Parts

Godeanu T.N.1 1 Associate professor, Faculty of Law and Administration, “Spiru Haret” University (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Pursuant to art. 49 and 56 from the EC Treaty, there are forbidden the restrictions concerning the

freedom to provide services and the free movement of capital. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in many cases, where it was addressed the issue concerning the existence of such restrictions, which have a general character, without being highlighted the relevant circumstances or details that could change the factual and legal perspective, and which should be considered.

However, for the practitioner attorneys, they offer the “operational models that may be useful, facilitating their work.

Therefore, there were selected two cases within which there were addressed the issues concerning the information exchange between the tax administrations of the Member States, for the assets or bank accounts located outside the residential states, in order to be able to determine correctly the income and patrimony taxes.

On such occasion, it is also analysed the European legal framework, based on which these cases should be solved.

Keywords: Freedom to provide services and free movement of capital, prohibition of restrictions, communitarian legal framework

A. In compliance with the Directive 2001/23/EC of the Council from March 21st, 2001, referring to the

approximation of the laws of the Member States regarding the maintenance of workers’ rights in case of transfer of business or business parts are provided by certain rules (principles) of social politics following to be respected by the Member States in this type of situation.

Therefore, in art. 3 from the Directive are provided the following: 1. The rights and obligations which result for the assignor of a work agreement or a work relation

existent at the date of the transfer are according to this transfer, transferred to the assignee. The Member States can provide that the assignor and the assignee are, after the date of the transfer, sole

responsible for achieving the obligations arrived at maturity before the date of the transfer, pursuant to a work agreement or work relation existent at the date of the transfer.

2. The Member States can adopt appropriate measures for guaranteeing that the assignor has notified the assignee all the rights and obligations which will be transferred to him in virtue of the present article, as far as these right and obligations are known or should have been known by the assignor at the moment of the transfer.

3. After the transfer, the assignee maintains the work conditions maintains the work conditions convened through a collective convention as far as this (convention) has provided for the assignor until the expiration date or expiration of the collective convention or at the entry in force or application of another collective convention.

The Member States can limit the period of maintenance of work conditions, with the reserve that the period cannot be inferior to a year.

a) If the Member States do not dispose otherwise, the paragraphs 1 and 3 do not apply to the workers’ rights in case of old age benefits, disability benefits or of the survivors with title of professional or inter-professional complementary provisions regimes (provisions) existing apart from the legal social security regimes of the Member States.

b) Even when it is not provisioned, according to point a, that the paragraphs 1 and 3 are applying to such rights, the Member States adopt the necessary measures in order to protect the workers, and also of the persons that had already left the business of the assignor in the moment of the transfer, regarding the acquired


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rights or those in progress of acquisition of the old age benefits, including the benefits for survivors, with titles of complementary regimes stipulated at point a)”.

In article 4 from the Directive is provided the following: 1. The transfer of a business of part of business does not constitute by itself a licensing reason for the

assignor or assignee. This disposition does not oppose to the licensing which can intervene for economic, technical or organization reasons which imply changes in the work places domain.

In article 5 from the Directive are provided the following: 1. “If the Member States do not dispose otherwise, articles 3 and 4 do not apply to the transfer of an

business or a part of business when the assignor is the subject of bankruptcy procedure or insolvency procedure analogue opened in order to liquidate the goods of the assignor and which is found under the control of a public competent authority (which can be a syndic authorized by a competent authority).

2. When articles 3 and 4 apply to a transfer during a insolvency procedure engaged in respect of the assignor (regardless if this procedure was or not engaged in order to liquidate the goods of the assignor), and with the condition that this procedure can be found under the control of a public authority (which can be also a syndic designed by the national legislation), a Member State can provide that:

a) Regardless of the article 3, paragraph 1, the assignor’s obligations which result from a work agreement or work relation, which are owed before the date of the transfer or before the opening of insolvency procedure, are not transferred to the assignee, with the condition that this procedure should engage, in virtue of the legislation of the Member State, a protection at least equivalent to the procedure provided for the situations endorsed by the Directive 80/987/EEC of the Council form October 20th, 1980 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer (published in Journal official L 283, p. 23), as modified by the act referring to the conditions of adhesion of the Republic of Austria, Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden and the adjustment of the treaties in base which the European Union was formed (published in J.O. 1994, C-241, p. 21 and J.O. 1995, L 1, p. 1).

b) The assignee, assignor or the persons that represent the powers of the assignor, on one side, and the workers representatives, on the other side, can, as far as the laws or the present practice permits it, to convene the modification of the working conditions of the workers in order to preserve the working places, ensuring the survival of the business or part of business.

3. A Member State can apply the paragraph 2, point b), to any transfer when the assignor is found in a severe economic crisis defined by the national legislation, with the condition that this situation is declared by a public competent authority and opened an effectual judicial control within the national legislation on July 17th, 1998 ...”

B. The provisions of the community legislation, presented selectively before, have needed

developments and explanations, which reflect in the jurisprudence of the Justice Court of the European Union, which we will discuss hereinafter.

In the article 3, paragraphs 1 and 3, a principle (general rule) is set up that is being imposed to the assignee, in case of a transfer of business or part of it, to maintain the rights and obligations resulting for the assignor from the work agreement of a work relation, and also the work conditions convened through a collective convention, until the termination of conclusion of the collective convention or from the entry in force or appliance of another collective convention, for a period of minimum of a year.

Article 3, paragraph 4 from the directive provides an exception from the rule instituted at paragraphs 1 and 3, exception that concerns the workers’ rights for old age benefits, disabilities benefits or survival with title of professional or inter-professional complementary provisions regimes (provisions) existing apart from the legal social security regimes. Thus, considering the general objective of workers’ rights protection in case of business transfer followed through the directive, this exception is of strictly interpretation[1]. Therefore, results that only the benefits given outside the legal security regimes, which are restrictively enumerated in art. 3, paragraph 4, letter a) from the directive can be circumvented (exempted) from the obligation of workers’ rights transfer.

According to art. 3, paragraph 4, letter b) from the directive, when the Member States apply this exception, they must adopt the necessary measures in order to protect the interest of the workers, regarding the acquired rights or in progress of acquisition, referring to the acquisition of old age benefits, including the survival benefits, with complementary regimes titles stipulated at letter a) from the same disposition.

The fact that a business was declared in a state of crisis, in the strict sense of national settling, could not necessarily and systematically imply changes on the plan of work places, in the sense of the provision or art. 4, paragraph 1 from the directive. Among others, the justifying reasons of the licensing cannot apply, according to the national dispositions, only in specific business crisis cases. Thus, the procedure of acknowledgment of the crisis state of the business cannot represent, necessarily and systematically, an economic, technical or


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organization reason, implying changes in the work places domain, in the sense of the provisions of art. 4, paragraph 1 from the directive.

Article 5, paragraph 2, letter a), from the directive allows to the Member States, with certain conditions,

not to apply certain guarantees stipulated in art. 3 and 4 of the directive in the case of a business transfer, as long as it is engaged in an insolvency procedure, and this is under the control of a public competent authority. Or, The Justice Court of the European Union, within a prejudicial procedure concerning the problem of knowing if Directive 77/178 on the safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of businesses (directive preceding the Directive 2001/23), was applicable to the transfer of a business that made the object of an acknowledgement of crisis state procedure, as stipulated in the national legislation, that this procedure strives to favor the maintenance of its activity in order to an ulterior retrieve, does not conduct a judicial control, and no administration measure for the business patrimony, and does not provide any payment suspension. Among others, the national competent authority is limiting only in declaring the crisis state of a business, and this acknowledgement permits the business to temporarily benefit from a taking in charge by the unemployment allocation company, which will remunerate, totally or partially, the employees.

From this results that taking into account these elements, the acknowledgement procedure of the crisis

state cannot be considered as following an analogue finality of those followed in the insolvency procedure, as stipulated in art. 5, paragraph 2, letter a), from the directive, cannot be found under the control of any public competent authority, as provided in the same article. Thus, the conditions of appliance of this disposition are missing from the acknowledgement procedure of the crisis state.

Therefore, article 5, paragraph 4 from the directive allows the Member States to provide that the work

conditions can be modified in order to preserve the work places and ensuring the survival of the business, without depriving the workers of their rights covered in this directive are considered as being imperatives, not being allowed to derogate from them in a sense averse to the workers, the rights and obligations which result for the assignor from a collective convention existent at the date of the transfer being transmitted by right to the assignee, through the simple fact of the transfer[2]. Thus, results that modifying the work conditions, authorized by article 5, paragraph 3 from the directive presupposes that the transfer of the workers’ rights has already been set up.

References [1] See by analogy, the decision from June 4th, 2002, Beckmann cause, C-164/00, in “Recueil…”,

2000, p. I-493, point 29. [2] See the Justice Court of the European Union, decision from March 9th, 2006, Werhof cause, C-

499/04, “Recueil…” 2006, p. I-2 397, points 26 and 27.


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The Development of the Speed Indicators with the Help of Athletics Means (7th Form)

Grigoraş-Popa C.I.1 1First degree teachert, School no 11, Piatra Neamţ, 610003 (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This piece of work approaches some important aspects related to the improvment of the speed index at

7th grade, proving that by using some aetheletism means one can get significant progress in improving the reaction rate speed. The experiment took place at the Elementary School no 11 from Piatra Neamţ, experiment made on a sample of 40 subjects, 20 boys and 20 girls. The hypothesis of this work consists of assuming that means from aethletism would be used and one can get an important growth of the speed development clues.

The main experiment target was the fact that it could be proved that by using some aethletism means, significant progress may be obtained in improving the speed clues.

Keywords: Speed, indicators, development, athletics.

1 Introduction Physical education, is a complex activity, if we refer to content, structure, organisation and way of

developping. There is enough evidence that may confirm that physical education has a high importance in all branches of education.

Meanwhile, the physical education goals have changed, but in essence, have the same meaning, but there was a time when these goals have overcome the skills that the society needed.

Today these goals are the same with those of European Union and the summing of the specific contribution of physical education to accomplishing the key skills of compulsory educational system in Europe and as well as in Romania and leads to redefining the discipline’s pattern.

Physical education has the purpose to assure the development of bio-mental-movement and to form the pupil’s skills to react when it comes to an optimum state of health and when it comes to a harmonious physical development and the manifestation of a professional and social present and future movement˝.

The essence of physical education consists in practicing physical exercices that go always on the first place no matter the organisational shape and the socio-economical-political means that accomplishes it and the movement capacity of the subjects. [1], [4]

Physical education has a more biological character and important values on social-educational-cultural level. Practicing physical education such as physical education exercices was determined by recreational, recoil and rivalry necessities.

Physical education by its different organising ways and thanks to its emotional character, its special contribution that it brings to the creative spirit development, to the affirmation, overcoming or self-improvement etc. Practicing physical education exercices develops the aesthetic sense, the love for the movement gesture performed with masterliness. [6]

1.1 Movement Qualities The movement qualities, also called physical qualities are human body’s skills that cant’t be taught,

can’t be gained during autogenesis as humans are born with particular quality movement indicators . These indicators are being developped in autogenesis during life , till a certain age and then they begin

to go down in a differentiated rythm by many variables , through a special instruction process that can accelerate the movement qualities indicators- also called the movement qualities teaching. [3], [5]

Movement qualities are classified as follows: -main movement qualities: speed, handiness , resistence and force; -specific movement qualities: those involved in practicing some branches or sports tasks . Movement qualities are connected to skills and can be taught or developped at every age.


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Every movement quality has its own special elements, taking into account the fact that the main elements for speed should be: fastness, for handiness: complexity, for resitence: the period of time and force: the loading. [5]

Speed represents the body’s capacity of performing movement actions with the entire body or with some parts of it, in the shortest time possible- with fastness , maximum speed related to present conditions.

Speed represents „the human’s capacity of performing the moves with high frequency and dispatch” [1]. Most experts, as a result of the important differences towards speed, have made a characterisation-

„fastness (swiftness) that helps the movement actions in the most variate structures and combinations ” [1]. ,,The speed ability may be considered as a space-time structure of moves, but on the other hand the

development implies the action towards rythm and tempo. Rythm signifies performing the same movement in an identical order, that being a time element in close connection to speed, coordination, precise element and ability.

Time represents the movement frequency towards time and it has high importance in speed running.The swiftness of regular, repeated moves must be understood as a speed developped against a very low resistence” [2].

Speed is a very important movement quality, more or less active in all movement acts , especially in the ones with sports character.

A one’s higher or lower speed depends a great deal on the „ hereditary luggage” that he brings along, and this movement quality being developped even in a lower manner, through a sistematically training, starting with the age of 7-8 years, but a high attention given to the development of this quality at the age of 11-14 years , being thought that this age is the optimum age for accomplishing the most important progress when it comes to quantity. [3]

Speed is related to a series of factors that have already been classified as follows: -the fundamental nervous process, excitations and inhibition that come along with contraction and

relaxation; -the functionality of all the analyzers – precision, gentleness, acuity; -the speed for the nervous stimulus; -the speed used for muscle contraction; -the parts’ length that interact with the mobility that the joint has; -the coordination of muscle groups; -the fybre type that comes with contraction (white fybres are compatible with a good speed); -the source value and energetical process; -the development level and of other movement qualities, especially force. [3], Speed may come in different forms: -Reaction speed is the movement speed, going together with the next five elements: the presence of

stimulus in receiver; spreading in the appropriate way; the signal annalysis and again its spreading; the muscle answer to stimulus. The reaction speed is not identical for all the body parts, upper limbs have the smallest value indicators;

-The execution speed is the body’s capacity of doing a movement act or a movement action, being measured with the time that passes by since the execution begining till its end;

-The repetition speed, also named “movement frequency”, consists of performing the same move in a set unit of time, the repetition speed being given by the rythm and time;

-Speed is an execution variant when it comes to going in a pre-set space against time and a variant of speed when it comes to space and distance in a pre-set period of time.

The speed, a complex form of swiftness expresses temporarily ways for going through maximum swiftness of a given distance; it is in great connection to means of speed. [5], [7], [8]

From a bio-mechanical point of view, this could be set in two parts: one phase of increasing speed by having a start point; the relative phase of establishing speed in its course.

The experiment made in order to verify the hypothesis set took place at the Elementary School no 11 from Piatra Neamţ on a target of 40 subjects, 20 boys and 20 girls, split in 4 groups, two experimental and two witness. The chosen task, considered an optimum alternative to achieving a goal for reaching the work’s targets consisted in 50m running with a standing start.


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Table 1- Results of the control groups boys and girls

Speed run-50m(sec.) (girls) Speed run-50m(sec.) (boys) SUBJECTS Ti Tf Ti Tf S1 7.10 7.09 6.58 6.56 S2 7.13 7.09 7.02 7.01 S3 7.11 7.08 6.57 6.55 S4 7.08 7.07 7.08 7.01 S5 7.16 7.12 7.04 7.04 S6 7.12 7.08 6.59 6.57 S7 7.06 7.06 6.54 6.53 S8 7.05 7.03 6.56 6.55 S9 7.11 7.07 7.00 6.58

S10 7.14 7.09 6.55 6.53 Σ= 71.06 7.078 67.53 66.93 X= 7.11 7.08 6.75 6.69

PROGRESS= 0.03 0.06

Table 2 – Results of the experimental groups boys and girls

Speed run-50m(sec.) (girls) Speed run-50m(sec.) (boys) SUBJECTS Ti Tf Ti Tf S1 7.08 7.05 6.59 6.55 S2 7.15 7.10 6.57 6.53 S3 7.10 7.06 7.07 6.55 S4 7.07 7.01 7.06 7.01 S5 7.17 7.11 7.03 6.58 S6 7.11 7.04 6.58 6.54 S7 7.05 6.59 6.56 6.50 S8 7.05 6.58 6.52 6.49 S9 7.09 7.02 7.02 6.58

S10 7.12 7.07 6.59 6.54 Σ= 70.99 69.63 67.59 65.87 X= 7.1 6.96 6.76 6.59

PROGRESS= 0.14 0.17

Fig 1 – Progress girls

0.03

0.14

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

Progress -50m

control goup experimental goup Fig 2 – Progress boys

0.06

0.17

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

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Progress- 50m

control goup experimental goup


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The research methods are the most important ones used in the experiments such as- the observation method, the mathematical –graphical and statistical method.

As a result of studying the initial tests results it can be observed a significant speed growth at the two experimental groups and that leads us to the conclusion that the misinterpreting use of aethletism means may lead to significant results in speed clues growth, so the works’ hypothesis was checked and the goal reached.

References [1] Mitra, Gh., Mogoş, A., (1977), Metodica Educaţiei Fizice Şcolare, ANEFS, Bucureşti, pag. 53. [2] Raţă, G., (2008), Didactica educatiei fizice si sportului, Editura ,,PIM”, ISBN 606-520-032-

8,338, Iaşi, pag. 114 [3] Firea, E., (1984), Calitati motrice Metodica Educatiei Fizice si Scolare, ANEFS, vol.II, Bucuresti. [4] Raţă, G., (2004)Didactica Educatiei fizice şcolare (Metodica Educaţiei fizice şcolare), Editura

,,PIM”, ISBN 606-520-0417, Iaşi. [5] Dragnea, A.; Bota, A., (1999), Teoria activităţilor motrice (educaţie fizică, sport, activităţi de timp

liber, activităţi de expresie corporal), Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, R.A., Bucureşti. [6] Cârstea, G., (2000), Teoria şi Metodica educaţiei Fizice, Editura “Anda”, ISBN:973-99256-6-9,

Bucureşti. [7] Raţă, B., Cârstea, G., (1993), Teoria şi Metodica Educaţiei Fizice şi Sportului, Editura Universul,

ISBN:973-9027-06-7, Bucureşti. [8] Firea, E., (1983), Metodica educaţiei fizice şcolare, Bucureşti.


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Employer’s Obligation to Inform

Hurbean A.1 1“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, The Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Administrative and Legal Sciences Department, (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The study analyses the obligations of an employer to inform, with regard to the main clauses of an

individual employment contract, and which can be done before the contract’s conclusion or before the contract is changed, as regulated by Articles 17 to 19 of the Labour Code. We examine this matter from two points of view: first, the content and second, the achievement of the obligation to inform. We also consider legislation in field that takes over and implements the provisions of Community law concerning the obligation to inform, as referred to in Council Directive 91/533/EEC of October 14, 1991.

Keywords: employment contract clauses, employee, employer, obligation to inform, sanction.

1 Introductory aspects The provisions of the Labour Code, regarding the obligation to inform, are reflected in the national law

disposals of European Council Directive no. 91/533/EEC of 14, October 1991, on the employer’s obligation to inform the employee of the conditions applicable to the contract, or to the relationship of employment. In addition, the Revised European Social Charter states the right to information and consultation of employees; however, this time we are in the presence of a general legislation in relation to the above-mentioned directive.

In Romanian legislation, the obligation to inform is regulated, as expected, by the Labour Code (Articles 17-19), both in its content and how to achieve the information. Thus, according to Article 17, paragraph (1) of the Labour Code, before concluding or amending the individual employment contract, the employer has the (legal) obligation to inform the person selected for employment, or the employee, on the essential clauses he intends to introduce or amend in the contract. Therefore, we are in the presence of two types of information, though both have the same content as stipulated by law. What differs is the legal position of one of the parties: if the first addresses the person who wants to be employed, the second addresses the employee. In the first case, the parties have equal legal positions because no employment relationship was established. In the second case, (an amendment) the employee is in a position of legal subordination towards the employer.

Some clarification is needed regarding the obligation to inform the person selected for employment. In the literature two opinions exist concerning the moment when this obligation should intervene: [1] whether it belongs to the pre-contractual phase, that of negotiating the individual employment contract, which would have the character of an offer to contract, or [2] if this information is separate from the offer, as a unilateral act of the employer and further to the understanding of the parties. What is undeniable is that the duty to disclose items should be reflected in the content of the individual employment contract. Therefore, this obligation arises as a result of the agreement of will made between the parties during negotiation. If the time of this obligation is presumed to be the signing of the individual labour contract, it is evident that should the person selected for employment disagree with one or more of the clauses, then that person is free not to sign the employment contract.

2 Content of the obligation to inform Article 17, paragraph (3) of the Labour Code sets the minimum clauses of obligation to inform. This

means they can contain other items on which the parties agreed, along with the imperative ones imposed by law. Therefore, the information must at least include the following: the identity of the parties; the workplace

or, in the absence of a permanent workplace, the possibility of working in several places; the headquarters or, as appropriate, the domicile of the employer; the position or occupation according to the Romanian Classification of Occupations or other regulatory documents; the job description, specifying its responsibilities; the evaluation criteria of the employee’s professional activity, applicable in the unit; the job-specific risks; the date when the contract takes effect; the length of the contract, in cases of an employment contract of limited duration or a


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temporary employment contract; the length of leave the employee is entitled to; the conditions under which the contracting parties may give notice and its length; the basic pay, other components of earned income and the payment frequency for the wage the employee is entitled to; the normal length of work, expressed in hours per day and hours per week; the reference to the collective labour agreement governing the working conditions of the employee; and the length of the probationary period (if the parties agree on this way of checking the employee’s skills).

According to Article 105 of the Labour Code, in the case of an individual part-time employment contract, other clauses shall join the foregoing elements. These shall be related to: the length of the activity and the distribution of the work schedule; the conditions when the work schedule may be amended; and prohibition of overtime work, except for cases of force majeure or other urgent works intended to prevent the occurrence of accidents or to remove its consequences.

If the employee is to operate abroad the employer has the obligation, in accordance with Article 18 of the Labour Code, to communicate to him, in addition to information provided by Article 17, the following issues: the length of the work to be performed abroad; the currency of wage payment and the payment methods; the benefits in money and/or in kind for the activity performed abroad; the climatic conditions; the main labour law regulations in that country; the local customs whose breach would endanger his/her life, freedom or personal safety; and the repatriation conditions of the worker.

The provisions of the above legal text are addressed to the employee, or to the future employee, hired in Romania by a Romanian employer and who, right from the beginning, performs his/her activity abroad or who is going to work abroad, according to the amendment brought to the individual employment contract [3].

All elements of the information should also be reflected in the individual employment contract, thus becoming its clauses. Consequently, the specific content of each element of information must be reported to the employee’s minimum rights provided by law and the applicable collective labour contract.

Classically, the length of the contract, the type of work, the workplace and the wage are considered to be the essential elements of the individual employment contract.

According to Article 12 of the Labour Code, the individual employment contract shall be concluded, as a rule, for an unlimited duration, and only by way of exception may it also be concluded for a limited duration, under the terms expressly provided for by law.

The type of work, as an essential element of the contract, can be modified only by mutual consent and only by exception, unilaterally, under the express and limited conditions stipulated by law. The main principle for determining the type of work is the profession or job or function, with the specification of qualification and training.

The employer determines the workplace and the area of the provision of work. More specifically, the workplace is defined by current legislation as the environment from where an activity is developed from which one can obtain an income and where the employment legal relations, or the job legal relations, are materialized (Article 5, paragraph II of Law no. 76/2002 on the unemployment insurance system and employment stimulation). Also, as formulated by Article 17, paragraph (3) (b) of the Labour Code, this implies the possibility that the workplace may not be fixed, and therefore the employee may work in several places. So parties may agree, in this regard, a mobility clause is inserted in the individual employment contract, as regulated by Article 25 of the Labour Code.

The wage, as the employer’s obligation, is established by individual and/or collective negotiation between the employer and the employee/employees or their representatives. The payment of staff from public institutions and authorities is funded wholly, or in the majority, from the state budget, the state social insurance budget, local budgets and special budgets, as established by law and in consultation with the representatives of the trade unions.

Some further clarifications regarding the establishment of the criteria for verification of the employee’s professional activity must be made while discussing the obligation to inform. Moreover, the provisions of Order no. 1616/2011, amending the framework model of the individual employment contract, forces the parties to introduce these evaluation criteria. When we talk about the general criteria for the evaluation of employees, which must be generally formulated to be applicable to some well-defined categories of employees, we cannot deny that establishing these criteria is an attribute of the employer under the law and their obligation to determine the optimal performance of the work in that unit. However, we must not forget that the conclusion of an individual employment contract is the result of a will agreement between the parties. Therefore, the employer’s freedom to regulate these criteria is easily countered by the opposition of the future employee, or the employee on duty, while mentioning it in the obligation of information, namely in the contract. As for employees on duty when Law no. 40/2011 (amending the Labour Code) came into force, the regulation of criteria for professional evaluation applicable to the employer’s unit is done by signing an addendum to the individual employment contract [4].

On the other hand, setting individual performance objectives and evaluation criteria, or their fulfilment, (according to Article 40 paragraph (1) (f) Labour Code) is an exclusive right of the employer. Therefore, it does


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not require the employee’s consent, because they derive from the needs of the organization/unit. Of course, these individual objectives must correlate to the employee’s duties as defined in the job description. In the case law, it was shown that the court cannot interfere in the way of appreciation by the employer of the employee’s professional skills. The employer is the only one capable of assessing the activity and performance of the employee, and the objectives set, with reference to the actual tasks of the employee as it results from the employment contract and the job description. Under these conditions, only the fulfilment of the evaluation procedure done by the employer is subject to judicial review.

3 Fulfilment of the obligation to inform As already shown, the obligation to inform, as regulated by Articles 17-19 of the Labour Code took the

obligation to inform, as required under the Community law, namely Directive 91/533/EEC of 14 October 1991. Initially, it did not take into account how to achieve the obligation to inform. Today, it is considered that Romanian legislation harmonized the Labour Code with Community law. Furthermore, the solution are you sure?? of the Romanian law is considered to be more restrictive than the European Directive. Specifically, according to paragraph (2) Article 17 of the Labour Code, the obligation in question is considered fulfilled by the employer upon the signature of the individual employment contract, or the addendum in case of amendment. As stipulated in the Community law, the obligation to inform must be fulfilled within two months from the date on which the performance of the work began. However, if that contract ceases before reaching the two months, the information must be made “available”?? by that injunction [5]. Thus, Romanian law establishes a presumption of information favourable to the employer. With regards to the extent to which the contract was concluded in the written form required by law, it is presumed that the employer has fulfilled his obligation, without the need for further evidence. Of course, the employee may reverse this presumption by proving, for example, there is an error of fact that would affect the contract. Therefore, if in the Labour Code the obligation to inform is prior, or concomitant to, the conclusion of the individual employment contract, in Community law this obligation may also be subsequent.

Any modification of one or more items of the obligation to inform, which occurs during the performance of the individual employment contract, requires the conclusion of an addendum to the contract within 20 working days from the date of occurrence of the change, according to Article 17, paragraph (5) of the Labour Code. The failure to meet this deadline means that the employer’s offer lapses on the amendment. Therefore, in this situation, the obligation to notify is required only when a conventional change to the individual employment contract occurs. If the contract changes without signing an addendum, we are in the presence of a unilateral change, meaning that the change is illegal. [6] Per a contrario, the employer shall have no obligation to inform the employee when the change to the individual employment contract comes under the law, or under the applicable collective labour contract. Also, this does not exist in the case of unilateral modification of the contract in cases provided by law, such as delegation and posting.

In the judicial specialized literature it was noted that the obligation to inform must be mutual, in accordance with the principle of good faith that governs labour relationships, and in accordance with the employee’s obligations of loyalty. Although the law does not expressly provide for the responsibility of the employee to inform the employer in connection with certain changes in his/her personal situation, this obligation exists on at least the identification data of the employee, the domicile, the residence, the education and professional qualifications, the work experience or the authorization, the certification or the approval for the job’s performance [7].

Under the provisions of Article 17, paragraph (6) of the Labour Code; while negotiating, concluding or amending the individual employment contract, each party may be assisted by third parties, according to its wishes. The legal provision refers both to the employer and to the person selected for employment, or to the employee who may be assisted by another employee, a union representative, an attorney or an expert.

Article 17, paragraph (7) of the Labour Code stipulates the possibility of concluding a confidentiality contract between the employer and the person selected for employment having as the object, the information provided by the employer to the future employee before the conclusion of the individual employment contract. Such a contract shall take effect regardless of the conclusion or not of an individual employment contract between the parties, whether or not there was employment. From the wording of the legal text this results, on the one hand, in the presence of a civil contract, which will generate, in principle, unilateral obligations only for the employee, because he will be forced (if it concludes) to keep confidential the information received. On the other hand, by reference to the principle of freedom of contract, the parties are free to insert mutual rights and obligations in the confidentiality contract, as the employer, too, may be obliged to keep confidential the information received from the future employee [2].

As highlighted in the judicial literature, the confidentiality contract is completely separate from the confidentiality clause that can be negotiated and inserted in the individual employment contract, as a part, according to the will of the parties.


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Firstly, the sanction of failure to inform is an action for damages to which the person who has suffered the damage is entitled. Specifically, and based on Article 19 of the Labour Code, the person selected for employment, or the employee, is entitled to notify the competent court within 30 days from the date of infringement, and to seek adequate compensation for the loss suffered following the employer’s failure to inform. Analysing this legal text, it emerges: firstly, the holders of the action may be the selected person, but that has not concluded an individual employment contract or the employee, if the individual employment contract is amended. In the case of the person who is hired, and upon signature of the individual employment contract acquires the capacity of employee, it interferes the presumption of information established by Article 17, paragraph (2). As already noted, the moment when the employee signed the individual employment contract means the fulfilment of the obligation to inform. As the written form of the contract is a condition of validity, following the entry into force of Law no. 40/2011, we do not see how the employee could invoke the failure of information. Moreover, the failure to conclude a written form of the contract in question triggers the employee’s contravention liability and, where applicable, the employer’s contravention or criminal liability. We consider that only if the court retains the presence of an unmistakable error when the employee concluded the individual employment contract could be raised, accordingly, the employer’s failure to inform, too. Do you mean "We consider only if the court retains the presence of an unmistakable error, when the employee concluded the individual employment contract, or if the employer failed to inform, could liability be established."??

Secondly, in order to have the right to seek redress according to the damage, it is not necessary for the failure to notify to be complete. It may be partial, in this case, to refer to, or not, only one of its items (e.g. the probationary period was not provided or another term was provided, rather than the specific one on which the employee was evaluated).

Finally, it is necessary for the employee to prove the loss suffered, as a result of the fact that the employer failed to fulfil his obligation to inform, as provided by law. In the legal literature [8] it was shown that burden of proof falls on the employer’s account (since we are in the presence of a labour dispute). The employer is the one who will have to prove the fulfilment of the obligation to inform, even if the complainant is the person selected for employment, or the employee.

References [1] Athanasiu, Al., Dima, L., (2003) Regimul juridic al raporturilor de muncă în reglementarea

noului cod al muncii, Partea I, în Pandectele române, nr. 4/2003, pp.258 [2] Ţiclea, Al., (2007). Tratat de dreptul muncii, ediţia a II a, Ed. Universul Juridic, pp.420-421 [3] Athanasiu, A., Volonciu, M., Dima, L., Cazan, O., (2007) Codul muncii. Comentariu pe articole,

Ed. C. H. Beck, Bucureşti,pp.99 [4] Cristescu, R. G., Cristescu, C., (2011) Codul muncii modificat şi republicat 2011, Ed.

Hamangiu, pp.43-44 [5] Athanasiu, A., Volonciu, M., Dima, L., Cazan, O., (2007) Codul muncii. Comentariu pe articole,

Ed. C. H. Beck, pp.84-86 [6] Dimitriu, R., (2005) Contractul individual de muncă, prezent şi perspective, Ed. Tribuna

Economică, Bucureşti, pp.88 [7] Ştefănescu, I. T., Beligrădeanu, Ş., Prezentare de ansamblu şi observaţii critice asupra noului

Cod al muncii, in Dreptul nr. 4/2003, p. 28; O. Macovei, Conţinutul contractului individual de muncă, Ed. Lumina Lex, Bucureşti, 2004, pp.101-106.

[8] Sasu, H., (2009) Derularea corectă a raporturilor de muncă, Ed. C. H. Beck, Bucureşti, pp. 6-7.


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Christian Religion - A Pillar for European Stability

Ignat A.1 1 Lecturer PhD. at Valahia University from Târgoviște, Bd. Carol I, Nr. 2, Târgoviște, 130024, (ROMÂNIA) [email protected]

Abstract The Christian Church of Romanian people was and is not only a source for "water of life”, but a source

for culture and spirituality. Speaking about this we must remind the Romanian teaching system which had the beginning on the entrance hall of Church. The Orthodox priest and the singer were for a long time the people who taught children. The Romanian monasteries were not only an important destination on our pilgrimages, but also some places from where our culture and spirituality flourished, lighting those who came here.

On this paper I will try to underline some ideas about the relationship of Church and culture and spirituality in Romania and in European Union. These lines are important today especially because every people, every ethnical community is connected to a way of life, a culture, a spirituality and religion. Underlining our European Christian roots we underline our past, present and we can foresee our future. The Christian specificity is the common base for European united people today. On this research I will use the specific methods and instruments of historical research, consulting also the religious and political perspective.

Keywords: culture, spirituality, ethnicity, Christian roots, bridge of dialogue.

Introduction Religion has been and should remain the essential yeast of culture and civilization of mankind. Moral

principles stemming from religion are the foundations on which the common good is identified. As a life moral and social support, religion is therefore both „auctoritas spiritualis” and „auctoritas civilis”. Therefore, we cannot speak of „homo europpaeus” without calling the spiritual-Christian composition. Alexandru Paleologu argues that „Europe has become Europe with the spread of Christianity all over the world... For that Europe is nothing but a creation of Christianity” [1].

By preaching Christian values, permeated by a unique humanism in that, for example, love for our fellowmen, ipso facto, to any stranger that we should see the same image of Christ, by helping those distressed by various forms of social assistance, etc. Church proofs that is animated by the same humanistic Christ gospel, which transcends the artificial boundaries created by ideologies weather. The current study aims to provide some guidelines on Christian foundations of Europe and Romania.

1 Europe and Christianity Every nation has a mission, a vocation, a wish to fulfill. Peoples do not appear in history just to make

noise, but with a mission to accomplish [2],[3]. Each people crystallized into a creed their mission on earth. At first, this creed of sentimental belief deepens the consciousness of the people and gradually forms a moral imperative of conduct. He does not have a legal sanction, and yet is powerful, because it binds strongly to a sense of national honor and self-conceit [4].

Every people, every nation has its own culture, language and civilization. As such, it raises an implicit question - how did the Christian religion accommodated to the needs of every people, of every person. To answer this question we should say that the gospel has its own way of preaching. And this preaching is done in the language of each people and is trying to meet the challenges of every culture, every civilization, and every age separately. Moreover the preaching of the gospel in the language and specifics of that nation, called enculturation, is made on the principle of Christian unity in diversity and specificity of each person. „It is indeed noteworthy that in the era of its most expansive missionary, Christianity found strength and love to fraternize with the national genius of different nations and, at the same time, the Christian Church, with the joy of ethnic


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characters’ originality which this has preserved to its bosom mother, kept unaltered the unity and he affirmed its ecumenical” [4].

The Church contributed significantly to the creation of national cultures in many nations. „The church gave them the alphabet and the literary language, placing them as the basis for the development of literature and a higher national culture” [5]. For people who have already had a crystallized culture (Greeks), the Church has printed a new character, a spirit to influence them and to use it for their benefit.

Today, European Christianity is facing the presence of Islam, which in some Western-European countries occupies an important place in the religious map. Islam is now a European religion. European Christianity, which crosses an obvious crisis, faces a slow, but sure heading of the Islamic religion. The holy confrontation is not and cannot be the ancient one, but the meeting, a peaceful one, cannot be avoided.

The emergence of new denominations or sects, some of which claim to be Christian, but have nothing to do with it, have created confusion and disarray in the European space. We should note the New Age, a kind of Gnosticism of our times, which in the name of peace and harmony among people promote massive syncretism.

New Age has become, for many people, a way of thinking and attitude, without being aware that they are victims of an extremely dangerous trend. Syncretism is a phenomenon which is becoming more powerful and, of course, it affects the correct perception of religious and cultural identities of peoples. The very broad phenomenon of secularization, doubled by the neo-pagan manifestations, so much spoken, stressed this confusion [6].

Dealing with such centrifugal tendencies in contemporary society, which is based on individual autonomy and concentration, the Church must adapt and renew its methods of ministry and mission, the methods approaching society relationships, for every individual. We stand for this point of view, based on the fact that, over time, „Christianity, compared to other religions, was characterized by a fantastic power of adaptation and by a great capacity for innovation” [7].

Spiritually, today social area shows two extreme tendencies: one of total ignorance of the spiritual dimension of the Christian Church, the other - the growth of the charismatic movement. Contemporary society, tempted by the exotic, spectacular and mysterious, increasingly began to move toward more eccentric sects who arose in Christianity, or, even to some Eastern religions. At the same time, these sects showed their specificity, creating the illusion of a charismatic and prophetic life for the whole society. However, we must recognize that the basis of this movement is not a deep spiritual desire, but a purely material one, driven by the acquisition of easy and immediate gaining. „Nowadays, the world is marked, not only by a secularized strong comeback of sectarian religious movements and cults as a confused response to aggressive secularism, but, also by obsessions that subjugate; a good example, in this respect, is the political domination with all its inter-ethnic and international conflicts, and the obsessions regarding material profit in all forms of injustice and environmental crisis” [8].

2 The role of Christianity in the life of the Romanian people Romanian people were born Christian. This brief statement defines in a few words, the essential

characteristics of our national being: the Roman and the Orthodox faith. Romanian people’s existence is inconceivable without these features. Latinity and orthodoxy are the two lungs, to which our national being inspires, breathe and vibrate.

There was vehement criticism, from some people, against Orthodoxy. Some considered Orthodoxy as faith that slowed down the development of this nation for two thousand years (see contemporary critique); others considered it as only part of Romanism (Lucian Blaga [9] or Al. Paleologu [1]) and others felt that our Christianization, and our Christianity did not become an important factor in our Romanization, occurring much later, the IV -V centuries [10]. It was also stated that Christianity has not penetrated, early, in our country, and as such, the desired effect is questionable.

Regarding those who believe we must look for a more modern faith, we should say as Father D. Staniloae: „What can be higher than a faith that is based on love of the highest existence to man and wants to help man to climb the height of this love? What higher ideal can be proposed to people to sacrifice the life of love to others, following the example of God Himself, the love that is based on endless appreciation of the human person and faith in her infinite perfection perspective? The ideal enhance of endless love is an ideal that cannot be surpassed by any other” [11].

The entire development of a nation is closely related to ethnogenesis. And for all the people, including the Romanian people, ethnogenesis is one of the most debated issues. The fact that we were born Romanian and Christian at the same time is for many historians and scientists the foundation of the Romanian people. „We are of the few Christian communities who do not have their Christianization once, because we are - or were – Christians since we were Romanian” [3].

We are the only nation in Latin Orthodox great glory. Our Latinity was bound to Orthodoxy and vice versa, because we valued our linguistic, cultural, existential treasure in our Latinity, as worthy successors of


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Rome. Through our Orthodoxy, we learned to contemplate, to open our hearts for good, truth and beauty, the deepest parts of Eastern Christianity. Church gave to our soul: shine, knighted it, and determined it to become better, more beautiful, and closer to our eternal model - our Saviour Jesus Christ.

The Church of this nation was and is not only a source of „the living water” but also a hotbed of culture. It should be noted that the beginnings of Romanian education were located in the Churches. The priest and the singer were „those who inspired books’ science” for children coming here to be educated. Our Romanian monasteries represented and represent not only the landmarks of our Christian pilgrimage, but also places where culture and our spirituality flourished, illuminating all coming here. If we should remember the past regarding the top academic institutions in the countries, we could talk about Romanian Country of Schola graeca et latina - during the reign of Matei Basarab, and Moldavia about The College of Three Hierarchs, while Vasile Lupu’s reign, both within Romanian monasteries.

Moreover, the first books printed in Slavic rite, then bilingual or even Romanian, were made by „the Church people” metropolitans, monks, priests or laity, all with the help of the ruler of that time. Each print of a Romanian book was a real cultural event designed to determine both the spiritual growth of the Romanian people and a significant step for the introduction of the Romanian language and culture.

The need for books, felt the most in the country, was complemented by the presence of people in the middle of Church events. Moreover, following the model of Byzantine State coexistence with the Church (Byzantine symphony), the Church participates fully in all social events. For a long time, the country was God’s Bishop, an active participant in the royal divan, mystery counselor of the prince, the vice-ruler for changes, and not least, the leader of the flock of Christ entrusted to him.

The Romanian Orthodoxy was considered a bridge between East and West. By our religion, we, Romanians are a gate to Europe, a barrier against Ottoman rush. Through our Latinity we were located close to the Western Christianity, with its juridical laws and organization, and we lived „our own unsearchable mystery feeling of the peoples of Eastern Europe. But we, as Latin, bring to the mystery of things and people a light stronger than the Slavic peoples, but a light that has no borders, but is inherent in defining the Western nations. In this respect, we are closer to early Christian spirituality, remaining present in the spirituality of the Greek people, although with lower emotional experience of this light than the Romanian spirituality” [11].

3 Church and nation - a modern vision of this relationship One of the issues discussed by the Christian Church and civil society was the question of Christians’

belonging both to Christ Church and Civil State (as citizens of a state). Jesus Christ referring to the dilemma of the ancient world and the modern world also said: „Give to Caesar what Caesar’s is and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22, 21). As a result there was no inconvenience between a citizen and the fact of being a Christian.

Even if in the Roman society, the Christian Church was seen as the greatest enemy, after the year 313, the Christian Church became for the Empire and the world a spiritual and moral progress factor. Looking further the development of church-state relations, especially in the Byzantine Empire and then (especially after 1453) in all Orthodox countries and in Romanian Principalities, we found a symphony relationship. „Byzantine Symphony” considered the Church and State „united without separation and without confusion” as divine and human in Christ, according to the dogma of the Council of Chalcedon (451) [12].

For the time in which one of these two areas will be the first, the other will be left to one side. „As Byzantium, this harmony has never been in precise legal terms: we are dealing with a mental concept rather than a system of government that has allowed kings to act arbitrarily, but have not undergone the state Church”, said John Meyendorff [13].

Unlike the Byzantine concept, in Roman-Catholic theology received the spiritual, while Protestant theology would insist on dramatic separation of the two spheres. Each of these concepts will also have benefits and deficiencies, for all that is human, created by human endeavor, the block will follow its creator, with advantages and disadvantages. Since Constantine will be involved in the establishment of roman peace with Christian faith since Christianity receives full support of the king, in the East will be seen an involvement in the life of the Church. Thus, some of the kings abused of their influence in the Church, seeking to impart their desired course, forgetting that the church is the „bride of Christ” [14].

In the European history, the year 1789 was a turning point. Christian Church after the French Revolution in 1789 lost the influence they have on society and the medieval state. If till then we can see in Europe a pressure that the Christian Church (especially the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Church) have exerted on medieval state, in 1789 the state moves forward and the church is forced to retreat and often end a partnership with the state to carry out its mission. By 1789 they wanted, especially the Roman Catholic Church, a subordination of political power. The Pope was the one who had two-edged sword: spiritual and state [15]. All the sovereigns of Europe had to listen to his power and to worship him. After 1789 we see a real shift in the relationship of Church and state: it wanted the best possible separation between the two institutions, with no possibility of any interference from one or the other.


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Even in the early nineteenth century a stronger national state idea begins to emerge. The national state is in the vision of Max Weber „the worldly organization of a nation power”. „The national state does not want people to be just the sum of all of the citizens, furthermore, the people is one with the nation no longer considered merely cultural, but also political. People-Nation has the ambition to fulfill and develop an independent state; in a national state it is free to act on its own, independent of any foreign domination” [16].

In most European countries a wind of change was coming, the emergence of national states. The idea of a nation was the appropriate response to Europe’s road to modernity, as more and more people were gaining political consciousness and, at the same time, had the opportunity to be politically active or to participate in the exercise of power, the more the popular the idea of nation was becoming. Nation and democracy have become two sides of the same coin, and the national state has proven to be both an appropriate epoch and it guaranteed the democracy and the parliamentary system [16].

In the context of church-state relationship models, as they were proposed by the Christian Church throughout its history, the Holy Trinity or the mystery of the Triune God is and will remain the eternal model for any human society. Thus, Christianity and Europe is „the mystery of the other inscribed in the heart of the Unity” [17]. Thus, Father Dumitru Stăniloae said „we should not lose our identity. Europe is a symphony and not an homophone song, a symphony in which every nation is called to bring the personal, unmistakable touch” [18].

References [1] Paleologu, Al. (2003). Moştenirea creştină a Europei, Cluj-Napoca: Eikon Publishing House. [2] Pârvan, Vasile (1920). Idei şi forme istorice. Patru lecţii inaugurale, Bucharest: „Cartea

Românească” SA Publishing House. [3] Lupşa, Prof. Şt. (1992). Creştinismul românesc a fost de la început ortodox, in vol. „Ortodoxia

românească”, Bucharest: Institutul Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române Publishing House.

[4] Rădulescu-Motru, Constantin (2008). Românismul – catehismul unei noi spiritualităţi, Bucharest: Semne Publishing House.

[5] Bălan, Ioanichie (1992). Biserica şi naţiunea, in vol. „Ortodoxia românească”, Bucharest: Institutul Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române Publishing House.

[6] Popescu, Pr. Prof. Dumitru Gh. (1993). Teologie şi cultură, Bucharest: Institutul Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române Publishing House.

[7] Delumeau, Jean (2006). În aşteptarea zorilor. Un creştinism pentru mâine, translation by Giuliano Sfichi, Iaşi: Polirom Publishing House.

[8] Daniel, Patriarch of Romanian Orthodox Church (2008). Confessing the Truth in Love. Orthodox Perceptions of Life. Misision and Unity, Second Edition, Bucharest: Basilica Publishing House.

[9] Stăniloae, Dumitru (1997). Poziţia domnului Lucian Blaga faţă de creştinism şi ortodoxie, Bucharest: Paideia Publishing House.

[10] Madgearu, Alexandru (2001). Rolul creştinismului în formarea poporului român, Bucharest: Bic All Publishing House. „Therefore, even if, there were Christians in Roman Dacia, the possible spread of the new religion among locals, could not play any role in their Romanization, at the time”... „The feeling of „national” unity in front of barbarism arose during the time of Constantine the Great”... „From the time of Constantine the Great, we can talk about the possibility of a joint action of Romanization and Christianization”.

[11] Stăniloae, Dumitru (2004). Naţiune şi creştinism, Bucharest: Elion Publishing House. [12] Eslin, Jean-Claude (2001). Dumnezeu şi puterea. Teologie şi politică în Occident, translated by

Tatiana Petrache şi Irina Floare, Bucharest: Anastasia Publishing House. [13] Meyendorff, John (1996). The Orthodox Church. Its past and Its Role in the World Today, with

selected revisions by Nicholas Lossky, the fourth revised edition, Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

[14] Gafton, Magistrand Lucian I. (1956). Acte de violenţă şi abuz ale împăraţilor bizantini faţă de Patriarhii de Constantinopol, in „Studii Teologice”, no. 7-8, pp. 455-469.

[15] Chifăr, Pr. Prof. PhD. Nicolae (2000). Istoria creştinismului, vol. II, Iaşi: Trinitas Publishing House.

[16] Schulze, Hagen (2003). Stat şi naţiune în istoria europeană, translated by Hans Neumann, Iaşi: Polirom Publishing House.

[17] Clement, Olivier (2002). Creştinătate, secularizare şi Europa, in „Gândirea socială a Bisericii”, Sibiu: Deisis Publishing House.

[18] Coman, Pr. Dr. Constantin (1995). Ortodoxia sub presiunea istoriei, Bucharest: Bizantină Publishing House (interview)


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Cohesion or Disparities across the EU under the Global Crisis’ Impact

Ionescu R.V.1

1 Danubius University (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The paper deals with the idea of a new approach connected to the common cohesion policy in the EU27.

The analysis follows three levels and it is finished with an economic forecast for 2015-2016. The main objective of the paper is to quantify and measure the economic disparities between the Member States. In order to do this, the paper uses four economic indicators: GDP growth rate, unemployment rate, inflation rate and structural budget balance. Whole analysis is based on the latest official data and pertinent diagrams.

Keywords: crisis, economic disparities, economic growth, economic forecast.

1 Cohesion versus crisis The global economy seems to start a recovery process in 2013, even that the challenges are powerful

yet. Across the EU, the socio-economic situation is confused. Some Member States succeeded in implementing positive major economic policies, in order to return to a sustainable growth. On the other hand, other Member States are far away from such a result. Moreover, there are voices which ask for leaving the EU.

Maybe the most important EU common policy is that connected to the socio-economic cohesion. Until 2008, some specialists talked about an EU with two or three economic development speeds. The impact of the global crisis supported the growth of the economic disparities between countries and regions. The last official statistical data cover 2008-2012 and the analysis has to take into account 2012 as the second point on the time axis. The problem is how the EU economies will be able to progress during the next years.

There are some official forecasts connected to 2013-2014 time period. This paper forced the analysis to new time frontiers, in order to understand if the actual common economic policy is able to ensure sustainability for all Member States.

2 Research’s methodology In order to obtain better results in analysis, the paper uses a neutral statistical database, Eurostat. The

analysis covers three levels. First is the retrospective analysis of the EU economy during 2008-2012. Second represents a prospective analysis during 2013-2014. Last, but not the least as importance is a forecast for the next two years (2015-2016).

The retrospective analysis used the official EU statistical data. [1] Historical data for the Member States are based on the European System of Accounting [2].

In order to realise a forecast for 2015-2016 time period, we used dedicated software (SPSS 19). Using ARIMA as time series modeller, the dependent variables are the annual GDP of every Member State during 2009-2014 and the independent variable is time.

The next step of the analysis was to realise a diagram which to be able to put together the macroeconomic evolution of the Member States during 2009-2016. This diagram was built in order to analyse three distinct points in time (2012, 2014 and 2016) and to calculate the economic disparities at those moments. The geometrical distance between the individual macroeconomic trends allows us to conclude the dimension and the evolution of the economic disparities related to the European Cohesion Policy’s main objective.


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3 Macroeconomic analysis All Member States faced to a contraction of the economic activity in 2009, excepting Poland. At that

moment in time, the EU27 could be divided into three groups of states: states with economic decrease less than 5.0% (14 states), states with economic decrease higher than 5.0% (12 states) and states with positive economic growth (1 state). The first intermediary conclusion is that the EU27’s economies were divided after the first two years of economic crisis.

An economic recovery process started in 2010 in the European economy, but the end of 2012 brought different economic results. The same 27 national economies continued to be divided into three groups: 11 states with negative growth rates, 9 states with economic growth rates lower than 1.0% and 7 states with economic growth rates higher than 1.0% [3]

The global financial crisis led to an economic recovery process across the EU which operated optimally still the third quarter of 2011 [4]. The problem is that the economic recovery process is slower. It is affected by the weak demand in the private sector and the tighter credit conditions [5].

The economic environment changes quickly and is very difficult to find pertinent trends for the next few years. This is why, we tried to realise an overview on the EU economy and to forecast its evolution [6].

This trend will continue in 2014, with the same three groups of countries. The analysis realised a forecast for 2015-2016 time period. At the end of 2016, two Member States will face to negative growth rates, one state with an economic growth rate lower than 1.0% and 24 states will achieve economic growth rates higher than 1.0% (see Figure 1).

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

2012 2014 2016

Belgium Bulgaria Czech Rep. Denmark Germany Estonia Ireland

Greece Spain France Italy Cyprus Latvia Lithuania

Luxembourg Hungary Malta Netherlands Austria Poland Portugal

Romania Slovenia Slovakia Finland Sweden UK

Fig.1. Growth disparities across the EU Member States in terms of GDP (%)

According to the unemployment rate, there were three groups of states in 2009: 4 with unemployment rates less than 6.0%, 15 with unemployment rates between 6.00% and 10.00% and 8 with unemployment rates greater than 10.0%. The situation became worst in 2012: 4 states with unemployment rates less than 6.0%, 9 states with unemployment rates between 6.00% and 10.00% and 14 states with unemployment rates greater than 10.0%. Moreover, we talk about unemployment rates greater than 20.0% in Greece (23.6%) and Spain (25.1%). The intermediate conclusion is that connected to three groups of countries, as well. The Eurostat’s forecast for 2014 talks about a better situation connected to the unemployment rate levels, even that 11 countries will face to unemployment rates greater than in 2012 (Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland). The same three groups of countries can be formed. Using the trend of this indicator, the forecast for the next two years presents an improvement of the unemployment rate level in 13 Member States (see Figure 2).


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0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2012 2014 2016Belgium Bulgaria Czech Rep. Denmark Germany Estonia Ireland

Greece Spain France Italy Cyprus Latvia Lithuania

Luxembourg Hungary Malta Netherlands Austria Poland Portugal

Romania Slovenia Slovakia Finland Sweden UK

Fig.2. Disparities across the EU Member States in terms of unemployment rate (%)

The trend of the inflation rate leads to the same “classical” three groups of countries not only in 2009. As a result, 14 countries faced to disinflation, 6 with inflation rates less than 1.00% and 7 with inflation rates greater than 1.00%.

-4

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-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

2012 2014 2016

Belgium Bulgaria Czech Rep. Denmark Germany Estonia

Ireland Greece Spain France Italy Cyprus

Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Hungary Malta Netherlands

Austria Poland Portugal Romania Slovenia Slovakia

Finland Sweden UK

Fig.3. Disparities across the EU Member States in terms of inflation rate (%)

The same situation was in 2012, when only the limits of the inflation rates were different: 3 states had inflation rates less 1.00%, 14 between 1.00% and 2.00% and 10 greater than 2.00%. The situation will be the same in 2014: a group of states (17) with inflation rates less than 1.00%, another group (6) with inflation rates


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between 1.00% and 2.00% and the third group (4) with inflation rates greater than 2.00%. The forecasted results for 2016 are not different from those before: 5 states will face to inflation rates less than 1.00%, 10 to inflation rates between 1.00% and 2.00% and 12 to inflation rates greater than 2.00% (see Figure 3).

The structural budget balance is an indicator which allows us to divide the Member States in three groups in 2009: 23 countries with negative values, 2 countries with positive values less than 1.00% and 2 countries with values greater than 1.00%. Great disparities are forecasted for 2016: 14 countries with negative values, 6 countries with positive values less than 1.00% and 7 countries with values greater than 1.00%.

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-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

10

2012 2014 2016

Belgium Bulgaria Czech Rep. Denmark Germany Estonia

Ireland Greece Spain France Italy Cyprus

Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Hungary Malta Netherlands

Austria Poland Portugal Romania Slovenia Slovakia

Finland Sweden UK

Fig.4. Disparities across the EU Member States in terms of structural budget balance (%)

4 Discussions and conclusions All above diagrams present higher economic disparities in 2016 than in 2014 and 2012. This means that

the common cohesion policy will become a myth for the EU27 economy. The solution seems to be found at individual (national) level more than at community level. Under this new approach, the most powerful economies will succeeded in achieving important economic growth rates. On the other hand, the lower developed economies from the EU will face a greater impact of the global crisis. The total result will be greater economic disparities across the Member States.

References [1] European Commission. (2012). European Economic Forecast. Autumn. Brussels, pp. 5,53,55,57,60, 62,64,66,69,72,75,77,79,81,83,86,88,91,93,96,98,100,102,104,106,108,111. [2] European Commission (1996). European System of Accounts ESA 1995. Eurostat, Brussels-Luxembourg. [3] Ionescu R.& Marchis G. (2012). The global crisis’ impact over EU public policies, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Saarbrücken, Germany. [4] Reinhart C.M. & Rogoff K.S. (2009). This time is different: eight centuries of financial folly. Princeton. [5] European Central Bank. (2011). The current recovery from a historical perspective. ECB Monthly Bulletin, August, pp. 52-57. [6] Ionescu R. (2012). The economic recovery across the EU vs the global crisis, in Euroeconomica, Danubius University Press, Galati, pp.30-39.


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Mediation in Romania. Facts and Fiction

Ionescu-Tănăsescu B.L.1

1 Legal adviser in the field of Public Services (ROMÂNIA) [email protected]

Abstract This paper analyses the impact of introducing mandatory mediation before civil trials in the Romanian

legal system, considering the international context in which this occurred. The study aims to identify if mediation has a positive effect, making civil trials more efficient or if, at

the contraire it has a negative effect on the legal system itself by generating simulated situations. In fact, there is a risk that mediation, although mandatory, will become a simple formality. In this case, the need to comply with pre-trial mediation requirements only extends the timeline of the whole process, having exactly the opposite result than expected.

This research was conducted using content analysis, comparison and conceptual frameworks. The undertaken analysis revealed important issues regarding the legal framework of mediation in

Romania as well as a certain incoherence of the legal practice. Mediation, as a solution for conflict resolution, by becoming a binding procedure is not able to reach a

balance between ensuring compliance with civil rights and simplifying the civil trial. A pre-trial procedure leads to a decreased number of cases that go to court only if this option is considered and freely accepted by both parties; otherwise it remains a simple stage of the legal process that lacks any efficiency.

Keywords: mediation, civil-law, conflict resolution, legal

Introduction In Romania Mediation was given a legal framework in 2006 by the introduction of the first Romanian

Law on Mediation.[1] With this law came it’s official definition : “an amicable solution for conflict resolution using the help of a specialized third-party as mediator, in a neutral, impartial and confidential context, and having the free consent of all parties’.[2] The legislator proceeds to establish who can become a mediator and on what terms, what are the rights and obligations of the mediator, underlines some procedural aspects and sets the foundation of the coordinating authority of the mediators, “The Mediation Council”. But still, mediation was off to a slow start. It was only in 2013 that it became “an issue”, when in some cases mediation became like a “pre-trial” mandatory procedure.

Legal framework analysis In this section we aim to analyse the provisions of two major legal texts on this matter: The Romanian

Law on Mediation [1], and the modifications brought to it by the Law 115/2012 [3]. So what does the legislator say? He basically states that the mediation process requires all parties

involved to freely consent to it and are to be assisted by a mediator who is a specialized professional whose activity is coordinated by the Mediation Council.

On a closer look we can identify some principles of this institution: this activity should not stand any bias [4], mediation is a matter of public interest, the mediator has solely a guidance role not having any authority regarding the contents of the parties agreement [5], mediation can occur between two or more parties which can freely choose one or more mediators. [6]

Now, who is the mediator? He is a person who has been authorized to practice this profession by the Mediation Council. In order to be authorized the mediator must be a University graduate, have a work experience of at least 3 years, have a good social reputation, no criminal record and also graduated the mediator specialization courses. [7]

On more practical terms how exactly does mediation work? Well, it starts with a contract and hopefully ends with an agreement. The parties in conflict can go together to a mediator. In case only one party seeks directly the help of a professional, a formal invitation is sent to the other party to receive information on the advantages of mediation and to accept the mediation offer, setting a reasonable term, not more than 15 days. [8]


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The offer is considered rejected if one of the parties fails to appear twice at the set dates or if they explicitly decline it. [9]. If the offer is accepted, before the actual mediation can take place a contract must be drafted.

The whole process can have three potential outcomes: reaching an agreement between parties regarding a solution to their conflict, the mediator can acknowledge the failing of the procedure or throughout the process one of the parties, at all times can “drop-out”.

Can the parties turn to mediation in a matter that already is the subject of an ongoing civil trial? The answer is yes. One or both parties can request mediation, or the court can recommend it. In case the conflict reaches a satisfying solution through a mediation agreement the court will take act, and the judicial fees will be refunded.

What can be a subject of mediation? Almost any legal issue, except those matters on which the law specifically states that mediation is not an option. [10]

Then, what can’t be a subject to mediation? Strictly personal human rights or severe criminal offenses. [11]

Is in any situations mediation mandatory? No. Not mediation itself, but learning about it before going to court in some cases became mandatory in August 2013.[12] Before civil trials every person has the obligation to attend the briefing meeting regarding the advantages of mediation.[13] But only in some cases the court will dismiss the plaintiff’s claims if he cannot prove that he attended the briefing on the advantages of mediation: regarding consumers protection, legal family matters concerning property or parent rights, vicinity issues, professional liability, labour law conflicts, civil claims up to a certain value [14], some criminal offenses if the perpetrator has been identified and the victim consents to participate to the briefing.[15]

The facts and fiction In this given context we can ascertain that the legal procedure one must undertake in order to defend his

civil rights seems to become more rigid and complicated. If someone wants to go to court regarding a matter on which the law demands he attends the briefing on the advantages of mediation, in case the parties decide not to attend mediation this will potentially prevent him to go to court for 30 days.[8][9] This may lead to a feeling of frustration amongst those who seek justice. Mediation is an institution that by definition implies consent, and making any part of it mandatory may just strike at its core. Is this briefing an opportunity to find alternative conflict resolution or is it another obstacle? Let’s explore the answer in the next conceptual framework.

Conclusions Mediation in Romania is still a “young” concept because it has not enjoyed great literature or media

coverage nor has it too often caught the eye of researchers in the field. It has become popular only when it became an issue. And still today many questions remain unanswered. In order to overcome some of the practical difficulties regarding the fact that if you want to go to court in some cases it is mandatory to provide proof of attending the briefing regarding the advantages of mediation, this briefing can now be held by the judge, prosecutor, legal adviser, lawyer or public notary.[16]


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References [1] Law 192/2006 regarding mediation and the mediator profession, Monitorul Oficial al României,

issue 192 from the 16-th of May 2006 with modifications : Law 370/2009, O.G. 13/2010, Law 202/2010, Law 76/212, Law 115/2012, O.U.G. 90/2012, O.U.G. 4/2013, Law 214/2013, O.U.G.80/2013.

[2] Law 192/2006 – Art. 1 alin. (1) [3] Law 115/2012 – Monitorul Oficial al României, issue 462 from 9-th of July 2012 [4] Law 192/2006 – Art. 3 [5] Law 192/2006 – Art. 4 [6] Law 192/2006 –Art. 5 [7] Law 192/2006 – Art. 7 [8] Law 192/2006 – Art. 43 alin (1) [9] Law 192/2006 – Art. 43 alin(3) [10] Law 192/2006 – Art. 2 alin.(3) [11] Law 192/2006 – Art.2 alin, (5), Art. 67 [12] Law 115/2006 – Art. VIII [13] Law 192/2006 – Art. 2 alin. (1) [14] Law 192/2006 – Art. 60˄1 alin. (1) lit. f) [15] Law 192/2006 – Art. 60˄1 alin. (1) [16] Law 192/2006 – Art. 2 alin. (1˄3)


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Parental and Societal Endorsement as a Factor in Alcohol Consumption by Adolescents and Youth

Jackson B.L.1 1 Ph.D., LPC, NCC, NPC, CPC; Professor and Director Emeritus; Drug, Alcohol and Wellness Network; Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania 17815 (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) [email protected]

Abstract A twenty year retrospective longitudinal study of adolescents and youths in Malta was completed to

determine the role of “endorsement” in the patterns of use of alcoholic beverages by secondary school students. The concept of behavioural endorsement is defined. A series of national secondary student surveys established adolescent alcohol use patterns and attitudes. Adolescents in Malta are initiating alcohol consumption at an earlier age, drink more often and drink more per occasion than the adult population and previous generations of young people.

These increases in adolescent and youth alcohol use patterns are consistent with an increase in the family’s and society’s legal, business and social organizations’ explicit and implicit endorsement of the use of alcohol by children and adolescents as measured through trend line analysis and ANOVA over disparate variables.

Keywords: alcohol, early onset, binge drinking, endorsement, adolescents.

Introduction Observation of others’ behaviour is a powerful, yet unspoken instrument of cultural transmission and is

a significant aspect of modeling for youth in any society.[1] Children and adolescents learn through observation and imitation of their parents, other significant adults, siblings, peers, the media, religious and educational institutions. What they learn is not only factual, but is a system of understandings and meanings, presented both directly and indirectly, which are internalized within a cultural context. [2]

Children and adolescents are acculturated, through overt endorsement (openly stated) and covert endorsement (present, but not necessarily admitted) statements of “right” and “wrong” behaviour. Endorsement of a behaviour decreases disapproval rates and increases the rate and/or frequency of participation in the behaviour. [3]

Endorsement can be implicit (passive), not saying “NO”, or explicit (active) as in the providing of the opportunity to take part in or assisting with a behaviour. An example of passive endorsement might be parents who establish rules or expectations of behaviour for their children and then fail to enforce those rules. This communicates that the rules and expectations are flexible and perhaps unimportant. This same message may be communicated by a government or social system. If existing laws or stated social mores are ignored by those in authority then the message communicated is the laws and mores are not important and may be violated with impunity. This is also true for the selective enforcement of rules or mores. In such cases respect for the law and or mores, and those who espouse them is eroded. [2] Examples of active endorsement of a behaviour include parents providing alcohol for their underage children, using cannabis or another illicit substance with their children, and providing a false note of illness to the school when the child does not attend classes. These actions make it clear to the child that the parent or other adult approves of the young person’s behaviour. Both passive and active endorsement increase future repetition of the behaviour.

As children and adolescents mature they begin to emulate behaviours reserved for adults [4], [5] and greater attention is given to how adults behave rather than to what adults say about how one should behave. [6] A society’s children are then a reflection of the family’s and the society’s values as expressed in adult culture and behavioural lifestyle.


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Addiction literature states that the age of initial use of a substance and the rate of frequency of use are significant factors in the determination of dependency. Furthermore, “risk assessment”, “approval/disapproval”, and estimation of “peer usage” are indicators of acceptance of use. A consideration that use of a substance is excessive or very high serves as a protective factor from use. High disapproval of substance use and a low perception of peer usage also are protective factors. Clear statements of disapproval (Non-Endorsement) of an activity made by adult role models are a significant protective factor against undesirable behaviours. [3] Parental statements of disapproval of a behaviour are positively associated with adolescent “disapproval” and “high risk assessment” of the behaviour.

Methodology

Retrospective analysis of governmental data sources from 1991 to 2011 provided the data for a longitudinal study of alcoholic beverage use by adolescents and youths in Malta. Trend lines for secondary students’ perceptions of various risks associated with alcohol consumption were developed using meta-analysis of twenty governmental data sources from 1991 to 2011 in conjunction with a series of national Form 5 Student surveys.[7] Continuation of use rates previously calculated [2] were employed to develop a prediction model for continued use from adolescence to adulthood. Law enforcement, court and juvenile records were examined to determine the extent to which underage, public consumption and sales to minors laws were implemented. Parental statements of limit setting on their minor children’s behaviours were compared longitudinally with rate increases in alcohol use by minors. The relationship between endorsement and substance use by adolescents and youths is reported in percentage rates across age cohort trend lines and discontinuation rates.

Results In 2011, 90% of Form 5 Students in Malta (ages 15-16) had consumed alcoholic beverages. Whilst

76% of adults aged 18-65 have consumed alcohol at some time in their lives only 56% of the adult group is current drinkers (compared to 87% of Form 5 Students).

Female students have an intoxication rate of between 10 and 39 times in their lives; exceeding the male student rate by 5.5%. Both male and female students were intoxicated more frequently than in previous years (25% of females, 33% of males were intoxicated 40 or more times). As alarming as these numbers may seem they are most probably an under-statement. An examination of the reported number of drinks on the last occasion of drinking in comparison with the response to questions about their intoxication frequency reveals that students may be intoxicated legally (BAC = .08%) but do not believe themselves to be intoxicated.

The age of initial use of alcohol has been decreasing. In the past two decades the age of first alcohol use dropped from approximately 16 years of age to 12 with many children drinking heavily by age 9 (12%). Fifty-nine percent of Form 5 Students binge drink (five or more drinks on an occasion) monthly with an additional 33% having three or more binge episodes in the same period. Only 30% of students felt binge drinking put someone at “great risk” and less than half saw four or five drinks consumed daily as a “great risk.” These figures represent a decreasing perception of risk over time.

More than 60% of the students purchase and drink alcohol in public bars, pubs, restaurants, and discos/clubs despite laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to people under age 17 (minors). An additional 12% drink in open public areas, i.e. parks, beaches, etc. Although this age group is openly violating the law (as are the retail outlets selling the alcohol to minors) there is scant evidence of legal repercussions. There have been no reported prosecutions of retail establishments since the inception of the law regulating age of purchase. Between 5% and 12% of Form 5 Students reported some police involvement due to alcohol and official juvenile court records revealed approximately 2.5% of juvenile offences were substance related (alcohol and drugs). The low incidence of juvenile reports does not appear to be due to a low incidence of misbehaviour. Students themselves report that 65% of males and 31% of females have instigated a physical altercation while drinking. Fifty-seven percent reported being injured while drinking with 25% requiring hospitalization.

Parents are aware of their minor children’s behaviour, with whom they associate (74% reported knowing with whom their son associates-86% know with whom their daughter associates), where they are on week nights (79%-88%) and Saturday evenings (85%-91%). Although parents are aware of their children’s behaviour less than half of all parents set and enforce behaviour rules at home or outside of the home. This is a decrease of nearly 50% in more than 20 years. In 2011only 12% of parents expressed concern about their child’s drinking or intoxication. Approximately 21% of the students acquired alcohol from or drink in their home with parental knowledge. Ten percent more drink at their friend’s home.

Prevailing attitudes within social service agencies have created a praxis of not reporting alcohol and drug abuse to legal authorities in either individual or aggregate numbers making it impossible to estimate the numbers of adolescents and youths being treated for alcohol dependency. The legal principles of doli incapax


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(the incapability of committing a crime because of a lack of understanding of the consequences of their behaviour) and “without mischievous discretion” (court discretion to determine the presence of mischievous intent in the behaviour of the minor) have combined to form a juvenile court culture of acceptance/endorsement of alcohol and drug related misbehaviour among those in the under age 18 cohort.

A one-way ANOVA revealed an inverse relationship between the factors of parental endorsement, failure of law enforcement, declining student perception of risk and social agency praxis with the decreasing age of initial use, increased consumption per occasion and the frequency of consumption.

Conclusion Adolescents and youths in Malta are initiating alcohol consumption at an earlier age, drink more often

and drink more per occasion than the adult population and previous generations of young people. These increases are consistent with an increase in the family’s and society’s legal, business and social organizations’ explicit and implicit endorsement of the use of alcohol by children and adolescents.

Parents are aware of their children’s early age onset drinking and intoxication. By not expressing disapproval or concern they are tacitly endorsing the behaviour. Law enforcement agencies have not enforced the prohibition of alcohol sales to minors or the purchase of alcohol by minors, and the judicial concepts of doli incapax and “without mischievous discretion” result in ignoring misbehaviour. Adolescents rightly believe that there is little legal risk and no parental consequences for alcohol misuse. How many adolescents and youths are treated for alcohol abuse is unknown, but the combination of early onset use and frequent heavy use is likely to increase alcohol dependency in this cohort. The long term consequences to Maltese society are predictably negative.

References [1] Bandura, A. (1997). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press. [2] Jackson, B.L. (2013). Malta: A study of the lifestyle of its youth population. In press. [3] BDAP risk factors. (2005). Department of Health, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bureau of

Drug and Alcohol Programs, Division of Prevention. [4] Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: W.W. Norton. [5] Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development. San Francisco: Harper and Row. [6] Sroufe, L.A., Egelund, B., Carlson, E.A., & Collins, W.A. (2005). The development of the

person. New York: Guilford Press. [7] Arpa, S. (2012). European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs: Student Survey

in Secondary Schools. National Report, 2011. Malta, 2012. Sedqa, National Agency Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse.


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Predicting Adolescent Cannabis Use Persistence into Adulthood

Jackson B.L.1 1 Ph.D., LPC, NCC, NPC, CPC; Professor and Director Emeritus; Drug, Alcohol and Wellness Network; Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania 17815 (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) [email protected]

Abstract Two issues central to the debate about legalization of cannabis are the potential for cannabis addiction

and the “gateway” theory to “harder” drug use. It is argued that legal availability of cannabis will lead to an increase in adolescent experimentation with the substance and eventually to dependency. This inquiry sought to establish some foundation upon which a reasonable discussion of experimental use and its relationship to use continuation into adulthood and to dependency could proceed.

A retrospective longitudinal analysis of cannabis use in Malta revealed adolescents who had a lifetime use rate of 6 or more times by age 16 had a 25% continuation rate to age 40. Between 40% and 49.5% of those who used 20 or more times by age 16 were likely daily or near daily users in the 18-24 age cohort. When one considers the findings that the 18-24 age cohort has a similar rate of use as the 40 year old cohort, the concept of “maturing out” of substance use does not appear to apply.

If legalization of cannabis makes it readily available to adolescents and if adolescent experimentation increases, then it is reasonable to conclude that the numbers of adults using cannabis to at least age 40 and the number dependent upon it will increase significantly.

Keywords: cannabis, marijuana, drug continuation rates, legalization

Introduction The World Health Organization [1] states cannabis is the drug of choice (after alcohol) for adolescents

in Europe and North America. European youth now view cannabis as normative. Although younger people in Malta are more likely to have used cannabis than older people, it is not yet considered the norm among this age cohort. [2]

The national rate of cannabis use in Malta is one of the lowest in the European Union (EU) at one sixth (3.5% have ever used) the EU rate (20%). [3], [4] Current cannabis users in Malta account for between 0.5% [4] and 1.1% of the population 18-65. [3], [5] However, greater than 10% of Form 5 Students (secondary school students, age 15-16) have used cannabis [6] and 19.9% of university students [7] have reported some use of marijuana. Between 8% and 9.9% of university students were reported as regular or daily users. [7], [8]

Some (EU) nations have legalized or decriminalized the use of cannabis. Others continue to debate its legal status. In Malta there has been considerable discussion of the status of cannabis as an illicit substance over the past several years. Seventy-three percent of the adult population opposes any form of legalized cannabis use. [3], [4] Only 8% of the population are in favor of legalization for personal use. Those most likely to support legalization are under age 30. The percentage of supporters of legalization for personal use approximates the percentage of Malta’s university students who reported daily use. [7], [8]

Two issues central to the debate are the potential for cannabis addiction and the concept that marijuana is a “gateway” drug to “harder” drugs like heroin. The comorbidity rates of heroin addiction and cannabis use in Malta are often cited as evidence of the truth of the “gateway” principle. The report on national comorbidity [9] completed in 2006 reported a near 100% marijuana comorbid condition with heroin addiction.

The issue of addiction/dependency on cannabis has been more contentious. It is argued that the legal availability of cannabis products will lead to an increase in adolescent experimentation with the substance and eventually to dependency. This inquiry sought to establish some foundation upon which a reasonable discussion of experimental use and its relationship to dependency could proceed.


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Methodology Retrospective analysis of governmental data sources from 1991 to 2011 provided the data for a

longitudinal study of cannabis use by age cohorts. Percentage rates across age cohorts were calculated for trend lines. Cannabis use rates were developed by age group over a twenty year period using census data, comorbidity rates, adult population use figures, prisoner treatment data and a series of national Form 5 Student surveys. [6] Continuation of use rates previously developed [2] were employed to develop a prediction model for continued use and dependency probability from adolescence to adulthood.

Results Whilst the initial age (10-11) of use has not changed in more than a decade, experimentation with

cannabis appears to be happening for more of the adolescent cohort at an earlier age, now peaking by age 16. This is a significant change from the 2001 first use peak age of 18.8. Since 1995 there has been a 61% increase in the number of users by age 16.

The lifetime usage of cannabis declined by 23% for Form 5 Students across both genders from 2007 to 2011. Males and females respectively used at rates of 10.9 % and 8.3% in 2011. [6] Although fewer students are using cannabis, those that have used it tend to be using it more frequently and perceive its use as posing little or no risk. A majority (52.5%) of all students no longer perceive its occasional use as a “great risk.” This is a shift in opinion from 90.9% in the 1995 rating of cannabis use. Males are less likely to perceive cannabis use as risky behaviour than females and this evaluation is reflected in the male student frequency of use rate increase.

Forty-four percent of students under the age of 17 who have used cannabis were current users (used within the last 30 days) and 37.5% of current users did so 6 or more times within the last 30 days. One third of that group had used cannabis 20 or more times in 30 days. Those students who have used cannabis six or more times in their lives were 3.3 times more likely to be current users than those who have used it fewer than six times. Furthermore, they were ten times more likely to be near daily users if they have used more than five times in their lifetime. In the past four years the increase in male frequency of use at six to nineteen times in the past thirty days increased 9%, an average increase of 2.25% per year. Female use rates remained stable at the six to nineteen rate category.

University of Malta students disclosed significantly higher lifetime and current use rates than Form 5 Students. Nearly 1 in 5 university students have used marijuana in their lifetime and 9.9% are current users (have used within past 30 days). Between 8% and 9.9% of university students are daily users. University students are twice as likely to be current users of cannabis as are Form 5 Students. Although female Form 5 Students are less likely than the male students to use cannabis by age 18, the male and female use rates are very nearly the same by age 24. Indications are that females begin use later than males and their use continues to increase as a percentage of the female population after the age at which male use ceases to increase. User rates of the age group 18 – 24 are similar to user rates at age 40 years.

Conclusions The use of cannabis in Malta is relatively uncommon, however among adolescents and young adults its

popularity has increased since 1995. And although cannabis use is uncommon it still is used by twice as many people in Malta as any other illicit drug.

The percentage of students who use cannabis has declined, but the age at which those who do try it has also declined. Similarly there has been a decrease in the percentage of Form 5 Students who used cannabis in their lifetime but the frequency of use by those who do use cannabis has increased among male students by 9% in a four year period. The rate of use by Form 5 Students and university students suggest a rate of use by adolescents and youths nearly nine times the adult population average.

Addiction literature lists early age onset of use and frequency of use as two risk factors for addiction. The literature also recognizes the rate of perceived risk as a risk factor. [10] This investigation demonstrated a significant reduction in the perception of risk in the occasional use of cannabis among the youth of Malta. Adolescents they are using cannabis at an earlier age, some beginning before age 11, and are using it at higher frequency rates than previously recorded. Because these three risk factors are all present in the secondary and university student cohorts it is reasonable to conclude that dependency rates are likely to increase.

The rate of increase in use of cannabis and dependency upon it can be calculated using established continuation rates. Assuming a 25% continuation of use rate [2] and the reported cannabis use rates of 10% of Form 5 Students and 20% of university students it is possible to calculate increases in the numbers of cannabis users between 18 and 24 years of age. Such calculations yield projected use rates of 2.5% to 5.0%. These figures represent up to a five-fold increase in current rates among those 18-65. [2]


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Dependency rates are more difficult to establish than continuation rates. Previous research suggests that daily or near daily use of a substance is likely to result in dependence. [10] Whereas use of cannabis six or more times per month is indicative of continued use into adulthood, a use rate of 20 or more times per month suggests dependency. The university student lifetime use rate of 20% with between 8% and 9.9% daily use represents an estimated 40% to 49.5% of lifetime users already meeting the criteria for cannabis dependency. The secondary (Form 5 Students) rate of 10% lifetime users with a 0.4% daily or nearly daily use represents an estimated current dependency rate of 40% of lifetime users. The consistency of these calculated rates at the lower margin suggests reliability.

When one considers the findings that the 18-24 age cohort has a similar rate of use as the 40 year old cohort, [2] the concept of “maturing out” of substance use does not appear to apply. Those who currently use cannabis products at a frequency rate of six or more times by Form 5 are unlikely to discontinue their use for at least two decades.

References [1] World Health Organization. (2008). Inequalities in young people’s health: School-aged children

international report from the 2005/2006 survey. Retrieved from http://www.euro.who.int/Document/E91416.pdf

[2] Jackson, B.L. (2013). Malta: A study of the lifestyle of its youth population. In press. [3] Reitox. Malta National Focal Point. (2011). 2008-2010 National Report to the EMCDDA.

MALTA: New developments, trends and in-depth information on selected issues. p 26. National Commission of the Abuse of Drugs, Alcohol and Other Dependencies. National Focal Point for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

[4] Korf, D., Benschop, A., Bless, R., Rapinett, G., Abela, D. & Muscat, R. (2001). Licit and illicit drug use in Malta in 2001: A general population survey among 18-65 year olds. p 20. Ministry for Social Policy, Valletta, Malta: National Commission on the Abuse of Drugs, Alcohol and other Dependencies.

[5] Ministry for Health, Elderly, and Community Care. (2008). European health interview survey. Department of Health Information and Research, Strategy and Sustainability Division. Malta.

[6] Arpa, S. (2012). European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs: Student Survey in Secondary Schools. National Report, 2011. Malta, 2012. Sedqa, National Agency Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

[7] Gauci, A. (2010). The role of the family in substance abuse among young adults: A risk and resiliency study. p 39. Malta: University of Malta.

[8] Cefai, C. & Camilleri, L. (2009). Healthy students healthy lives: The health of Maltese university students. p 27. Msida, Malta: Printing unit of the University of Malta.

[9] Baldacchino, A. & Corkey, J. (2006). Comordibity: Perspectives Across Europe. p 202. A European Collaborating Centres in Addiction Studies. International Centre for Drug Policy: St. George’s, University of London.

[10] BDAP risk factors. (2005). Department of Health, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs, Division of Prevention.


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Teachers' Attitude towards the Curriculum Reform in Romania

Jeder D.1 1 University "Ștefan cel Mare" from Suceava (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The paper aims to describe aspects of the curricular reform that takes place in the Romanian educational

space in order to highlight some strengths and some weaknesses in it, as perceived by teachers in primary school and pre-school, the results are analyzed in comparison with the goals and intentions underlying the new curriculum proposals, outlining ideas for improvement and refinement of this approach in improving education.

Keywords: curriculum reform, teachers' attitude, opportunities and limits of reform, quality of education.

Introduction In most education systems from Europe (and beyond) there have initiated education reforms in response

to the challenges of post-industrial society characterized by "democratization, computerization and globalization" [1] and there have been established common goals of compulsory education, aiming to give to "all citizens the knowledge, abilities and skills essential for their economic and social integration in their community." And as this goal can be achieved by reference to a number of specific objectives: ensuring a genuine opportunity equality, providing a basic education, promoting stability and social change, preparing students for all aspects of adult life, student motivation for learning and preparing for a changing world, support of students’ welfare during school [ ditto ], the educational reforms attempt to answer these fundamental requirements .

It is expected that the reforms, in general, and especially those in the area of education will experience in the future a reversal of the point of departure; the changes will take place at the micro level - to the macro - (education, in this case) by a priority call to the synthetic experience of practitioners and beneficiaries and not from the building by the upper bodies of wannabe models (curriculum, prescribed curriculum) that are often in disparty with the realities (from school).

In the Romanian education space there have been developed since 1989 a series of pedagogical initiatives that have tried to answer these objectives, and among them, the curriculum reform that proposed changes in curricula, syllabi, in the proposal / development of textbooks adapted to these proposed new school curriculum documents, this reform has generated related reforms such as: reform of the structure of the school year, assessment reform, reform of the training of trainers, development of occupational standards [2] whose cumulative effects were felt in the last twenty years (some as opportunities, others as difficulties ) in education.

1 Central points of the curriculum reform in Romania Referring to the trends of evolution of education from Europe after 1989 in Romania there were a

number of important points: the 1995 an Education Law is proposed with a number of fundamental changes, between 1998 to 1999 the first education framework-plans, in 2001 further changes occur in the curricula for both compulsory and high school, between 2003-2004 curricular translations of the Education Law are recorded, stages of development of new curricula and syllabi , and in 2011 The National Education Law (No. 1 of 2011) is adopted, which comes with a number of changes, among which the upgrading and decongest of the curriculum .

From the perspective of the curriculum, we should remember some aspects promoted in the new official curriculum documents and educational policy documents and we refer mainly to the focus of curriculum on skills, focus on the student and assurance of quality in education. In this respect, a curriculum that supports flexibility of the training routes of education should be proposed, curriculum frameworks should support various types of outputs from the system, the graduates having the opportunity for employment or continue their studies,


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promoting new ways of organizing the contents - an integrated approach to the curriculum, personalizing and differentiating the curriculum – as priorities of the curriculum reform.

In this study we focused on curricular changes promoted in preschool and primary school (which now includes preparatory grade until the 4th grade) and registration of teachers’ attitude towards them.

1.1 The Main Emphasis of the Curriculum Reform in Preschool Education Early education (from birth to 6 years) is the first period of formal education, extremely important for

all becoming of the individual that prepares for school period. - A series of principles and requirements of the curriculum, some with novelty accent: "the holistic approach of child development, promotion and practice of child-centered education and

overall development, the adequacy of the entire educational process the age and individual peculiarities, avoiding expressions and prejudices of discriminatory type, promotion and implementation of social inclusion, celebrating diversity, focusing educational approaches on the needs of families, valuing authentic learning principles, respecting the curriculum’s coherence and continuity, respecting the international and European standards on early childhood education." [3]

- Integrated approach of contents – as natural principle of learning. "In kindergarten space, the integrated approach is an opportunity to creatively build the content that is based on exploiting the freedom of choice and exploring them in many different situations." [4] Regardless of the adopted strategy, integration "is centered on the principle of learning through research and discovery, based on a constructivist and comprehensive vision of the learner and the world around us." [5]

- The diversification of the curriculum - for example by proposing optional subjects. "The diversity of optionals developed by the kindergarten, with effective implementation of the curricular topics and the experiential domains listed in the core curriculum make the offer of a nursery school more attractive than another, resulting in inter-institutional competition." [6]

1.2 The Main Emphasis of the Curriculum Reform in Primary School Primary Romanian system includes preparatory grade and I- IV grades. - The main change concerns the transfer of the preparatory group (6-7 years old) from kindergarten in

the primary level (school) as part of compulsory education , which triggered reconsiderations of the finalities, of the curriculum, the syllabi, the ways of addressing and unfolding the activities etc.

- Focus on competences - requires a constructivist approach, orientation on practical approach and centering on the student.

- Focusing on the student and capitalization of his characteristics involve focus active learning and harmonious development of the personality of the student.

- Call for different ways of organizing the contents – interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity - curricular integration. Integrated teaching is currently experiencing a relatively rapid expansion.

2 Methodology In our study we followed the attitude towards the proposed changes and already implemented in the

curriculum reform in Romania of a total of 98 teachers who work in preschool and primary school in the North East of Romania (including the counties of Suceava, Iasi, Neamt, Botosani).

The investigated people were selected from among the masters, who have a teaching experience of at least 3 years and operate in both rural and urban environment.

The study was conducted by calling the focus group method and focused on two objectives: - Identifying the teachers’ attitude (opening, respectively inertia) to changes in the curricular area, as a

result of the reform; - Registration of strengths / opportunities and difficulties in the implementation of these curricular

changes in the educational settings. The interest in this issue is supported primarily by the need for stability in the education, as a response

to crossing a too long transition period, which created many times confusions and some gaps in the development of the educative process.

In this regard, we have also focused our attention on how teachers intervene with critical evaluation to new changes or if somehow they become very permeable to changes, sometimes apathetic and uninvolved without really being anchored in this process of transformations.


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3 Results, presentation, analysis and discussion As a result, there was a positive attitude of teachers towards the changes proposed in the curriculum

reform, justified, they say, by aligning with the European standards, positive attitude generally reported to aspects such as: consistency and continuity that seek to outline in the curriculum (eg – curricula for preparatory, 1st and 2nd grade), diversification of the activities of content organization, the inter - and cross- curricular approaches which give a unique depth to knowledge, open and effective communication, reflective and critical attitude, developing the personal values, moving the emphasis in the scholar activities on training students - children for life etc.

There were also some criticism, negative attitudes towards certain components such as: the lack of a real dialogue with the practitioners in the dynamic of the curriculum reform and of the proposed changes ( and we give as example the elaboration of the program at the discipline history for the fourth grade; in this regard, there are suggested even competitions of elaboration the curriculum involving practitioners; the unjustified disappearance of some disciplines of study; the lack of agreement between some disciplines, respectively the manuals that have high levels of abstraction and the students’ cognitive level; the mismatch of some programs and the volume of the proposed contents with the number of hours allocated to their study etc. Also, there are underlined the too frequent changes that occur in the area of educational policies, of the curriculum, in particular, which causes changes in the plans, programs and textbooks, in the teaching methodology etc., changes that maintain an atmosphere of insecurity and lack of consistency required by an effective and efficient process of education.

On the other hand , there are some sporadic refractory attitudes towards change in the curriculum plan, due to some inertia and the lack of flexibility, of adaptation and of acceptance of novelty at some teachers with minimal teaching experience (3, 4 years).

As themed snips, we synthesized a number of strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum reform in Romania confused in recent years, as it has been outlined by the investigated teachers:

Strengths of the curriculum reform: - Upgrading the curriculum, its decongesting and also expanding the decentralization - which is

implicitly a quality education, that focuses on developing the potential of each student;

"Upgrading the curriculum and its decentralization is the great gain of the reforms developed in recent years in the country."

(M.G., master student, second year, Management of Educational Institutions)

- Integrated approach of the curriculum- that provides opportunities for students / children in understanding life and in preparation for real life, that knowingly provides a coherent system of knowledge, and also the opportunity of the attractiveness of the ways of learning.

"The integrated approach of the curriculum that is applied and embraced in preschool and primary education should be continued in other levels of schooling, otherwise a lack of consistency from one level to another will be installed and that will be a minus of the curricular reform."

(M.H., first year, Management of Educational Institutions)

- Ensuring equal opportunities - focus on inclusion and inclusive education (support for disadvantaged groups), focus on personal learning pace and valuing each child.

"A great gain is the emphasis on helping in school, students from disadvantaged groups – those with learning difficulties, those who come from single parent families, those whose parents work abroad etc., who require differentiated and individualized treatment, curriculum adaptations, customized intervention plans."

(M.B., second year, Management of Educational Institutions)

Weaknesses of the curricular reform, and of the related reforms: - Some gaps in the educational policies with a direct reference to the size of the curriculum; - A lack of consistency and continuity in the changes proposed to the plans and curricula; - The themes of the programs are not completely responsive to the students’ needs and interests, and

hence the lack of motivation of the students, it requires a greater flexibility in the choice of topics and their adaptation to the target group; a balance between the theoretical and practical dimension provided within these curriculum documents is needed.

- Overloading the curricula; - A certain lack of continuity in the contents when shifting from one level of schooling to another.


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- There is a need of teacher training towards an integrated approach of the curriculum, just some teachers received initial training in this regard, others have participated at continuous training courses organized sporadically.

- Lack of specialists - counsellors, speech therapists, psychologists, support teachers with whom the teachers could collaborate in the school activities, especially for students with learning difficulties.

Conclusions Teachers realize the necessity of the qualitative leap in education and the need to overcome the crisis in

this space and have the right attitude for implementing the changes that the current curricular reform involves. It outlines “the understanding of the need to overcome the inertia to change" [7], the teachers are interested in the innovations and ways to implement them correctly, to avoid confusion and understand the philosophy of the proposed changes.

It can be concluded that we are witnessing "changes in the mind-set of teachers" [8] that have a positive feedback at the level of the whole formative approach and that teachers have the desire to capture the subtle and profound aspects of changes, showing also the prospective skills indispensable to the qualitative leap in education.

References [1] Dix annees de reformes au nivau de l'enseignement obligatoire dans L' Union europeene

(1984-1999), (1997). EURYDICE, Bruxelles. [2] Sorin Cristea, (2012). Reforma învăţământului în societatea bayată pe cunoaştere.Un model

aplicabil în România în Reforma învăţământului între proiectare şi realizare, coord. S. Cristea, E.D.P, Bucureşti, p.265.

[3] Curriculum pentru educaţia timpurile a copiilor cuprinşi între naştere şi 6 -7, Cadru de referinţă (2008). Ministerul Educaţiei Cercetării şi Tineretului.

[4] Jeder, D. (2013). Despre abordarea integrată a curriculumului în Programe de opţional pentru învăţământul preşcolar, EDP, p. 22.

[5] Ciolan, L. (2008). Învăţare integrată, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, p.29. [6] Caciuc Viorica Torii (2013). Curriculum opţional la nivelul învăţământului preşcolar în Programe

de opţional pentru învăţământul preşcolar, EDP, p. 34. [7] Nagy R, (2013). Religious texts and their role in Romanian Culture and Linguage, în vol.

Information and documentary communications and in the globalized society, Kiev, Ucraina, ISBN 987-966-598-805-2. ( pp. 138-139)

[8] Turturean Monica (2013). Current Issues of Motivation-Implications for an Education of Excellence, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 92 (2013) 968 – 972.


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Errors in the Use of Persuasion Tools in the Educational Activities

Jeder D.1 1 University "Ștefan cel Mare" from Suceava (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The ethical dimension in the training of teachers must appear as a priority of the strategy of developing

the study programs, and of education in general; it requires the development of a training strategy in this direction, in the sense that both theoretical parts and the training and practice of ethical skills offers the safety and security of a quality education. The paper aims to show ways to avoid the errors of using the tools of persuasion in teaching / training, aiming to awaken teachers’ awareness on the ethical dimensions of their actions, the acquisition of "practical wisdom", an expression of the ethical spirit and culture they have to define.

Keywords: the training of teachers, errors, persuasion, ethical dimensions

Introduction How can it respond to such needs? We believe that paying more attention to teacher training and, in

particular, to the ethical dimension of this training. Training for teaching career for today's society, training the professional in education, responsible, we say, for the moral spirit that it shapes and prints it to all those who are educated and trained in school. But are teachers aware of the ethical dimensions of their acts? Have they got an ethical culture defined well enough? Can they respond quite effectively to concrete moral situations? Do they have the exercise of constructing some ethical strategies in their training work? Have they got sufficient knowledge and ethical skills to help in making the best choices in their formative steps? These are just some questions that could be points in the re-settlement of priorities in this area. In conclusion, the imperatives of practicing the teaching profession have ethical dimensions to be known and deepen since the initial training for the profession. What should the teacher learn about the ethical and unethical dimension of education and training? The fact that in the formative steps there are circumstances that must be weighed very carefully morally and act accordingly. To make the right choices, it takes knowledge and ethical practice. To this end, we stopped at the following topics: unethical aspects of persuasion in education and the formation of the moral spirit - priority of the teacher's training.

1 Unethical aspects of persuasion in education Specialists say that "any attempt of persuasion involves ethical issues." [1] We say that sometimes the

teacher can wrongly use the tools of persuasion in his/her formative steps. By the roles he/she fulfills, the teacher is trained in persuasive actions. He must be convincing because his messages to shape the mind and spirit of the one who works, according to the targets which he/she proposes. He builds and launches strategies, seeks suitable alternatives and most times, he succeeds. But does the teachers build strategies taking into account the ethical implications? It seems sometimes he doesn't. An analysis of the unethical use of persuasion tools are, we believe, enlighten in for our discussion.

1.1 Call for the Teacher's Credibility The first criterion is that, as an authority, he builds most of the times the approach based on this

advantage. The teacher has authority, thus power, how could he understand when he imposes obedience. Studies have shown that "the perception of a higher status on an individual (in this case the teacher) increases the likelihood that those person's desires to be heard and fulfilled." [2] And so he also wins credibility. For the student, the teacher is the one "who knows", "who has access to knowledge", "the one who holds the truth", but also the one who listens and evaluates. Under the rule of credibility, students do not think critically, do not reflect, do not get involved in analyzing the message, but receive and internalize it as such. Experts say that


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"focus on source credibility at the expense of careful reflection is ethically suspect." [1] And we add that, sometimes, the trusted source can cause errors or scientific untruths (remember here the errors slipped in the textbooks) that can later cause confusions or "disappointments" with negative impact on students' attitude towards school in general and learning in particular. Then, the messages communicated do not always contain scientific truths - because, depending on the students' age, they are processed, adapted, performed by teachers, students come into contact with fragments of truth that, given blind and without recourse to a logic teaching, may affect the student's correct image of information. It is also about the influences of a perceived curriculum that expresses the teacher's experience, his pedagogical ethos and beliefs about what the student needs to know and do, as a result of the involvement in the learning experiences that the teacher created and provided to him.

1.2 Appeal to the Students' Emotions Another tool often wrong used by the teacher to is the appeal to emotions. Often, students feel bad

moods in class, triggered by the teacher's attitudes and behavior, who seeks at all costs his pupils' compliance, obedience, submission, even the lack of response from them. (It is known that students who ask questions, who have opinions, launch assumptions and so on are sometimes regarded as uncomfortable students, who "disturb the class"). The price paid by students is a consistent one, given that these strong emotional states like fear (triggered by short messages such as: If you do not learn, you will not pass the class!), guilt (your parents fell ill because of you!), uncertainty (You will not ever succeed because you do not work enough!) shame (You made a fool of yourself again, you're not capable of anything!) directly affects their self-esteem, confidence in their own forces, it emphasizes their vulnerability and may cause a heightened state of anxiety. Worse is that teachers sometimes exaggerate and even invent dangers that could, they believe, mobilize or correct students' attitudes and behavior. Unfortunately, they just trigger panic, lack of control, while "it would be correct that the appeal to fear should have as purpose the emphasize of positive feelings about themselves, resulted from the correct choice and not from the increase of the negative image." [1] "Some teachers violate on purpose the basic ethics rules" [3] and sometimes, in order to obtain obedience and impose authority by means of force, offend and humiliate students, which invariably causes resentment to the person who receives the message, frustration and a negative image of themselves, sometimes feelings of rebellion that can become violent behavior, in response to a similar violent behavior. It is considered that those who resort to such means to dominate the class actually express their own helplessness, ignorance, lack of tact, their frustrations and failures. It is a matter of ethics and professional conscience and also it is important to master the metacognitive techniques that represent a foothold in the self-knowledge of their own limitations, also in their recovery and improvement. The repeated self-blame of the students as the creation of a "culture of fear" [1] in school involves high risks and breaches of the professional ethics. The inefficiency of the appeal to feelings is related to the choices made by the teacher who is responsible for the arising harm. Therefore, the teacher must realize that persuasive messages should be positive, should encourage and support students, "triggering control of the danger that can lead to constructive answers." [1] Ethics specialists say that these appeals must address the mind and not the heart, the student must understand the reason for giving up a certain behavior, for example, and its change must not appear as an emotional response.

1.3 Using Threats Threats are generally unethical, especially those who cause students' suffering. Unfortunately, some

teachers have "the reflection of threats "and thus students are threatened with expulsion, not promoting, with small grades, without the teacher even knowing the causes of the unwanted behavior or the poor performance, the lack of motivation etc. We believe that such an example is the "strategic" grading, used by teachers at the beginning of school or year cycle, when studying a new object, when students are intentionally graded under their performance level, precisely in order to intimidate, to punish or to threat when "the serious study of the subject would not be their primary preoccupation". Such an evaluation creates, of course, an unpleasant atmosphere, tense relations between teachers and students, feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration or even fear that they will not meet the requirements. Keeping students under tension, underestimating their results in order to maintain their interest for study, it is a strategy covering the principles of ethics in education and training.Children react emotionally to threats, most of them with negative emotional reactions, and according to studies, those who are less reppelent to frustration say "how painful is it to get a grade reflecting the underestimation of the results." [4] Thus negative behaviors can be shaped, that can lead, in the case of sensitive students, even to quitting school. Even if threats are specified among the persuasion strategies, sometimes justified, it should be noted that in education, and not only, the threat is accepted only as a last resort, after all the other alternatives considered by the teacher have been exhausted. In fact, experts point out that in achieving education in general, and especially the moral ore, trainers must take into account a certain logic of affectivity taking into account the risk that "the paths of correct thinking are distorted by rather strong emotional states. [5]


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1.4 The Power to Influence Humor Can humour be a tool of persuasion? Specialists confirm this and sustain that intimate mechanisms of

thinking of students / children and adults respond quite well to humor. Humor can positively change the aura of the person who communicates, in our case the teacher: to increase the public's sympathy towards the communicator and increases the confidence that underpins the auditor's belief. It is commonly known that nice people are given more credit and are more reliable, so the chances of success increases in proportion to the humor's success, as in our example. The content of the joke is equally important because it can change the attitude of the auditor, drawing attention to the message or distracting from it. Humor "increases social attractiveness perceived as the communicator's and amplifies the perceptions of communicative competence" [1] Important is the purpose of the teacher - is worthy if the purpose is an educational one and therefore is among the limits of ethics. But sometimes teachers use humor to get students' confidence so they can intervene to influence them easier. Or, it is known, trust is essential in creating a proper climate to building good relationships. Experts say that in order to gain trust, the one who is interested in gaining the trust of others can reveal some less pleasant aspects, or own small faults. Here's how humor, as self-irony or funny self-appreciation can influence the students' behavior, creating a pleasant, relaxed and optimistic, even intimate atmosphere that can be harnessed negatively sometimes, for example, in order to obtain conformist students. Along with humor, among persuasion techniques there are flattery and cajolery that are based on the sincerity of the person who appeals to them. In short, honest compliments are ethical and the insincere ones unethical. In fact any strategy used in persuasion should be measured by targets, goals that guide them. In the art of persuasion used in education and training we should take into account every time the boundaries of ethics. Therefore, teachers should understand that they should not engage in persuasive actions at random, but only after the establishment of goals and reasons valuable for students and in their benefit. Persuasion used otherwise can shape a false illusion of professional performance.Respect, free will and tolerance are values that should underlie persuasion. Respect for students is fundamental to relate to the ethical limits, which overcomes this barrier shows a lack of affection and respect of the teacher for his students, a phenomenon that can extend to the profession itself. Free will is fundamental in the sense that the person who uses persuasion tells his interlocutor about his intentions, so that the latter makes decisions advisedly. Tolerance towards the persuaded is as important in the process of persuasion.Teacher's responsibility to persuade ethically is a condition of his professionalism. Perhaps that ethics courses read by the throughout his trainings, need to focus more on the shortcomings caused by unethical aspects of persuasion in education. Unfair practices used in persuasion in educational activities must be eliminated and a first step in this direction, we believe, is even their knowledge.

2 Formation of moral spirit - priority of teacher's training Education itself has a positive dimension reflected by the values they convey and internalize, by the

proposed goals and pursued results. But, as we have seen, the way to achieve the goals and values' internalization is often interrupted by the temptation of breaching the norms. You can get the same results even so, but the price is suffering that, in most cases, students live. We can say that all formative approach focused on ethical issues must start from these findings. Therefore, we affirm that moral spirit training should be a priority in training for the teaching career. Practical training for the teaching career shows that this dimension of ethics and professional deontology, equally important for teachers and students, is virtually ignored in the initial training, and used with enough restraint, in the continuous training of teachers. Or, there is a need to form an ethical awareness of those involved in training, in order to eliminate unfair practices that are often used in educational endeavor, either from ignorance, dunce and from malevolence. On the other hand, we have to develop ethical studies/courses for the future teachers because of the need of an ethical spirit – like “a personal professional moral” [6]: the professional ethics has two distinct components from the individual – collective perspective: a. a group professional ethics, which is developed in time, by acquisitions regarding the practice quality of each professional and of the professional community as a social group; b. a personal professional ethics, which is formed on several levels of individual moral development given as evolution opportunities, carried on at the same time with the professional development steps; represents one of the in-service teacher education purposes. [7]

How can the teacher's ethical spirit be shaped? We believe that a first step is the awareness of trainers about the negative (sometimes dramatic) impact a simple message can have on a student. And we refer to the language's influences and the symbolic actions, especially symbolic violence that has a consistent expansion in education, but also to the actual behavior of the teacher. Then we talk about the exercise of empathy with the children's feelings that gives teachers the opportunity of strong emotional connections and also a certain obedient) interpersonal sensitivity that increases harmony and balance in the relation with them. This exercise enhances motivations and maintains the interior balance necessary to "the harmony between individuals of a community" [8], in our case, school community. Compliance to norms, without inner experience, doesn't have a


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genuine moral purpose, but falls into error of duplicity, "as long as people are violent, deceitful, intolerant by nature (beliefs), they will find a new way to manifest their behavior", whether there is resort to the force of the law. The recourse to coercive courts, to imposition by coercion of the behavior's change, is not a teacher's morally success. So, an education in the spirit of genuine morality requires appeal to moral consciousness and free will. Moreover, Jean Piaget asserts that "in the moral, as in the intellectual, one does not actually possess but what was captured in itself." [9] Involvement and participation will support their moral verticality and their moral responsibility spirit in time. In this regard, O. Reboul said that the ultimate goal is "not to make the child an eternal (obedient) listener but to enable each child to become a responsible adult." [10]

But, without the emotional frame, this dimension of the moral spirit cannot evolve. We believe that love is one of the values that best supports this. And if we mention The Sacred Fathers who say that when you love, you cannot be wrong, we can imagine how a school, where teachers had no room for mistakes, would look like. How wonderful would be if all teachers, with no exception, loved their profession, their students and loved each other. [11] We would only get good faith, humanity, respect and tolerance-values that define teachers professionalism and his ethical spirit.

Conclusions The ethical dimension in the training of teachers must appear as a priority of the development strategy

of the study programs, and of education in general; it requires the development of a training strategy in this direction, in the sense where theoretical parts and also ethical skills training offers the safety and guarantees of a quality education. We are agree, under this idea, with one of our Romanian colleague’s statement – “we believe that Professional Ethics has to be an important component of the teachers education making a good start for designing a personal professional moral [6]. And all these for teacher's awareness of the ethical dimensions of their acts, of the acquisition of "practical wisdom and excellence of character" expression of the ethical spirit and culture that define them.

References:

[1] Gass, H.G. Seiter, J. S. (2009). Manual de persuasiune, Editura Polirom, Iași, pp.366 -378. [2] Pânișoară I. O.(2009). Profesorul de succes, Editura Polirom, Iași, p.30. [3] Jeder, D. (2006).Niveluri ale moralității și educației morale, EDP, București, 156. [4] Vrabie D.(1975). Atitudinea elevului față de aprecierea școlară, EDP, p.85. [5] Humă I. (1981). Conștiință și moralitate, Editura Junimea, Iași, p.305. [6] Seghedin, E. (2011a). Reflective capability – a specific goal of a Teachers Professional Ethics

Course. Teachers for the knowledge society, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier Publishing House, vol.11, march 2011.

[7] Seghedin, E. (2011b).Using e-learning in teacher education – an ethical approach. Proceedings of the 7th International Scientific Conference, eLearning and Software for Education, ELSE, vol. Anywhere, Anytime – Education on Demand, Ed. Universitara, pp. 359-367.

[8] Iosifescu St.(2004). Duplicitate și educație morală, Editura Aramis, București, p.101. [9] Piaget J.(1980). Judecata morală la copil, EDP, București, p.65. [10] Reboul O. (1992). Les valeurs de l΄éducation, PUF, Paris, p.121. [11] Nagy R. (2013). Religious texts and their role in Romanian Culture and Linguage, în vol.

Information and documentary communications and in the globalized society, Kiev, Ucraina, ISBN 987-966-598-805-2, pp. 138-139.


Fostering a Greater Sense of European Identity through Tourism

Jucan M.S.1, Jucan C.N.2

1 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (ROMANIA) 2 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (ROMANIA) [email protected] , [email protected]

Abstract

The European identity has to be constructed in the long line of social identities: group, local, ethnic, regional, national, supra-national. Consolidating a kind of European citizenship can be done only by respecting the diversity of cultures because very diversity can be the basis of a common identity.

The economic recession exacerbated the values crisis burst into a wave of xenophobia, racism and disrespect of human rights. This showed us that the difference between „us” and „others” has not been overcome yet and that there is more work to be done in the new states’ integration process. Romania has been one of the most negatively exposed in this respect.

Cultural tourism is not only part of one of the fastest developing industries, but also one through which contemporary cultural realities are created and identities are constructed. Cultural tourism, therefore, can be an asset through which Europe could be imagined, created, marketed and consumed as a unified cultural space. Cultural tourism can, beyond the diversity of European cultures, strengthen the sense of common values and heritage, and reinforce the feeling of European citizenship.

Drawing on existing literature on tourism, Romanian history and tourism management and the authors’ observations, the paper aims to evaluate how cultural tourism in particular, and tourism activities in general, can offer opportunities for Romania to create a strong identity into the European Union, focused on the respect of the environment, culture and populations. It looks in the context of tourism activities for a cultural profile which attracts not only the Romanian inhabitants but also a wider audience in order to reconstruct its national and European identity. Promoting shared European values can strengthen Europeans’ mutual understanding and sense of belonging.

Keywords: European identity, tourism, values

Background

EU, through the Treaty of Rome, was founded with the purpose of economic integration but, as the number of EU’s members increased, its legitimacy expanded to cultural and political life. Therefore, EU needed a common European identity in order to support its juridical and legal existence. This identity is supranational and has multicultural dimensions.

Europeans have in common the fact that they were engaged in constructing their national identities in the last two centuries based on history, a set of heroes embodying the national values, a language, cultural monuments, folklore, costumes, national dishes, etc. and a specific mentality. European identity represents a “multilevel identity which does not exclude other ‘identities’, other ‘loyalties’, from local ones to national ones [1] because, as research shows [2], [3], people articulate several identities, among which local, regional, national or supra-national and (even) global senses of self, as well as social, religious, ethnic, and other senses of self that define different but co-existing identities

As [4] stated „the binding force between European citizens could be the very fact that they are so culturally different from each other, whilst being bound by political and legal rights that distinguish them from those outside the community that do not enjoy its membership”. Tourism almost inevitably implies the contact with other's culture and creates, as [5] showed, a „supranational culture by forging connections among people from different milieus”. Tourism can create a „stronger feeling of European identity and citizenship” [6].

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1 The role of tourism in the creation of a European identity

From the late 18th century onwards the rise of tourism has seriously affected the creation and consolidation of the different national and regional identities all over Europe. Now we live in a Europe where “cooperation and integration, the single market and Schengen Agreement have largely erased the meaning of national boundaries other than as linguistic markers, and where travel... is vastly more commonplace than it was even one generation prior” [7]. This can create contemporary realities, identities and, through cultural tourism (an asset through which Europe could be imagined, created, marketed and consumed as a unified cultural space), the perception of a Europe culturally integrated. Culture and cultural heritage can establish identities and differences can localize and globalize the cultural and tourist experience, characterized by contact and mixing of cultures.

Back in 2006, the European Commission launched the European Heritage Label, a scheme to “highlight heritage sites that celebrate and symbolise European integration, ideals and history”. The aim of the program was to improve knowledge of European history, promote shared European values, and in this way to strengthen Europeans’ mutual understanding and sense of belonging.

Schemes such as the Capitals of Culture act on promoting European aims and ambitions, furthering inter-cultural relations. Designation ultimately rests on the „fulfilment of criteria that explicitly reflect notions of citizenship, similarity and diversity, promotion of tourism, and the incorporation of the cultural fields suggested by its parent scheme ‘Culture 2000’” [4].

More than 40 percent of tourist visits in Europe are motivated by cultural heritage, and cultural tourism has the highest growth rate in the entire tourism sector [8].

2 The Romanian national identity

Romania was always an integral part of Europe through its ancient history (Greek, Latin and Byzantine), the Romanian language, the symbols of European culture and history, Christianity, etc.

Regarding the origin, it was always assumed that the Romanians are directly descending from the ancient Romans and the Dacians. The Romans crucially defined their special identity, their uniqueness in contrast with the surrounding non-Latin ethno-cultural populations. The Dacians were fundamental in the defining of the homeland (their political organization encompassed the entire national territory of the modern Romanian state).

After that, as [9] stated, we made a “history of survival in the gun hole” with centuries of military and political struggle against the ottomans, the polish, Hungary, the Habsburg Empire, the old Russia or in the period of the First and the Second World War. We experienced a social, economic, political engineering derived from the Marxist-Leninist socialism, followed by a national-communist totalitarianism. We had both big courageous acts as well as historical losses.

The authentic historical landmarks which formed us as a nation gave us hope in the integration in the European Union. The Romanian elite expressed the widespread attachment to European culture and civilisation as an argument in its efforts to bolster national identity, pride and cohesiveness of the Romanian society.

Romania has to build, as many other states have done, a „heritage industry of cultural sites and related tourist services founded on a clear national sense of identity” [10]. But this sense of identity is far away for being accomplished.

3 Tourism and its role in creating a strong Romanian identity into the European Union

National identity will always be affected by social, economic and political changes associated with development, but beyond this, tourism and tourism marketing also tell us much about national identity.

Nation branding is a growing phenomenon among nation states and the content of branding “both says a great deal about the state’s vision of the nation — who it is or hopes to be — and also speaks to its own citizenry” [11].

[12], [13] consider that a positive image of a destination could increase the international political influence, restore international credibility and enhance a country’s reputation. It is very important for a nation to have a good reputation in order to increase its competitiveness and enhance the economic, political and social development [14].

Eastern Europe “has been subject to largely pejorative constructions in the West” [15]. Westerners depict them as they choose, based on stereotypes (uncertain and ambiguous periphery of Europe) [16]. So the

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image of Romania abroad is quite negative, influenced both by stereotypes (gypsies, Dracula, Eastern European country) and acts of Romanian citizens living abroad (especially Spain, France and Italy) [17].

Transition countries, of which Romania is part, have to reinvent their image, to “downplay the communist legacy” [18] and to form a new national identity. The main functions of nation and destination branding in these countries are: “to distance the countries form the old communist system; to change negative or false stereotypes; to redefine and reconstruct national identities by emphasizing the ‘Europeanness’ and recreating a new national image and dissociate from the communist past; to increase the incomes from tourism and generate customer loyalty” [19], [20]. As the same author mentioned there are some challenges in this process:

- the need to create a modern image to comply with the requirements of the EU accession; - the need to reverse the negative image of the country regarding the poor infrastructure, instability,

stereotypes; - the need to create a coherent brand despite the politicization of the process, the lack of continuity and

strategic approach, the lack of capital to support the long term investment or the promotion, the lack of collaboration and support from the stakeholders;

- the need to develop niche tourism products, the difficulties to balance the needs of Western and Eastern tourists.

A successful Romanian campaign will depend on the ability to change the negative image of the country abroad and increase its reputation and should address the negative perceptions of Romania (personal safety, infrastructure, Roma people) and try to change them into positives. At the same time promoting brand identity without solving possible problems could cause negative effects due to the difference between the expectations and the actual performance [21].

Romania promoted until now natural attractions, rural landscapes and traditions. The image of Romania was one of a mythical space (Dracula myth, myth of rural space and traditions, myth of culture and traditions related to the church), with wild landscapes, welcoming locals, villages and churches with an accent on faith and traditions, on Romanian cultural heritage, folklore and rural life style.

Tourists were welcomed to experience nature and rural world, but there was no promotion on the national level of the cultural heritage, local cuisine, the nightlife, beaches or accommodation.

The self-image of Romanians continues to be dominated by the negative connotations (dishonesty, cowardness, corruption) persistent in the last 20 years [22]. This is another reason why it is so important to recreate the national brand. As [23] stated “nation branding as a means to enhance national reputation abroad is not only on the rise; it is also oriented toward a home audience”.

We can conclude that the Romanian brand do not offer a holistic or unique image. The government has to establish culture related institutes to invent, promote or revive objects, images and act that are said to represent the Romanian nation and its uniqueness in The European Union. Re-imagining the nation takes place continually and we need to renegotiate the past and the present, to understand our place into the European Union and the changing dynamics of national identity formation.

4 Discussions

There are some opinions that in order for European identity to develop, national identity needs to be at least eroded. Other opinions consider that the bases of identification with the European community are radically different from those with the national community and national and European identities coexist peacefully. It is obvious that too much national identity can lead to euroscepticism, xenophobia, etc., but too little national identity can also bring the loss of sovereignty, the loss of national culture and identity, etc. We consider that we need as much national identity to be committed onto our national sovereignty, but not so much that it would hinder moving forward as one strong and united European Union.

In the history, cultures were exchanged and changed which brought people’s lives and their heritage closer together. So, in order to create a European identity, the European Union has to embrace local and national differences, to be more sensitive to the national and even ethnic identities that make up the Europeans, to embrace its diversity, to celebrate differences and allow states more cultural latitude.

Identities are the products of collective experiences, and loyalties that are earned over long periods of time. Tourism can create a stronger feeling of European identity and citizenship because outsiders frequently “know” nations largely through constructs experienced by tourism (or the possibility of tourism).

Studying tourism aids in understanding the changing dynamics of national and European identity formation. Tourism marketing amounts to showcasing the nation, its land, history, and people - i.e., the very things that [24] argues national identities are built upon. And, as [11] stated, examining how the state promotes the nation for tourism purposes provides a window into how the state imagines the nation itself.

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Many authors consider that a positive image of a destination could increase the international political influence, restore international credibility and enhance a country’s reputation. This is very important for Romania because despite the fact that it was always an integral part of Europe through its ancient history, its language, the symbols of European culture and history, Christianity, etc. its image abroad is quite negative, influenced both by stereotypes (gypsies, Dracula, Eastern European country) and acts of Romanian citizens living abroad. Also the self-image of Romanians continues to be dominated by the negative connotations. Under this circumstances “nation branding” as a means to enhance national reputation has to become the top priority of our government. Tourism can assist both the projection of national identity and the process of economic revitalisation.

References

[1] Varsori, A., Petricioli, M. (2004). Europe, Its Borders and the Others. In R. Frank (ed.). Les identités européenes au XX siècle: diversités, convergences et solidarités. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 81-99

[2] Wintle, M. J. (2005). European Identity: A Threat to the Nation?, In Europe’s Journal of Psychology, http://www.ejop.org/archives/2006/02/communication_a.html

[3] Straubhaar, J. D. (2008). Global, Hybrid or Multiple? Cultural Identities in the Age of Satellite TV and the Internet. NORDICOM Review, 29(2), pp. 11-29

[4] Gillen, S. (2001). Citizenship, Tourism and Culture in European Identity Building, Tourism Policy and Planning, http://www.arasite.org/sgmasa1.htm

[5] Judd, D.R. and Fainstein, S.S. (eds) (1999). The Tourist City. London: Yale University Press [6] Barnes, I, Barnes, P. (1993). Tourism policy in the European Community, in Pompl, W. and

Lavery, P. (eds) (1993), Tourism in Europe. Structures and Developments. Oxon: CAB International

[7] Green, D. (2007). The Europeans: political identity in an emerging polity. Boulder: Lynne Rienner

[8] Richards, G. (2011). Cultural tourism trends in Europe: a context for the development of Cultural Routes. In:Khovanova-Rubicondo, K. (ed.) Impact of European Cultural Routes on SMEs’ innovation and competitiveness, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, pp. 21-39.http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/culture/routes/StudyCR_en.pdf

[9] Fora, O. (2009) Identity of Romania, Journal of Identity and Migration Studies, Volume 3, number 1

[10] Dimancescu, D. (2004). Romania Redux: a view from Harvard [11] Clancy, M. (2009). Brand New Ireland [12] Yan, J. (2008). Ethical imperatives in nation branding: smaller nations enter the global dialogue

through nation branding, pp. 170-179, as cited in Dinnie, K. (2008), Nation Branding: concepts, issues, practice, Butterworth-Heinemann Dutton, Oxford

[13] Anholt, S. (2005). Brand new justice: how branding places and products can help the developing world, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford

[14] Anholt, S. (2009). Places: identity, image and reputation, Palgrave Macmillan [15] Hall, D. (1999). Destination branding, niche marketing and national image projection in Central

and Eastern Europe, Journal of Vacation Marketing, 3, pp. 227-237 [16] Light, D. (2007). Dracula tourism in Romania: Cultural identity and the State, Annals of Tourism

Research, 34:3, pp. 746-765 [17] Nicolescu, L., Paun, C., Popescu, A.I., Draghici, A. (2011). Romania trying to be an European

trend, available at http://www.managementmarketing.ro/pdf/articole/93.pdf [18] Kaneva, N., Popescu, D. (2011). National identity lite: Nation branding in post- Communist

Romania and Bulgaria, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 14, pp. 191- 207 [19] Szondi, G. (2006). International Context of Public Relations, in R. Tench and L Yeomans (eds.),

Exploring Public Relations, FT/Prentice Hall, London [20] Szondi, G. (2007). The Role and Challenges of Country Branding in Transition Countries: the

Central and Eastern Europe experience, in Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 3(1): 8-20 [21] Qu, H., Kim, L.H., Im, H.H. (2011) A model of destination branding: integrating the concepts of

the branding and destination image. Tourism Management, 32(3), pp. 465-476

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[22] Nicolescu, L., Paun, C., Popescu, A.I., Draghici, A., Pinzaru, F. (2007). National Identity – an Essential Element for Country Branding. The Case of Romania, Review of management and Economical Engineering, vol. 6, No. 6

[23] van Ham, P. (2001). The rise of the brand state: the postmodern politics of image and reputation, available at: http://eastwestcoms.com, accessed on the 18th of May 2011

[24] Kearns, G. (2001). Constructions of the Social, Journal of Urban History 28, pp. 98-106


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The Injury Brought to the Bodily Integrity or Health – the Damage of the Indirect Victims

Jugastru C.1

1 Prof. PhD. “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, “Simion Bărnuţiu” Law School (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The damage by ricochet is a loss having a personal character, the harmed third parties invoking their

own loss, caused by the injury brought to the bodily integrity of the direct victim or by her decease. In order to be compensated, the damage by ricochet has to be a certain and licit damage. The certain loss by ricochet (that is the clear, undoubted damage that can be evaluated in the present) is susceptible of reparation.

The damage of the victims by ricochet may have an economic or non-economic nature. A series of expenses that are brought by the bodily injury such as the loss of the financial support provided by the direct victim enter into the sphere of the economic damage, pecuniary measurable. In the same manner, the loss suffered through the decease of the victim or the grief determined by the disability of the direct victim, shape the damage that cannot be pecuniary measured, entitled affective damage. Both types of damages by ricochet can be simultaneously present in the event of the decease of the direct victim and in the case of her survival.

Keywords: damage, ricochet, characteristics, economic damage, non-patrimonial damage

1 Preliminary The new Civil code regulates in Article 1387-1395 the injury brought to the bodily integrity or health of

the person. The totality of these provisions regards both the direct victims, and the persons entitled to compensation in the event of the decease of the direct victim; it regards both the economic aspects and the non-patrimonial loss generated by the injury brought to the bodily integrity or health. Moreover, the problem of compensation when the injury concerns a minor person, is also settled.

Thus, the injury brought to the bodily integrity or health appears as a complex damage that is presented in two dimensions: the damage caused to the direct victim and the damage caused to indirect victim (victims), that is to other persons than the direct victim.

The damage caused to the indirect (mediated) victim is a damage caused to other person that the direct victim. It is a damage reflected on other persons that, depending on the case, may have a kinship or affinity relationship with the direct victim. The existence of such relationship is not mandatory. For the non-patrimonial side of the damage by ricochet or of the reflected damage is necessary to prove a real relationship of affection with the direct victim.

2 Indirect victims. Delimitations. Characteristics of the damage by ricochet

2.1 Victims by Ricochet Indirect victims, mediate victims or victims by ricochet [1]. The terminological equivalence sheds light

on a category of persons whose damage is generated by the fact of the decease of the direct victim, or, according to each case, of the injury suffered by the direct victim. The persons whose subjective rights or legitimate interests are harmed, as a result of the decease or injury of the physical and/or mental integrity of the initial victim, compose the category of the victims by ricochet.

The phrase “victim by ricochet” does not overlap the notion of “successor”. The difference is clearer when the direct victim survives. If the direct victim died after filing the petition, her successors can continue the action for reparation for the damage brought by the unlawful act, they can claim reparation if the victim of the unlawful act died before filing the action.

Followers of the personality of the deceased one, the successors claim the reparation of the damage the first suffered during his life; the victims by ricochet rely, in return, on a personal damage, generated by the decease of the direct victim: either an economic damage (usually the loss of the financial support), or the damage of affection. The object of the petition is different, the damage by ricochet being a loss that is born directly in the person of the one harmed by ricochet [1].


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2.2 The Damage by Ricochet Notions, characters. The totality of harmful consequences suffered by the indirect victims as a result of

the decease or injury of the direct (initial) victim, gives expression to the damage by ricochet (reflected damage, damage suffered by the indirect victims).

The damage by ricochet is a loss having a personal character, the harmed third parties invoking their own loss, caused by the injury brought to the bodily integrity of the direct victim or by her decease. In order to be compensated, the damage by ricochet has to be a certain and licit damage. The certain loss by ricochet (that is the clear, undoubted damage that can be evaluated in the present) [2]1 is susceptible of reparation.

Lawfulness represents a condition of reparation of the damages by ricochet, in the context of the provisions of the Resolution of the Council of Europe (75-7) of 14th March 1975 on the reparation of damages in case of bodily lesions and decease [1] and of the new Romanian Civil code. The licit character is evoked in the provisions of the Principle number 15 of the Resolution (75-7), where it is stated that in the event of the victim’s decease, the concubine has the right to compensation but only if the relationship of concubinage was stable. Compensation can be refused in case of adulterine concubinage.

2.3 The Varieties of the Damage by Ricochet The damage of the victims by ricochet may have an economic or non-economic nature. A series of

expenses that are brought by the bodily injury such as the loss of the financial support provided by the direct victim enter into the sphere of the economic damage, pecuniary measurable. In the same manner, the loss suffered through the decease of the victim or the grief determined by the disability of the direct victim, shape the damage that cannot be pecuniary measured, entitled affective damage.

Both types of damages by ricochet can be simultaneously present in the event of the decease of the direct victim and in the case of her survival. In each of the hypotheses, the resulted damage has a certain peculiarity that must be treated distinctly.

2.4 Criteria of Assessment of the Victims by Ricochet The assessment of the damage by ricochet was dictated, over the course of time and within the different

legal systems, by different reasons. During time, either the criterion of the relationship of filiation or of alliance or the criterion of the violation of the legally protected legitimate interest, were used. Such criteria, regarded as too rigid, delimited the sphere of the persons entitled to claim the reparation of the damages by ricochet [17]. The new Civil code opens the possibility for the court of justice, to award compensation to the ascendants, descendants, brothers, sisters and spouse, for the pain suffered because of the victim’s death, as well as to any other person, who in turn, can prove the existence of such damage.

3 The economic damage of the indirect victim In the hypothesis of the decease of the direct victim, the third persons stipulated by law are entitled to

the reparation of their own damage generated by the fact of the victim’s death. a. Firstly, the compensation owed to those which, according to the law, are entitled to maintenance from

behalf of the deceased one, is regarded. b. The unlawful act may bring about states of depression or heart diseases for the members of the

victim’s family. If due to this fact they are forced to (temporary or permanently) interrupt their professional activity [1], the claim for compensation will include this damage.

c. The persons that made expenses for the care of the health of the direct victim are entitled to the reimbursement of these expenses.

d. Those that made expenses for the victim’s funeral [3] are entitled to their reimbursement.

4 The non-patrimonial damage of the indirect victim “To mint coins on one’s own tears is an unusual alchemy” This is the argument usually invoked by those that oppose the idea of compensation of the affective

damage. The affective damage consists of the grief caused by the harm of the feelings of affection towards the victim of the bodily damage, grief determined by the hurting, mutilation, disfigurement or death of a loved

1 Are certain the actual damages (that have totally produced until the moment when reparation is claimed) and the future damages, that will certainly occur and can be assessed based on sufficient elements (L. Pop, I.F. Popa, S.-I. Vidu, Tratat elementar de drept civil. Obligaţiile [Elementary treatise of civil law. Obligations], Editura Universul Juridic, Bucharest, 2012, p. 562-563.


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being. It may be stated that this is the classical type of the non-patrimonial damage generated by the decease or serious injury of a close person.

“The trading” of the pain provoked by the death of a dear one or by the physical or mental decrepitude resulted from the unlawful act is –as it was stated- indecent. The judge is put in an uncomfortable situation: either he accepts the trading of the feelings of affection at the highest level, risking thus the questionable (even scandalous) use of the significant sums offered to the plaintiff, or he awards compensation at the lowest level and thus enters into contradiction with the principle according to which the life, health, integrity, are inestimable values. Both versions are inadequate, but what is considered as shocking is not the award of money for the pain suffered, but the often ridiculous negotiations for the assessment of the intensity of pain. To this argument, we can add the fact that it is difficult to establish a list of the persons entitled to compensation, as it is impossible to prove the existence and intensity of certain feelings [4].

The position of the judicial practice is also not unitary. In certain states reparation is refused (for instance in Quebec an old jurisprudence that does not allow compensation was restored). The old English law firmly rejected compensation considering that the moral grief cannot be evaluated in money. In the name of the moral principles, the marriage between the pain caused by the death of a close being and the pecuniary compensation was unconceivable [5]. Starting with the ‘80s, reparation is allowed only in certain cases (mother and father for the death of their child, the surviving husband for the death of the other husband – in England, according to the Administration of Justice Act, 1982).

On the other hand the jurisprudence of France and Belgium posed fewer restrictions. Under the condition of the proof of damage, compensation was granted not only to the spouse, parent, brother (from the legitimate or adoptive family), but also to the non-adulterous concubinage or to the fiancée [6]. Sometimes a real factual presumption operated in favor of the spouse and of the children that lived with the direct victim [7]; but not of the spouse that was separated in fact from the deceased victim [6], and thus he was compelled to bring evidence of the affective damage he suffered. The Dintilhac classification stipulates that, in practice, the compensation of the affective damage takes place quasi-automatic for the victim’s parents [16].

5 Romanian law. The solutions of the new Civil code Within the Romanian law pecuniary compensations were awarded for the affective damage under the

1865 Civil code by means of interpretation of its provisions. The Romanian old judicial practice compensated more frequently the affective damage – the loss suffered by the family of the victim that died in transportation accidents [8],[9]; after 1989 a series of decisions awarded sums of money for the victims by ricochet in the case of car crashes [10],[11],[12],[15]. The foreign jurisprudence stated that the moral loss resulted from the “profound and irremediable pain caused by the loss of a loved one, relative or ally”[11] entitles to compensation.

The new Romanian Civil code uses an extensive conception in compensating the affective damage. We believe that the main criterion that grounds the reparation of the indirect damage (in what concerns the moral side) is the existence of some close affectionate relationships between the victim and certain persons. The affective damage consists of the pain and mental suffering caused by the loss of a dear one. Thus, is entitled to receive compensation that person who, due to the relationships had with the victim, was seriously affected in her feeling towards the victim. An affective damage can occur not only to the persons linked to the victim by consanguinity or kinship, but also to other persons. We do not agree with the restrictive conception that limits the sphere of those who can claim compensation to the victim’s relatives or kin. We do not agree either with the extensive conception according to which the mere fact of claiming the damage, with the sole motivation of the affectionate relationships with the victim, opens the path for an action to claim compensation. In the latter hypothesis abnormal solutions could be reached, as for example, one of the solutions found in the French doctrine regarding the compensation awarded to two concubines of the same victim [14]. We consider that the main element which has to be taken into consideration is the existence of a close affectionate relationship between the plaintiff and the victim at the time of her decease (no difference will be made for example, between close relatives on the one hand, and fiancée or natural child, on the other hand).

6 The affective damage in the case of the survivial of the direct victim According to the new Civil code, the affective damage is compensated only if it represents the result of

the death of the direct victim (that is what the doctrine and jurisprudence call solatium doloris – affective damage caused by the death of a loved one).

The legal text does not allow the compensation of the affective damage suffered by the collateral victims, when the illegal deed followed in the injury brought to the bodily integrity and health. It is true that most of the decisions passed in the judicial practice are favorable to the compensation of the victims by ricochet especially when the direct victim died. For example it was noted that the moral damage resulted from “the profound and irreparable pain caused by the loss of a dear one, relative or kin” [13] entitle to compensation


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(solution issued in 1933 by the Court of Appeal of Amiens). Nevertheless, compensation was not awarded to a mother for the reparation of the damage caused by the sufferings and invalidity of her son [13]. Within the Romanian practice, compensation was granted for the moral losses suffered by the parents of the victim deceased in car accidents2 or murdered3.

We believe that, in certain cases, compensation may be awarded also when, following the illegal act, the decease of the direct victim does not occur. We do not plead for the automatic compensation of the relatives and persons close to the victim every time the victim survives the bodily injury resulted from the wrongful act.

References [1] Lambert-Faivre, Y., Porchy-Simon, S. (2009), Droit du dommage corporel. Systèmes

d’indemnisation, 6e édition, Dalloz, Paris,pp: 300-303; 319. [2] Pop, L., Popa, I.F., Vidu, S.-I. (2012), Tratat elementar de drept civil. Obligaţiile [Elementary

treatise of civil law. Obligations], Editura Universul Juridic, Bucharest. [3] Boilă, L.R., (2012). Izvoarele obligaţiilor [Sources of obligations] in Baias F.-A., Chelaru E.,

Constantinovici R., Macovei I. (coordonatori), Noul Cod civil. Comentariu pe articole [in the New Civil code. Comment on articles](coord. F.-A. Baias, E. Chelaru, R. Constantinovici, I. Macovei), 1st volume, Editura C.H. Beck, Bucharest

[4] Morange, G. (1962), À propos d’un reviriment de jurisprudence: la réparation de la douleur morale par le Conseil d’État, in Recueil Dalloz, Chronique

[5] Baudoin, L.,( 1955). Le Solatium doloris, in Cahiers de droit, vol. 2, No. 1/1955 [6] Viney, G., Markesinis, B. (1985), La réparation du dommage corporel, Economica, Paris,pp: 81-

85. [7] Bancal, J. (1964), L’indemnisation du préjudice d’enfants mineurs dont le père a été victime

d’un accident mortel, în Semaine Juridique, Édition Génerale, I, 1821, p: 83 [8] Rosetti-Bălănescu, I., Băicoianu, Al. (1943), Drept civil român. Studiu de doctrină şi de

jurisprudenţă [Romanian civil law. Study of doctrine and jurisprudence], vol. II, Editura Socec, Bucharest

[9] Hamangiu, C., Rosetti-Bălănescu, I. (1929), Tratat de drept civil român [Treaty of Romanian civil law], vol. II, Editura „Naţionala”, Bucharest

[10] Buletinul jurisprudenţei, Culegere de practică judiciară penală, 1998, Court of Appeal of Cluj (2000), Editura Lumina Lex, Bucharest

[11] Papadopol, V. (1999), Culegere de practică judiciară penală pe anul 1998, Court of Appeal of Bucharest, Editura All Beck, Bucharest

[12] Ungureanu, A.(1998), Jurisprudenţă penală a Curţii de Apel Bacău pe anul 1997 – 204 speţe comentate, Editura Lumina Lex, Bucharest

[13] Codul penal Carol al II-lea [Criminal code of Carol II], annotated by C. Rădescu, I. Ionescu-Dolj, I. Gr. Perieţeanu, V. Dongoroz, H. Asnavorian, Tr. Pop, M.I. Papadopolu, N. Pavelescu (1937), vol. I, Partea generală, Art. 1-183 [General Part, Articles 1-183], Editura Librăriei Socec&Co. S.A., Bucharest

[14] Gazette du Palais, No.1/1933 [15] Dreptul, No.12/1996 [16] http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/var/storage/rapports-publics/064000217/0000.pdf [17] Lambert-Faivre, Y. , (1998). L’indemnisation des victimes de prejudices non économiques, in

Cahiers de droit, vol. 39, No. 2-3/1998, p. 557-558.

2 See Court of Appeal of Cluj, criminal section, dec. No. 378/26.05.1998, in Buletinul jurisprudenţei. Culegere de practică judiciară, 1998 [Bulletin of jurisprudence, 1998], Court of Appeal of Cluj, Editura Lumina Lex, Bucharest, 2000, p.302-303; Court of Appeal of Bucharest, IInd criminal section., dec. No.27/1998, in V. Papadopol, Culegere de practică judiciară penală pe anul 1998, Curtea de Apel Bucureşti [Collection of judicial practice for 1998, Court of Appeal of Bucharest], Editura All Beck, Bucharest, p.103; Covasna tribunal, criminal dec. No.55/A/13.05.1996, in Dreptul, No.12/1996, p.110; Court of Appeal of Bacău, criminal section, dec. No.84/A/3.06.1997, in A. Ungureanu, Jurisprudenţă penală a Curţii de Apel Bacău, pe anul 1997 – 2004 speţe commentate [Criminal jurisprudence of the Court of Appeal of Bacau for 1997 -204 cases commented], Editura Lumina Lex, Bucharest, 1998, p.151-153. 3 Court of Appeal of Iaşi, criminal dec. No.330/20.09.2001, in Ş. Albert, M. Zarafiu, D. Manole, L. Uţă, D. Canangiu, D. Pop, Culegere de practică judiciară pe anii 1999-2002 [Collection of judicial practice for 1999-2000], coordinators: M. Alexandrescu, C. Jora, Editura Lumina Lex, Bucharest, 2002, p.372-373. Within the case the amount of the compensation for the affective damage was calculated taking into account the victim’s degree of fault in committing the act.


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Training of Students to Preparation of Electronic Tutorials on the Basis of New Educational Programs

Khalikova K.1

1 PhD, Professor, Abay Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Almaty (KAZAKHSTAN) [email protected]

Abstract Students training problems to preparation of electronic tutorials on the basis of new educational

programs are considered. Development and introduction of new educational programs is one of positive sides in education modernization in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The new educational program of vocational training on pedagogical specialties was developed at Abay Kazakh National Pedagogical University. The discipline «Designing course materials with the help of a computer» is one of the main subjects, which promotes formation of the competence of a specialist. There are also given the main aims and objectives of training of this discipline and the general cultural, professional, specialized competences formed as a result of training. And summary content of the discipline is included.

Keywords: Information and communication technology, ICT competence, electronic educational resources, new academic program

1 The role and ICT competence in the educational system of Republic of the Kazakhstan

In educational systems of the Republic of Kazakhstan, provision of qualitative educational services all over the country at the level of world standards is set as one of basic tasks while the welfare of each state and its further development and acknowledgment in the world arena is based on the level of education of people and, in particular, level of the growing generation education. It is the most urgent in modern conditions when relation to all kinds of education is changing all over the world. Modern changes in socio-economic relations and development of competitive advantages of the Republic of Kazakhstan in modern world economy demand serious modernization of education, introduction of innovative technologies into academic process of higher educaton establishments, transformation of education into flexible self-developing system adequately responsing challenges of the time and changing demands of the society. Education is to be a moving force that is able to significantly raise the quality of citizens’ life.

Education is one of the basic resources of the public progress development. President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev marked improvement of the pedagogical education in his Message of 2012: “...to strengthen standards of the basic pedagogical education and demands to professional development of school and university teachers” (Nazarbayev N.А. [1]). The new paradigm of education is aimed at formation and development of highly qualified human capital – professionals, which will be provided through the system of continuous educational process for specialists.

Nowadays, according to the State program of education development for 2011-2020 in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the work on integration of the higher education into the world educational space is being continued. Today integration is the most important principle of development of the modern educational system. Development of education is the platform for future economic prosperity of the country. In this connection, on the basis of researches held in 2011 the new educational program for pedagogical specialties was developed at Abay Kazakh National Pedagogical University, and this program is based on the competence approach and is approved in 2012 by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan [2]. The basic task of the educational program is in defining the contents, forms, means and methods of managing the educational process for formation of common cultural, professional, and special competences for the future bachelor of informatics. The revision of the contents of basic components’ disciplines upon specialty “Informatics” is to be duly reflected in the training model of an informatics teacher. That is why in this work we consider formation of ICT competence and contents of the new discipline in the process of training future informatics teachers.


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One of the essential models of activity of a teacher in the modern society is ICT competence. On the one hand it is connected with increase of ICT means’ role in the society and education as well, and on the other hand it is connected with transfer of education to the competence approach. The competence approach is considered as the basis for evaluation of education and is the basis of state educational standards of the new generation. The professional competence is defined as readiness of a specialist to adequately react to arising life and professional tasks, ability to independently and qualitatively solve these tasks, and also ability to evaluate results. ICT competence is one of the basic competences of a modern specialist.

1.1 Research Methodology 1.1.1. Purpose and tasks of research

Purpose of research is theoretical justification of the contents and development of the academic discipline forming ICT competence of future specialists.

Research tasks: 1. to disclose the essence and define the role and place of ICT competence in training of future teachers; 2. to define stages of formation of ICT competence in training of future informatics teachers; 3. to define purposes, tasks and competences being formed, in the process of the course study; 4. to develop the contents of the course “Designing course materials by means of a computer”

contributing to formation of ICT competence of future specialists.

1.1.2. Research methods In the process of research the following methods were used: theoretical method (analysis and synthesis

of scientific literature and educational standard of higher professional education; abstracting, concretization, analogy drawing; study and summarizing of pedagogic experience upon the problem of a specialist’s ICT competence formation); empiric method (pedagogic observation, questionnaires, conversation, testing).

2 Results

2.1 The Notion of a Teacher’s ICT Competence In mass pedagogical consciousness ICT competence is functional literacy of subjects of education, i.e.

ability to use computer and other modern equipment. ICT competence formation analysis within the frames of the state educational system at all its levels

permits to make a conclusion that functional literacy of subjects of education does not bring to qualitative changes of results of the educational system activity. The pedagogical science explains this restriction by the whole range of factors. Analyzing existing researches in this direction, one can make a conclusion that a teacher’s ICT competence is a complex notion, which is considered as a certain way of life activity on the one hand, and on the other hand includes purposeful efficient application of technical knowledge and skills in real activity as to methodological aspect. A teacher’s ICT competence corresponds to the common notion of competence, at that having its specific characteristics. A. A. Kuznetsov and other researchers consider a teacher’s ICT competence in three basic aspects [3]: availability of the sufficient level of functional literacy in the sphere of ICT; efficient justified application of ICT in activity for solving professional, social and personal tasks; understanding of ICT as the basis of a new paradigm in education directed to development of students as subjects of information society being able to create knowledge and operate masses of information for receiving new intellectual and activity result. Applying to foreign experience in defining the notion of teachers’ ICT competence, methodology of its formation and evaluation shows that it is also connected with solving tasks of using ICT by teachers in their professional activity. However this experience goes beyond frames of the issue on ICT use in the educational process and lies in the course of realization of modern philosophic and theoretical concepts forming prospects of public development.

This statement is reflected in the UNESCO project on formation of a new educational paradigm meeting tasks of achieving different global purposes and different vision of the future. The essential part of this project is activity in the ICT sphere. In the concentrated form, statements about it are given in the document “UNESCO norms (standards) of teachers’ ICT competence” [4]. Professional ICT competence of teachers regarding the contents, forms and methods of pedagogical activity in three possible levels are characterized in it in detail.

2.2 Stages of ICT Competence Formation Formation of a future teacher’s ICT competence among higher pedagogical education students occurs at

studying the following courses: “Operating Systems”, “Mathematical Bases of Computer Calculations”,


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“Computer Hardware”, “Techniques of teaching Informatics and ICT”, “Designing course materials by means of a computer” (from modules of special disciplines, component of compulsory disciplines) [5]. At that, three basic stages can be marked. The first stage is in the process of studying the following courses: “Operating Systems”, “Mathematical Bases of Computer Calculations”, “Computer hardware”; the second stage – “Techniques of teaching Informatics and ICT”, the third stage – “Designing course materials by means of a computer”. Bases of ICT competence formation among future informatics teachers are created at the third stage in the process of studying of the course “Designing course materials by means of a computer”. This course is the basic course for formation of the suggested competence.

2.3 The Purpose and Basic Objectives of Studying the Discipline The purpose of studying the discipline is formation of the notion on electronic educational resources,

basic methodological and technological approaches to development of Electronic Educational Resources (EER), development of ICT competence, and practical skills in the sphere of multimedia EERs creation.

Basic objectives of studying the discipline are: formation of the system of students’ notions on electronic educational resources and possibilities, and their application in the academic process; accumulation of practical skills in structuring academic material with use of the hypertext technology and creation of pedagogic and technological scenarios; gaining practical skills in preparation of text-and-graphic and multimedia applications; development of system notion of test tasks’ development principles; mastering technologies of tests’ creation.

2.4 The Main Competences of Studying the Discipline The process of studying the discipline is directed to formation and development of common cultural

competences: formation of motivation, readiness and interest to information and communicative activity on the basis of understanding its advantages in the educational process; preparedness to independent fulfillment of certain activities; ability to independently gain new knowledge and skills upon specialty; ability to design EER (to define the place of the electronic resource in the educational system chosen by a teacher, its methodological functions and pedagogical designation, etc.); ability to develop electronic educational resources by means of relevant tools (editors, software shells, etc.) in the direction of the forthcoming academic activity.

The studying process of the discipline is directed to formation and development of professional competences: development of communicative culture of a person in the aspect of media education: formation of creative thinking , speech culture, culture of interaction with partners, etc; readiness to provision of computer and technological support for students’ activity in educational process and extracurricular work.

The studying process of the discipline is directed to formation and development of discipline competences: ability to use modern information and communicative technologies for creation, formation and administration of electronic educational resources; ability to create the method of EER use in the educational process, a teacher’s formation of educational environment being adequate to needs of its individual methodic system with EER use; ability to analyze and carry out qualified expert evaluation of electronic educational resources’ quality and program-and-technological provision for their introduction into academic-and-educational process.

As a result of studying the discipline a student must know: theoretical bases of EER use in professional activity; EER typology, methods of EER analysis and expertise; possibilities of EER use for realization of personally oriented training, informational and informational-and-activity models in training, activation of students cognitive activity, realization of the control system, evaluation and monitoring of students' academic achievements; theoretical and informational-and-technological bases of multimedia technologies; peculiarities of multimedia technologies use in the process of training; modern approaches and program means of EER development; be able for: execution of interactive interaction between the student and EER; visualization of educational information with the help of multimedia technology means; work with multimedia technologies for creation, processing and compounding standard formats of text files, graphic, sound, and video information; automation of processes of informational-and-methodic support of academic process and organization of control over results of training.

2.5 Contents of Discipline 1. Psychological-and-pedagogical bases of computer training technology. Creation of educational

electronic publications is the basic direction of the strategy of education informatization. Conceptual basis of electronic publications’ development. Modern trends in development of e-learning. Independent cognitive activity as the basis of the training process organization.

2. EOR in a teacher’s professional activity. General characteristics of digital educational resources. Purposes and objectives of EER use in education. EER typology. Peculiarities of EOR use at different levels of


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education. Principles of academic electronic resources’ creation. Classification of academic electronic means. Didactic models of training on the basis of EER. EER analysis and expert assessment methods.

3. Theoretical basis of EER development by means of multimedia technologies. Multimedia technology: basic notions. Multimedia technologies in education. Pedagogical projecting and stages of EER development. Modern tool software for EER development. Hypertext layout languages. Control and measurement of training results as a function of electronic training means. Peculiarities of measurement materials created for educational electronic resources.

4. Complex of requirements imposed to development of electronic training means. State Standard of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Electronic publication. Information technologies”.

Technical characteristics of electronic training means: hardware-and-software platform and telecommunicating technologies. Basic requirements to EER; Electronic academic means’ functional characteristics. Requirements to EER execution.

5. Development of EER media components. Designing of electronic means’ interface of training. Technology of creation and processing of text information. Technology of creation and processing of graphic information. Technology of creation and processing of audio and video information. Technology of creation and processing of animation in modern software tools. Creation of graphics by means of standard tools. Automated animation (time scale, staff, replacement, masks and control layers, complex animation). Recommendations to future teachers upon formation of the design of created electronic training means.

6. Technology of EER development on the basis of ICT means. Development of EER design and structure. Technology of connecting information objects of multimedia application. Means of interactivity realization. Creation of interactive application for visualization of academic information.

7. Development of testing complexes. Creation of interactive application for control of training results. Organization of feedback in EER. Control and measurement of training results as a function of electronic training means. Creation of means for training results’ measurement and control.

8. Methodic aspects of EER use in academic process. Development of methods for EER using in the academic process. Expert-and-analytical activity upon selection and evaluation of EER quality. Evaluation of didactic efficiency of created EERs.

Conclusion This method of formation of a future teacher’s ICT competence assumes development of knowledge and

skills not only in using modern software in its future professional activity, but evaluating of their efficiency regarding certain situations. At that, a teacher’s ability to define the role and place of certain information technologies in methodic system of teaching its academic discipline develops, and that brings to raising efficiency and successiveness of the whole educational process.

References [1] Nazarbayev N.A. Message of the President to People of Kazakhstan in 2012 [2] Educational program upon specialty 5В011100 – Informatics//KazNPU named after Abai. –

Astana: Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2012. [3] Kuznetsov A.A., Haner K.K., Imakayev V.R., Novikova O.N., Chernobai Ye.V. Information-and-

communicative competence of modern teacher //Informatics and education. 2010. №4. [4] UNESCO's ICT-Competence Standards for Teachers. Published in 2008 by the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, http://cst.unesco-ci.org/sites/ projects/cst. [5] Khalikova K.Z. Role of computer graphics at formation of ICT competence among future

informatics teachers //Problems of informatics. 2012. No1.


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E-portfolio as a Mean of Students' Achievements Assessment in the Training of Future Teachers in the Field of Informatics

Khalikova K.1

1 PhD, Professor, Abay Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Almaty, (KAZAKHSTAN) [email protected]

Abstract The technology of an electronic portfolio can be used in education for the various purposes: estimations,

developments, presentations and trainings. The organizational and methodical introduction scheme of an e-portfolio technology in educational process of pedagogical preparation of students was developed and approved at the Kazakh national pedagogical university. The purpose of introduction of technology of an e-portfolio was to improve the training of future teachers, at the expense of involvement of students in professional self-determination and to develop their reflexive skills of a self-assessment of their own achievements and to advance their progress in the course of training at university on the basis of an e-portfolio method. In the course of research for the task the following methods were used: analysis of scientific, psychological, pedagogical, methodological literature on the problems of the study, the "Computer science" state educational standard, experience summarizing and pedagogical experiment. The study found out that the problem of assessing the achievements of students in "Computer science", implemented by means of e-portfolio in the process of training is relevant and requires further authorization. The necessity and the opportunity to solve the problem from the standpoint of the system, activity-oriented and student-centered approaches are confirmed.

Keywords: Electronic portfolio, the assessment of achievements, student activities, contemporary higher education, students’ information and communication competence

1 Innovation approaches in higher education establishments of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Education is considered as the main and leading factor of social and economic progress. The reason of such approach is in understanding that a person being able for independent search, mastering new knowledge, making non-standard decisions, development of innovation ideas and also differing by ability for thorough analysis, flexibility and originality of thinking is the most important value and basic creative potential of the modern Kazakhstan society. If to analyze the educational system of the Republic of Kazakhstan and ways of reformation of education, concepts being developed include correct ideas being in the course of world trends. During the last years all persons being interested in the theme of education have noticed that issues of raising quality of education, achievement of practicality and applicability of education for engagement in the labor market, necessity of change of the “school of knowledge” for “school of competences”, trends of inter-disciplinarity and polyprofessionalism and training during the whole life are discussed increasingly frequently. Necessity of modernization of education, integration into the world space through the Bologna system in higher education and many other issues are considered. “Qualitative growth of human capital in Kazakhstan … is first of all in education” – for that: “… education is to give not only knowledge to the youth but ability to use such knowledge in the process of social adaptation” [1].

In connection with transfer to the credit technology of training in higher education establishments of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the research was held at the Abay Kazakh National Pedagogical University. In the process of research, theory and practice of independent educational activity of students in the process of University education are considered. The purpose of research is to develop theoretical-and-methodological and scientific-and-methodic bases of contents and technology of organization of independent academic activity of the University students. Accordingly the following results are received with set purposes and tasks: theoretical-and-methodological bases of organization of the University students’ independent educational activity as preconditions of independent educational activity organization have been developed; the concept of students’ independent educational activity organization has been developed on the basis of theoretical-and-methodological


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and psychological-and-pedagogical justification of independent activity and methods of students’ professional competence formation; theoretically justified model of organization of independent educational activity of higher education establishments’ students as aggregate of four interconnected components (motivational, content, activity operational and self-realization components); results of independent academic activity of students in the course of University education process are experimentally checked and justified.

Е-portfolio of students as innovative technology in the modern higher education has been chosen as one of methods of students’ independent academic activity organization. Currently, the research results has been successfully applied in the preparation of bachelors in Computer Science specialty of Abay KazNPU. This article is devoted to technology of use of e-portfolio method.

1.1 Innovation Technologies in the Modern Higher Education Е-portfolio has been introduced as an innovative technology in the educational process all over the

world and a range of scientists’ works are devoted to this theme. For example, in the work Rijdt et al., 2006 the portfolio is considered as technology of authentic evaluation of educational and professional activity. Possibilities of E-portfolio are analyzed in researches of Barret, Smolyaninova O.G. and many other researchers [2], [4]. Influence of E-portfolio on motivation of students’ training and students’ relation to E-portfolio use are studied in works [3]. Taking into account opinions of many researchers we consider that a student’s E-portfolio can become one of efficient tools of competences’ evaluation in the modern education (“portfolio of individual achievements”). The portfolio is individual, personally selected aggregate of different materials, which represent academic results on the one hand and contain information on individual educational course, i.e. process of education at which the student can efficiently analyze and plan its educational activity, on the other hand. Technology of the portfolio as evaluation means is the system of organization of teachers’ evaluation of successes of a student, difficulties a student faces, and ways of their overcoming. At that, the special part is given to self-evaluation. One can state that the portfolio is a tool of a student’s self-organization, self-cognition, self-evaluation, self-development, and self-presentation. One of the most important purposes of the portfolio is to conduct monitoring, i.e. to provide tracing of the academic process and a student’s individual progress in wide educational context, and then to see the “picture” of significant educational results on the whole, to demonstrate a student’s competence: readiness and ability to practically apply gained knowledge and skills. In the process of organization of students’-future teachers’ independent educational activity, introduction of the portfolio can raise students’ educational activity, level of their understanding of their purposes and possibilities.

Strategic purposes of the portfolio: 1) to show everything the student is able to, to demonstrate the student’s strongest sides, maximally disclose his/her human, professional and creative potential; 2) to develop a student’s skills of analyzing its own activity, self-organization, self-evaluation, and positive and constructive relation to outsider’s criticism; 3) to form a student’s skills of self-cognition and adequate self-evaluation of its results, understanding of results’ dynamics.

1.2 The Student’s Portfolio as Evaluation Tool The portfolio method provides systematic nature and regularity both of monitoring, and self-monitoring

of the academic process. A student watches its own results of mastering knowledge, skills and competences, and selects materials for its “Portfolio”, analyzes these materials, introduces corrections, expresses opinion regarding evaluation made by a teacher, parents or students of the group. And just these judgments and arguments form the essence of reflection, critical thinking, which development in the modern education is extremely required. The process of self-control, mutual control and self-evaluation serves for the purposes of activation of students’ cognitive independent activity, raising their motivation in studying. It is important that analysis of student’s own work, own successes, objectivity in assessment of its possibilities, and seeing methods of overcoming difficulties and achieving higher results occur. This is a skill to match the process and results of academic activity with own possibilities, that concretizes motives of educational activity; to match a skill to evaluate difficulties of control tasks with the level of its readiness to their performance; ability to establish the level of own pretense to evaluation, that gives actual possibility to present oneself and one’s merits in the labor market.

2 Usage technology of the e-portfolio method with students of informatics We will describe the experience of the e-portfolio technology use in practice of Abai Kazakh National

Pedagogical University students’ academic process. Creation of the e-portfolio was chosen as one of method of students’ independent academic activity organization. The e-portfolio technology in the system of the bachelor’s course was used for the purposes of students’ educational achievements evaluation within the frames of disciplines of professional and informational preparedness. Among basic and profiling disciplines the following educational courses are chosen: Informatics, Programming, Techniques teaching Informatics, and Database and IS. The introduction specificity of the e-portfolio technology in the pedagogical bachelor’s course is its


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actualization within the frames of students’ project activity devoted to formation of academic subjectivity and establishment of individual training routes. Components and indices of future specialists’ professional preparedness formation on the basis of independent academic and research activities are defined [5].

2.1 Methods Pedagogical conditions were revealed, where the most essential provisions are: the training process

organization on the basis of development of students’ initiative and independent activity; measure of managing influence on a student is to comply with the level of development of its research skills; the main purpose of independent research activity is development of the student’s personality, its organization to self-realization, and also formation of professionally significant qualities of the person and research competence.

Marking out the process of propaedeutics and formation of basic skills of research activity upon special disciplines, we took into account the fact that students are to understand the necessity of mastering research activity within the frames of professional training and apply the gained knowledge in professional pedagogical practice. As the research activity of students upon specialty “Informatics” is executed in the course of studying basic and professional disciplines, we formulated the following requirements to independent research activity: 1) to represent the educational material counting on a student’s subjective experience and its independent search; 2) to provide control and evaluation of not only results but the training process, ability to apply research techniques in this process; 3) to define criteria upon which one can estimate development of a student’s academic competences through research activity. On the basis of analysis of the research electronic portfolio contents one can trace the individual educational route, dynamics of research competence formation, and mark qualitative indices of a student’s individual achievements. For confirmation and approbation of the developed method of independent academic and research activities’ organization the pedagogical experiment was held.

2.1.1. Participants of the pedagogical experiment Basic criteria of efficiency of experimental work are criteria of defining the level of students’

mastering educational material upon special disciplines and degree of knowledge formation on the basis of independent research activity and its execution as electronic portfolio, the degree of research and professional skills’ formation, and degree of reflexive qualities expressiveness. Thus, the developed teaching techniques permit to form not only professional skills of a student, but professional and independent research competence (to set purposes and objectives of research, ability to plan and perform search, use adequate methods of research and use them in practice). We revealed and characterized four levels of students’ mastering research competence: low, medium, achieved and high. Two groups participated in experiment: the control and experimental groups. Experts marked the following criteria for evaluation of the level of students’ research competence: ability to form professional tasks and build a model and choose optimal method of research (criterion 1); ability to fill E-portfolio and hold data statistical processing (criterion 2); ability to perform search of information and presentation of research results in different forms (criterion 3); ability to present publicly the gained results with the help of E-portfolio (criterion 4). The table 1 shows the quantity of the students attending in pedagogical experiment.

Table 1

Groups Academic years 2003-2006 2006-2009 2010-2012 Total

experimental 150 172 170 492 control 150 174 171 495

2.1.3. Data analysis Upon results of final pedagogical experiment in experimental groups the low level shows 50.59% at the

beginning, and at the end of the experiment there were no students showing low level; the medium level at the beginning of the experiment was 34.12%, at the end of the experiment – 17.06%; the achieved level at the beginning of the experiment was 15,29%, at the end of the experiment - 38,01%; there were no students showing high level at the beginning of the experiment, and at the end of the experiment the result achieved 19.41%. In control groups a peculiar change was not revealed.

2.2 Results Results of data statistical processing at the beginning and at the end of the pedagogical experiment are

given in table 2, upon 4 components and 4 levels.


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Table 2

High level Achieved level Medium level low level Components period

Exp. group

Cont. group

Exp. group

Cont. group

Exp. group

Cont. group

Exp. group

Cont. group

begin 0 0 17,65 12,87 36,47 42,11 45,88 45,03 Motivational end 18,24 0 71,18 14,62 10,59 43,86 0 41,52 begin 0 0 16,47 11,70 32,94 42,11 50,59 46,20 Content end 21,18 0 35,88 28,07 42,94 37,43 0 34,50 begin 0 0 22,94 16,37 37,65 52,05 39,41 31,58 Activity

operational end 30 0 35,29 21,64 34,71 33,33 0 45,03 begin 0 0 15,29 16,37 34,12 52,05 50,59 31,58 Self-realization end 19,41 0 63,53 23,98 17,06 38,01 0 38,01

For check of the authenticity of two selections’ difference (of control and experimental groups) we used a Student criterion. We counted the statistics of the criterion upon the formula:

yx

эмпyxt

. In our case, 404,3

995,0333,1013,786

empt . Quantity of freedom degrees 221 nnk

We compares the value t received in the experiment with table value taking into account freedom degrees k=27. The table value tcrit is equal to 2.06 at admission of risk possibility to make mistaken judgment in five cases of one hundred cases (level of significance=5 % or 0.05). temp exceeds the table value, i.e. temp>tcri, that is why there are reasons to accept the alternative hypothesis that the students of the experimental group show higher level of knowledge in average, wherefrom the conclusion on advantage of the experimental training rises. That means that the suggested method of independent research activity organization basing on the personality-oriented training at creation of E-portfolio brought to development of the level of research competence.

Conclusion The model of the system of organizing students’ independent research activity at creation of E-portfolio

was developed and presented, and its composition includes four modules: theoretical-and-methodological module including basic methodological approaches, principles and pedagogic conditions of efficiency of students’ research activity organization; professionally oriented module containing modules and stages of students’ professional preparedness; organizational-and-technological module presented by complex of methods used at stages of research activity organization; control-and-regulating module assuming the teacher’s evaluation and students’ self-evaluation of achieved results and including levels of mastering academic-and-research activity, criteria, indices, and diagnostic methods of their defining.

And also a student’s E-portfolio formed on the basis of independent academic-and-research activity is the index of the student’s ICT-competence, and these are indications of the student’s readiness to professional activity. As a result of the portfolio method use students study to express themselves actively, to formulate conclusions independently, analyze their work, express their opinion and introduce suggestions, at that the speech culture is developed as the main component of communicative competence, and also intellectual competences, competences of interpersonal communication and personal competences are developed.

References [1] Nazarbayev N.A. Message of the President to the people of Kazakhstan in 2012. [2] Barrett, H. C. (2000); Create Your Own Electronic Portfolio. Learning & Leading with

Technology. [online] Available: http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/LLwTApr00.pdf [3] Umut Akcıla *, Ibrahim Arap The opinions of education faculty students on learning processes

involving e-portfolios [online] Available: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042809000731

[4] Smolyaninova O.G. An Electronic portfolio in foreign high university’s practice.//Informatics and Education. №11, 2008. Pp. 99-110.

[5] Khalikova K.Z. Usage an Electronic portfolio methods in the organization process of independent activity of students. //Higher Education in Kazakhstan. №4,2009. Pp. 8-13.


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Graphic Transformations into a Modern Megapolis Architectural Environment (Almaty City)

Khalykov K.1, Maulenova G.2, Berdigulova A.3 1 PhD, professor, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T. Zhurgenov, (KAZAKHSTAN) 2 Candidate of Architecture, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T. Zhurgenov, (KAZAKHSTAN) 3 Senior Lecturer, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T. Zhurgenov, (KAZAKHSTAN) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The rapid and uncontrolled development of advertising completely transformed the image of modern

mega polis. The architecture itself has ceased to be the main component of the visual environment of the city, due to the rapid changes of buildings' purposes. The changes in the scale of the modern city and increasing complexity of its infrastructure led to the conclusion that the system of communication has become the main link which harmoniously connects all the parts of the urban space.

Design elements (advertising, lighting, equipment) are increasingly coming to the fore of the environmental context. Except the functional aspects of the problem, there are deep emotional ties within this process. Urban space of any city is filled with cultural icons via them occur the identification and the identity of the city. Every major city is a place where there is a symbolic action to the full, so the task of forming the image of the uniqueness in the organization of the urban environment today is particularly acute. Design of street equipment reveals the features of the existing architectural and landscape context or on the contrary make architectural and artistic image of the urban ensemble similar destroying its personality. In recent years the question of "national and international in design" attracts our attention more and more.

Summarizing all the above as an example for Almaty, it may be noted that in modern architectural environment of a large city architecture itself is not the main bearer of information content, the overall impression can only be obtained in a complex architectural and design tools. At the same time, in some cases, the design tools for modelling urban space not only complement the architectural image of the environment, but also present new interpretation of the whole space.

Keywords: megopolis, architectural environment, information content, environmental design, imaginative expression of the urban environment.

Introduction The architectural environment of a city is sensitive to all events, which occur in the society. The gaining

of independence and related radical changes in the political, economic and social spheres of life in Kazakhstan largely reflected on the architectural image of its largest cities.

In spite of relocation of the capital city functions to Astana, Almaty keeps developing as the largest city of the Republic retaining the functions of the center of science and education, international tourism, high tech production, and financial & business activities. In this respect, the need of the holistic view on the problem of forming an expressive image of the cultural, financial and educational capital of the state as a peculiar symbol of the time with its philosophy, scenario, and proper logic of formation and development has occurred. The study of development trends of the semantic systems forming an architectural space structure will make it possible to identify the principal directions for the development of the urban milieu of Almaty.

The systemization and the structuring of objects of the architectural and information medium in terms of semantics will enable to get a more complete idea of the architectural image of the largest city in Kazakhstan since it is just the space informativeness where the semantic structure of the city can be perceived as clearly as possible.

Degree of coverage in studying.


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In 1980s researches of the semiotic nature were undertaken in architectural science, within such researches the following directions were formed: sign-symbol researches (V. Glazychev, E. Kassirer, Ch. Morris); socio-behavioral approach to studying the structure of the inhabited space (А. Krashennikov, U.Eko). Works of U. Dzhanibekov and Ya. Chesnov are devoted to the study of regional peculiarities of traditional semantic systems. The informational role of the architectural object in the urban milieu was covered in works of such researchers as I. Strautmanis, I. Seredyuk, A. Kostenko and others. Works of Belyayeva, Ch.Hilgenherst, L. Akhmedova and other researchers are devoted to modern problems of formation of the architectural image of a city in the context with informational and media field.

The research object: architectural environment of a big city. The research subject: semantics regularities in formation of informativeness of architectural

environment of Almaty city. The research purpose: development of recommendations in formation of expressive image of a modern

megalopolis through revealing regularities and semantic peculiarities of a big city “informational space” functioning, by example of Almaty city.

The research purpose provides for basic tasks of the research: - to study peculiarities of presentation of life arrangement of nomadic peoples through sign systems; - to study peculiarities of traditional semantic systems functioning in perceiving different types of

space; - to study peculiarities of formation of the architectural image of a big city, to formulate its basic factors

and degree of informativity; - to study historic trends of development of architectural semantics of Almaty city in the context with its

informativity. Scientific novelty of the research is that the analysis of the semantic structure of Almaty city was held;

ways of correcting informativity of Almaty city architectural environment are suggested. Method of research is based on the complex approach to studying the architectural environment of big cities; systematization of information from modern and historic sources, matching, comparative analysis, consultations with leading specialists. In the research, visual and photometric methods of studying the architectural environment and comparative analysis of the internal structure and constructive peculiarities of visual informational-and-communicative field are also used.

1 Historical aspects of the architectural semantics development During many centuries the humanity has been creating different symbols, which image was connected

with visually perceived objects of the surrounding world. Some of them had similar meaning among different peoples and existed for a long time; other ones were reflection of different epochs and historic events and had temporary nature.

In order to understand the dynamics of changes of the environmental space of the modern megalopolis, it is required to understand the structure of this space. Besides, it is important to include meaning and image contents of all historic stages of the city development, and also peculiarities of informational contents of its architectural and spacious environment based on sequential formation of semantic images and their mutual development, into visual field. In other words, not history of the city itself, but understanding of evolution of meanings generated by the history has gained the most significance.

1.1 Traditional Semantic Systems of Nomads A variety of the out world reflection was expressed the most strongly in the mythology and the sign

systems of various ethnoses as each ethnos developed its original ideas of life structure over a period of its history. They were carefully kept and handed down from generation to generation, and as a result, they became the essence of the people, the basis of its mental outlook and way of life. The traditional nomadism joined, within Kazakhstan, groups of tribes of different origin but associated with a certain community. The common cultural foundations were generated from the long neighbourhood and communication. In the nomadic Kazakh society, one can see a complex network of interdependent and intercrossing human relations.

Along with a verbal transfer of history, family coat of arms, which were simple in outlines and easily rememberable, held a prominent place. The family coat of arms of nomads developed into a clear system, in which changes in the tribal structure caused by the growth, the merger and the demerger of families reflected. It was embodied in the appearance of new signs and the change of the existing ones. Tanba, Таmga and Tagma are variants of the Turkic term, designating any graphic character in a general sense. Another meaning of the word Tamga is a family coat of arms, a stamp, and a seal. Practically all nomads of the Central Asia had tribal and communal signs, which were applied by them since ancient times, mostly as signs of ownership.


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One of the most important evidences of old traditions of the decorative and applied arts, which preserved certain images of semi-conscious myths and legends of the people is the semantics of ornaments – a notional meaning of patterns. Old craftsmen still remember ancient symbols put into the name of some ornaments, as any ornament is nothing else but a multivalent system capable to assume any meanings [1].

1.2 Semantic Aspect of Urban Milieu Formation Any objective and spatial milieu is a complex self-developing system, the accelerator of development of

which is a person, who is absorved in it. The architect and the researcher of the present-day ideas about the urban milieu formation К. Linch writes, thinks that the perception of the environmental image is a result of a two-sided process between the viewer and his environment. In that process an individual factor is of great importance, however, “social images” are important for the architect –overall mental pictures that exist in the conscience of big number of inhabitants of the city. The elements such roads, district boundaries, junctions and reference points are perceived by each inhabitant individually but they constitute a complex image of the city [2].

The present-day researchers of the urban space organize it in the form of a radial structure, which extends from the centre layer-by-layer. According to I. Rosenson, a person mastering his objective environment is the centre of a mulieu, and its focus and a mulieu-forming factor: “This person is an environmental subject (or a subject of the environment, or the “environmental Ego”). The specific environment with certain properties can only exist if mastered by his activities, his conscience and his emotions. Such objective and spatial formation existing only in the human imagination is the city, which can be called by the person as his “own” with a full right, and it is his “place” in the real city: its boundaries are blurred but the subjective feeling of the atmosphere of the “own” city is quite definite, emotionally saturated and unique [3].

2 Factors of megapolis image formation Space of any city is filled with cultural symbols because cultural symbols – as “ways of the city”,

symbolic places of the city, etc. – are certain cultural matrixes on the basis of which identification and self-identification of a city occurs. Any big city is a place where symbolic activity is present in full degree: mythology, religion, ideology, art, cinema, advertisement, and virtual reality.

Semantic image of Almaty city is formed by many factors. A part of them has world significance; however, some factors are peculiar just for this city space permanently generating new meanings, different moods, intents, norms, and values. The study of the semantic structure of Almaty city as a big megalopolis and trends of development of this structure gives possibility to formulate general recommendations in formation of rememberable and informative-and-content image of a modern big city.

2.1 Semantic Demonstration of Urban Milieu Informatization The appearance of the largest cities of the world has been rapidly changing over the last decades feeling

the impact of the up-to-the minute technologies, new новых stylistic searches and town-planning conceptions. The impact reflecting outstanding characteristics of the epoch is directly reflected and materially embodied in the urban milieu, which characterizes the state of the social environment comprehensively and the most steadily. The objective results of a new creative activity of people come from the spheres of arts, culture, science and technologies into the architectural space of cities creating quite new spatial and structural unities, which have the quality of dynamics transforming the city image and forming mobile notional «fields» of the urban milieu.

The urban design should act as a mediator of the historic architectural space and world of a townsman, who contributes his present-day state to the milieu. The design is an intermediary between the tradition, the past time and the search of forms of the future cultural living in the urbanized space.

New trends in the design occurred as a result of unbelievable cultural and economic changes having occurred over the last hundred years. Before the ХХ century it was suggested that the distinctive features of churches, schools and official buildings will be preserved for ever. They were carved out of stone and engraved with colored glass, or were embodied in the public art. At present, the « distinctive features» are temporary. A department store built for long years can change its owner three times for ten years. Banks and stadiums и can change their names every several years. Buildings, which were inseparable from their direct application earlier, now serve only as a «frame» for constantly changing instances. The new terminology such as «location branding», or «functional obsolescence», tries to explain and adapt the situation to the existing tendency with time elements. The architecture has ceased to be the key means of identification, and it is superseded by the graphics and branding [4].


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2.2 Semantics Development Trends of Almaty At studying a city space, along with analysis of architectural and urban development potential of a city,

big attention is paid to its semantic constituent as well. The study of a city based on meaning forming side of composite shape formation identifies various media (or levels) of image content of a city: general plan, communications, architecture, and small forms. The traditional methods of architectural and town-planning designing have turned to be insufficient under the present-day conditions of the urbanized milieu adaptation.

On the same basis as the architectural and art style of the city, the important factor in the city semantics is the presence of a legend. The idea of a legend for the city is a part of development of Almaty on a project level as well, since the principal purpose of the general layout is “to take a set of town-planning actions aimed at the creation of ecologically favourable, safe and socially comfortable living environment. The basic architectural town-planning idea is to preserve and develop the appearance of Almaty as a “garden city” [5].

The formation of public centres in the form of pedestrian streets is conditioned historically. The informative capacity of the architectural and spatial environment and its elements holds a special place in the creation of architectural and art significance of the city pedestrian spaces. The more various the morphology of city spaces is, the higher aesthetic qualities of the urban milieu are [6].

The study of the city identified various media (or levels) of the image content of the city: general layout, communications, architecture, and small forms. Just these constituents fully comply with the objective general cultural and national qualities which are based on the positive meanings, symbols, and signs being typical for the socio-cultural context concerned, marking an imprint on formation of the expressive and multivarious reality of the urban space.

Conclusions Subject to the identified factors having impact on the imagery of the megapolis, one can recommend the

following measures to form city image: - to zone and develop a clear structure of the urban development by the historical and architectural and

cultural values, the attractiveness and the distinctive character; - to identify the most distinctive parts of the city, historical and cultural monuments, and memorable

places; - to differentiate city areas according to their visual interrelation with the natural environment; - to identify and to develop the most steady and significant myths and legends being capable to

«spiritualize» and develop city spaces from any quantitative and qualitative content: historical event, city mission, commercial development, social need and so on;

- to identify the most rememberable and visible facilities in the city development and to place new visual orienting points and landmarks along the main traffic routes, in the culminating points and at their closing so as to create an integrated visual orientation system in the city.

References [1] A.A. Shevtsova (2004). Kazakh national ornament as an ethnographic source (according to

some materials of the ХХ century– the beginning of the XXI century). Thesis of Cand. Sc. {History}: 07.00.07. M., p.p. 24-56.

[2] K. Linch. (1982). City Image (translated from the English by V.L.Glazychev, edited by А.V. Ikonnikov). – М.: Stroyizdat, p.p. 35-207

[3] I.A. Rozenson. (2006). Fundamentals of Theory of Design. St. Petersburg: Peter, p.101. [4] K. Berger (2005). Pole Signs/Navigation Graphic System Design. М.:RIP-Holding, p.p.10-12. [5] S. Baimagambetov (2006). Perspective Development Plan of Almaty//Kumbez. – 2006, No.2. –

p.34. [6] A.I. Urbakh, M.T. Lin (1990). Architecture of Urban Pedestrian Spaces. – М.: Stroyizdat, p.p. 75-

187.


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Traditional Culture and Up-to Dateness SPACE INTERACTION: Artistic and Cultural Processes in Kazakhstan

Khalykov K.1, Karzhaubajeva K.2 1 PhD, professor, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T. Zhurgenov, Almaty (KAZAKHSTAN) 2 Doctor of Arts, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T. Zhurgenov, -Almaty (KAZAKHSTAN) [email protected] , [email protected]

Abstract The problems of methodology research and theoretical concepts of the cultures of traditional and

contemporary art interaction are considered in the article. Nowadays the problems of interaction and relations of these principles are often contradictory, since it is the ratio of two poles with different time intervals (as the present and the past). Priority and specificity of aesthetic features that give cultural identity and axiological significance for true creations of both types of cultures are also justified. For example, the understanding of specific and creative peculiarities in traditional cultural space demands previous and objective research of the importance of their activities in the light of ideologically-sensible, socio-cultural, spiritual and moral priorities of media culture.

The purpose of the article to study existential basis of Kazakh traditional theater and contemporary art in a context of social and cultural XXth century transformations. For the decision of the given purpose following problems have been put:

- determine the place and role of the problems of traditional Kazakh theater and contemporary art in the interaction of spaces;

- to identify the main trends in the process of communication and dialogue on the nature and role of art in shaping the historical and cultural complex;

- to analyze the major visual means and methods of artistic reproduction of human existence in contemporary art, formed under the influence of Kazakh traditional art.

Since the 1990s the modern culture and art of Kazakhstan has the tendency to include an extraordinary artistic modes of transmission into the process of the whole world artistic culture. And it causes globalization of culture in the space of traditional and contemporary as a kind of a complicated system for the forms and the directions of people's communication.

Keywords: culture, syncretism, spiritual and moral priorities, theatre, contemporary art

Introduction The theory of culture is a system of basic ideas concerning the occurrence, existence and development

of culture, its interaction with nature, man and society, approaches to its study, research methods. The main theoretical principle that determines the perspective on the issues under investigation is to realize the impossibility of constructing a unified system and a conceptual model of the world in the conceptual space and science, and philosophy at the same time. Philosophical understanding of these spaces, with regards to the traditional worldview and perception particularly different from the modern space. From this standpoint, separation can distinguish these cultural contexts towards being the world and human determine their relative importance as the potential and actual infinity. A comparative approach to the analysis of these cultural dimensions is due to the difficulty of understanding and non-recognition of their values, while being penetrated by them, and every day of our lives. This globalizing beginning and repeatable processes are identical to the world.


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1. The problem of the development of the research methodology of Kazakh folk theatre

The history of each national culture - a process that has its own specific features, which manifests itself in the events and phenomena that reflect the worldview, perception, mental qualities of the people. Every nation has its own idea of their national culture, its music, its poetry, its taste, hearing, a special rhythm of the native language. In short, everything that makes a special uniqueness and national identity. But how to define a form of expression and aesthetics of the Kazakh national theatre? Perhaps the answer to this question can be found by referring to the deep philosophical roots of the people, and, therefore, requires a deep insight into the dramatic stories that are based on myths, rituals and epics, the development of symbolic gestures and facial expressions, words and allegory, etc.

The whole Kazakh culture is full of ideas, images and symbols, more or less connected with the rites, games, and eposes. Which are: a word, movement, plastic, music, improvisation, dance. Comprehending of these systems could discover and give many things to the theatre. However, for an accurate reading, of course, well-developed theory is necessary, because, the system of symbols of traditional society was so strong and diverse that comprehension of it could reveal the nature of this art. In this connection, it is seems to be interesting to consider the creation of sals and serys, bearers of oral poetry and music traditions, from the position of theatre.

1.1 Theatre in the Space of European and Traditional Kazakh Culture The art of presentation, as acting, in every nation, in every time of the history, corresponds with realms

and traditions of the society in which it is exists, connected with the evolution of society consciousness and has definite set of means (artistic, technological etc.) which are inherit to this or that epoch. If we can remember the development of the theatre since ancient times, it is clear that being peculiar and original; it happened in every country in every historical period by the same ways and had the same directions and genres, such as: religious act, oral poetic tradition, national or fair theatres, performances of so called “Theatre of One Actor”. Only on the last stage there is the most complicated and multi-layered art – art of the theatre in forms, which is the common on every continents of the world. Thus, if in Europe pre-theatrical, ethnographical elements are just preconditions, in Kazakh culture they made a major chapter, which needs the most serious and careful examination. Apparently, those processes, which took decades in Europe, in Kazakh world lasted for centuries, but the moment of flowering came faster and unexpectedly. Kazakh theatrical art appeared the same way as in any other countries, and got through the same stages of development, but in its own way and own time. Because criteria and categories which are valid «for the culture of one country are impossible to mechanically transfer to phenomenon, observed in history and culture of other nations» [1]. This statement of N.I.Conrad confirms our hypothesis that theatrics of Kazakhs was born as it should be, in accordance with general historical processes of development of all Kazakh culture.

1.2 Peculiarities of the Performing Arts in the Nomadic Space Perfection of support base of Kazakh traditional culture, presented by all kinds of arts in developed

form, being national treasure certainly reflected on a specific uniqueness of Kazakh theatrics. This uniqueness today needs some clarifications. For example, in European theatre such concepts as theatre building, stage platform, spectators are sustainable and don’t cause any discrepancies. In our environment, originality of historical conditions, centuries-old traditions, rhythm of life, habitat, psychology and temperament of the nation created special atmosphere of theater existence. In conditions of nomadic style of life emergence of the theatre (i.e. building, as architectural construction with regular company and staff) was not just impossible, but not necessary. The idea of O.Spengler about deep symbolic interrelation between culture, matter and space, in which and through which it tries to realize is confirms by developed by nomadic style the specific strategy and principle of life. This model was marked by universal adherence to aesthetic and artistic perception of the world. Integrative character of Kazakh culture allowed preserving the sources and its consequence at the same time. The principle of imposition of one phenomenon over another, created multi-tiered, multi-layered Kazakh culture, its polysemantics, and led to syncretic character of performing Arts of sals and serys. Defining the main feature of artistic activity, we will recall that they were people devoted themselves to the Art, but unlike, for example, medieval European strolling actors, the Art was not a livelihood for them, but was a way of life. They followed their mission always and everywhere, fulfilling the functions of conductors to the universal laws of existence, they were bearers of esthetic and spiritual values of traditional society. And there raises the question: in this connection, what is the impact on psycho-emotional sphere and also the contribution to this form of Art to the aesthetics of nomadic culture?


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1.3 Aesthetics and the Origins of the Kazakh People's Theatre Theatre is the synthetic phenomenon, its connections with the literature, music and choreographic art is

undeniable, but concerning the Kazakh culture, this synthesis is different to European: in process of its long evolution and in nomadic society it has created original methods and techniques of artistic image creation. Synthesis as one of the main and deeply specific features of aesthetic traditions of Kazakh ethnos clearly showed itself in indissoluble artistic integrity of sals and serys arts. Applied by the steppe actors the means of expression system initially required necessity of art synthesis: creation of such element in which all kinds of Arts could interact harmoniously: poetic word, vocal and instrumental music, pantomime or dance (everything that characterizes the Art of drama actor), and outside its specific synthetic nature, their Art couldn’t exist, nor develop.

In the European theatre, it is possible to separate verbal texture, musical accompaniment, choreography, vocal performances and so on without any damage, from actual acting and actor’s work. Addressing to the Art of sals and serys, we cannot consider these main theatrical actions separately. Apparently, there was not the sacral but social magic, that associates their status with ethical and social criteria of the society and this caused their special position in the society. Embodying by themselves the higher class of musical culture in the spiritual stratification of Kazakh society sals and serys as demiurges-musicians provided by their activity the most bright and peculiar moments of interconnection in the earth and sacral spheres. There appeared the idea of universality of knowledge, spiritual wealth and magical power of a talent. Such high status can be explained by «the sources which were laid by their predecessors – shamans (bakhsy)» [2].

2 The role of traditional art in space with the eternal: the challenges of traditional and contemporary art

Occurred at the beginning and at the end of the last century, social changes in the intensity and comprehensiveness are unique in the long history of the Kazakh people and are associated with the change of ideological orientations, the emergence of a new system of artistic and cultural values. These problems require creative re-evaluation and overcome entrenched ideas, developing a new style of thinking. Fundamental dilemmas and conflicts strategic evolution of society associated with the change of aesthetic preferences, the restructuring of the internal dynamics of development and reproduction at the level of social objectification of new world paradigm. All cultural processes taking place within the traditional and modern spaces have dialogical character. In the semantic field of each of the designated cultural configuration consists of three centres: "I - for-itself, and the other- for-me and I - for-others" [3]. Every culture in contact with the other seeks to deduct it as a "his" master it with the help of their mental resources, rejection or understand "foreign." It was concluded in this positive and humanistic meaning of intercultural dialogue.

It is in this space, the interaction of artistic culture may have unusual ways of transmitting the artistic reflection of the world, or world view, and this field is meaningful and essential system can be achieved through traditional. Kazakh philosopher B.K. Bayzhigitov considering this issue notes that: "Firstly, the traditional art of the Kazakhs is space - infinity. These symbols can be seen reflected in the large-scale features of the Universe powerful dynamics of energy. These forms together are a natural continuation of harmony and emotion with which consciousness come into motion. Second, the traditional art of the Kazakhs is no melodrama. There, everything is subject to philosophical categories [4].

2.1 The Specifics of Communication and Especially the Performing of Kazakhs Art

If we can consider performance methods used by steppe actors from the point of theatre’s specificity, we can find that there are some close to the theatre art features: it is a performance in active and expressive manner, use of theatricality elements as means of artistic embodiment of ideal hero image, depiction by words spoken in a singsong, showing of state of mind, participation of spectators in the performance. Presence of the basic element of theatrical art – transformation is obvious. Elements of beyond the subjective character did not show all the relations between the actor and spectators, and acquired the features defined only by theatrical aesthetics (behaviour features, clothes, boldness, excitement etc.), despite that fact that criteria of existence were attached to the roots and nourished the tree of universal laws of Kazakh culture. It presents that the appearance of an actor on higher level, but not actor’s suffer within the collision of a plot, helped to the birth of the basic principle of stage art of sals and serys – aesthetics of grotesque (here appeared splendour and brightness of theatrical costume, specific manner of behaviour). Off course, from the point of view of such features as movement of a hero on the stage space, their performance is just a precursor of the theatre in its modern sense. However, having the all set of theatrical features, this form of art no doubts is the theatre in the true sense of the word. All this combined as a phenomenon of an ancient traditional culture, which on the one hand cannot be imagined out of the collective way of social life. On the other hand this is the historical epoch when in


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storytelling genre division strengthens and in connection with it develops not genre differentiation as in Europe, but special social group of creatively gifted persons – sals and serys, who were occupied only by artistic work.

2.2 Art - as a Communication and Dialogue in the Area of Cultural Interaction At the turn of the century delineated conflict classical tradition and innovation. Deep transformation of

art, its output in a completely new dimension of human existence accurately expressed Heidegger: "Art is pushed into the horizon aesthetics. That means that a work of art becomes a matter of experience and is considered an expression of art accordingly human life. "Similar to the status of art involves more than the classic structure of the art world and equitable coexistence of diverse cultural and communication worlds, coupled with the vital functions as varied, even dynamically changing human beings, self-organized for political, economic, economic, ethnic, religious and ethical principles and values. Communicative principle of structuring art (cultural) of the world, the end of the century who took a total character, alters the way of life and form of art that is mostly symbolic form, conveying value meanings.

Modern art is a complex system of communicating form and directions, often united so-called " post-modern design." Feature a variety of "modernist" artefacts became the immediate presence of singer-songwriter in the implementation of the artistic act, ‘’aiming at public provocation and ending with the execution’’ [5]. As for the artistic (aesthetic) concept, that it is implemented in modernism in the form of the program, the manifesto and anthropological reflections. In general we can say that the phenomenon of "modern art" - most of Humanities and anthropological project dramatically, sometimes aggressively directed against the total domination of the social systems of self - political and economic. Because of this occurring during the act of artistic communities are marginal and temporary.

Conclusions Summarizing the existentially - ontological foundation of the Kazakh traditional theatre and

contemporary art in the context of social and cultural transformations of the twentieth century, their interaction spaces can draw the following conclusions:

- Space art culture has unusual ways of artistic reflection picture of the world, this field is meaningful and essential system which can be achieved through traditional;

- Code in the works of art of traditional cultural values are the archetypes of the road junction, embracing spiritual and intellectual nomadism;

- Reconstructing a paradigm of culture-philosophic global, historical, socio-cultural transformation through art images and abstract forms and holders of traditional cultural values and our contemporaries create a symbolic world of metaphors of life, revealing the infinite inexhaustible sense of space.

Pull out and proved that the ethno-cultural intention (an appeal to the cultural roots and origins) that acquires the character of a logically coherent system of artistic and aesthetic forms in the works of contemporary artists, as it recreates the world of ethnographic been forgotten symbols and signs of the nomadic culture of Kazakhs.

References [1] Konrad, N.I. (1972). West and East. Nauka, Moscow, p. 24. [2] Tursunov, E. (1999). The emergence of bucks Akyns sere and bard. Astana, p.252. [3] Bakhtin, M. (1994). The philosophy of the act // Bakhtin, M.M. Works 20s. Kiev, p. 52. [4] Bayzhigitov, B.K. (1998) Philosophical Problems of Art: Permanent images to the rhythm of

space and time. Almaty: Gylym-Olke, p.24. [5] Khalykov, K.Z. (2013). The Highest Art Tasks of the World and Humans Transforming // World

Academy of Sience, Engenering and Technology, issu 77, May, Berlin, pp. 1040-1045.


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Visualization of Religious Values by Means of Cinema

Khalykov K.1, Sakhamanov A.2 1 PhD, Professor, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T. Zhurgenov, Almaty (KAZAKHSTAN) 2 PhD candidate, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T. Zhurgenov, Almaty (KAZAKHSTAN) [email protected] , [email protected]

Abstract The paper analyses the problem of visualization of religious values as a semantic factor of human

consciousness by means of movies. Today in the range of the conference this theme is linked with human being "here" and "now." There are historical experiences of every religion, there are levels of high culture where they are pretty close to converge. And there is a low level, the daily one where religions diverge. It depends on the level of society development. Religion is developing, it was different to what we see now.

Movie, which shows a certain religion, is a form of a particular religious tradition. Cinema is a commodity, but it does not exhaust its nature as a movie or the nature of a book or culture. And then occurs the problem of understanding religion as a culture having the material aspect. Popular culture is just a low-accessible culture. Culture is always growing and if it is not growing, it dies.

As we know, in the formation of European cultural values the mythological aspect was of great importance. This undoubtedly was an important factor in the formation of spiritual culture. Its value is always great in the archaic society as well as in contemporary. The aim of our research paper is to show how religion in the movies can convey universal values to the audience through its language, the values that are able to neutralize these or other stereotyping consciousness of a modern human.

We would also like to say that religion interests an artist "as one of the forms of valuable attitude to the world, which has deep roots in the tribal nature of man and satisfies his existential needs. Whatever the differences in the definition of religion are all the researchers agree that it plays crucial function in any society.

Keywords: religion, culture, myth, human values, and cinema

Introduction Each person lives in a certain system of values, which subjects and phenomena are urged to satisfy his

requirements. In other words – value expresses the way of existence of the personality. "Religious values are the values caused by belief in supernatural and opportunities of direct

communication with it, directed on implementation of the highest meaning of the life of the person who isn't brought together to his biological existence" [1]. The variety of requirements and interests of the personality and society is expressed in the difficult system of values which are classified in different ways.

"According to the contents the values corresponding to subsystems of society differ as material (economical), political, social and spiritual. Material values include the production and consumer (utilitarian) values connected with the relations of property, life, etc. Cultural wealth includes moral, informative, esthetical, religious and other ideas, representations, and knowledge" [1]. In this article we would like to consider a religion subject in cinema, visualization of its values, on the basis of personal interview with the Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi.

1 Religion as the translator of cultural wealth Religion as the set of a certain subject and semantic contents – historical images, precepts and sensual

rituals is transferred to thinking of a person and becomes a sense forming factor of his consciousness and outlook. Language is an instrument of reception and information transfer, i.e. logical communication with all levels of sense in thinking of a person. The language of cinema conceals rich opportunities of information transfer.


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1.1 Cinema and its Means of Expressiveness in a Picture At first let’s consider some of them. Cinema not only connects art means of other arts, but possesses

also own, specific, i.e. inherent only to it, expressive opportunities. First of all, it is the change of images. The shot can contain both a landscape, and a crowd of people, and a huge building. This scene will be shot by the general, or a distance shot. But also a sitting person, a room corner, a machine can be shown in a shot – they will be in the average shot. And when the movie camera will approach a face of the actor, his hand to the viewer, it will be a close up – the most expressive art means of cinema. Montage is the main thing, the main specific means of motion picture art. By means of montage it is possible to connect the events which were shot in different places and in different times.

These and a lot of other means of expression of cinema help the director to open and inform the viewer about these or those thoughts which express his regard to the system of values. Often film directors touch religious subject in the movies as it belongs to cultural wealth and make a core of culture of the certain people, the fundamental relations and needs of people.

1.2 An Interview with the Polish Film Director Krzysztof Zanussi On the example of the interview we suggest to understand that there is religious value in cinema first of

all for the director. Today there are some more outstanding figures in the Polish cinema along with such classics as Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polansky and Hedgehogs Hoffman. One of them is Krzysztof Zanussi, the author of a number of documentary and television films, including "Face to face" (1967) and "Setoff" (1968). The first feature film — "Crystal structure" (Struktura kryształu, 1969) defined at once the place of the director in the Polish cinema, having assigned to it role of the cold rationalist, the passionless researcher of dispositions of the modern Polish intellectuals, inclined to the statement of the most complex existential problems.

A.S. How much, in your opinion, it is important to show religion and so-called religious mythology in cinema?

K.Z. I think that every artist makes his choice of approach to such plots, as religion and belief. It depends on him what he considers as the most important.

A.S. Here I would agree with Dostoevsky’s opinion who at the end of the XIX century told absolutely seriously that "there is only one serious plot in the world, this is the existence of God; so there is God or he isn't present?

K.Z. Religion is spirituality registration; it is the Form as without a form we don't exist. Our essence is material. Religion is the experience left by generations that try to make out in any way our relations to eternity, to death, to time pass, to everything, concerning God. It is always existed in my movies even during communism; when censorship pressed very much and still spiritual plots somehow "passed" but that only there was no religion! ! ! (as it is known communism fought against religion and lost).

1.3 The Role of Religion in Culture and in People’s Life If to think, what is the difference of tendencies of spiritual cinema and anti-moral, created now? So, we

received the answer from the film director, as to dispositions, "it is a question of that as the mankind can exist and as can't, and those restrictions which were brought by the religion, concerning sexual life and moral." Both Moisey, and Mohammed, both Christ, and Buddhist tradition always have such thought that a person must limit himself, otherwise – he will disappear" so Z.Kshishtof continues the thought, “... I agree with it. Today in the developed countries people live with the illusion, that everything is possible and allowed them. Yes, it is the truth that we can "allow ourselves everything", but it is in artificial conditions". Then mankind has to prepare for other conditions, for other experiences when the misfortune, hunger, threat comes; and then it appears that a person has to limit, discipline himself, accept responsibility; and then, those dispositions which are considered traditional, turn to be the rescue. It is a certain view of that value has the moral principles for society.

A.S. Is it necessary to divide the religious cinema – on Islamic, Christian, Buddhist and to that similar? K.Z. It seems to me, there are historical experiences of each religion, there are levels of high culture

where they become closely enough. And there is a low level, daily where religions strongly disperse. It depends on a level of society development. Religion develops, it was not such as we see now.

2 Religion as form of public consciousness The cinema of the certain religion is only the form of this or that religious tradition. The cinema is

goods, goods which is on sale, only it is not the main thing, it doesn't exhaust the cinema nature in any way, either the book nature, or the culture nature. But also the culture too has the material aspect. "I always remind "believers" that religion has material aspect - it is necessary to heat the Temple, buy candles, attendants shouldn't starve, but it is a second time. The popular culture which we call popular, is simply low-available culture. The


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culture always grows and if it doesn't grow, it dies. The high culture, which dies, is some types of the academic theatre and music" (Z.Kshishtof).

2.1 Recusancy in Cinema

We asked the director: what is the position of heroes in his picture "Persona non grata"? As it is known there are some conflicts – political, spiritual, and for a woman. What of them is the major? How is this recusancy looked?

K.Z. As for me the main thought in the picture "Persona non grata" was – how to protect recusancy. Generally young people fight for recusancy, the fight for the idea is dearer than for the comfort for them. And my Hero is the tragic idealist who fought for ideals and lost, as well as all of us. All lose in this life, all of us die. But before it He tries to be the real idealist. He disagrees with compromises. He disagrees that the World is always corrupted and that even the former idealists now fell silent a little.

A.S. The scene where the main character pours out ashes of the dyed wife in the sea, standing ashore, was it a certain archetype?

K.Z. It is a consent with death, it is difficult to him, but he has to agree. I made this scene for this purpose to show that death is that with what we always don't agree.

A.S. The picture pierces with that dialogue is carried on the usual human conflicts and implication accompanies religious motives. For example: The evil is everywhere, from time to time it is more, from time to time it is less.

K.Z. I often laugh as the author that I don't agree with the heroes. If I agreed with all, they wouldn't have dialogue between themselves.

I agree that roots are necessary to a person that all of us have to remain true to our roots. Dangerous people are those people who lost the roots, they don't know who they are, who have lost priorities, they have an aggression. A person grows in a certain culture, speaks a certain language, lives in a certain landscape, everything is a part of its essence roots, and it is his identity.

2.2 The Issues of Auteur Cinema: Culture as an Achievement A.S. How should directors of auteur cinema work not to lose spirituality? K.Z. The question is how should live an artist in general not to lose the cultural wealth is the most

important right now. How to live for not to believe that career is above all, that success is the most important. It pulls, very much pulls. I always ask the young students, always ask them to count how much is the red path important for them? It is necessary in our profession but if the person understands that it is not the truth. If it does pictures to tell the people what could help them in the life. To share the experience, to warn about the danger that to transmit wisdom through the art of creation to people of other culture, the following generation. Only through wisdom we can go forward. If the mankind didn't know wisdom and didn't learn on errors of the previous generations, the society would come to degradation. "Barbarity" comes very quickly, we can see it on the example of Roman Empire falling, China, India, and the culture is the great achievement of the mankind, and it is under construction, only relying on the experience of earlier generations. And cinema, theater, music can help the public lifting of culture – that Art which is based on expression of thin feelings, and all sense in that only such art would surround us.

3 Religious experience and values in the cinema As we see from the interview, religion is the reflection of human wisdom, life experience. As though

the director didn't consider himself as the atheist and didn't shoot film without religion, his view of this or that situation and life experience has something in common with religious values and finds reflection in cinema. As for display of these religious values in modern Kazakh cinema: there are about twenty feature films in a year in Kazakhstan now, both the state studio, and private are shot. And the religious subject touched in them can be considered from two positions – the first, when the plot of the movie is under construction on religious subject (the "Racketeer" "Got lost", "Book") and the second when religious values are entered into movie fabric as additional reception which displays the national difference ("Shal", "Myn bala", "Moustapha"). A. Satayev offers national, Kazakh model of the movies thriller, wider – Muslim. The movie "Racketeer" is shot taking into account east mentality and religious values. There is a respect for feelings of believing people in the movie. The longest dialogue of heroes in the movie "Racketeer" is an analysis of the 67th Sura "Al-Mulk" ("Power"). And, at last, religious motives, searches of belief, confessions are distinctly expressed in his new movie, the mystical thriller "Got lost".


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3.1 Discussions on Religious Culture "Old man" is a powerful picture with the deep philosophical contents. – speaks S. Abdullo. – What is

common of the movie with "The old man and the sea" by Hemingway, I didn't understand or didn't see though the author sends to this masterpiece as to a cultural source of the idea. From my point of view, it is especially steppe, Kazakh and at the same time universal picture. S. Kuttykadam: "Old man" is rather comparable to the story "Will to live" by Jack London. If you remember, space there is "white silence", environment which kills weak, only the one survives in it, who is rather strong. There is a wrestle for life or death between a wolf and the person on this severe background. Metaphor is so powerful, as Jack London had. Civilization streams in the movie are very different - from a TV broadcast of the world championship on soccer, a jeep and equipment of hunters till the sacral rituals of tengrianism. The global civilization has noxious impact on primordial cultures. Movie essence, in my opinion, in opposition to an aggressive pressure of a globalism. "When the primordial spirit of the culture wakes up in a person, he survives" [2].

During the debate the very values which form the basis of the religious culture are considered in detail. A. Naurzbaeva: "I think that our notions of eternal hostility of a wolf and a human being are born by the traditional western paradigm of contrast — nature as the element and culture as its ordering. It seems to me that this film is an attempt to shoot this antinomy. Indeed, a wolf and a man are children of nature, and they are beyond good and evil. But the invasion of human civilization, is equipped with modern attributes (jeep, a rifle with a telescopic sight) and deaf to the tradition of living in harmony with the laws of nature, disrupts the harmony of life and leads to disaster. Discussing the subjects of his films, petty clinging to the author with the positions of the Islamic Ethics, which we do not keep ourselves, we don’t find need to say that the Kazakh producer will go down in history of the world cinema as the first who created the screen visible, multidimensional, mythological accurate personal heartfelt man of the twenty-first century, psychologically rich and highly poetic image of the Tengrian Universe. The islamic layer of our culture is subtle and pretty transparent veil over the powerful tengrian world created by our ancestors and continue to live in our collective unconscious (is it a joke? - at least three thousand years lived in this world) ".

In the formation of spiritual values the mythological is very significant. This is undoubtedly an important factor in the formation of spiritual culture. Its value is consistently high, as in archaic society and modern. "Once established as a variant explanation of being, a myth, developing and improving, obtains many other functions" [3]. The myth is a form of play activity of ethnos and humanity in general.

Conclusions In conclusion, I would like to say that the artist's interest in religion as the form of valuable attitude to

the world, which has deep roots in the ancestral human nature and satisfies his existential needs [4]. Whatever the differences in the definition of the concept of religion exist; all researchers agree that it

carries out important functions in the public life. Also the cinema through its language brings universal human values to viewers. Spiritual values are heterogeneous in content, features and character of requirements for their implementation. There is a whole class of requirements, objectives and methods of programming activities; they are the standards, rules, canons. More flexible, providing sufficient freedom in the implementation of the values are standards, tastes and ideals.

References [1] Nekrasova, N.A., Nekrasov, S.I., Sadikova, O.G. (2008). Theme philosophical dictionary:

Textbook. - M.: MSU, pp.164-167. [2] Kuznetsov V.D., Kuznetsov, I.D., Mironov, V.V., Momdjan, K.Ch. (2004). Philosophy. Textbook.

М., INFRA-М, p. 43. [3] Yatzuk, D.N. (2003). The relationship of spiritual values in the culture: Philosophical-

anthropological and axiological aspects. Thesis. St. Petersburg, p.6. [4] «The art of cinema» (2012), № 4, April, p.3.


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Facets of Societal Security in Romania after Six Years from Romania’s EU Integration

Lungu E.1 1 Lumina-The University of South-East Europe (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Romania`s integration in NATO and in the European Union has represented, from the point of view of

security, the entrance in a new historical era, within which the Romanian society has forever ceased to perceive the old military and nuclear threats, pertaining to the Cold War period. The new research direction in the security field, to which the societal sector coalesces, together with other non-military sectors (political, economic and environmental) offers the possibility for the identification of new vulnerabilities and threats, within the Romanian space, and for the discovery of adequate answers. The analysis of the facets of societal security aims to discover the correlations between different ethnic groups and the Romanian nation, which are relevant for national security, within the conditions triggered by the deepening of EU`s process of integration. Likewise, the approach of the societal sector of security, within this study, offers the possibility to explore if there are threats to the collective identities, residing in Romania, or not.

Keywords: Societal Security, Collective Identities, Security, Ethnic Groups, Societal Threats.

1 Introduction Since 1990, the option for a broader agenda of security studies, without underestimating the

traditionalist field, became a research direction in the Romanian academic environment, as a consequence of the increased cooperation with the Western scientific world, on the one hand, and of the spectacular geopolitical transformations in the Central and Eastern European space, on the other hand. The need to extend the security agenda, including issues that belong to the economic, social and environmental field, in addition to the political and military ones, began to take shape in Romania in the first years after the collapse of communism. This development at the theoretical thinking level took place amidst the rethinking of the whole issue of security, considering that the security relationships built by Romania with the states of this region during the Cold War were no longer topical.

2 A brief theoretical perspective on societal security in Romania It can be appreciated that under the conditions of the acquisition of the quality of member state of

NATO in 2004, and also of member of the EU since 2007, the specialists in security studies of Romania have definitively abandoned the direction of research focused exclusively on the political and military fields having as main actor the Romanian State. Thus, as Pinar Bilgin assessed in 2005, security studies after 1990 were no longer concentrated only on the state and the military dimension of security, but turned to individuals and social groups, as well as to their needs [1]. Besides, the academic research on security studies, starting with Romania’s pre-accession to the EU and NATO benefiting from the valuable theoretical studies of Western authors, reached the conclusion that, in Romania too, “the relative importance of political and military security lost ground after the end of the Cold War” [2].

According to the studies developed in the Western space, taken over by Romanian researchers in the field of security studies, societal security refers to nation and large identity groups that are self-supporting [3], being mainly national groups. A series of authors consider that the identity is one of the most controversial terms of the new millennium: “In an era of globalisation and mixing of peoples and cultures, identities, meanings and their connotations have begun to be challenged at all levels from the individual level to the international one” [4]. Challenging the identity of a particular national group by other national groups or by persons belonging to these groups is a matter of societal security, and is perceived by the members of the respective group as an existential threat [5], as an attack on their ethnic and cultural identity.


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Unlike social security, a field that relates to economic aspects and individuals, societal security refers to those threats targeting collective identities, as well as social balance (or lack of this balance) that characterises a particular state [6]. Barry Buzan, supporting the idea that traditional security studies in the post-Cold War period have lost their relevance, pleads for the concept of societal security expressed in terms of ethnicity, national and religious identity [7]. The author explained that in the post-Cold War era the threats to the societal security of a state - circumscribed to internal security issues - may be greater than those coming from outside the respective State. Moreover, the introduction of concepts such as ethnic identity, religious identity, nationalism, etc., in the study of societal security demonstrates that the old approaches to the security sector have lost their relevance. Hence, even if theoretically speaking, societal security covers also other categories of groups (religious, racial, etc.) we mention that Romania does not offer relevant examples for the examination of these groups within security studies, the main reference object of societal security analysis being the Hungarian minority group. Therefore, taking into account these theoretical aspects, the analysis of the societal security sector in Romania is relevant given the national group represented by the Hungarian minority (6.5% of the total population of the country, according to the census of 2011), starting from a series of vulnerabilities and threats to the security of the Romanian state recorded in official documents [8]. Hence, addressing societal security under the conditions of the proposed topic, we shall not refer to the entire population of Romania, the Romanian society as a whole, but only to the Hungarian minority, a group that we consider relevant for the objectives proposed in this study. Knowing that societal insecurity appears when an ethnic group feels that its identity is threatened, it follows that tackling issues of social, political and cultural nature, and so on, which relate to the identity of the Hungarian minority in Romania, could lead to certain conclusions regarding the causes that may affect societal security in Romania.

In this study, from the perspective of societal security, we intend to formulate an answer to the following question: are there real threats in Romania in the societal security sector or are there only imaginary threats that are recorded? To find the answer to this question we shall have to deal with several issues such as how the Hungarian minority in Romania positions itself with respect to other minorities, and how it identifies itself in the Romanian society, in the context of the country’s integration into the EU. Also, equally important in finding the answer to this question is an overview on doctrinal ideas launched in the Romanian political space, as well as significant actions initiated by the leaders of political parties of the Hungarian minority [9] over the past six years.

3 Continuation of Romania’s integration into the EU and its outcomes in the sphere of societal security

The expert group of Copenhagen (Barry Buzan, Ole Waever and Jaap de Wilde) estimated that there are several types of societal threats: migration, vertical competition (between the nation state and national minorities) and horizontal competition (between a nation state and another nation state) [10]. We shall attempt in this chapter to make a brief analysis of the societal security sector in Romania from the perspective of the first two potential threats, namely migration and vertical competition. Analysing the statistical data on migration after Romania’s accession to the EU in terms of societal security, we can state that the impact of this phenomenon in the Romanian space is insignificant. According to a study [11] on the immigration phenomenon conducted in 2011, most of the immigrants living in Romania (about 60%) came from Moldova, Turkey and China. Among the other neighbouring countries of Romania, only Serbia and Ukraine appear in this statistics with 3% and respectively 2%, while Hungary and Bulgaria, EU Member States, cannot be found in percentage terms, as countries of origin in the respective study.

Hence, given the Hungarian minority in Romania, analysed from the perspective of societal security, it can be seen from these data that Hungary is almost non-existent in terms of proportion in the total number of immigrants in Romania and there is no danger regarding a future increase in the number of Hungarian immigrants in the Romanian society. Regarding the Romanian emigration, Hungary is ranked the second most popular with Romanian migrants [12], after Israel, according to the official data supplied by Romanian authorities, this being an ethnic migration which took place largely after the fall of the communist regime, until 1992. From 1992 onwards, according to some specialised studies [13], the Romanian migration was no longer an ethnical one, for influxes of immigrants from the Hungarian minority in Romania were no more registered. Although, statistically speaking, ethnic emigration to Hungary was important in the years following the fall of communism, however, ethnic Hungarians coming from Romania who became immigrants in Hungary, according to the official data provided by the Romanian state, did not decide to emigrate because they felt a threat to their ethnic, cultural, religious identity, etc. Conversely, ethnic Hungarians of Romania immigrated to Hungary due to ethnic affinities and because Hungary was considered a more attractive destination from an economic perspective. Therefore, we can note that the phenomenon of migration between Romania and Hungary, be it about Hungarian emigrants that could leave Romania or potential immigrants coming from Hungary, that might alter the percentage of the Hungarian minority in the Romanian society, does not represent a problem that


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constitutes a societal threat. Because migration fom Romania, in the last six years, has been directed particularly to then West, we think that due to this trend the future migration flows between the two countries will be at a very low level, as compared to the first years after the fall of the communist regimes in the two countries. The application of EU regional development policies, concurrently with the promotion in the society of political, economic, social, ethical, cultural values, etc, included into the Unional Treaties represents an important direction for maintaining a normal social environment without conflicts between the majority Romanian ethnicity and the Hungarian minority.

With regard to vertical competition, a concept which from the theoretical perspective, along with migration, defines another threat to the societal security sector, we can estimate that in Romania legislative measures elaborated as early as the pre-accession to the EU have created a social climate conducive to the normal development of citizens of other ethnic groups, the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, and so on, values belonging to national minorities of the Romanian society are not threatened. Thus, Article 6 of the Constitution of Romania/2003 specifies that “the State recognises and guarantees the right of national minorities to preserve, develop and express their ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity” [14]. In accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international regulations, Romania has developed a system of laws allowing Hungarian citizens benefit from a number of fundamental rights: the use of the Hungarian language in public administration, media, education, participation in political, etc. life., rights stating that the Romanian state promotes a constant policy of free development of ethnic minorities alongside the ethnic Romanian majority population. Although we can speak of a modern legal system developed by the Romanian state in the protection field of the Hungarian minority in Romania, in which equal rights are guaranteed for all citizens, it is considered that a series of political actions initiated and coordinated by the leaders of political parties representing the Hungarian minority in Romania have emphasised that there is no true desire for a total social integration of Hungarians in the Romanian society. This statement is justified by the fact that in Covasna, Harghita and Mureş counties which have a significant percentage of ethnic Hungarian population, a series of studies recorded a refusal of the ethnic Hungarians to learn the Romanian language, the official language of the Romanian state, according to the Constitution of Romania. This refusal of the Hungarian minority to learn the Romanian language, language of the majority, is associated with a certain lack of cooperation with the Romanian population and the desire for autonomy and separatism on ethnic criteria, political idea expressed by a number of Hungarian political leaders. In this context, the political project launched by certain Hungarian political leaders of Romania regarding the administrative-territorial autonomy of Szecklerland [15], on ethnic criteria, is intended to revive the nationalist sentiment among the Hungarian ethnic group, representing, at the same time, a challenge to the territorial integrity of the Romanian state.

Therefore, the vertical competition created between the Romanian state and the Hungarian minority in Romania manifests itself as follows: on the one hand, the state continues to develop and implement laws and policies within the EU integration process, entering into contradiction with certain aspirations of identity of Hungarian ethnics (the last projects proposed by the government regarding the regionalisation being a proof in this respect), while the Hungarian political leaders have their own political projects containing administrative-territorial autonomy aspirations, on ethnic criteria, which contravene the Constitution and laws of the Romanian state. It follows that, from this point of view, due to the territorial autonomy aspirations of the Hungarian minority, Romania is facing a real threat regarding the societal security sector, threat that may lead to an altered state of internal security, if appropriate policies and solutions will not be found by the Romanian state central authorities.

We appreciate that the most part of the Hungarian citizens that compose this minority of Romania have no feelings of insecurity since through the enactment of European Union regulations regarding national minorities were to a large extent harmonised with the interests of the majority-Romanian citizens, as well as with those of other ethnic groups, including Romanian citizens of Hungarian ethnicity. In the societal security sector of Romania were studied various political, economic, social, cultural aspects, etc., certifying that the most part of the citizens of Hungarian ethnicity do not perceive any major threat which might jeopardise their national identity. However, due to certain political reasons, a series of Hungarian leaders of Romania continue to cultivate among the Hungarian minority a sense of danger as to their ethnic identity that originates from Romanian authorities, suggesting in this context the solution of territorial autonomy for the Hungarian minority. It follows, in this respect, that in the future too, by enforcing regulations and EU policies in Romania, insofar as they will be perceived by the Hungarian minority as actions for “social homogeneity” and also as attacks on ethnical identity, a threat will be developed in the societal security sector on the model of the relation between the Romanian state and the Hungarian minority.


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Conclusions Analysing the security behaviour of the largest ethnic group in the Romanian society, i.e. the Hungarian

minority, it can be stated that there is a real threat in the societal security sector of Romania, stemming from vertical competition.

As a consequence of the transition to a new administrative-territorial organisation by development regions starting with the year 2015, with the decreased power of the central bodies of state power at the local level, we can say that the transfer of many responsibilities of the administrative power to regional bodies will contribute to eliminate the perception by a part of the Hungarian community in Romania that this country promotes aggression against the Hungarian identity from the central level through different laws and public policies.

Even if the citizens of Hungarian ethnicity in Romania benefit from all the rights that the majority citizens of Romanian ethnicity have, the Hungarian minority party leaders will continue to influence the Hungarian ethnics by promoting nationalist, irredentist and secessionist ideas.

References [1] Bilgin, P. (2005), Regional Security in the Middle East. A critical perspective, Routledge Curzon,

London, pp. 203-207. [2] Buzan, B, Waever O., Wilde. Jaap de (2011), Securitatea. Un nou cadru de analiză, Editura CA

Publishing, Cluj Napoca, 2011, p.10. [3] Buzan, B, Waever O., Wilde. Jaap de (2011), Securitatea. Un nou cadru de analiză, Editura CA

Publishing, Cluj Napoca, 2011, p.172. [4] Curtin, Patricia A., Gaither, Kenn T. (2008), Relații publice internaționale. Negocierea culturii, a

identității și a puterii, Editura Curtea Veche, București, p.209. [5] According to Bary Buzan the existential threats are specific for each sector of security and need

urgent measures as actions beyond the normal limits of political procedure. [6] Stone, Marianne (2009), Security according to Buzan: a comprehensive security analysis,

Security discussion papers series 1, Groupe d'Etudes et d'Expertise “Sécurité et Technologies” GEEST-2009, p.5.

[7] Saleh, Alam (2010), Broadening the Concept of Security: Identity and Societal Security, Geopolitics Quarterly, Volume: 6, N04, Winter 2010.

[8] National Security Strategy of Romania/2007, p. 40, points out that in Romania there is danger of the turning of the existing risks (separatist tendencies, anarchist movements, environmental risks) into major threats to national security, http://www.presidency.ro/static/ordine/SSNR/SSNR.pdf

[9] The Hungarian minority in Romania currently has four political parties: the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), the Transylvanian Hungarian People’s Party (PPMT), the Hungarian Civic Party and the National Council of Hungarians of Transylvania (CNMT).

[10] Buzan, B, Waever O., Wilde. Jaap de (2011), Securitatea. Un nou cadru de analiză, Editura CA Publishing, Cluj Napoca.

[11] Alexe, I, Păunescu B. (coord) (2011), Studiu asupra fenomenului imigrației în România. Integrarea străinilor în societatea românească, Fundația SOROS Romania 2011, pp.23-31.

[12] Dăncică, D. (2010), Caracteristics of Migration in Romania, Analele Universității ”Constantin Brâncuși” din Târgu Jiu, Nr.2/2010, p.195

[13] Horvát, I. (2010), Migrația etnică din România: între exil și căutare, Sfera Politicii Nr.137/2009, p.65.

[14] Constituția României/2003, art.6, http://www.ucv.ro/pdf/site/constitutia_romaniei.pdf [15] The territory of Eastern and Southeastern Transylvania, inhabited mostly by Hungarian people.


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The 19th Century Political Conflict between Europe and The United States in the New World as it is Depicted in Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo

Lupu M.S.1 1 Doctoral School of Philological Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Although a great deal of scholars on Conrad omits the North American issue in the analysis of

Nostromo,1 and the novel’s focus in this respect is slightly treated only in concord with the presentation of Holroyd, I shall commence this section with that predicament and its undertakings in the narrative. On an international level, Sulaco, and Costaguana respectively, are the battleground of two important empires of the 19th century, the American and the British empires. Symbolically, Holroyd is the bearer of the American agenda whereas Sir John of the British counterpart. Both act against each other by gaining greater favours from the local governments in respect to foreign investments, the British railway company and the American financed silver mine of Charles Gould. In the novel both foreign enterprises seem to go hand in glove as the silver mine produces the ingots and the railway locomotives ship them. Among the natives, there are also European expatriates working in Sulaco, predominantly Italians2. Although Sulaco is a thriving economic environment something happens and war knocks at its gates. Why?

Keywords: imperialism, politics, conflict, Europe, The United States

1 Introduction Whereas the British Empire raised its worldwide political agenda to divine ideals as cultural and

scientific enlightenment in the New World and the East, its main principle was profitable commerce with as more foreign colonies as possible. It spread from the Caribbean Archipelago to the Malayan counterpart. Its expansion transgressed the British Isles in the 16th century when English seafarers as Sir Francis Drake reached isles in Central America, and pilgrim ships landed on the North American eastern coast a century later. The empire acquired colonies in Africa and the East in the following three centuries and nothing seemed to overthrow its global might. However, the original American thirteen colonies devised plans of independence and the eventual creation of a world empire which could challenge the mighty British. And, as Richard Van Alstyne informs in The Rising American Empire (1965), the American Independence of 1776 was the first political undertaking for the accomplishment of the great master plan [1]. Immediately after the Independence the American politicians proposed France a tripartite union with America and Spain which could expel Great Britain from the entire western hemisphere by breaking off the commercial routes with the Americas and adjacent islands. When France provided assistance to America in its wars with the British, the colonies’ audacity grew as much as to conquer former British colonies and attack Canada in the North [1]. The tripartite alliance gave way by the end of the 18th century, caused by the unexpected and deliberate recognition of the independence by the British Empire of the thirteen colonies and, on 30 April 1803, after a brief war period with America, France ceded the entire Louisiana to the former ally. When Louisiana was annexed Thomas Jefferson turned his attention to other possible conquests as the entire North American continent up to Cuba and the Caribbean Archipelago in Central America [1]. Then it followed a corrosive political agenda of conflicts with Native Indian, Spanish and French owned territories in the west which lasted up to 1890; the conflicts were fueled by ideals of American presidents as that of Jefferson who thought that expansion to the west coast would enable the new empire intervention in the Far East and India [1].

1 Sherry’s Conrad’s Western World (1971), for example, states nothing about what possible source from reality Conrad may have inspired from when he attached the famous imperialist ‘soliloquy’ to Holroyd, or any other source dealing with the North American influence. 2 Sherry renders the Italian element in Nostromo in perfect agreement with reality because South America in the second half of the 19th century was teeming with enterprising Italians in search for work (148).


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2 The political conflicts Concerning the political situation of the European colonies in the 19th century there was recorded an

interesting fact which revolved around the idea of independence. Central and South American colonies as Brazil, Chile, Colombia or Mexico engaged in wars for the abolition of European sovereignty but, oddly enough, adopted the European political thought based on notions of political rights, nationality and citizenship [2] as the regulator of the norms of independence. In the 19th century the Spanish Empire was just a faint shadow compared to its heyday in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the state of affairs allowed the Latin American colonies the possibility of a realistic chance to their independence: ‘The catalyst for independence was the crisis in the Spanish monarchy, which prompted in both hemispheres the formation of provincial juntas (emergency representative governments) on liberal principles. In some parts of Spanish America the uprisings were justified as a sign of loyalty to the Spanish Crown against the liberal juntas…’ [2].

As we have seen earlier, the Latin American colonies in the 19th century were at the dawn of a new era, the fall of autocratic authority and the emergence of free nations3 based on European blueprint. In the process the new nations were devastated by inner political struggles for power between the provincial juntas as that of Don Jose Avellanos in Sulaco, and the acolytes of the former Spanish authority, the Montero brothers in Nostromo. Now we see that Sulaco’s government serves as a representation of the provincial juntas which spreads liberal ideals as toleration of foreign investments which crystalize in the capital system. Conversely, the Monterists are still guided by feelings of membership of the authority of the past, and sharing lands with foreign empires is seen as an act of treason of tradition. In addition to Spain’s downfall in the 19th century the Latin American colonies, at least part of them, received financial aids from The United States to support military insurrections against Spanish rule as in case of Cuba where Narciso Lopez, a liberal, planned an armed assault against the local authorities [1]. Nevertheless, it failed but the assault is a telling piece of information which suggests that The United States was obsessed with the idea of repelling European influence in the western hemisphere. This fact of history is enmeshed in Holroyd’s grandiloquent and loquacious speech delivered to a disconcerted Charles Gould in San Francisco4: ‘We can sit and watch. Of course, some day we shall step in. We are bound to. But there’s no hurry. Time itself has got to wait on the greatest country in the whole of God’s Universe. We shall be giving the word for everything: industry, trade, law, journalism, art, politics, and religion, from Cape Horn clear over to Smith’s Sound […] up to the North Pole. And then we shall have the leisure to take in hand the outlying islands and continents of the earth. We shall run the world’s business whether the world likes it or not.’ [3]

The American agenda of conquest and expansion is contained in this thoroughly quoted paragraph, and is backed up by its greatness unlike any other in the whole of God’s universe. Holroyd’s remark that the new American Empire aims at the conquest of the whole world is not exaggerated at all if we consider how fast the new empire developed. A Boston based American merchant, William Sturgis, reached Canton, China in 1800, and a flourishing commercial trade route soon made way. In the second half of the 19th century America came across Britain’s affairs in China and managed to share in the local market as any other European power; Japan became an intermediary link in the trade with China [1]. And the historian ostentatiously renders the image of the American Empire at the turn of the century as the new super-empire with a reference to Josiah Strong’s Our Country (1885) which was a sort of prophecy because it argued that The United States was a divine country whose mission was to conquer the world and spread the word of God [1]. Furthermore, Holroyd’s speech contains three geographical coordinates in his message, Cape Horn, Smith’s Sound and North Pole. If we take a glance at a world map of the earth we will soon realize that Cape Horn is the southernmost slice of land of South America (Chile) and close to the South Pole, whereas Smith’s Sound is a sort of strait which represents a natural borderline between Canada and Greenland (Denmark). The Canadian area around Smith’s Sound is the northernmost point of the North American continent called Ellesmere Island. The North Pole is the next destination on a northern voyage from Ellesmere Island. Holroyd’s geographical coordinates unravel what has been mentioned few pages earlier, that the American agenda of the 19th century was to rule the Americas on its own, by its own fashion. Conrad must surely have been in touch with the American master plan of the times when he inserted these specific coordinates in this respective speech. Conclusively, Conrad was aware that a new mega empire was being forged in the west.

3 The ideological sources of the political conflict When it comes to identifying the sources which paved the way to the development of a mighty empire

as the American turned to be at the turn of the century, Van Alstyne pin points the British legacy which was

3 The narrator of Nostromo informs: ‘…the big equestrian statue of Charles IV at the entrance of the Alameda [near Sulaco], towering white against the trees, was only known to the folk from the country and to the beggars of the town’ (52). Charles IV was king of the Spanish Empire from 1788 to 1808, a symbol of the past in Nostromo. 4 San Francisco was known as the most important harbour towards the riches of the East in the middle of the 19th century (Van Alstyne, 137).


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spread by the first wave of puritans in the 17th century. They deemed the North American territories as the new Israel5, the Promised Land, and in agreement with the Elizabethan ideals that the New World should be designed by the Christian white man with his divine mission to teach the western dogma [1]. In concord with the western ideals carried across the ocean, the American Empire was also based on the Monroe doctrine [1]. The Monroe Doctrine could not be defined better than the way it is expressed in Magdalena Alagna’s The Monroe Doctrine: An End to European colonies in America (2003) where we find that the doctrine was proposed by President James Monroe in 1823 before the American congress, and consists of four parts as follows: ‘The first part states that European nations cannot consider any part of North America as good place for a colony. The second part states that the nations in the Western Hemisphere are different from those in Europe. They are different because they were republics and not monarchies. […] The third part states that no European nation can make an independent state in the Western Hemisphere do things the way the European nation wants them to be done. By saying that, Monroe made America the protector of independent nations in the Western Hemisphere. The last part of the Monroe Doctrine states that America will not get in the middle of any European matters.’ [4] With James Monroe’s bold declaration, America’s political future was foretold; it aimed at the creation of a great empire in the west in order to counter balance the European empires on the other side of the Atlantic, and none of the two poles of power would interfere in each other’s business.

4 Conclusion Such was the political climate in the Americas, climate which was revealed to Conrad himself when he

crossed the Atlantic in his French period during the voyages to Martinique and whereabouts aboard Mont-Blanc (1875), and Saint-Antoine (1876-7). However, Sherry dismisses the fact that the writer’s personal experiences as a sailor in the Caribbean Archipelago had anything to do with the events of Nostromo but rather with lectures from books dealing with that part of the world [5]. Conrad, Sherry thinks, inspired from books dealing with the political situation of South America in the 19th century mainly for he was ignorant on such matters [5]. In other words, Conrad was careful not to alter the reality of that part of the world, and found materials for his narrative in books. This opinion is also shared by Jocelyn Baines who admits that reality was Conrad’s aim in his works and not imagination [6]. Convinced that Nostromo6 is the result of avid reading on behalf of Conrad in relation to the life of South America, Sherry states: ‘The past history of Costaguana has been carefully plotted by Conrad—a past of exploitation, tyranny, and the misrule of corrupt government.’ [5]. Whatever sources contributed to the creation of Nostromo, be it personal experience or avid reading, one thing is certain, that the present novel depicts the South American reality of the 19th century7 which, as mentioned earlier, resided at the shifting of two distinct historical periods, between the Spanish authority and the American protection backed by the Monroe political ideology. Greaney, like Sherry, admits Nostromo’s fidelity to reality and praises the narrator’s knowledge in respect to Costaguana’s history, geography and politics [7].

Bibliography [1] Alstyne, R. W. Van. (1965). The Rising American Empire. Chicago: Quadrangle Books Inc, pp.

8-184. [2] Davies, C. Brewster, C. Owen, H. (2006).South American Independence: Gender, Politics, Text.

Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 4-10. [3] Conrad, J. (1994). Nostromo. London: Penguin Books, p. 75. [4] Alagna, M. (2003). The Monroe Doctrine: An End to European Colonies in America. New York:

Rosen Publishing Group, pp. 4-5. [5] Norman, S. (1971). Conrad’s Western World. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 147-

182. [6] Baines, J. (1960). Joseph Conrad: A Critical Biography. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 297. [7] Greaney, M. (2002). Conrad, Language, and Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, p. 115.

5 The state of New England was deemed by the Calvinists as God’s American Israel (8). 6 Sherry thinks that Conrad’s other narrative dealing with the South American realm, ‘Gaspar Ruiz’, relies on readings from books as Memoirs of General Miller in the Service of the Republic of Peru (1829) by John Miller (140-1). 7 Sherry informs that Giorgio Viola was modeled in concord with the standard of Garibaldi, a libertarian Italian revolutionary who in 1842 commanded the fleet of Uruguay, in 1843 was head of the Italian Legion in the same country, in 1860 invaded Sicily, and in 1862 was captured at the battle of Aspromonte (153).


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The New Institution of Indignity in Romanian Inheritance Law

Macovei C.1, Dobrilă M.C.2 1 Faculty of Law, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University Iași (ROMANIA) 2 Faculty of Law, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University Iași (ROMANIA) [email protected] , [email protected]

Abstract In order to be able to inherit, the successor has to, under the provisions of Romanian succession law,

meet the following requirements: successional capacity (i.e. existence on the date succession is opened), legal entitlement (i.e. being called to succession by appointment through the rules of ab intestat succession or through the will), acceptance of the succession, and the absence of indignity. The last condition, a negative one, represents a legal situation defined in the New Romanian Civil Code of 2009, in force starting with 1 October 2011, specifically under articles 958 to 961, which results in debarring the successor from receiving a determined inheritance belonging to an individual with regard to whom he or she has become undignified by committing serious actions, as limited by legal norms. Indignity is therefore defined as a civil penalty or punishment which settles the serious moral conflict that occurs between the testator and the heir; at the same time, this institution is an exception in Romanian law, which in principle only recognises punishments from the area of public law. The New Romanian Civil Code extensively regulates this institution (which we may called new, due to the ample range of modifications brought to it), by redefining and adding to the instances of indignity, bringing them up to date, and attempting to regulate in a unitary manner both the indignity pertaining to legal heirs, and that applicable to successors by will.

Keywords: indignity, de jure indignity, judicial indignity, effects, New Romanian Civil Code.

1 Introduction Successional indignity is an institution that has also been regulated in the previous Romanian Civil

Code, and which is revised in the New Romanian Civil Code (NCC) in articles 958 to 961, which introduce various new elements.

The NCC (Law 287/2009) regulates the institution of successional indignity, as a new element, in the chapter on the general conditions for the right to inherit. Compared to the previous provisions, where successional indignity had actual effects and operated only in instances of intestacy [1], the NCC brings a change of vision, in that this institution can be both de jure, ope legis (Art. 958 NCC) and judicial, in which case it is necessary for it to be declared by the court of law (Art. 959 NCC) and produces effects both in cases of intestacy, as well as in cases of succession by will [2]. However, according to Art. 93 in Law 71/2011 for the implementation of the NCC, the new provisions concerning successional indignity in the NCC are only applicable to offences committed after the date the NCC was enforced, 1 October 2011.

2 De jure indignity (ope legis) In order for indignity to operate de jure, it is necessary that one of the two acts stated in Art. 958 Par.

(1) NCC exists. De jure indignity consists of committing an offence with the intention of murdering, and attempts to do so are also included, as the moral attitude of the offender is the one being punished.

The first act (a) that attracts de jure indignity consists of committing an offence with the intention of murdering the de cuius. Such offences are: murder, second degree murder, first degree murder and murder of a new-born infant as described in Art. 174-177 of the Romanian Criminal Code (CC), but offences committed in negligence are excluded (e.g. murder out of negligence as stated in Art. 178 of the CC), as well as offences that result in the victim’s death (e.g. hitting or injury causing death from Art. 183 of the CC).

The second act (b) which attracts de jure indignity consists in committing, before the date succession is opened, an offence with the purpose of killing another successor who, if the succession had been opened on the date the offence was committed, would have removed or restricted the successional entitlement of the offender.


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According to Art. 1100 of the NCC, a successor is a person who meets the requirements for the status of heir, but has not yet accepted or relinquished the succession. This offence has to be committed before the succession is opened, that is during the lifetime of the de cuius, as the term “successor” defines a person who has general legal entitlement to the same succession as the author of the offence and who, purely hypothetically, could have removed the latter from succession or diminished his or her portion of inheritance, if the succession had been opened prior to the murder of the successor. In order for de jure indignity to exist, it is irrelevant what the motive for committing the offence against another successor was, and it is not necessary to demonstrate that the committed offence is related to an intention to increase one’s successional rights.

Under the aspect of participation, Art. 958 of the NCC raises the issue whether indignity also operates in cases of accomplices or instigators, even though the norms that contain sanctions or punishments are to be interpreted stricto senso and the application of equal treatment for participants and authors of offences is only stipulated under criminal law (Art. 27 of the CC). Unlike the NCC, Article 726 Pars. 1 and 2 of the French Civil Code explicitly address the extension of the effects of indignity over accomplices as well (a notion in which French criminal law includes instigators, according to Articles 121-7 of the French Criminal Code), but, nonetheless, we believe it is desirable to interpret Art. 958 of the NCC in accordance with ratio legis, so that all participants become indignified [3].

In order for de jure indignity to exist, it is necessary to have a court ruling that determines the existence of culpability in committing either of the two acts described above; first of all a criminal sentencing order, or, in the absence of such an order, a definitive civil ruling. In the case where all conditions for the existence of the offence are met, but the criminal sentencing order can no longer be issued due to prevention from taking criminal action (for the death of the offender) or due to a cause that removes criminal liability (the intervention of pre-sentence amnesty, or prescription of criminal liability), then indignity operates de jure if the existence of the offence and the offender’s intention are established through a definitive civil judgement. This regulation rallies the institution of indignity to ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) standards, as they have been expressed in case of Velcea and Mazăre v. Romania, published in the Official Gazette, Part I no. 373 of 7 June 2010 [4], also available on the HUDOC database, according to which the death of a person cannot remove the illegal character of committed offences, nor can it remove indignity.

Successional indignity in Art. 958 of the NCC operates de jure, and it is not necessary to have a court ruling that establishes the intervention of indignity, and the court of law and public notary are made aware of the occurrence of indignity either by ex officio or at the request of an interested party. In cases where disputes arise over the fulfilment of the requirements for the operation of indignity, the court of law is the only body with competence in establishing whether these requirements were met and, according to case, to establish indignity that has been operating ope legis from the date succession was opened. Action in determining indignity can only be taken after the succession is opened, as its purpose is to remove the undignified heir from coming to the succession of the person against whom he or she is culpable of the indignifying act, and can be accepted only if the undignified heir has proper entitlement to the succession; otherwise the action would be rejected as irrelevant [5].

3 Judicial indignity Art. 959 Par. 1 of the NCC distinguishes between three situations that attract judicial indignity. The first

category of acts consists in committing physical or moral violence actions against the de cuius, or committing actions that result in his or her death (a). These actions are offences committed with intent, for which it is necessary that a criminal sentencing order is issued. In the case where all the conditions for the existence of the offence are met, but the criminal sentencing order can no longer be issued due to prevention from taking criminal action (for the death of the offender), or due to a cause that removes criminal liability (the intervention of pre-sentence amnesty, or prescription of criminal liability), then indignity can be declared by a court of civil law, if the existence of the offence and of the author’s intention is established through a definitive civil judgement.

Acts of physical aggression (e.g. hitting or any other act of violence – Art. 180 of the CC, acts causing to corporal integrity – Art. 181 of the CC, first degree acts causing to corporal integrity – Art. 182 of the CC, rape – Art. 197 Pars. 1-2 of the CC) or of moral aggression (e.g. illegal deprivation of freedom – Art. 189 of the CC, the act of threatening a person – Art. 193 of the CC, blackmail – Art. 194 of the CC) have to meet the condition of seriousness of the offence. We believe it is necessary to analyse the intensity and seriousness of the offence committed against the de cuius, an analysis that should be performed by the civil court the case is referred to, which would pronounce indignity on the basis of elements acknowledged in the criminal sentencing order, which holds res iudecata in these matters. Assessing the degree of seriousness cannot consist either of identifying objective criteria pertaining to criminal law (e.g. committing an aggravated form of the offence), or in appreciating the extent of the punishment in abstracto, as both provisions move away from the imperativeness of appreciating the actual danger presented by the offences and their consequences for the de cuius.


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In the case of actions that have as consequence the death of the victim, the intent to murder does not exist, as in the case of de jure indignity, but there has to exist a causal relationship between a certain deliberately committed action and the death of the de cuius, and death is the praeterintentional result of another action (e.g. the offence of hitting or injuring causing death – Art. 183 of the CC, rape that results in the victim’s death – Art. 197 Par. 3 of the CC).

The second category of actions that attract judicial indignity consists of modifying or removing the last wishes of the de cuius, through interference with the will of the deceased (b), actions which have to be committed in mala fide, that is with the intent to produce legal effects. Modifying the will can be accomplished through alteration (corrupting the content by adding, deleting, or transforming), and partial distruction, and the removal of the wishes of the de cuius can be done by hiding, completely destroying, or forging a new will contradicting the wishes of the de cuius. These actions can occur either before the date succession is opened, but without the knowledge of the de cuius (acc. to Art. 1052 Par. 2 of the NCC), or after this date. Both the form and validity of the will subjected to such an act are irrelevant, as indignity also punishes attempts to alter the wishes of the de cuius.

The third category of actions that attract judicial indignity consists of preventing the person to whom the succession belongs, through undue influence or violence, from making arrangements for the moment he or she will die by creating a will, through its modification or reversal (explicitly or tacitly). Indignity presupposes the existence of a causal relationship between the result of the prevention of the de cuius, and the use of undue influence (Art. 1214 of the NCC), or coercion by violence (Art. 1216-1217 of the NCC).

Judicial indignity is conditioned by the intervention of a definitive civil judgement, that pronounces whether the constituting elements for one of the three cases analysed above are met. To accomplish this, the successors who wish to remove the heir guilty of one of the acts of judicial indignity from the succession have a depriving deadline (Art. 2545 of the NCC) of one year from the date succession is opened. However, in exceptional situations, the time interval can begin from another moment in time. Thus, in the case of indignity consisting in acts of violence against the de cuius (a), the one-year time interval can flow either from the date the definitive criminal sentencing is issued, if this moment is subsequent to the date the succession is opened, or from the moment when a case occurs that removes criminal liability (pre-sentencing amnesty, prescription of criminal liability, death of the offender), a circumstance that prevents the issue of the criminal ruling and requires the issue of a civil ruling that establishes the existence of indignity. For the two cases of indignity that involve the interference of the successor with the last wishes of the de cuius (b and c), the flow of the time period until the deadline for acting in declaring indignity will be paused, until their elucidation, a situation which can be proved through any means of demonstration available.

4 Legal nature. Legal characters. Effects De jure indignity operates ope legis and has the character of a civil sanction, and judicial indignity has

the character of a civil punishment, as it requires a constitutive ruling of a civil court of law [6], [7]. Successional indignity is a debarring from the right to inherit. The undignified heir loses the status of

heir, and it is considered that he or she never actually had this status, as indignity operates retroactively, from the date the succession is opened. Successional indignity has a strict individual character, as it affects only the undignified heir, and has universal character as it applies the same legal treatment for legal heirs and successors by will; it also has a relative character, as it operates only between the undignified heir and the de cuius towards which the acts attracting indignity have been committed, which does not affect the rights to inherit from other successions that the undignified heir might be called to.

The undignified heir that has acquired complete or partial bonorum possessio over the successional estate is a mala fide owner (Art. 960 Par. 2 of the NCC) and has the obligation of returning it together with the derived incomes, as well as the equivalent amount of those he or she has omitted to charge (Art. 948, Par. 5 of the NCC).

Indignity has a strict individual character for the undignified heir, and does not affect the descendants of the undignified heir, irrespective of their degree of kinship. Unlike the provisions of Art. 658 in the previous Civil Code, the New Civil Code allows for representation in the case of descendants of the undignified heir, even in the event when the latter is alive (Art. 967 Par. 1 of the NCC), but it imposes a special obligation of collation for the privileged descendants of the undignified heir that were conceived before the date the succession is opened, and the succession is regulated by representation (Art. 969 of the NCC).

Indignity also affects third parties, in the sense that the obligation to return the estate exists both for the undignified heir, as well as for those who signed a contract with a non domino, based on the principle nemo plus juris ad alium transfere potest quam ipse habet. As an exception, acts of preservation and administration are valid and maintained, as long as they do not cause loss to the estate, as well as contracts for value concluded with bona fide third parties, and as long as the rules of real estate publicity have been respected (Art. 876 of the NCC); thus, in what concerns the theory of heir apparent [6], the New Civil Code has brought modifications. If


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the legal document concluded with the third party is maintained, the return will not be done in nature by the third parties, but by the undignified heir, in equivalent, according to the rules of mala fide bonorum possessio.

5 Removing the effects of indignity – obtaining a full pardon for the undignified heir

The effects of indignity can be explicitly removed through the will or through an notary-authenticated document by the author of the succession (Art. 961 of the NCC), both for de jure and for judicial indignity, even though for certain actions the pardon will not be possible, as the de cuius does not survive. Pardoning the undignified heir has to meet certain conditions: it must be explicit and cannot be deduced from leaving a gift by will to the undignified heir subsequent to the moment when the undignifying act was committed, a gift that does not grant pardon without an explicit accompanying statement; it must be done after the moment when the undignifying act was committed; the pardon constitutes a strictly individual act by the de cuius; ad validitatem, the pardon must be solemnly granted (through will or a notary-authenticated statement); for publicity, according to Art. 95 of Law 71/2011 for the enforcement of the New Civil Code, the removal of the effects of indignity through will or notary-authenticated statement must be registered in the National Notary Registry as regulated in Art. 1046 of the NCC.

6 Conclusions Successional indignity can be de jure (in the situations specified in Art. 958 of the New Civil Code), or

judicial, that is, pronounced optionally by a court of law (in the situations described in Art. 959 of the New Civil Code). Its effect is the removal of the heir both from intestacy, and succession by will. Consequently, any legal documents concluded by the undignified heir concerning the estate must abide the principle resoluto iure dantis resolvitur ius accipientis; exceptions are unfraudulent preservation and administration documents, and contracts for value that follow the rules of real estate publicity. On the whole, the effects of indignity can be removed by the author of the succession through will or through a notary-authenticated document.

We wish to add that the New Romanian Civil Code does not extend the effects of indignity to the undignified heir’s descendants, as these can come to the succession by representation (Art. 965 of the New Civil Code). In this last case, a specific mechanism has been established to ensure equality between the privileged descendants of the undignified heir, so that descendants born after the date succession was opened are not penalised. In this sense, the sons and daughters of the undignified heir that benefit from the effects of regulation of succession by representation are required to collate what they have received through succession by representation, if they compete with other privileged descendants that were conceived after the opening date of the succession from which the undignified heir has been removed (Art. 969 of the New Civil Code).

References [1] Chirică, D. (2003). Drept civil. Succesiuni și testamente. Rosetti, Bucharest. [2] Macovei, C., Dobrilă, M.C.(2012). Comment on articles 958-961, pp. 1004-1010, in Fl. A. Baias,

E. Chelaru, R. Constantinovici, I. Macovei (ed.), Noul Cod civil. Comentariu pe articole, art. 1-2664. C.H. Beck, Bucharest.

[3] Terré, F., Lequette, Y. (1997). Droit civil. Les successions. Les libéralités. 3rd Edition. Dalloz, Paris.

[4] Case of Velcea and Mazăre v. Romania[0], published in the Official Gazette, Part I no. 373 of 7 June 2010, also available on HUDOC database.

[5] Malaurie, Ph., Aynés, L. (2008). Les Successions, Les Libéralités. 2nd Edition. Defrénois. [6] Deak, Fr. (2002). Tratat de drept succesoral. 2nd Edition. Universul Juridic, Bucharest. [7] Grimaldi, M. (2001). Droit civil. Successions. 6th Edition. Litec, Paris.


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Being a Girl is Something Learned: A Comparative Analysis of Gender Stereotypes in Romanian and French Preschool Girls

Manea C.N.1 1 PhD Lecturer, Ovidius University of Constanta (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This research means to identify the gender stereotypes present in two different societies, characterised

by very diverse socio-economical and cultural environments. These were assumed to produce important differences in the gender representations formed by Romanian and French children alike. Gender stereotypes of preschool girls in both countries were comparatively analysed, in order to shed light on the influence education and environment possess in gender development. Namely, how little girls learn what girls and boys are supposed to be like as well as what psycho-moral characteristics they are allowed to develop. Additional comments on the consequences of these gender representations are further provided.

Keywords: Gender stereotypes, preschool girls, gender assigning, comparative analysis, Romanian and French children.

1 Literature review From the moment people are born, gender becomes one of the most important influences in someone’s

life. The way people act, their thoughts, their feelings, their behaviours and their expectations are all results of the stereotypes society holds and of the representations of what the little girl or boy is supposed to become. As Andree Pomerleau and his colleagues stated in their study of gender stereotypes published in 1990, “nowadays, very early in their development, girls and boys already experience environments which are dissimilar,” therefore “we may hypothesize that these differential environments will have an impact on the development of specific abilities and preferential activities in children” [1].

Studies conducted by Jane Connor and Lisa Serbin (1977) [2] or Beverly Fagot (1973) [3] have suggested that parents and other adults hold general beliefs about the appropriateness of certain behaviours for each sex. Children take these stereotypes and make them their own, repeating the stereotypes their parents based their lives upon, as they have repeated the behaviours their own parents have imposed upon them.

Gender stereotypes are present in our lives even before a child is born (parents attribute to their unborn children characteristics which follow the line society has prescribed, room colours and clothes are chosen according to what parents believe little boys or girls should enjoy, toys are bought in the same manner). In the mean time, psychologists, education specialists and researchers as Kay Deaux and Linda Lewis (1984) [4] or Rachel Karniol and Amir Aida (1997) [5] try their best to convince people that gender stereotypes are not the way to go, a good education being conditioned by viewing both girls and boys as equals, both capable to develop the same psycho-moral characteristics, consistent with their own native potential.

2 Methodology

2.1. Purpose of Study The research was meant to shed light on the influence that gender stereotypes hold in young girls’ lives.

We intend to verify whether or not different cultural and socio-economical environments influence the gender stereotypes that children develop in their first years of life, and the differences that might appear in the way girls growing up in different countries, assume these gender stereotypes. We compared the answers that Romanian and French preschool girls had given, in search for the influence these stereotypes have had on the development of gender stereotypes and the self image of these young girls.


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2.2. Research Subject Field The data used in the research was obtained during the first semester of the 2009-2010 school year

(October 2009 - February 2010). The Research subject field is made of 128 preschool girls, aged between 5 and 6, half Romanian and half French, half emerging from a big city (Constanta / Le Havre), and the rest from a small city (Murfatlar / Ste Signolette), selected through the “match by pairs” method, to ensure the participation of a heterogeneous group in terms of economic, educational and social status. Children were selected to provide a heterogeneous environment in terms of educational conditions, belonging both to the normal hours kindergartens, as well as those with extended hours.

2.3. Research Methods The method used in obtaining the results was the reading of two stories created in accordance with the

preschool children’s characteristics, in which children are asked to assign, on five different situations, some actions to one of two characters (a boy or a girl), in accordance with the psycho-moral characteristics they believe to be specific for each of the two genders. It was chosen in order to provide a more comfortable evaluating environment for the children, with stories as an already appreciated means of educating preschooler, which unfortunately was not sufficiently thorough in their field of stereotype research. In order to overcome the limitations of the method, it was also verified through the method of conversation, as a way to assure that the characteristics chosen by children were in accordance with the gender beliefs they held. The results showed almost complete concordance between the responses of preschool children while presenting the two stories and those offered during the conversation.

The five situations illustrated that problems can be solved through determined action of five personality traits: kindness, intelligence, courage, friendliness and hard work (all of which were attributed at the beginning of the story, to both characters, to ensure a strong projection of the children). The first tale gives the story of a prince and princess who set off on an adventure in search for help to rescue their parents, prey to a deep sleep. The children are asked to assign one of the characters to deal with the situations they encounter on the way - like the caring for a wounded dog, the crossing of a raging river, saving a baby deer taken away by the waters, sustaining a friendly conversation from which they might gain information, caring for some hungry and unwashed animals. In the second story the children must assign the same characteristics to a little brother or sister gone on a trip to their sick grandmother's home. Assignments target the decision taken to help the grandmother, finding the right way to do it, getting involved in helping an isolated child integrate into a group of friends, making a cake for the grandmother. The answers given by the children were noted using an observation protocol, while also pursuing their nonverbal reactions, the certainty of the answers, the explanations and any information considered relevant to children's opinions related to the cases investigated. The data was statistically analyzed, using SPSS 17. Comparisons were made considering the area of origin of the children, the analysis being differentiated considering the city of provenience.

3 Findings and results As expected, the results sustain the hypotheses of the research, statistical significant differences being

found to define the results obtained by the two groups of preschool girls. The results of the research indicate statistical significant differences in the gender stereotypes presented by Romanian and French preschool girls for the items of intelligence and hard work (both stories), friendliness (first story) and kindness (second story), as presented in the table below (table 1).

Table 1. Statistical significance of test results (N=128)

Critical number

Story number

Psycho-moral feature

Z score Statistical significance

1 1 kindness 1,200 No, p sig.=0,116 2 1 intelligence 3,734 Yes, p sig.=0,000 3 1 courage 0,712 No, p sig. =0,239 4 1 friendliness 2,001 Yes, p sig.=0,023 5 1 hard work 2,001 Yes, p sig.=0,023 6 2 kindness 3,790 Yes, p sig.=0,000 7 2 intelligence 2,476 Yes, p sig. =0,007 8 2 courage 0,712 No, p sig. =0,239 9 2 friendliness 0,184 No, p sig. =0,429 10 2 hard work 3,420 Yes, p sig. =0,000


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The answers offered by both categories of preschoolers, but mostly those offered by the Romanian preschool girls confirm previous studies like those realised by Lisa A. Serbin, Kimberly K. Powlishta and Judith Gulko (1993) [6], or those offered by Carl Hoffman and Nancy Hurst (1990) [7], which showed a great tendency to attribute communal characteristics to female characters, while agent-like characteristics seem to be a prerogative of male characters.

One of the first aspects that need to be acknowledged is the matter of the two psycho-moral features that registered statistically significant differences in both of the stories created by the children: hard work and intelligence.

As presented in table 2, hard work was attributed differently by girls that grew up in Romania and France. While in Romania answers were rather split (most of the Romanian girls attributing hard work to the female character), French girls attributions were less drastic, French girls considering hard work to be a feature of both girls and boys (even if it was also considered to be more characteristic to girls than to boys).

Table 2. “Girl” attributions of “hard work” offered by preschool girls in Romania and France - story no. 1 and story no. 2 (N=128)

France Romania Total Story 1 Story 2 Story 1 Story 2 Story 1 Story 2 Girl 22 22 12 6 34 28 Boy 42 42 52 58 94 100 Total 64 64 64 64 128 128

The results can be easily explained by the specifics of work distribution in the two societies. If the French society is usually characterized by gender equality in the way housework is distributed, the Romanian society still remains a rather patriarchal environment, most of the housework being considered to represent the prerogative of women. Even if the Romanian society has evolved in the last years in the way women are perceived, the gap between genders still exists and children can easily perceive it. Furthermore, the existence of gender differences in different societies has been debated for a long time; studies like those conducted by Margaret Mead (1935) on three tribes in New Guinea [8], or those conducted by Herbert Barry, Margaret K. Bacon and Irvin L. Child (1957, 327-332) on 110 primitive societies [9], have identified many different patterns in the gender roles presented by different societies, as did the author’s extended study on the matter [10].

Beside the role-models children see in their family, an important part in their gender role-attributions is played by the stories children grow up with. Snow-White, Cinderella, The old man’s daughter, The ant – these are all examples of hard working female characters that little Romanian girls admire and want to follow as an example. They are all hard-working, kind, generous, sociable and friendly – as should any young lady become... While female characters are described using communal characteristics, male characters are portrayed as intelligent and courageous, always there to save the world or the young damsel in distress... Greuceanu, Praslea, Prince-Charming are all role-models that Romanian boys find adequate to follow.

While in Romania the efforts to overcome these stereotypes are still shy, being quite difficult to find texts for children which promote gender equality, France holds a more significant concern in the achievement of this goal. The proof can be found in books such as those included in Edition Talent hautes - La princesse et le dragon (Robert Munch and Mickaël Martchenko, 2005), Quand Lulu sera grande (Fred L., 2005), Une reine trop belle (Christine Lamiraud, 2009), Le tour du monde en pédaroulette (Léna Ellka, 2009), Caro des cavernes (Jill Marshall, 2009), Le meilleur cow-boy de l’ouest (Fred L., 2008), Imagier renversant (Mélo Sébastien Telleshi, 2006), Le domaine des dragons (Lenia Major and Marie-Pierre Oddoux, 2008), Une fille tout feu tout flamme (Nathalie Somers and Sébastien des Déserts, 2009) – and the list can continue. Although not necessarily included in the school curriculum, easier access to such works serves in reducing gender stereotypes in France, which can be observed in our research.

These all contribute to the understanding of the gender stereotypes Romanian and French preschool girls present – not only about hard work, but also about intelligence.

While most of the Romanian girls attribute intelligence to the male character, French preschool girls choose to attribute it in a more balanced manner, as presented in Table 3. The explanations follow the lead presented above – children reproduce what they learn, and stories are a big part of this process, as is what children are let to perceive in everyday life – be it true or false.


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Table 3. “Girl” attributions of “intelligence” offered by preschool girls in Romania and France – story no. 1 and story no. 2 (N=128)

France Romania Total

Story 1 Story 2 Story 1 Story 2 Story 1 Story 2 Girl 25 24 46 38 71 62 Boy 29 40 18 26 47 66 Total 64 64 64 64 128 128

The attribution of friendliness follows the same pattern indicated above. While French preschool girls tend to attribute it more evenly, Romanian girls consider sociability to be a characteristic of female characters, especially in the case of the first story, while kindness tends to be attributed mostly to the female character in the second story. The explanation is offered by the particularities of the stories – while sociability is needed in the first story to befriend animals, in the second story it is needed to make peace between other children – a situation which also implies courage, the one feature that all children considered to be a male characteristic. As for kindness, the difference in attributions can be explained by the fact that in the second story it implies helping a sick member of the family (gender role traditionally attributed to girls), while the other story implies helping a wounded animal (a situation potentially risky, therefore the more balanced attributions).

4 Conclusions The research meant to identify the gender stereotypes of preschool girls in two different societies – and

the results confirmed the expectations of the researcher. Through the present research it is not our intention "to point the finger" in one direction or another, be it school, family or society, nor to elucidate the sources of these stereotypes, but rather to trigger an alarm on the fact that gender stereotypes exist and can be reduced, the advantages are obvious in the latter case. Environment is a powerful factor, as is education, and young children are the first to feel it. While children who grow up in more balanced situations, in terms of gender stereotypes, tend to attribute qualities to the same-sex character in the stories, the children growing up in a more traditional environment tend to reproduce this environment in their attributions, considering that there are prescribed gender roles. While this can be seen as positive in some circumstances, these stereotypes need careful consideration, in order to ensure the best possible upbringing of all children, unimportant of the gender with which nature has endowed them.

References [1] Pomerleau, A., Bolduc, D., Malcuit, G. & Cossette, L. (1990). Pink or blue: Environmental

gender stereotypes in the first two years of life. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 22, 359-367. [2] Connor, J.M. & Serbin, L. A. (1977). Behaviorally based masculine-and feminine-activity-

preference scales for preschoolers: Correlates with other classroom behaviours and cognitive tests. Child Development, 48, 1411-1416.

[3] Fagot, B. I. (1973). Influence of teacher behaviour in the preschool. Developmental Psychology, 9, 198-206.

[4] Deaux, K. & Lewis, L. L. (1984). The structure of gender stereotypes: Interrelationships among components and gender label. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 991-2004.

[5] Karniol, R. & Aida, A. (1997). Judging toy breakers: gender stereotypes have devious effects on children. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 36 (3-4), 195-205.

[6] Serbin, L. A., Powlishta, K. K. & Gulko, J. (1993). The Development of Sex Typing in Middle Childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(2), 1-74.

[7] Hoffman, C. & Hurst, N. (1990). Gender Stereotypes: Perceptions or rationalization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 197-208.

[8] Mead, M. (1935) [2001]. Sex and temperament in three primitive societies. New York: Harper Collins Publisher.

[9] Barry, H., Bacon, M. K. & Child, I. L. (1957). A cross-cultural survey of some sex differences in socialization. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 55, 327-332.

[10] Manea, C.N. (2013). Gender Stereotypes. A comparative analysis: preschool children from Romania and France (2013) Elsevier Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 78, 16-20.


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Democracy and Globalization

Mareş P.1

1 Professor PhD, Dean of Faculty Political Sciences, Letters and Communication, University Valahia from Târgovişte (ROMÂNIA) [email protected]

Abstract Democracy constituted itself as a model within the space of a nation, space which underwent two

climaxes: the bourgeois state and the democratic state. However, its instability drifted to totalitarianism along with wars, crises or revolutions. But democratic

regimes overcame these stages due to the close connections between state, democracy and nation, and to channelling the effects of ideology and of post-war economic wealth towards better ends. But this democratic nation-state is now faced with major threats, especially globalization.

Keywords: political democracy, nation-state, sovereignty, ideology, globalization

Democracy is considered 'power of the people', 'people in power'; but what does this 'power of the people' exactly mean? It means that the people are the ones that rule, that the people is the sovereign... “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation” is what article 3 in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen (1789) annunciates.

The theory of sovereignty is developed by Jean Bodin in the 16th century. At the end of the first book, of his six books on the Republic, he defines sovereignty as a Republic's absolute and perpetual power. The sovereign is the last in the power hierarchy, but his power is absolute on the basis of his not having to answer to anyone. It is perpetual, lest it should be passed on at one point or another, which would indicate that it is not absolute, but belongs to someone else.

The notion of sovereignty will thus evolve in parallel and in close connection to that of law. Hobbes and Rousseau wondered themselves how to justify the political act, the existence of law in a democracy? Why would the people, who are sovereign, pass laws onto themselves? They considered that a contract does not found the state, but the civil society, the Republic. The people is a sovereign in the sense that it has absolute power, but it has to give it (Hobbes) or assign it (Rousseau) to its representative.

By explaining that the people becomes a magistrate through a 'sudden conversion of sovereignty' and that the law is an enunciation of the general will which prolongs the initial contract, Rousseau is rational: “...a blind mob, which, most of the time, does not know what it wants, because it rarely knows what is best for itself...” [1]. The people, Rousseau adds, “always wants the public good, but it does not always want it automatically. General will is always just, but the reasoning behind it is not always enlightened (…). The individuals see the good, which they do not want; the public wants the good, which they do not see however. They all equally need a guide [1]. Or, “how could a blind mob” … “accomplish by itself a great and difficult endeavour such as a law system?” [1]. “This is how the imperative of a legislator arises” [1].

While living in a democracy, it is commonly accepted that the sovereign people holds these signs of power, which were reduced to three in number by Montesquieu: legislative power, executive power and judicial power [2]. Several authors deny any of the people's abilities to govern. Montesquieu is even more authoritarian: “But will it (the people) know how to run the public affairs, how to weigh out places, favourable circumstances, right moments, and how to profit by these? No, it will not know this.” [2]. And then he adds: “Public affairs must move forward and they must move forward at a certain speed, which is not too slow, nor too fast. But the people are always either too active, or too careless. They sometimes overthrow everything with a hundred thousand arms; at other times, they do not advance faster than a bug, in spite of their a hundred thousand legs” [2]. The people “is not able to manage itself” [2], he says. Nobody denies this, it is precisely because of this that the people lead through others. They elect their representatives and their ministers to accomplish that which they do not know how to do and they remain sovereign, as the representatives need to account for their deeds. Montesquieu argues that “The people knows very well how to elect those to whom it needs to grant part of its power” [2], as, “the people is capable enough to call others to account for the managing of public affairs” [2].


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Up until the 90s, democracy was believed to establish itself from the inside, but, after the major changes in Central and Eastern Europe and the “Arab spring”, globalization, by creating a global economy, the birth of the global government and the creation of a global communication network, moulds the democratization process. The dominant model of the international society, the democratic nation-state is brought back into discussion by globalization and by the radicalization of ideology; for globalization weakens the nation-state, it reduces the autonomy of all states. But it is a well-known fact that state sovereignty and national community, the common good of the respective people are the only tools left for effective solidarity and collective action. Today, democracy is the only legitimate political system, and, consequently, the best carrier of collective order; the nation can survive without democracy, but modern democracy cannot progress without nation or state. One can claim that “democracy represents the only genuine order of the new world. It is the link that “re-links” the individuals who are solitary by nature. In this sense, democracy is religion, by excellence” [3]. It can be partially shattered by the present development, because the state's limits (loss of power) and the nation's limits (intercrosses) bring it even more into question. But nothing can substitute for the state, even though the state no longer manages to ensure the programme supplied by democracy, and nothing can substitute for the nation, even though it no longer delivers the identification sub-layer which allows for this game of democracy. The partial transgression of the state-nation system through globalization stresses the contradiction between reality and democratic ideology. Unlike ideology, the national framework is a private, limited framework.

By partially escaping the control of the nation-state, the economy thus escapes the only means to be somewhat subordinate to the ideological requirements. Hence, it can more freely develop its own logic without the reconciliation that the national-state framework gave it, all the more so as it constitutes itself in a more or less visible network of international decision or normalizing centres, which are founded on the state, but are less controlled by the states and in no circumstances by the electors.

The model of the classic nation-state is brought back into discussion by the growing diversification of the ways followed by various countries. We make reference here to big countries, so very different from each other, like for instance Russia, China or India. After the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., the Western model was believed to constitute itself and that democracy would reign. On the contrary, one can observe the development towards a larger geographical or national heterogeneity and a diversification of the channels; and, in this respect, democracy is the weak link. But the national model and the role of the state continue to be powerful counterpoints everywhere in the world, consequently patriotism as well, which, in most of the countries, stands for the essential link of the collective life and a rallying point for the population, at least when we come out of Europe. Despite general opinion, globalization favours diversification, even the emergence of an alternative, for it offers new technical and cultural means, usable according to local objectives.

In successful countries in Asia, there is a close connection between three different directions of progress, directions which set themselves in opposition: globalization, autonomy and broadening perspectives, around a common idea of success and assumption. This is the case, a fortiori, should some form of democracy be installed, as, in this case as well, real democracy is uncertain in relation to ideology and its claim for universality. Democratization strengthens indigenization and, quite frequently, the return to religion as differentiation and autonomous factor.

Outside the perspective of the nation-state, there are two possible alternatives: an external dominion, hegemonies and empires; or the construction of a supranational entity. Within the logic of democratic ideology, the world's democratic unification would be one perspective, but the building-up of a democratic supranational power on a global level is illusory. The major obstacle in the formation of such a utopia is democracy itself, precisely through its natural foundations. This idea situates itself at the anti-pole of the public opinion according to which the generalization of democracy on a global level is a necessary and sufficient preamble to the unification of the planet. The democratic form of social life dominates nowadays the collective discourse, but its reality is variable, the recalcitrant countries are not to be ignored and its stability is not yet established. Moreover, a choice must be made between democracy and the political unification of the planet. Economic growth used to give people the means to place themselves on the map and the moral support they needed in this, through the feeling of success. Even if the democratic model were to become dominant, the planet would still not be unified. On the contrary, it is precisely because of democracy that the possibility that states might confront one another should perpetuate or develop. And this happens because democracy presupposes real communities, in which solidarity is real, based on a real feeling of identity awareness. Transgressing the national level would put them back on the table and would thus mine the real democracy. “Contrary to the public opinion, democracy is not a unification or reunification factor of different peoples, on the contrary, it tends to exacerbate their differences. It can, at the very least, help these peoples to cohabit” [4].

As it was observed, “whenever the choices and liberties that accompany them are institutionalized, one could say that polyarchy (or political democracy) is 'consolidated', meaning that it might actually last”; namely, a state of fact in which “none of the major political actors, parties or interest groups, forces or organized institutions, considers that there is an alternative to democratic processes of gaining power and … no institution or political group claims the right to veto against the democratically chosen decision makers...” [5]. As it is a


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question of powers, the fundamental element is states continuing to control the force monopoly: military force, capacity to regulate taxes. Or, the national interest broadly speaking is their ordinary motivation, especially within a democratic context, because the governors are responsible in front of the people that chose them, namely of a particular people and not the whole human species of the planet. How could we then imagine an increased role of the international institutions? And, especially, an international capacity of unfolding the force, be it military or normative? From a juridical point of view, even if certain norms acquire a real authority, their acceptance depends on the states' arbitrariness, the only ones capable to ensure their implementation. Nothing allows us, therefore, to believe in a progress that would grant multinational institutions an autonomous space, that would allow them to fight against the will of large states. These latter ones, which have a conscious and powerful national basis, will be able to keep the general traits of what is called sovereignty. The democratic dimension, properly, is not decisive in this process, but it intensifies the national spirit, outside Europe. And, even inside Europe, it hinders the thorough unfolding of the continent's unification process. In other words, democracy intensifies the plurality of the poles in our world. There is, however, the possibility of a scenario of a growing differentiation of the functions between national political systems and one or two central power networks, international in their progress, with a strong economic dimension, more and more opaque for the citizen and even for the professionals in the field of politics. “Because globalization reduces the autonomy of all states, it determines the manifestation of a 'post-Westphalian order', characterised by affirmation of international global governing agencies and institutions, which replace or function alongside the interstate system. Among these we find the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO), which regulate the international economy, as well as the United Nations Organization (UNO), which tries to impose global order and to set global norms. The actions to create an international court qualified to investigate the universal rights of man are also part of the process of the emergence of some transnational governing regions. The power exercised by these institutions is a reflection of the fact that they represent, no matter how vaguely and indirectly, the interests of the West” [6]”.

The fact that these institutions are kept off from the citizen and not so visible is a sign of their limitations. On the one hand, the actual control of the territory, judicial legitimation and the monopoly of the force belong, de facto, to the states. On the other hand, the ordinary way of expression, the authorized language, outside local situations, is that of democracy. The one that enters this framework consequently risks getting more and more frustrated, because of the absence of real popular control and of these powers' legitimation, as well as because of the growing heterogeneity of the world an of its inequalities. On a global level, such power mechanisms, obscure and hardly visible, polycentric, are being mistaken for ideology, blatant but slightly inefficient at this too distant a level. Between these two, the state sovereignties resist and negotiate with these new networks. Or, at least democracy does so, in the proper sense of the word. But we need to differentiate it from the constitutional state, from taking interests and opinions into account, etc., for it (the constitutional state) is possibly outside democracy, even though people associate the two, in fact they see in democracy but a form of rational and concerted constitutional state. We could retrace some of its dimensions back to an international level. Some of the principles of democracy that need to subsist assert that any political change has to be feasible without violence, that exercising power is controlled and that the people has a say/vote (even if indirectly) in this process. But these rules, which are actually salutary in themselves, do not stand for democracy in the proper sense of the word; they are instead part of the alternative forms that can substitute for it under the name of governance. It is a well-known fact that the representative and parliamentary system (the true political democracy) is closely linked to the nation-state. And that it is pointless to want to transfer these mechanisms to an international level; nor is there a reliable way to make citizens to actively participate to decision-making processes. Hence the appeal to these more limited notions. But this no longer represents true democracy.

By adding it to the de facto acknowledgement of the heterogeneity of our world, the hypothesis of a unified and harmonious democratization of the planet is insensate. Not only do we not know how to reach it, but we would not know how to maintain it. Moreover, even if democracy dominated our world, it would still be possible for an undemocratic regime, be it legitimate or not, to last for as long as its force factors resist, while, in the opposite situation, a private democracy can just as well collapse. Also, the convulsions that globalization brings along increase the number of possibilities for disequilibrium and, consequently, of side-slipping outside the system. Finally, an aggravating circumstance, the nuclear proliferation that we do not know how to stop constitutes an excellent basis for all regimes refractory to dominant norm. In short, we do have the premises to there being no means to impose or to install, on a global level, a common norm, inclusively democratic. It is one of the signs that need to be taken into consideration. We could call forth the contrary hypothesis, the one according to which the democratic wave has already reached its climax and tends to decrease. In other words, if democracy cannot ensure the unification of the planet, its dominion can be disputed in one circumstance or another. What is essential is that no other model of political organization that could claim a similar universal legitimation has yet appeared. Democracy in the sense that we perceive it is, of course, far from being universally accepted. But the different reference zones (China and the Islamic world) have no influence as political systems. They sometimes claim to be 'democratic', but, they argue, in a different way. Thus, even if the


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international system is more and more heterogeneous and threatened to be torn apart, it does not offer an alternative model, at most, some local forms. One could obviously object that, in most of the countries, the reality or the stability of democracy is questionable. The example of Latin America is a proof to it, as the constitutional democratic model is contested here (except for Cuba). But, in reality, it is unstable, just like the 'revolutions' and the military coups come to attest it. Things are the same in Africa or in the Muslim world. In fact, we should rather ask ourselves which are the countries in which this system does seem to work. According to certain statistics, out of 6 billion people in the world only 1,8 billion live in a true democratic country, whereby half of them are Indians [7]. In spite of legitimation, only a minority of the people is familiar to a system that actually works according to these principles. Furthermore, the regime does not last endlessly. This was taken notice of – out of the non-Western countries with an uninterrupted democratic system since the declaration of independence, the only incontestable case, besides India, is Senegal. Even with the Westerners, the cases of incontestable contamination that exceeds a period of two generations (70 years) are few and close to each other from a cultural point of view: the Anglo-Saxon world, Northern Europe and Switzerland. So, if the legitimation of democracy cannot be contested, its real anchorage is variability and it rarely lasts. This anchorage did not go to show that it is durable, nor that it can adapt anywhere. The Western democratic government forms called 'democracies' “state as their intention the defence of personal freedom against all other forms of power with one single exception: that of sovereignty, of the dominion of the law” [8].

The theme entitled governance, especially due to the European institutions' practice, involves consulting with the civil society, the active presence and often preponderant in the decision processes of some unelected actors, the revocability of the law which can form a series of evolutionary normative consensus. Popular sovereignty grants it the last legitimation seal, but it only refers, in the best case scenario, to electing the persons who fill up certain positions; it is disconnected from decisions and no longer expresses itself based on real programs. The state itself tends to lose its ultimate authority character, only to progress towards a place of argumentation and 'consensus'. In the technocratic variant, emotion is eliminated in favour of the action of certain hidden minorities, but 'competent', within discrete and controlled processes. Consequently, the decision is freed, as best possible, of the political 'liturgy' and resembles rather a negotiation than a political action. Unlike the previous technocracy, which made use of a visible and explicit administrative framework, we now deal with ad-hoc and impersonal structures. This could more clearly take over from the democratic model, providing this would be seen as depleted in dealing with its tasks: over-professionalised parties, parliaments that are marked by the distance between representatives and the represented ones, weak local powers and a limited interest from the part of the electors. These failures could thus lead to the search for a government made up of 'enlightened' people, under cover of procedures. Just like technocracy, it would probably mainly concentrate on the economic functions, thus meeting the needs of the globalization actors. It would be compatible with the rise of the power of courts invested with an ideological role, but which are neither elected, nor responsible, like, for instance, the European Court of Justice. Within this scheme, the role of the religion of the rights of man would progress: by regulating the routine of the people, it would look at society, but it would leave aside the political functioning. Such a 'governance' could cohabit with democratic ideology and with its sporadic, anarchic wishes for a direct democracy. Certainly, the great popular debate that the utopia dreams of would not be realised, but this 'debate' or 'dialogue', channelled and limited anyhow, could assign a certain formal legitimation to the process. Guy Hermet [9] additionally emphasises the possible conjunction between this mode of governance and a non-populism. Governance is indeed opaque, elitist and anti-political: it needs a bail, by accepting certain impulses of populism or the theatre of participatory democracy.

References

[1] Rousseau, J. – J.(1957). Contractul social, Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, p. 138. [2] Montesquieu, (1964). Despre spiritul legilor, Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, pp. 20, 21,195. [3] Hecquard, M. (2007). Les fondements philosophiques de la démocratie moderne, Office

d’Ėdition Impression Librairie (O.E.I.L.) François - Xavier de Guibert, Paris, p. 260. [4] de Lauzun, P. (2011). L’avenir de la démocratie, François–Xavier de Guibert, Paris, p.p.202–

203. [5] Diamond, L., Plattner, M. F., Chu, Yun – han, Tien, Hung - mao (coordonatori), (2004). Cum se

consolidează democraţia, Editura Polirom, p. 77. [6] Grugel, J. (2008). Democratizarea, o introducere critică, Editura Polirom, p. 124. [7] Lesourne, J. (2004). Démocratie, marché, gouvernance. Quels avenirs?, Odile Jacob, Paris, p.

75. [8] Popper, K. R. (1998). Lecţia acestui secol, Editura Nemira, Bucureşti, p. 78. [9] Hermet, G., (2007) L’hiver de la démocratie, on le nouveau régime, Armand Colin, Paris, p. 19.


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Moral Dilemmas of Managing and Rationalizing the Relationship between Man and Nature

Maxim S.T.1

1 Stefan cel Mare’ University, Strada Universitatii nr. 13, 720229, Suceava (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Lately there has emerged a social movement that attributes the human values promoted by the

ecological action to moral judgment, in terms of good or evil: the attitude towards the planet as a unique ecosystem whose preservation guarantees the future existence of mankind; the concern for everything that is alive; respect for nature; protection of the environment; the responsibility to act or to refrain from irresponsible actions for the interest of future generations; the quality of life, as a way to humanize life in a unique ecosystem: man - nature - social .

Keywords: ecology, environmentalism, social ecosystem, anarcho-environmentalism, quality of life

1 Ecological ethics The term ecology – which was introduced in 1866 by E. Hekkel - indicates that branch of science

(biological science) that aims at highlighting the principles of the mutual relations between the living organisms and their environmental conditions. Today it mainly refers to the currents of thought and social action which analyze the negative effects of the intemperate use of the outcomes of the contemporary Scientific and Technical Revolution. This new theoretical and practical perspective, which castigates the excessive action of man on the balance of natural ecosystems, raises the question of "managing and rationalizing the relationship between man and nature"[1], by establishing a new set of human values and by orienting the ethical commitment towards the critical assessment of the decisions or the justification of the social environmental policies.

In general, both honest-minded individuals as well as responsible human communities acknowledge the need to relate to the values mentioned above, which however does not inevitably save the individual and/or collective action from dilemmatic situations in terms of morality.

2 Moral dilemmas of social and environmental action 1. A first dilemma is generated by a problem of extent: to what extent is our interference with nature

possible and permissible? The answer to this question provides us with the ethical orientation needed in order to find solutions to specific questions, such as: Do we have the right to sacrifice the improvement of some people’s lives in the name of an illusory general national interest? Does it matter if deforestation impoverishes the planet's atmosphere as a whole or causes disastrous local phenomena, such as landslides or uncontrollable flooding? Should we no longer allow the use of wood for furniture and other human needs, and replace it with plastic and synthetic (non-ecological) products? Is the extinction of some species an acceptable price for satisfying our human needs regarding growth and development? Is it preferable to generate immediate material welfare for a community or to preserve the Rosia Montana area (Romania) for future generations? It is known that during the last decade in Romania cyanide gold mining has become a highly controversial and publicized phenomenon at national level and beyond. The concern for the environment is legitimate, but we must not forget that any human interference with nature is "invasive". For example, building highways destroys the natural habitat of many species of animals or at least drastically and often dramatically limits their natural ways of transhumance and integration into the traditional ecosystems. Moreover, every industry is "invasive" by nature. How can one justify the selective ecological protests regarding certain industrial projects? Only under the impact of media or some moral judgments, by balancing the good and the evil, as short or long term effects on the humans and the community? Here is a new ethical dilemma.

Soon the nations will face dramatic challenges raised by the need for the surveillance, control or even prohibition of certain new technologies: "The problems regarding the ethical technological practices (such as those related to genetically modified foods, data security, research of biological material, hidden sensors and


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biometric devices) can become an increasingly important factor in international trade policies and external relations. Finally, a number of biotechnological techniques that can facilitate major developments in health will lead to serious concerns regarding ethics and privacy in the context of issues such as comprehensive genetic screening, stem cell research and the possibility of discovering the DNA signature that indicates the predisposition to certain diseases, cognitive abilities or certain antisocial behaviors" [2]. This is a serious warning that the Report of the National Intelligence Council (NIC)’s 2020 Project signals regarding the consequences of the intemperate use of future technologies. These are questions and issues that do not seem to entail one solution, but practical solutions required by specific situations, seeking the responsible exercise of "practical consciousness", of the moral consciousness at individual and collective level.

2. These interrogations highlight another moral dilemma imposed by the finding that what is good for man can often be - or is – evil for nature. Environmentalists always give more importance to the "interests" of nature than to those of people, arguing that on long term what is good for nature becomes acceptable for humanity. However, it would be desirable that the love for nature does not hide the hatred of man.

By accusing the human action for the countless excessive and invasive interferences with nature, which have often had fatal consequences for humans, environmentalists defend the "rights" of nature even against man, by hiding – according to the incisive statement of Marcel Gauchet - "the hatred of men behind the love for nature"[3]. This hatred of man can go from the simple acerbic acknowledgement "Beautiful places; too bad they are inhabited", which penalizes the excessive interference of man with the environment, to promoting Malthusian social policies in order to cut population growth - usually a part of it! - or strictly limit the social assistance and support for the so-called "second" ("third?") world citizens up to their "natural" extinction.

Moreover, the recent decades have shown clear indications that humanity will face a worrisome demographic explosion. George Friedman, a remarkable American political scientist specialized in geopolitical analysis, considers this phenomenon as one of the major challenges that humanity has to face in the near future: "the uncontrolled population growth will lead to resource depletion and environmental destruction. The large number of people will require more and more resources in the form of food, energy and goods, which in turn will lead to increased global warming and many other environmental disasters ... And these demographic changes will be defining for the Twenty-first century” [4].

This kind of problems will soon become a field of international confrontations and their solving does not seem possible in the field of political or economic arguments without turning to the unavoidable considerations of the sphere of morality.

By rejecting the privilege of man in relation to nature, this sounds like some sort of anti-humanistic ethics. Here is a paradox that can be found in contemporary environmental movements: is anti-humanistic ethics possible? The attitude is nevertheless justified by the fact that in reality human development is in conflict with nature. If judged by the terms proposed by Hans Jonas [5], according to whom the constraints of the present are necessary in order to preserve the ecological balance needed for the distant future of humanity, we find that the environmental approach assumes some sort of responsibility which makes it worthy of the most authentic ethics.

One should bear in mind that, like any living being: "man is in a close relationship of interchange with his natural environment. This exchange can be described as an ecological cycle, since ecology is the science of the relationships between the living and the world surrounding it" [6]. The human ecosystem consists of a dual relationship with nature: the relationship with a "primary" environment (the biosphere) made of air, water, mineral resources, plants, animals, climate and relief, and the relationship with a 'secondary' environment (the techno-sphere), which includes systems produced/created by humans, from the living conditions to industrial and communication mechanisms. In both cases, man takes from nature what is necessary for his conservation and development, thus producing waste. To the extent that these exchanges with nature are either self-regulated or consciously organized and supervised by man, we can support the existence of an ecological balance between man and nature, environmental protection being required when the excesses of human interference with the natural processes threaten this fragile balance. The sensitive signs of the degradation of this balance within the human ecosystem are related to environmental deterioration, deprivation of recreational or aesthetic satisfaction, climate changes which are more and more difficult to control, psychological damage caused by suffering animals or even the extinction of certain species, stress beyond endurance, water and air pollution, all these endangering what we call the "quality of life".

Considering that a fundamental human right is the right to a balanced life in a clean environment, the environmental issues are not only technical issues, but also involve a necessary moral approach at global, planetary scale.

This view involves, however, a major national and international educational effort towards reviving the public consciousness which has been anesthetized by the eagerness for maximizing profits, international competition, excessive consumerism, all these being considered principles of success and social welfare. In this context, even the (unorganized, spontaneous and sometimes not very orthodox in terms of their conduct at the edge of law and even common sense regarding the language used) protests of the so-called "anarchic environmentalists" advocating for animal rights and against the high risk exploitation of natural resources is a


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necessary warning signal which should revive that "worried conscience" – moral by excellence – that finds itself responsible not only for the present but also for the future of mankind.

A deliberate confusion is often maintained between ecology and environmentalism in order to justify a hypothetical scientific foundation of any social criticism movement of the excesses by using contemporary Scientific and Technical Reports. We ought to add the following clarification: ecology is the science that proposes the analysis and study of the complex relationships between the living organisms and the environment (hence, we can also take into consideration a human ecology and a social ecology) in order to learnedly propose their improvement; environmentalism is a social movement, sometimes baring a political character (for instance, the political ecologist parties around the world are not few, especially in the developed countries), which aims at raising the awareness of the human communities regarding the need for actions that target a cleaner and safer world. These movements appeal not only to scientific arguments (sometimes quite the opposite!), but also to persuasion, to exploiting the emotions and feelings of certain people who feel increasingly alienated and guilty in relation to nature. Environmentalism is a social movement directed against excessive environmental pollution, supported at national and international level by NGOs and even some countries; their programmatic objectives regard issues such as: limiting the harmful effects of the technology on the environment, global warming, trans-boundary pollution following nuclear accidents, the danger of species extinction and protecting the forests, "the green lungs of the planet”, etc. Anarchic environmentalists are spontaneous protesters with no principles or organizational support (sometimes manipulated, but most often in good faith) for a specific, punctual ecological issue; they protest for stray dog protection, they protest against a mining project with high environmental risk "x", or against the intention of interfering with a protected natural area "y". They are representatives of a largely heterogeneous movement, owing their significantly active presence to the internet, in relation to certain highly publicized "cases".

3. Human action can produce unpredictable effects that were not part of the original intentions; just like the irresponsibility of the "sorcerer's apprentice" that triggers uncontrollable causes, human action can even change the world, the history of humanity. Invoking the impossibility of prediction cannot be an excuse. When there is doubt about the positive future prospects of our present actions, the solution to this dilemmatic situation can be forbearance or: "If there is no absolute certainty about the future, those involved in the action ought to envisage the possible consequences that their decisions may have on the reality” [7].

4. Finally, an important moral dilemma that ecological ethics must face regards the basic principles of moral commitment.

Assuming that environmental policies must be derived from a general concern for the quality of human life, this principle gives rise to human-focused ecological ethics. In such a perspective, even suffering animals can be interpreted as causing mental distress and unhappiness to the human being; equally, excessive mining can also be morally penalized as it involves damaging the human ecosystem.

Conversely, animal-focused ethics values the entire animal life: "Although ... all individuals are morally significant, they are not implicitly equal" [8]. This distinction addresses a great dilemma, also highlighted by the environmentalist protesters who support the right to live for stray dogs: should people's interests always come first, or could the interests of the animals, which do not have the ability to defend themselves and whose discomfort and "unhappiness" are caused by human excesses, come first in some situations?

3 Analysis, critical reflection and conclusions On the other hand, using legitimate arguments, one may take into consideration the ethics of the living,

based on the unconditional respect for all that is alive, which has a significant role for the conservation of the biosphere and complex ecosystems. By extension, it can be assimilated to the ethics of totality, according to which preserving the balance of the ecosystems and the biosphere may come before the interests regarding the conservation of a large number of human beings. Demographic control policies can find support in the principles of such ethics, as they are laid down from the perspective of ecological holism. There are strong arguments for such ethics; they regard the avoidance of environmental spoliation, which, after all, is consistent with the long-term interests of humanity.

"Thus, the major problem remains the problem of people. They have to start the improvement which we all care for and which some of us are seeking for in the wrong places, being fascinated by the apparent brightness of the ideologies they are preached" [9]. And we have to admit that people are mostly the product of their own education. "Man only has the formative-informative dimension for building his own world, for turning the place where he lives into a world that will enable him to live truly humanly. Only through education will he be able to become humanized and fight what complots to his dehumanization" [10].

The need for ecological education meets the current ethical approach which aims at protecting nature and man; man, in turn, has the foreground responsibility of conserving and improving nature, since it belongs to him and he benefits from it. In this respect, "the revival of Wisdom/‚Sophia', seems like a requirement that should be acknowledged among the priorities of education" [11]. Indeed, it is necessary to orient the educational


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ideal towards this value, which was extremely appreciated in the Ancient Orient and Ancient Greece and regarded as the first of virtues because: "Wisdom stops us from judging by mere appearances, from believing everything we hear, from doing everything we can, from saying everything we know and spending everything we have” [12].

References [1] Țîrdea, T.N. et al (2004). Dictionary of Philosophy and Bioethics. Kishinev : “Medicine” Editorial

and Typographic Center, p.111 [2] National Intelligence Council of the US. An outline of the global future: The world in 2020.

Kishinev: Cartier Publishing House, pp. 54-55, (Translated from Mapping the Global Future, Report of the NIC 2020 Project, www.cia.gov)

[3] Russ, J. (1995). La pensee ethique contemporane. Paris: PUF, p.112 [4] Friedman, G. (2012). The Next 100 Years. A Forecast for the Twenty-first Century. Bucharest:

Litera Publishing House, pp. 62-63 [5] Jonas, H. (1993). Le Principe Responsabilité. Une ethique pour la civilization technologique.

Paris : CERF. [6] Höffe , O. - sous le direction - (1993). Petit Dictionaire d’Ethique. Paris : Editions Universitaires

Fribourg Suisse, Editions du Cerf Paris, p. 266 [7] Le Bihan, C. (1999). The major problems of ethics. Iasi: The European Institute, p. 27 [8] Elliot, R. (2006). Ecological ethics. In Peter Singer (editor), Treaty of ethics. Blackwell, Iasi:

Polirom Publishing House, p. 315 [9] Negulescu, P.P. (1994). The destiny of mankind. Part I. Bucharest: Nemira Publishing House,

pp. 12-13 [10] Maxim, S.T. (1999). Moral consciousness. Iasi: Junimea Publishing House , p. 184 [11] Cozma, C. (1997). Studies of humanity educating philosophy. Iasi: Junimea Publishing House,

p. 28 [12] Oxenstierna, G.T. (1825). Penseés, réflexions, maxims morales. Paris : Chez Volland, le jeune.


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The Impact of Migration on the Local Labour Market

Mihail R.1 1„Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The dysfunctions of the Romanian labour market have increased with the economic crisis, which has

resulted in the considerable reduction of occupancy, the increase of unemployment, the intensification of migration. The present study aims at evaluating the impact of the labour force migration on the local labour market from a twofold perspective: on the one hand, the extent to which the economic crisis influences the migration intent of the individuals who belong to the occupationally-challenged groups, and on the other hand, the deficit of labour force the employers have to face as a result of labour force migration. Taking into account the extent of the phenomenon and the consequences upon the labour market, our country should elaborate a strategy to regulate and ensure an efficient migration management. The study starts from the premise that proposing such a strategy should take into consideration the manner in which the participants directly involved in the labour market define the drawbacks and opportunities in the migration abroad in order to find work.

Keywords: Occupationally-challenged groups, migration intent, labour force deficit, migration effects

Introduction In the past decades, the European economy and to an equal extent the Romanian economy have been

deeply affected by major changes which have ultimately impacted the labour market: the international economic integration at an alert pace, labour market segmentation by protecting certain economic sectors, the accelerated development and implementation of new technologies, the decrease of the active population and the aging tendency of the population 1. Besides these challenges, Romania also has to face the increase of the active population migration towards other states of the E.U. At a macroeconomic level, migration results in the destabilisation of the labour market, either by creating a surplus in some areas, or by contributing to a labour force deficit in certain sectors, at certain moments and areas 2. The impact on Romania has not been linear, but followed a certain dynamics depending on the international context. Up to 2008, our country was facing a deficit of labour force 3, the most affected being certain sectors, such as constructions, services or production. The phenomenon may be explained from at least two perspectives. On the one hand, the economic growth of the developed countries in the EU and the lifting of the restrictions on the free movement of Romanian labour force favoured the increase of the migratory flux from our country to these destinations. On the other hand, the development of the Romanian economy, the Romanians’ temporary labour migration and the lack of qualified workers made the Romanians employers hire labour force from other countries. At present, the situation looks completely different. The recession which has affected the entire world has also hit Romania, and the labour market in our country has a surplus of labour force in certain economic sectors, combined with an increase of the lack of specialists and more recently of qualified personnel, recruited by companies in constant search for well trained human resources.

1 Justification of research. Methodology The study of the impact of migration on the local labour market was part of a more extensive research

project focused on the regional analysis of the labour market in the counties of Galati and Braila. Taking into account these dysfunctions 4, the present study aims at assessing the availability for labour migration of the people pertaining to challenged groups from the perspective of the occupational opportunities, as well as the labour force deficit felt by employers as a result of labour migration. The present study starts from the premise that the national strategy meant to regulate and ensure an efficient migration management should take into account the manner in which the persons directly involved in the labour market define the drawbacks and


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opportunities related to migration for finding jobs abroad. To explore the images already formed in the target groups in point of these aspects, the research treated two levels: the occupationally-challenged groups and the employers. The quantitative component of the study was achieved on the basis of a questionnaire applied to the unemployed and inactive individuals in the counties of Galati and Braila. As a result of the non-probabilistic sampling on quotas and according to the stratification criteria (occupational status, sex, residence, age category) the volume of the sample test was set to 730 subjects. The data collection method was the face-to-face interview at the subjects’ residence. The qualitative component of the study, having as a research method the interview of the focus-group type, aimed at getting detailed information on the needs of the target group, the concrete opportunities to better the status of unemployed/inactive person, including the intention to migrate for finding work opportunities abroad. The discussion groups (8) were homogeneous in point of the occupational status variable, and heterogeneous in point of the variables age, instruction level, unemployment duration and area of professional qualification. The advanced knowledge of the dynamics of the labour market in Galati and Braila, from the employers’ perspective, was actualised in a quiz-based survey, the statistic unit being the commercial society. For a statistic population of 19.398 commercial societies in 2009, based on stratified probabilistic sampling, attempts were made to attribute a probability to each population unit, which was different from zero and variable at the unit level, to belong to the sample. The probability allotted to each commercial society was correlated to its size, expressed by the number of employees and the field of activity. The volume of the final sample was 377 commercial societies, and it was formed by drawing lots by means of random number tables. The period when data were collected was 15th January and 27th February 2010.

A major difficulty for the present study was its foundation on valid up-to-date information on the labour market. Thus, a series of structural and analytic limitations are evinced: the limited number of official data, separated according to age and gender criteria, on the structure of the unemployed not included in the official databases; the lack of high impact national studies regarding financing programmes and/or public policies.

Methodologically speaking, the probabilistic sampling of the population under study was not possible as not all unemployed individuals are registered, as the sampling pool is unavailable in selecting a representative sample. On the other hand, the sample selected took into account the percent of the individuals under study in each county, attempting to provide the highest territory dispersion possible. Another important methodological drawback is the representativity of the quantitative data on the target group under investigation. In this respect, the non-probabilistic sample used is not fit for the formulation of nationally representative conclusions, but it may only help in observing valid trends for the population sample under study.

Despite these drawbacks, the quantitative and qualitative analysis allowed for a nuanced perspective on the manner in which the groups under research identify individual strategies and opportunities to counter the effects of the economic crisis on the local labour market: the significant reduction of the available jobs, the decrease of the economic capacity of creating new jobs in the counties of Galati and Braila, the critical level of the social problems associated to the unemployment/inactivity period, especially against the background of the dramatic decrease of the living standard. As a result, the idea of going abroad to find a job is getting ever more attractive to the occupationally-challenged people on the labour market.

2 The migration intention Judging by the analysis of the migration intention of the occupationally-challenged persons, it may be

said that the proportion of the people who see work migration abroad as a solution for their difficult situation is quite low. The advantages of the relatively low proportion of circulatory migration are seen in the positive figures indicating the availability of human resources in the two counties under discussion.

By analysing the profile of the individuals who intend to go abroad to find work in order to overcome the disadvantaged status of unemployed/ inactive person on the local labour market, the data show that men score higher (62.5%) than women (37.5%). The correlation between age and the migration intention is negative and very strong. The older the people, the lower the probability for them to go abroad to find work. The correlation is significant between the migration intention and the person’s education level. In this respect, the correlation is positive, i.e. the willingness to work abroad as an alternative to the inability to find a job in Romania increases with the individual’s education level. However, high school graduates are more willing to go abroad than university graduates or people who have graduated 8 grades at most. The living environment shows major differences in point of labour migration abroad, and the proportion distinctly favours the urban residents (87.5%) as compared to rural residents (12.5%). The occupational status also shows a higher tendency of the people who are more experienced on the labour market, viz. the unemployed, to attempt to find work abroad as compared to homemakers. More precisely, the population category with the highest willingness to work abroad in order to compensate the lack of a job at home consists of young high school graduates who are unemployed in the urban environment.

The worsening of the economic climate in developed countries, the increase of aversion towards immigrants and maintaining the labour market restrictions in some EU countries have dampened the Romanians’


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appetite for working abroad, which is seen in the decrease of the migration rate after 2007, according to recent studies. Going abroad to find work is mentioned as a last resort by the focus-group participants, as they have not completely lost hope to find a job at home. “Abroad work is appreciated”, and this is why an adequate remuneration of labour is sufficient to accept a job abroad, even if it is not very desirable. I’ve called my acquaintances, my friends, I’ve searched the paper. I’d like to leave Romania for good (female, 34, homemaker, no qualifications). I have also considered going abroad, but the idea of family stops me. I don’t know if I could handle it. Seriously, I don’t know if I’d be willing to go (female, 31, unemployed, higher education). Consequently, working abroad is seen as a last resort, after all variants to find a job in Romania have been exhausted or have proved inefficient. I have submitted CVs, the same, in person and online, by calling the newspapers and through acquaintances, and in the future… I don’t know… anyway I gave up long ago the idea of getting a job in Romania, because it is hard, very hard and… I don’t know, I’m looking abroad (male, 22, unemployed, high school graduate). It may be seen in the focus-group participants’ responses that the access difficulties, especially under the circumstances of the present economic crisis, turn emigration from Romania into a genuine life horizon.

3 Migration and labour force deficit The context of research had to take into account a certain specificity of the two counties, as well as the

financial and economic crisis. One of the generally accepted hypotheses was that in an uncertain, unsafe and unpredictable economic environment, employers and company managers may barely make plans for the future of the company from the point of view of the business development, and of the human resources necessary for the survival, maintenance or extension of the business.

The evaluation of the impact of the labour force migration on the local labour market took into account the employers’ perspective on the deficit of labour force resulting from the temporary migration for work purposes. The analysis of the reasons why the responding companies lost employees shows that the predominant motivation was going to work abroad, followed by the recruitment of the qualified personnel by the competing companies. The highest probability to need new employees is the replacement of the staff that left for various reasons: working abroad, changing the field of activity, dismissals or redundancies.

The massive labour force migration, the population’s aging process, the demographic decrease are currently affecting the supply of work force. The national situation is also valid for the companies in Galati and Braila since 23% of the respondents consider that the workforce supply on the local labour market is insufficient. The evaluation of the labour force supply relative to the company’s needs indicates that a high number of the respondents (49%, cumulating the options ”high” and ”adequate”) favourably view this correspondence. For the deficit of trained personnel, mentioned by 42% of the interviewees, several factors may explain this phenomenon: the emigration abroad of part of the working population, the fact that the job training and potential professions provided by education institutions are no longer attractive to the young people, or the profile and specialty no longer match the labour market demands. The fact that 2% of the companies complain about the lack of qualified personnel may also be due to the migration abroad of those who were unable to find a job in Romania or whose salary did not provide a satisfactory living standard. This hypothesis is further supported by the fact that the Europeans in the EU space no longer want to perform unqualified or under qualified work which is obviously poorly paid 5, despite a quite high unemployment rate. If one adds to these issues the decrease and aging of the population in these countries, the result is the stringent need for these countries to import workers with low or medium qualifications.

The lack of highly trained personnel is still acute, at least according to most of the managers (52%) in the two counties. Although apparently the migration of the young and mature persons distresses the local labour market by decreasing the unemployment rate, in fact the consequence is the lowering of the professional quality and the potential productivity of the workforce supply. In this case, the employers also stand to lose. The specialists’ migration or the exodus of the brains is an even higher loss to the companies if the migration is permanent. This loss could be drastically reduced if the migrations were temporary, and the acquired experience could eventually be put to use on the Romanian labour market. The work experience abroad correlated with the accumulation of more substantial savings could be the premises of exercising the entrepreneurial spirit of the migrants by investing money in a start-up. Very few manage to take suck risks 6, and even fewer really succeed. In fact, those who succeed contribute to increasing not only their own fortune, but also the national wealth, correlated with creating new jobs.

Conclusions Under the circumstances of the hard-hitting economic crisis, the effects on the labour market have been

felt by all the participants. Thus, the idea of going abroad in order to find a job has been more and more attractive, especially to the Romanians in the regions with a low economic potential. The growing inability of the


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counties of Galati and Braila to create new jobs is mostly caused by the decrease of the economic investment and the development perspectives of the local companies. In addition, the lack of financial resources, the contraction of the outlet market, i.e. the lack of orders or customers, as well as excessive fiscality steer companies in the two counties towards cutting personnel costs, viz. reducing recruitment. The available jobs on the local labour market prove insufficient as compared to the demand, the salaries are lower or the same as in previous years, and inflation considerably diminishes the purchasing power of the national currency. As a result, the living standard has decreased, and going abroad to countries where pay is still satisfactory for a decent living standard becomes a solution especially for the occupationally-challenged population. The increase of the labour force migration in the context of limiting the local job supply, especially in sectors such as constructions or retail sales, apparently decreases the tension on the labour market. But working abroad is mainly perceived as a last resort, after all the other options in the residence area have been exhausted or proved inefficient. At a regional level, the social issues related to unemployment/ inactivity during this crisis period reach their climax, leading to the following problems: the decrease of the living standard of the families with an unemployed/ inactive member, the loss of the motivation to work or to find a job, the loss of self-confidence, self-esteem, trust and respect towards the others, such as friends or individuals in the regular entourage, the social assistance for the unemployed, etc.

In order to counter the effects of labour migration on the labour market in our country, the politicians and decision makers should develop public programs and policies fit for a proper management of the labour force migration, apt to encourage temporary, circulatory work migration. The flow of money sent back by migrant workers to their families at home are seen as compensation for the phenomenon of ”brain migration” and generally for the exodus of human capital. Similarly, these money transfers have a positive impact on the living standard of the recipients, contributing to the development of local economy by increasing consumership and investments. Unfortunately, only a small part of the amount sent back by migrant workers are used for creating productive activities 7 and thus new jobs.

Among the risks and negative effects of labour migration on the local labour market one may mention the specialists and qualified workers going abroad, which affects the professional quality and potential productivity of the workforce supply. Also, the dependence on the money sent from abroad may diminish the available workforce’s intent to get a job, which is especially valid for homemakers, or limit the individual initiative to get involved in productive activities. The ever gaping inequalities at community level mainly due to the fact that in general poor families do not migrate 8 show that migration may also have negative social consequences. However, one of the solutions resorted to by occupationally-challenged people is migration for finding work abroad. Taking into account the scope of the phenomenon and its consequences on the labour market, our country should take measures for the coherent management of economic migration 1: monitoring the flow of Romanian emigrants who have jobs abroad and developing reintegration programs for the Romanian labourers who wish to come back to Romania, which would have a positive impact on the domestic workforce deficit.

References [1] Blaga, E.(2009). Sociologia muncii. Culegere de studii, analize şi articole (2005-2009).

București: EDP. [2] Nicolae, F. B.( 2009). Migrația forței de muncă și resursele umane – impact geostrategic. Sfera

Politicii nr. 137, pp. 28-34. Retrieved from www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/pdf/Sfera_137.pdf [3] Ţugui, M. (2009).Migration effects on economic growth under the conditions of the global crisis.

Retrieved from http://www.asecib.ase.ro/simpozion/2009/full_papers/pdf/39_Tugui_ro.pdf [4] Rotilă, V., Mihail, R. (2012).O analiză regională a pieței muncii. Studiu de caz: persoanele aflate

în căutarea unui loc de muncă și cele inactive din județele Galați și Brăila, Galați: Editura Sodalitas.

[5] Banc, A. Migrația creierelor și a brațelor. http://www.stiintasitehnica.ro/index.php?menu=8&id=172

[6] Sandu, D.(2006). Locuirea temporară în străinătate. Migraţia economică a românilor: 1990-2006, FSD.

[7] Orozco, M. (2003). Worker Remittances: An International Comparison, Inter-American Dialogue, Project commissioned by the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, February 28. http://www.cfsinnovation.com/system/files/imported/managed_documents/orozco_feb2003.pdf

[8] Hanson, G.H. (2008).The Economic Consequences of the International Migration of Labor. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w14490.pdf


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Does European Union Matter? A Content Analysis on Spanish, Polish and Romanian TV Representations of EU

Milewski N.1 1 Lecturer, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Bucharest, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This paper examines the way Spanish, Polish and Romanian prime time TV news programs construct

the social representation about the European Union. The data used in this article are part of the international project “Media about the European Union” that aimed to map the EU representations currently in circulation within European countries. The article does not intend to confirm or invalidate various stereotypes that persist today in the collective imaginary, but aims to offer some data which may be useful to understand how various types of Spanish, Polish and Romanian TV channels construct social representations about the EU. The research project analysed the role of political institutions in the development of social representations of the EU. Moreover, this project aimed to examine Spanish, Polish and Romanian media coverage of EU political, economic, legal, cultural, and social affairs. It attempted to outline some of the important debates regarding the effects of the actual economic crisis that have changed media messages in each of sampled country. It has also sought to answer several questions, including the role of the Spanish, Polish and Romanian media in the democratic process at the European level and the extent to which the media contribute to and reflects the process of Europeanization. The methodology applied in this research project combine a mixture of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The Spanish, Polish and Romanian TV channels (TVE1, TVN and ProTV) were monitored during 4-week periods (21st of January to the 21st of February 2013) documenting the themes, topics, actors, schedules, and formats in each TV news program.

Keywords: European Union, TV news, Spain, Poland, Romania, content analysis.

Context The majority of international researches who observe Europe and the European Union are focused

nowadays on the analysis of the Western Europe, the European Union’s political agendas, the European integration, the European “constitution” etc. The topic of media representations about the EU are an equally well documented area. This issue is often associated with citizens’ (dis)engagements in the processes of Europeanization and Europeanness, the creation of Europeans and the European identity or the development of the European identity crisis. What do people know, what do they think, and what do they want? How do they understand the impact that EU policymaking has on their lives, and how can they approve of, reject, or accept decisions? Who influences these decisions? What impact does the media in this process? These questions are essential nowadays in studying social, but also media representations about the EU.

The media play an important role through the reporting and representation of EU cultural and political issues. Since the late 1970s the nature of media coverage of European Union politics has been of interest to researchers. The studies on media and the EU were focused on the European Parliament elections, investigating campaign frameworks, election involvement, messages and perceptions in a cross-cultural dimension, the role of television in the election campaigns [1] [2]. Another area of research interest has revolved around the media impact on referenda campaigns regarding EU membership or Treaty amendments [3] [4] [5]. More recently, studies have begun to focus on the on-going coverage of European political and cultural news, scandals and crises [6]. Several researches were focused on the Europeanization of the national media and the emerging of the European public sphere [7] [8] [9] [10].

So far, most researches on the media representation about the EU have focused on the Western analysis of the problem. Much less attention has been paid on the comparison between Western and Central and Eastern part of the Europe. Even in recently EU integrated countries from Central Eastern Europe there is a lack of solid


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studies on how media contributes to the formation of European representations. The best known perspective are on France, Germany, Great Britain in the EU, but there is a quasi-inconsistent knowledge about the outlook of recently affiliated EU countries. Most knowledge about their viewpoints on the UE comes through the political channels. This perspective is limited and often does not coincide with the societal level EU representations formed mostly by the media. But why should this knowledge be useful? The project data presented in this article show that this information on UE media and social representations may help to legitimize the political and institutional developments using the EU model and may allow an easier integration and development of democracy in a region still politically and economically unstable.

In this paper the attention is focused on Spain and Poland because they can serve as an excellent example of achievements, but also on Romania where the problems in understanding the EU values still persist. In each of these three EU countries, TV news about the European Union and European organizations are present to some extent on the media agenda and are used as models and examples of democracy. However, it is unknown how the media from these EU countries builds their contents about the European Union. Therefore many questions arise in this context: What are the media representations about UE currently in circulation within European countries? What messages do media use to describe the EU? How do media explain to their audiences what the meaning of being European citizen is? And what does the European Union framework involve as an institution? This article aims to fill these gaps and expand knowledge about these issues.

Methodology The methodology applied in this research project combines a mixture of quantitative and qualitative

analysis. The main method was content analysis including the following indicators which have related to EU news: journalistic genres, authorship of information, length/duration of the piece of news, key topics, characters, and countries, resources of information etc. Three TV news programs broadcast by TVE1 (Spain), TVN (Poland), and ProTV (Romania) were monitored during a 4-week period; from 21st of January to the 21st of February 2013. During the monitoring process there were recorded more than 2 000 minutes of TV news for each sampled country.

Findings In all the three monitored TV programs the information that has targeted the EU was transmitted

through news and reports. Most of this information was accompanied by reporters and correspondents’ comments. All news programs largely avoided opinion genres, in-depth reports, and interviews on EU topics. Lack of other genres found out that EU-related journalistic contents were unimportant for the gatekeepers of sampled media.

In addition, the format of newscasts determined the journalistic genres used by the three channels. If in Spain and Poland the EU news were placed in news programs depending on their relevance to the specific country, while in Romania most of the pieces of news about the EU were placed at the end of the program, at the international news category. This can be explained by the fact that this information was taken from the international news agencies. Most of the time, the format and content of such information were unchanged. The small number and the position of news on the programs show that the EU was not a significant topic for these channels.

The total length of these pieces of news could also confirm the disinterest of these TV programs for European news. In Poland the news program Fakty broadcast news which had the duration between 120 and 300 seconds, while in Romanian program Știrile ProTV their average length was approximately 100 seconds. Regarding the Spanish channel TVE1, the higher percentage of European news had the duration between 60 and 120 seconds. The news items in which Spain, Poland and Romania were not the main actors were given a minimum of time (the least 20 seconds). Instead the pieces of news where these countries were the main topic were given maximum time (between 130 and 450 seconds).

As concerns the sources of EU news, most of them were taken from internal or foreign news agencies. From the official sources quoted in the news there could be mentioned the European Commission, Council of Europe, and European Parliament. Usually the sources were mentioned as a legend in the video runtime. In Romania a correspondent or reporter’s comments created the false sense that Pro TV news program has correspondents in the EU by presenting news as its own contents. In rare cases the pieces of news had two news cited sources. Lack of sources can be explained by the fact that journalists are not accustomed to verifying the information from two or more sources if the news items come from official sources.

The most present EU countries in Romanian news program were Britain, Bulgaria and France. It is surprising that Spain, Italy and Portugal, where the number of Romanian immigrants is very high, were missing from the news items. In Spain most TV news covered countries such as Italy, Britain, and Germany. There was a decrease of interest in neighbouring countries such as Portugal and France. The reorganization of the journalistic


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profession as a result of the economic crisis can explain this situation. Many foreign correspondents were dismissed and replaced by subscriptions to foreign news agencies.

Most of the monitored news has more negative rather than positive content. The news detailed the issues that monitored countries were facing in the EU. In the case of Romania, the news emphasized the European stereotype about the country’s immigration and poverty problems. For example, in the pieces of news about the horse meat export scandal Romania was depicted as the victim. The same happened in the news about Romanian immigrants in the UK. Also Romania was presented as a country that lost more than won in the battle for a larger amount of the EU money. The negative image of Romania in Europe and the lack of interest of the EU in Romania was the most used approaches. Equally negative was the perspective of Spanish television. The TVE1 outlined the economic disadvantages of Spain’s EU membership. The most debated issue was related to the economic crisis and EU financial control over Spain. Although Poland was the only monitored country that did not pass through the consequences of the economic crisis, the trend of the UE negative news has been maintained. The Polish news confirmed the Eurosceptic tendency of the country.

The economic topic prevailed in journalists’ reporting. The monitoring period coincided with the “horse-meat trade” scandal and EU budget debates. The EU political topics were also debated in the news programs (the referendum in the UK and the stability of governments in EU countries). Compared with economic issues, the political topics were balanced and neutral. The social news were also presented in the TV news programs (human trafficking, emigration, Catholic Church etc.).

The political figures were quoted most often. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, were present in most news items. From the EU institutions there were quoted frequently the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Council EU, and the spokesman of the European Commission. Other personalities who were mentioned in the news were the Country Prime Ministers, various MEPs, and party leaders.

Discussions The comparative research results have shown that in all the three countries the TV news about the EU is

underrepresented. Moreover, the television news programmes mirror the stereotypical patterns of sampled countries. Romania is the most typical example. The Romanian TV news has only negative connotations emphasizing minority and political issues. Although not as negative, the Polish and Spanish news refer to the economic issues in correlation with the European context. For example, the pieces of news about the economic crisis in Spain are reported to the country’s national problems (unemployment, bankruptcy, loans, etc.) that relates with the crisis in the EU economy. However, very few key leading European figures, who directly or indirectly concern in the countries’ problems, are presented in the national news, which means that the interests of the European political agenda does not integrate the national media agendas.

Centred especially on the local topics, the TV news programmes from these three countries reconfirm a downward trend of the general audience disinterest in the EU. The European news seem increasingly more targeted at an elite audience that is concerned with this subject. Therefore, presumably, in Romania the EU news are placed in the international news category. Furthermore, this can be explained by the fact that the national audiences do not identify themselves with a European public. Their needs are focused more on local issues that do not exceed the border of the country where they live.

The diversity of conclusions drawn from this research should be viewed in the light of the methodological limitations. The most important one refers to the limited number of the analysed news programs. The involvement of other TV channels was not possible because of the large number of other sampled media (print press, radio, online media etc.) and a restrained research team. From each involved country, a small number of researchers have attended the project. They had to constantly analyse many types of media. The initial goal of the project was to monitor as many types of media as possible. As a result, at this stage of the project more than fifteen media form the targeted sample. Their number will increase in the next stage of the project. From this point of view, the findings are only preliminary and it is far too early to make generalizations. However, the project has largely achieved its goal identifying the research directions that will be followed in future studies.

Conclusions The preliminary results of the research project presented in this paper reveal that the European Union

and its member countries did not constitute a usual priority issue in informative agendas of Poland, Romania and Spain. The insignificant numbers of news on this subject prove a lack of interests for the European topics. All the analysed pieces of news were largely focused on national issues where the EU was a peripheral topic. The TV discourses were directed to the (official) political and economic fields and were not interested in contributing to build bridges among the citizens of Europe and the European Union. These results must be examined from the


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perspective of sample and methodological limitations of this study. The limited number of news programs and TV stations and selective analysis of news may be an obstacle in confirming some research hypotheses. Nevertheless, this project was a successful attempt to analyse the meaning of European Union news and the media involvement inside the European Union.

Acknowledgment This work was based on the findings of the “Media about the European Union” project that was

conducted in collaboration with three research teams from University of Seville (Spain), University of Silesia (Poland), University of Opole (Poland), and University of Bucharest (Romania).

References [1] Blumler, J. (Ed.). (1983). Communicating to voters: Television in the First European

parliamentary elections. London: Sage. [2] Leroy, P., Siune, K. (1994). “The role of television in European elections: The cases of Belgium

and Denmark”. European Journal of Communication, 9, pp. 47–69. [3] Siune, K. (1993). “The Danes said no to the Maastricht Treaty: The Danish referendum of June

1992”. Scandinavian Political Studies, 16(1), pp. 93–103. [4] Siune, K., Svennson, P., & Tonsgaard, O. (1994). “The European Union: The Danes said ‘no’ in

1992 but ‘yes’ in 1993: How and why?”. Electoral Studies, 13(2), pp. 107–116. [5] Svennson, P. (1994). “The Danes said yes to Maastricht and Edinburgh: The EC referendum of

May 1993”. Scandinavian Political Studies, 17(1), pp. 69–82. [6] Meyer, C. (1999). “Political legitimacy and the invisibility of politics: Exploring the European

Union’s communication deficit”. Journal of Common Market Studies, 37(4), pp. 617–639. [7] Slaata, T. (1998). Europeanisation and the Norwegian news media (Report No. 36, Series of

the Department of Media and Communication). Oslo: University of Oslo. [8] Robertson, A. (2000). Depictions of the European Union in 19 Swedish media. Stockholm: The

Media Group. [9] Miller, D., Schlesinger, P. (2000). “The changing shape of public relations in the European

Union”. In R. Heath (Ed.). The handbook of public relations (pp. 675–684). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

[10] Sükösd, M., Jakubowicz, K. (eds.). (2011). Media, Nationalism and European Identities. Budapest-New York: Central European University Press.


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The Analysis of Internal Auditors’ Expertise in Accounting Field in the Perspective of EU Vision 2020

Mitea N.1 1 “Andrei Saguna” University, Constanta (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Within a changing world, Europe is supposed to become a smart and sustainable economy. For such a

reason, European countries and enterprises should deliver high levels of productivity, employment, innovation and social inclusion. The purpose of this study is to highlight internal auditors’ urgent need for increasing their accounting expertise. Based on the framework presenting factors with impact on internal audit effectiveness, this paper aims to analyse them in the perspective of EU Vision 2020. The main objective of this research is to characterize the current state of Romanian internal auditing and to foresee the future one. We hope that our research results will contribute to the improvement of internal audit. Addressing the systemic approach of internal audit and control, we intend to identify the synergies created between internal audit functions and skills and their impact on the quality of audit’ results. Moreover, we sustain that the accounting expertise and non-technical attributes are considered as main differentiators in terms of audit performance. For this goal, we elaborate a conceptual model for the analysis of internal auditors’ accounting expertise hoping that our research findings will open the way for future studies in the operational field. By testing our proposed model, Romanian managers and internal auditors could be determined to build effective strategies for managing risks and preventing fraud.

Keywords: Internal audit, internal control, corporate governance, accounting expertise, audit performance

1 Introduction We start from the premise that deficiencies in the EU’s institutional landscape do represent a constant

barrier to future economic progress. Therefore, we assume that austerity should be replaced by expansionary fiscal policies both at European and national levels. The main purpose of such a strategy involves jobs creation and economic growth achievement. However, the traditional tools of economic policies and procedures will become effective with the strong support of entrepreneurs all over the world. They should represent the core priority of the EU and its Member States. Nowadays, entrepreneurship has to imply a minimum coordination within a framework of powerful corporate governance. For the future decade, we believe that entrepreneurs will prefer certain protected sectors assuming minimal risks. At this point, internal audit is required to intervene by covering and diminishing those risks.

The most recent studies and surveys show us that the present internal audit landscape is characterized by the following aspects:

Dynamic changes in regulation and at the level of rulemaking bodies; Changes in the nature of fraud; An increased interest in leveraging technology-enabled auditing; A deep change in auditors’ attitude towards collaboration and a more strategically thinking [1].

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations/COSO’s updated Internal Control-Integrated Framework and the latest Institute of Internal Auditors/IIA’s auditing standards determine internal auditors all over the world, including the Romanian ones, to adapt to the newest requirements in auditing practices.

At present, the role of Romanian internal audit consists in assisting managerial activity. However, in practice, it does not succeed in covering the newest expectations in this field. We notice just a few similarities between Romanian auditing and the one specific to other countries. Therefore, we consider that our research findings could bring some solutions for the future state of Romanian internal audit. We highlight the need for building updated monitoring and assessment structures and for applying uniform standards in management, as


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well as in internal control and corporate governance. In Romania, as it was shown by Munteanu et al. (2010), “There were many problems related to the understanding of the concepts and to the internal control and internal audit prerogatives, but it was also a stage that contributed to the clarifying of their role, position and orientation towards European standards” [2]. Initially, Romanian internal audit was focused on accounting issues but at present, it represents a powerful instrument for detecting fraud and foreseeing risks. We consider that Romania passes through a consolidation stage of internal audit functions. We agree with Munteanu et al (2010) who consider that Romania needs to identify effective ways of internal audit standardization adapted at the maturity level in risk administration. Our findings assume that Romanian internal auditing requires a serious reengineering for enhancing the increased value expected by enterprises. Therefore, by presenting the current state of Romanian internal audit, we intend to provide a minimal view necessary for the future development of this profession.

2 Research methodology Addressing the systemic approach of internal audit and control, we aim to identify the synergies created

between internal audit functions and skills and their impact on the quality of audit’s results. As a research method we used the inductive analysis based on causal explanation. The finality of this theoretical research consists in building a conceptual model for the analysis of Romanian internal auditors’ accounting expertise as a main determinant of audit’s performance. The two hypotheses to be considered during our research are:

H1: Good internal control and audit systems are the foundation for effective corporate governance and for high-quality financial reporting. At this point, auditors’ accounting expertise does have different influences on significant variables.

H2: An effective exploitation of the synergies between the modern internal audit functions and skills creates the premises for a successful audit activity profile.

3 Discussion and results

3.1. The Systemic Approach of Internal Audit and Control and Auditors’ Accounting Expertise Overview

We start this subsection by presenting the connections between financial reporting fraud and internal control weaknesses and we evaluate the importance of internal auditors’ accounting expertise. During our research work, we found out that empirical evidence indicates the association between a weak corporate governance and financial reporting fraud [3], [4], [5], [6].We state that corporate governance does have a significant impact on the credibility of financial reporting system. Companies accused of fraud are expected to build recovery strategies including governance improvement. By optimising the corporate governance mechanism, companies find a way of restoring trust and credibility after fraud detection. According to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board/PCAOB, under governance’s circumstances, internal control is seen as a process providing reasonable assurance concerning financial reporting reliability. Its purpose is to prevent and detect fraud that could result in a misstatement of financial statements. Our findings suggest that there are limited empirical research studies in the existing literature concerning the connection between internal control quality and that of the accounting information. For example, Krishnan (2005) stated that the quality of audit committees has a deep impact on internal control [7]. Moreover, Klein (2002) suggested that independent audit committees are able to constrain earnings management [8]. In practice, when we notice a material weakness in internal control, there is “more than a remote likelihood that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements” [9]. However, those errors could be the negative consequences of the lack of segregation of duties or even of the lack of experience and expertise of auditors or the other persons involved.

At this point we highlight the systemic approach of internal audit which appears in a strong connection with internal control and corporate governance. Therefore, internal auditors’ accounting expertise seems a valuable mechanism of fraud detection and risk prevention. First of all, we have to define auditors’ expertise which refers to specific experiences and training that create knowledge. Meanwhile, knowledge is linked to auditors’ ability to perform specific tasks within their missions. Different types of knowledge also influence audit tasks in accounting. Long time ago, Ashton and Brown (1980) considered that there were no differences between experienced and inexperienced auditors in internal control [10]. However, there are authors using experience as an expertise indicator. Marchant (1987) considered that experienced auditors performed better at identifying possible errors and fraud than inexperienced ones [11].

As a conclusion, we state that auditors should prove a basic level of accounting and auditing knowledge, including knowledge of generally accepted accounting principles and auditing standards. For


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demonstrating the first hypothesis of our research, we considered appropriate to study more deeply the different influences of internal auditors’ accounting expertise. We gathered our findings in Table 1.

Table1: The Impact of Internal Auditors’ Expertise on Different Variables

Solomon et al., 1999 DeFond et al., 2000 Reichelt and Wang, 2010

The expertise of internal auditors provides more reliable audit verification.

Jayaraman and Milbourn, 2012 The degree of auditors’ expertise influences directly the amount of compensation granted by the enterprises to their CEOs.

Ayers et al., 2011 “Firms monitored by institutional investors are less likely to indulge in financial misrepresentation”.

Jayaraman and Milbourn, 2012 Auditors’ expertise is able to discourage boards from granting generous compensation. Because of their expertise, internal auditors are expected to detect compensation cases.

Jayaraman and Milbourn, 2012 A higher level of expertise gives the auditors the possibility to detect earnings manipulation.

Edmans (2009) Jayaraman and Nagar (2010)

The authors highlighted the connection between auditor expertise functioning and corporate governance structures.

Jayaraman and Milbourn, 2012 Poor corporate governance is concentrated in those companies with low auditor expertise.

DeFond et al., 2000 There is a significant link between auditor expertise and financial reporting. Jayaraman and Milbourn, 2012 Auditors’ accounting expertise should be considered while examining the

relation between the executive compensation and the accounting manipulation.

Davis and Solomon, 1989 Auditors’ expertise measures apart the experience, the performance which is defined by audit efficiency and effectiveness.

Source: Author’s adaptation after Jayaraman and Milbourn (2012). The authors mentioned in the table were cited by Jayaraman and Milbourn in their study [12].

All the arguments given before demonstrate the first hypothesis of our research work.

3.2. Modern Functions and Skills of Internal Audit Because of the continuous change and evolution of internal audit profession, the portfolio of internal

audit functions and skills develops constantly. Internal audit is responsible for providing assurance on internal control, risk management and corporate governance, as it has just been shown. However, in the near future, Romanian internal auditors will be expected to prove themselves well informed of the latest global changes at all levels. They should adapt their skills and attributes to the newest environment expectations. Given the complexity of global circumstances, IIA has recently added to auditors’ accounting expertise some highly valuable non-technical attributes. Among them, we propose for our study the following ones: agility and flexibility, integrity, relationship-building, partnering (or service-oriented), communication (verbal communication as well as the written reports), teamwork (supposing emotional intelligence), cultural diversity) [13]. Our findings prove that those attributes do correspond to the profile of tomorrow Romanian internal auditor. However, from the researched literature, we found out that internal auditors are supposed to exhibit integrity, as well as trust, independence, credibility and objectivity during all their activities. We notice a number of synergies among those mentioned functions. Each of them produces effects on the others. For example, by cultivating trust, internal auditors prove and also receive respect within the entire business environment. Building credibility through their reports and recommendations, auditors are able to reduce the resistance of other participants to the auditing process. And for preventing financial reporting fraud and covering risks, internal auditors should prove a significant knowledge of enterprise’s situation. We state that none of those attributes could be fulfilled without a strong knowledge of audit best practices. Moreover, global changes have challenged auditors to face different cultures, ethnicities, nationalities within their working environment. Therefore, internal auditors are supposed to prove highly valuable skills referring to thinking, learning and adapting to constant changes [13]. These arguments are meant to demonstrate the second hypothesis of our research. As a conclusion of this section, we assume that Romanian internal auditors of tomorrow should develop constantly their non-technical skills as well as their auditing and accounting expertise.


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4 Conclusions The purpose of this research paper is to characterize the current state of Romanian internal auditing and

to foresee the future one. Therefore, Romanian auditors are expected to strengthen their capabilities and knowledge in order to support companies in achieving their objectives. However regulatory, economic and social changes force internal auditors to be well informed for managing risks, preventing fraud and exploiting new opportunities. They are supposed to provide assurance on internal control, risk management and corporate governance. They are also required to operate with agility, proving credibility, integrity and trust and optimising their consultative role. As internal audit functions change constantly, we recommend that audit skills and attributes determining the professional success to be adapted to the newest circumstances. We notice that technical skills are no longer sufficient. Therefore we consider appropriate to build a conceptual model for analysing internal auditors’ accounting expertise as a main differentiator in terms of audit performance. In the centre of our conceptual model we place the accounting expertise that realizes strong interconnections with the expected non-technical skills mentioned before. Between these parts we notice a number of bilateral relationships so that they stimulate and reinforce each other in order to increase audit performance. The future profile of Romanian internal auditor proposes a series of accounting and auditing skills which are directly linked to communication, knowledge, continuous learning, thinking and acting. We consider that Romanian internal audit does represent a very dynamic process evolving together with the whole society, being connected with the global economic stage. Therefore, we present this new profile which could determine effective strategies for Romanian companies at all levels, preventing fraud and limiting risks. We hope that our research findings will open the way for future studies in the operational field. By testing our conceptual model within the audit activities, Romanian managers could be expected to build effective strategies for increasing corporate governance’s performance and for reducing financial reporting fraud.

References [1] Protiviti. Risk & Business Consulting Internal Audit. (2013). 2013 Internal Audit Capabilities and

Needs Survey. Available at: http://www.protiviti.com/IAsurvey . [2] Munteanu, V., Zuca, M., Țânță, A. (2010). Internal Audit Regulations in Romania and their

Convergence to European Exigencies. Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica 12(1).

[3] Beasley, M.S. (1996). An Empirical Analysis of the Relation between the Board of Director Composition and Financial Statement Fraud. The Accounting Review. 71(October), pp. 443-465.

[4] Agrawal, A., Jaffe, J.F. and Karpoff, J.M. (1999). Management Turnover and Governance Changes Following the Revelation of Fraud. Journal of Law and Economics 42(April), pp. 309-342.

[5] Beneish, M.D. (1999). Incentives and Penalties Related to Earnings Overstatements that Violate GAAP. The Accounting Review 74(October), pp. 425-457.

[6] Srinivasan, S. (2004). Consequences of Financial Reporting Failure for Outside Directors: Evidence from Accounting Restatements. Working Paper. Harvard Business School.

[7] Krishnan, J. (2005). Audit Committee Quality and Internal Control: An Empirical Analysis. The Accounting Review, vol. 80, pp. 649-675.

[8] Klein, A. (2002). Audit Committee, Board of Director Characteristics and Earnings Management. Journal of Accounting and Economics, vol. 33, pp. 375-400.

[9] Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. (2004). An Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting Performed in Conjunction with an Audit of Financial Statements. Auditing Standard No 2, Washington, D.C.: PCAOB.

[10] Ashton, A.H. and Brown, P.R. (1980). Descriptive Modeling of Auditors’ Internal Control Judgments: Replication and Extension. Journal of Accounting Research, pp. 269-277.

[11] Marchant, G.A. (1987). Analogical Reasoning and Error Detection. PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan.

[12] Jayaraman, S. and Milbourn, T. (2012). The Effect of Auditor Expertise on Executive Compensation. Social Science Research Network. Available at: http://www.papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1955488

[13] Chambers, R. and McDonald, P. (2013). Succeeding as a 21st Century Internal Auditor: 7 Attributes of Highly Effective Internal Auditors. Robert Half International Inc. and the Institute of Internal Auditors.


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The Connection between some Concepts from the Scholar Documents

Nagy R.1 1 University "Ștefan cel Mare", Suceava (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract

Our approach presents the results of an empirical investigation conducted in Romanian schools in the north-east (Botosani, Suceava, Neamt) in the past five years, results that allow a broader investigation whose purpose is to assess the perception (attitude) of teachers of Romanian language literature on the curricular reform for discipline language, Romanian literature and communication, in relation to their expectations (after graduation) and specific tools (programs, specialized manuals), necessary steps in improving the current situation.

Keywords: purpose, value, mission, competence.

1 Premises of the research Our university teaching experience for more than two decades, happily combined with a strengthening

of the direct relationship with the pre-university environment and with the competent bodies in the field, have revealed interesting aspects of teaching in the post-communist period. As a member of the board of examiners for obtaining 1st teaching degree, I had the opportunity to attend Romanian language and literature classes (in primary, middle school and high school); also, during the activities in the university we had often discussions with specialist teachers , pupils, students, and other social partners (parents, specialized inspectors, civil society); to these elements, we can add our expertise in assessing the level of preparedness of pupils who become students; in this sense, we can say that there is a considerable decline of interest in the rules of literary language and in general knowledge. Naturally, we can examine the causes that led to a degradation of the preparedness of young in Romanian language and literature, and eventually, we can make suggestions for improvement.

After 1990 the foundations of reform are based by changing the curriculum and by proposing alternative textbooks but we notice that the last textbooks came into force in 2000-2002, and the updated program dates back to 2005, 2006; the corollary of this situation is an amount of inconsistencies between programs and textbooks, even if some new textbooks appeared (such as the manual of Didactic and Pedagogic Publishing House from 2011), they are not yet approved (resistance to change).

Despite changing the vision upon the discipline, the evaluation results are unsatisfactory. The changes in the system aim especially the methodology of teaching, learning and assessment, with an emphasis on modern methods, active – participatory; the debates are polarizing either on learning techniques, as formation would be limited to the development of the task of savoir -faire and as the problem of human education could be exhausted solely by this pragmatism [5], either on the choice of a school or the other (public, private).

2 Key concepts in the scholar documents. The contents preserve the traditional elements, some classics, therefore necessary, others, outdated,

therefore superfluous: there is too much space allocated in the curriculum to the excessive technicization of contents, the ethical reflection is replaced by technical, pragmatic choices: problem solving, exercises, control of outcomes, effectiveness - profitability. It is also noted a predominance of elements of narratology, poetics, literary criticism [8], excedentary elements in relation to the contents that should target the practice of understanding and developing of functional text (application , report, address, contract, etc.). Another feature of all teaching documents and tools is operating with diffuse concepts and contents defined unilateral or in contradictory.

But the society has high demands from school, which is considered "panacea par excellence of all evil in today's society" [2]. We believe that an effective evaluation of the current state, which combines traditional aspects with the modern ones, taken from western models (sometimes badly treated and unadapted) should have


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to begin from the educational ideal: what should a young man know at the end of one cycle of education, so that he can become autonomous, responsible and citizen of a European country? In this sense, the goals of education are strong indicators to distinguish explicit and implicit guidelines of the education system, the theoretical functions, of meaning and value with which they are invested. But there isn’t a close correlation between the determination of aims and the conception and implantation of a reform, as in other European and American educational systems, the school is invaded by an economic logic [4]. Yves Lenoir (apud Van Zanten) notes the implantation of liberalism in education, which has as symbol the entrepreneurship and its management methods, that tend to impose the market model as the only possible remedy for the shortcomings of public education [4]. The aims come from a game of forces that involves personal interests, value systems and social groups [4]. Likewise, it is recognized that there are no trans-historical, trans-cultural nor universal aims [4], and the aims are social, cultural, historical, ephemeral and changeable, there are contextualised, political, dynamic and contested. The aims’ lapse could lead to the establishment of permanent negotiations to define the educational choices [3].

2.1 Aim In the Romanian law, we find in NEL (National Education Law): Article 4, definition of aim:

"Education and training of children, young people and adults have as main aim the skills training , understood as a multifunction and transferable set of knowledge, skills / abilities and aptitudes, necessary for: a) personal fulfillment and development by achieving their own goals in life, according to individual interests and aspirations and desire for lifelong learning, b) social integration and active citizen participation in society c ) having a job and participating in the operation and development of a sustainable economy d) forming a conception of life based on humanistic and scientific values, on the national and universal culture and on fostering the intercultural dialogue e) education for dignity, tolerance and respect for the fundamental human rights and freedoms f) cultivating sensitivity to human issues , to civic moral values and respect for nature and the natural, social and cultural environment.” [6]

At Art. 65 there is a reference to school programs that establish, for each discipline, the field of study / training module in the curriculum, the aims pursued and highlight the fundamental theoretical, experimental and applied contents, providing general methodological guidelines for implementation and evaluation.

At Art. 329 it is also stated that: (1) The main aims of lifelong learning aims full development of the person and the sustainable development of society [6].

If we consider Romanian language and literature, we find in Annex 2 to the Order of Minister of Education and Research no. 5959 / 22.12.2006 that: The discipline aims are reflected directly in the general skills and in the set of values and attitudes outlined in this curriculum, from which the entire curriculum structure derives: specific skills, contents of learning , methodological suggestions [7].

2.2 Competence In other words, the concept of aim is peremptory associated to that of competence, defined as the NEL:

14: Competence means the proven ability to select, combine and use appropriate knowledge, skills and

other acquisitions consisting of values and attitudes for a successful resolution of certain categories of work or learning and personal or professional development in conditions of effectiveness and efficiency [6].

On the other hand, The Romanian language and literature Curriculum stipulates that: areas of key-skills, especially communication and cultural skills (knowledge of the local and national culture, participation in cultural events and also manifest open interest to the diverse culture of Europe ), essential for an active life in a knowledge society specific to the 21st century and skills are defined as sets of knowledge, skills and attitudes to be formed by the end of compulsory education, that every individual needs for personal fulfillment and development, for active citizenship , social inclusion and employability. Structuring these key skills occurs at the intersection of several educational paradigms and addresses some 'academic' areas and some inter and trans-disciplinary, meta-cognitive issues, achievable through the efforts of several curricular areas [7].

2.3 Value and an Educational Ideal The aims of education, however, must be related to the notion of value. The organic law NEL stated in

Article 2 that: - The law has as vision to promote a value oriented education, creativity, cognitive abilities, volitional

capacities and actionable capabilities, fundamental knowledge and knowledge, skills and abilities of direct utility, in the profession and society.

And in paragraph (3) the educational ideal of Romanian school is fixed, which consists in the free, full and harmonious development of human individuality, in forming the autonomous personality and in assuming a system of values that are necessary for personal fulfillment and development, for developing the


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entrepreneurship spirit, for active citizen participation in society, for social inclusion and employability; forming a conception of life based on humanistic and scientific values, on the national and universal culture and on fostering intercultural dialogue; education in the spirit of dignity, cultivating sensitivity to human issues, to civic moral values and respect for nature and the natural, social and cultural environment [6].

We find that in the curricula, values are presented in association with the attitudes: Also, by the study of Romanian language and literature, values and attitudes are aimed to contribute to the formation of autonomous personalities of students, capable of discernment and critical spirit, capable to argue their own options, endowed with aesthetic sensitivity, having the consciousness of their own cultural identity and showing interest in the variety of forms of artistic expression and participation in cultural life [7] .

When the problem of operationalization is addressed, it is indicated in the scholar documents that teachers will take as reference the real needs of students, adapting their teaching approaches according to them: The discipline’s aims are achieved effectively by focusing on the learning process, on the student's work. Hence the need to focus on the formative and performative teaching activities, involving engagement and interaction in solving concrete learning tasks [7]. This means that the teacher has the task to meet the curriculum, using textbooks as flexible and adaptable tools to the specific needs of the group of students whom he works with.

Yet, even if the high school curriculum, for example, states that the main abilities by end the cycle will be: 1. correct and appropriate use of the Romanian language in different communicative situations; 2. comprehension and interpretation of texts;

3. placing in context the texts studied in relation to the era or the cultural / literary currents; 4. oral or written argumentation of some opinions in various communication situations [7], we find that less than a half of high school students manage to pass the baccalaureate exam and that a small percentage actually possesses those skills .

2.4 Purpose and Mission Finally, the current upgraded documents by the contribution offered by the European directives also

contain two key (pivot) notions in the ideological orientation of Romanian education: purpose and mission. Purpose is mentioned in the curricula: the purpose of studying Romanian language and literature in the period of compulsory education is to form a young man with a basic communicative and literary culture, able to understand the world, to communicate and interact with others, to effectively and creatively use his capabilities for solving concrete problems of everyday life, who can continue at any stage of his existence to learn to be sensitive to the beauty of nature and man-made beauty [7].

However, an almost messianic word as that of mission appears only in the education law, in reference to the law itself and in relation to higher education:

Article 2. - (1) The law has as vision promoting an education oriented on values, creativity, cognitive abilities, volitional abilities and actionable abilities, fundamental knowledge and knowledge, skills and abilities of direct utility in the profession and society.

- The mission assumed by the law is training, through education, the mental infrastructure of the Romanian society, in line with new requirements, derived from Romania's status as a member of the European Union and from the operation in the context of globalization and of sustainable generation of highly competitive national human resources, able to work effectively in today's and future society.

Article 117. – The mission of higher education is to generate and transfer knowledge to society [6]

3 Partial conclusions 1. The results of the empirical investigation on the perception of Romanian teachers show the existence

of a tension between the concepts conveyed in the scholar documents (aims, values, purpose, mission, content); 2. Debates within national and international meetings (ISEP, Canada) causes further assessment of

problems; 3. Although in Romania a competency based education already exists, the overall outcomes compared

with other areas (European and American), highlight significant differences and deficiencies. Social (linguistic) imaginary of the education partners is still at the confluence of the reflexes of a

magistrocentrist (traditional) system and a puerocentrist one, lacking consistency in formulating an ideal, a mission appropriate to the new system. Therefore, we believe that this social imaginary may provide new information for the formulation of new topics of investigation. In this regard, future research objectives should address how primary teachers and Romanian language teachers (of various age, from schools in the rural and urban area, from public -private education etc.) understand the concepts that characterize the aims of school, through the specific discipline - in relation to the curriculum and textbook (aim, ability, value, attitude, etc.).

In the same field of social and linguistic imagination, we could ask what are students and parents expectations from school / discipline, what university teachers expect from pupils who become students?


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The operator objectives: 1. To identify the meanings assigned to: A) the aims of the school by teachers ( primary teachers ) in general / own schools ; B) the aims of the school by parents , students ; C) the aims of the school by teachers in universities; D) the notions of aim, mission, value, attitude, content in the official documents ; 2. to develop the ways they declare to use in order to achieve the assumed mission ; 3. the comparison and interpretation of the results (common points, divergent points) ; 4. the formulation of hypotheses about the interpretation of results (suggestions for improvement )

Methods of investigation: Determining the specimen (“de convenance" [4] - volunteers): counties of Suceava, Neamt, Botosani,

primary education, secondary, high school, university; The data collection will be carried out starting from three devices: - a survey questionnaire ; - a semi - directed interview questionnaire, to deepen some aspects ; - 5 discussions within the groups (focus groups), consisting of 9-12 teachers, who meet after a joint

protocol [4]; - Quantitative analysis (statistics); - Qualitative analysis (of content - [1]); - Respect of the ethical rules; - Publication and dissemination of data.

References [1] Bardin, Laurence, L'analyse de contenu, PUF, Mardaga, Paris, 2007 [2] Dubet, F., Duru-Bellat, M., Vérétout, A., Les sociétés et leur école. Emprise du diplôme et

cohésion sociale, Seuil, Paris, 2010 [3] Jeder, Daniela, Niveluri ale moralității și educației morale, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică,

București, 2006 [4] Lenoir, Y., Esquivel, Rocio, Froelich, Alessandra, Jean, Valerie, Problématique de cadre de

référence pour analyser les finalités éducatives scolaires chez les enseignants du primaire, ISEP, 2013

[5] Wunenburger, J.-J., Questions d’étique, PUF, Paris, 1993 [6] National Education Law, 1/2011 [7] Curriculum (ANEXA 2 to the Order of Minster of Education and Research no. 5959 /

22.12.2006) [8] Romanian language and literature textbooks (Humanitas, Corint, Art, EDP)


The Problem of Investigation of Musical as an Independent Theatrical Form

Nurtazin Y.1

1 PhD candidate, Kazakh National Academy of Arts by named after T.Zhurgenov, Almaty (KAZAKHSTAN) [email protected]

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of investigation of the popular genre of musical and its development, particularities of the specifics of the musical theatre in its merger with the contemporary music, comparison and application of the classical elements of choreographic art. At this stage of the development of this genre, there is a problem aroused of specific merging of economics and art, in other words, “popularization” of musical. Based on popularization of the new musical-dramatic genre, there appears a new fusion of art and production, management, advertising and mass media. Amongst these, the problem of performing mastership of musical actors in Kazakhstan is being studied.

The aim of the article is a theoretical discourse of particularities, history of development and popularization of the new scenic genre of musical. The tasks of the investigation are:

- studying the activity of the founders of musical, collation and analysis of works, theories of theatrical art, anthologies, memoirs, articles and theatre productions;

- assessment of musical and autonomous art forms (synthesis of acting art, choreography, singing, stage design, drama, music composition);

- analysis of characteristic of the activities of the musical founders (Leonard Bernstein, Andrew Webber, Riccardo, Richard Rogers, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter).

The result of solving these tasks should be the formation of the cohesive picture of the history of the development of the musical, as well as its current position in the arena and in the Kazakh theatrical art. The study will be appreciated by directors and other theatre specialists who wish to find information on the overall perspective of the musical and musical theatre, as well as by music and theatre critics seeking a balanced assessment of theatrical synthesis. Some fragments of this investigation could be included into University courses on history and theory of musical theatre.

Keywords: musical, music theatre actor, singing, performance

Introduction

At the present time a musical is one of the most popular genres of commercial music at the junction of the so-called popular and academic arts. The genre is complex, synthetic, in relation to which currently there is no consensus in science. If we refer to encyclopedia, we will find the following definition in it, “Musical is a scenic genre, employing expressive means of music, drama, choreography and opera arts. Their combination and interconnection gave special dynamics to a musical; a characteristic feature of many musicals is solution of complex dramaturgic tasks through artistic means not difficult for perception” [1]. In our point of view, the definition is at large correct, it comprises specifics of one of the youngest genres of contemporary musical theatre, but together with it, to a certain extent, it is somewhat cumbersome and ambiguous. A string of questions appear here as long as it refers to a new genre.

1 Theoretical and methodological basis study of synthesis of musical theatre arts

It is notable that the author of the work on the Russian musical for adults and children, A.Bakhtin asserts that “a musical is the most unstudied one of all the music-drama genres, the genre and aesthetical specifics of this interesting scenic phenomenon have not been defined yet, its main genre characteristics have not been outlined either. Unclear, ambiguous is the definition of a musical as well: operetta, musical comedies, rock

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operas, Song-operas, and pop operas are commonly referred to this genre. No any other music-drama genre of the second half of the 20th century could ever be more many-faced and provocative one” [2]. There is a clash of opinions in defining a musical. At the same time, musicologists and theatrical experts reach consensus in the identification of tendency towards synthesis, wide and organic deflection of certain principles typical for many theatrical genres. So, N. Yenukidze writes that the sources of a musical are rooted in the 20-30-ies of the 20th century [3].

1.1 The Role of the Musical in the Theatre Space

Musical is one of the fashionable genres of the contemporary musical theatre. Some experts in theatrical studies consider it to be just the American kind of the theatre. This is because it is characteristic of art genres to develop, to vary their national and genres specifics. Criticisms like "it is not an operetta" were familiar to many operetta authors of the 20th century. But it is in the American musical theatre where there was that quality leap, which allows many to consider a musical a scenic genre, although involved in close kinship and continuity with the operetta [4]. The main structural difference between these genres and a musical is determined by the role assigned to music in comparison with dramatic scenes. The musical is more of a theatrical form in which music is a means of musical and scenic montage along with choreography, plasticity, stage effects, and so on" [5]. One of the distinguishing features of a musical is the high literary level of most musicals. It is largely determined by the fact that that story basis for them is taken from well-known but sometimes just brilliant works of classical and contemporary literature. The primary sources for musicals were works by Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, François Voltaire, Charles Dickens, Bernard Show, Ferenc Molnár, Solomon Sholem-Aleichem, Eugene O’Neil, and contemporary American authors, Mark Twain, Truman Capote, Thornton Wilder, Anne Rice, Maxwell Anderson and others. The best musical librettos are distinguished for interesting problematic issues, original characters, brilliant dialogues, effective culminations, highly poetical verses [6].

1.2 The Continuity of the Musical Characteristics as the Direction of Musical Theatre

Over just a century a musical has been changing and it is changing at the moment, the search for new forms lead to many faces and many facets of this entertaining genre. Musical addresses its audience in the language of contemporary every day and pop music, in which extended episodic finals are present, songs are dominant, ensembles are rare, but solo scenes or scenes by several soloists are frequent. Intense action is characteristic of the musical. Everything is governed by it: every remark and musical episode, any dance pas and comical reprise. Vocal and dance scenes have to directly grow out of an action and to develop it. They have to be considered necessary, in other words, internally motivated [7]. It is well known that opera and operetta got the audience used to ballet scenes of a divertissement type: sometimes these are private suites, sometimes whole suites, terminating development of the main intrigue. The musical, in its best samples, links such scenes with the plot, with the development of characters. Ballet episodes here are no longer inserted pieces, they are part of the action and choreography, the plastics becomes a vital part of the expressive means of the musical, along with singing. Musical pieces are generally handled well and plastically. Characters are revealed both in singing and dancing.

2 Technology production of the play in the genre of "The Musical"

In opera and operetta a ballet master-choreographer typically performs a more or less important, but still a secondary role, confined to ballet episodes and the so-called backup dances. In practice of musical staging, he is often actually the second or even the chief stage director. For instance, the famous American choreographer Jerome Robbins was an initiator and made the first staging of "West Side Story”, then directed "Fiddler on the Roof ", "Funny Girl". Holistic choreographic solution, virtuoso plastic figures make up the most impressive part of the best Broadway musicals [8].

2.1 Creative Relationship of Music and Choreography in the Musical

Conceding operetta in intensity of vocal usage, a musical, however, pays much more attention to the plastic expressive means. This fact, alongside with the careful designing of the dramatic line imposes special requirements to the art of a musical actor. The ideal here is a combination of the qualities of an actor, singer and dancer – an extremely rare complex. The musical is designed for universal actors, those possessing the ability to synthesize, integrate various kinds of professional skills – to act on stage as a dramatic actor, have professional vocal skills, be proficient in dance, plastic arts, subjecting them to a single line of stage behavior, t.i. the task of creating an integral image. This aspect notably is of the most important ones when staging performances of this

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genre. It is important to note that the staging of the musical is very beneficial not only business-wise but also in creative terms. Creative advantage is in that that the troupe can be formed only at the time of performance staging. In this creative process actors (participants) show their skills and abilities, competition grows inside the team, which is an impetus to improve performance of the role. In this respect the Kazakh scene is not an exception. But, unfortunately, up to day the desired result has not been achieved yet. In the neighboring countries, like Russia, the staging of the world known musicals took place, ”Notre-Dame de Paris” (1998) by Riccardo Cocciante, “Romeo and Juliet” (2003) by Gérard Presgurvic, “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1998), “Cats” (2005) by Andrew Lloyd Webber and others. And also very successful were the staging of domestic performances such as “Krechinsky’s Wedding” by Alexander Kolker, "The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta" and “Juno and Avos” by Aleksei Rybnikov, “Nord-Ost” by Aleksei Ivaschenko and Georgii Vassiliyev and others.

2.2 Communication Systems and the Impact of Genre Times and National Characteristics in a Musical

Speaking of the musical theatre actor's upbringing in Kazakhstan, we shall remind you that in the process of staging a commercial project of the musical "Zhibek» by producer V. Rakhysheva and young composers S. Shamenova and D. Rayeva, the problem was in the professionalism of the actors’ troupe. Initially there was held a casting for all parts, which gathered the acting troupe. It included actors of drama theatres, pop singers and ballet dancers of the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the history of the musical there are numerous examples of productions in which personalities of different types of art took part. For instance, the cast of one of the most popular musicals, “Notre-Dame de Paris” was comprised of pop singers: Bruno Pelletier, Hélène Ségara, Garou and others, who are professional singers. However, at the first night of the performance, not only vocal and acting techniques, but also choreography won the world’s recognition. The problem of staging the “Zhibek” musical was in that that the professional theatrical actors had high command of acting mastership but lacked vocal mastership. In our point of view, the reason to the shortage of professional staff is inadequate training. Thus, the question is in the educational process of future musical theatre actors. To date, at the universities of Kazakhstan the problem is in teaching, not fully meeting with the requirements of the modern theatre.

3 Promotion "Musical" in Kazakhstan as a musical - stage, music and art project

At the Zhurgenov National Academy of Arts, professional musical theatre actors have been prepared since 1979. Musical comedy chair was founded by the People’s artist, professor, soloist of the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, movie actor К. Кеnzhetayev, who by his resourceful labor, indefatigable energy gathered a collective of like-minded persons. The instructors P.Ildarov, R.Маshurova, М.Zhunuss, G.Gizatova, Ye.Segizbayev, P.Dorokhova, N.Radtchenkо, А.Sembin founded the methodical basis for preparation of musical-dramatical theatre specialists. The training programs were based on the programs of the leading drama schools of the Soviet Union, such as GITIS and LGITMIK. The first graduates of 1984 were performers famous now– the People’s artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan R. Rymbayevа, the honored artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan М.Iliyassova. The graduation performance of the course was the performance "Arshin Mal Alan", staged by the motifs of the musical comedy under the same name by the Azerbaijan composer U.Gadzhibekov, the students were taught by Professors К.Кеnzhetayev and R.Маshurova. The next graduates, the course by Ye.Segizbayev, brilliantly performed “Silva” by Imre Kálmán at the stage of the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

3.1 The Development of a Theoretical Study of the Level of Modern Musical in the World and in the Country

During the existence of musical comedy chair there have been staged many foreign operettas– “Mam’zelle Nitouche“ by Hervé (course by Professor R.Маshurova), “The Bat” (“Die Fledermaus”) by Johann Strauss (course by Professor Ye. Segizbayev), “Silva” by Imre Kálmán (course by the People’s artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Professor Ye.Obayev), vaudevilles – “Khanuma” by Giya Kancheli (course by Instructor Ye.Тоkeyev), musical comedies – The Marriage of Figaro” by Beaumarchais (course by Professor R. Маshurova), “Cinderella” (course by Ye. Karibayev), musicals – at the stage of the training theatre there were staged “Sister Cary” by Raymond Pauls, “West Side Story” by Leo Bernstein (course by Zh. Khadzhiyev), “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber (course by Т.Оmarov).

In 2007 году the students at the master’s workshop by Professor R. Mashurova staged the musical “Notre Dame de Paris” by Riccardo Cocciante and Luc Plamondon. The performance was organized by the

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students’ own creative efforts. And the first challenges encountered when setting the performance were vocal and choreography since the difficulty was in the process of singing and dance compatibility. As the “Notre Dame de Paris” musical is also considered a rock-opera, the main problem for the performance participants was the requirement of pop-rock singing. For instance, in the French version of the performance the leading soloists were professional rock performers: Garou, Bruno Pelletier, and Daniel Lavoie. And only solid academic preparation helped them cope with this complex composition.

3.2 Possession of Acting and Singing in a Professional Manner

On the experience of the Moscow Theatre Universities where all kinds of vocal are taught, academic, folk, jazz and pop vocals are taught separately. During the “Music in theatre - Theatre of music” master classes (2008) at the B. Schukin Theatrical Institute, students fully demonstrate their skills. At the first year at the institution folk singing and academic vocal are concurrently taught. The second year is devoted to pop vocal, and the third to jazz vocal. Academic vocal is taught beginning from the first and up to the last years. And I have to say that this training is a must. For example, the "The Phantom of the Opera" musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber requires academic vocal, “West Side Story” by Leo Bernstein – jazz vocal, and the musicals by Gérard Presgurvic “Gone with the Wind”, “Romeo and Juliet” require pop vocal. However, there are stars such as Julie Andrews, for example, Sarah Brightman, Lea Salonga, Bernadette Peters, who are inspired by the images of very complex parts of different genres. This is the versatile preparation that provides for the desired result required for a highly professional artist. Thus, we can say that musical theatre today has become one of the "high arts", along with opera and ballet.

Conclusions

In general, despite some successful productions, a musical in Kazakhstan is not yet able to compete with the American and European products. There are several reasons to this. At our theatres there are not enough actors who have both the vocal and acting skills at a master’s level, and at dance, and even at acrobatics. In the United States and Europe commercial theatres make huge efforts in search of such actors. The Kazakh theatres with the permanent actors’ staff have to be satisfied with the actors who are currently in the troupe. And while a bad singing actor is sometimes more suitable for a musical than an operetta actor, due to lack of orchestra, choir, dancers, staging musicals in theatres is not widespread. Orchestral musicians generally do not have the style and rhythms of jazz and modern dance music. For all the foregoing reasons, attempts by domestic theatres to copy foreign productions have not yet reached the Broadway level. Yet the musical in Kazakhstan exists and develops. By studying the works of past theatrical artists and artists of our time, by analysing trends in entertainment art direction, you can assert that a musical genre is to have a very big future and long history.

References

[1] The Encyclopedic Musical Dictionary. (1986). Moscow, p. 368. [2] Bakhtin, А.А. (2006). Synthesis of arts as a basis for musical for adults and children. An

author’s abstract for obtaining PhD degree in Arts Studies. Moscow, p. 4. [3] Yenukidze, N.I. (2004). The Popular Musical Genres // From History of Jazz and Musical, Moscow, p.

124. [4] The Greatest Musical of the World: Popular Encyclopedia. (2002). Moscow, p. 84. [5] Zhukova, L. (1976). In the World of Operetta. Moscow, p. 32. [6] Syssoyevа, A.V. (2005). The Broadway musical. The Process of Formation of the Genre in the 20-30-

ies of the 20th century. An author’s abstract for obtaining PhD degree in Arts Studies, Moscow, p. 22. [7] E-source: http://www.musicals.ru. [8] Bushuyevа,S.К. (1979). Musical // Arts and masses in the contemporary bourgeois society: St.

Petersburg. State Scientific-Research Institute of Art Studies. Moscow, p.46.


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Media Representations of Romanian Identity: Re-Defining the Romanian 'Other' within the European Cultural Space

Pătrașcu C.1 1”Dunărea de Jos” University of Galați (Romania) [email protected]

Abstract This article proposes an analysis of various representations of Romanian identity in contemporary

media, especially British press in the context of the free access to the labour market for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens. The article shows that these representations are marked by a series of negative stereotypes, both linguistic clichés and images, and tries to analyse the way in which these negative characterizations affect the public image of the Romanians.

The main objective of our research is to explain the mechanisms of these stereotypical representations according to which Romania and its citizens appear as the malefic, vicious and always undesirable Other. This assertion is supported by a brief diachronic study of different depictions of Romania in British media, especially nineteenth century travel writing and other literary sources, like Bram Stoker's Dracula, which are considered to be highly influential even today in the construction of contemporary representations of the Romanians. At the same time, the paper attempts to identify elements which are fundamental in the characterization of Romanian identity and sustains that Romania is geographically and culturally an integrant part of Europe and of its political and economic institutions (as a member of the EU) and that its great cultural heritage can contribute to the cultural diversity of Europe. In the new context created by the debates on the importance of the cultural policies and projects which may bring a solution to some of the EUs most critical problems, an attempt at re-defining Romanian identity and at delineating its locus on the European geo-political and cultural map seems appropriate.

The critical tools are represented by different concepts offered by imagology and cultural and media theories.

Keywords: identity, other, alterity, European cultural space, image, imagology, stereotype

Introduction The concept of Romanian identity has always been difficult to assess and define and seems to raise even

more questions when discussed in the context of Europe’s (economic, political and identity) crisis. After the violent replacement of the communist regime with a new, democratic one, the Romanians eagerly asserted their will to be considered and valued as citizens of the civilised Europe, wanting to have the benefit of the same rights and equality of treatment as enjoyed by other Europeans. Living for so long behind the Iron Curtain, in the south-eastern part of Europe, which like the majority of the concepts dealt with in this article, represents a reality, but also an idea and a cultural concept [1], the Romanians found themselves confronted with a whole new world opening its gates before their eyes. Many of them have chosen to live their country; many others have chosen to stay at home. At home or abroad, Romanians have had, for many years, to fight against prejudices, insulting criticism and even well-organized press campaigns targeted at making them stay in Romania. Today, one of the most brutal campaigns is led by British media as an expression of the fear that Romanians will ‘flood’ the country after the restrictions of the labour market have been lifted. Despite the Romanian authorities’ reassuring declarations that there is no reason to be afraid of a massive flood of Romanian migrants, British media and politicians have continued on the same tone, propagating insulting remarks. Once again the fierce opposition Self/Other resurfaced with even more violence accentuating the differences between the two real geographical and the imaginary/imagined geo-political and cultural hemispheres: West and East. Today, once again, and more than ever, the clash between these two ‘territories’ seems irreconcilable.


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1 Representations of the Romanian ‘Other’ in contemporary British Media The British campaign against Romanians was fuelled especially by representatives of the Tory right,

followed, shortly after, by numerous other British politicians who expressed their ardent anti-immigrant views. Public discourse and other media have been marked ever since by a negative evaluation of Romanians, despite the fact that there is no real evidence of the huge number and dreadful impact of the Romanian migration on British society and life. Many British journals, from the Huffington Post to BBC News, Daily Mail, Metro UK or The Guardian, to name but a few, have published articles on this topic. The campaign’s objective has been that of deterring Romanians from coming to the United Kingdom. Anyone looking at the headlines can remark their hostility: ‘It rains a lot, you shouldn’t come here’ (Metro UK, 28 Jan 2013) [2]; ‘Thousands of Bulgarians and Romanians plan to flood UK in 2014…’ (Mail Online, 27 Jan 2013) [3]; ‘An Immigration Calamity Looms’ (Express UK, 16 February 2013) [4]; ‘We want to get into your country before someone locks the door’ (Daily Mail, 15 February 2013) [5]; ‘Mafia bosses who can’t wait to flood Britain with beggars’ (Mail Online, 18 February 2013) [6].

These are only some of the anti-immigrant phrases expressed by British newspapers. It may seem surprising and incomprehensible why so much aggressiveness is directed against the Romanians, without any differentiation between bad and good, lazy and hard-working, clean and filthy, educated, civilised and uncivilised and so on. All Romanians are viewed as the evil Other planning to invade the British territory.

Casting even a cursory glance at British representations of the Romanians along history, as they are reflected by 19th century travel writing and other literary sources, may be revealing in the analysis of the stereotypical images of Romanian identity.

A useful critical tool in the analysis of various images of the Romanians in British travel books is offered by imagology. Its main object of study is formed by the representations of alterity and the ways in which they are constructed. Imagological criticism, applied recently not only in the field of literature, but also in the field of other disciplines, uses a specific terminological cluster, such as ‘topos, commonplace, prejudice, stereotype, imagotype, cliché’ [7]. All myths, images and stereotypes which constitute what Daniel-Henri Pageaux called an imaginaire, ‘a semiotic system of the ‘culture of origin’ [8] are born in the interaction between self-image and otherness and are expressed in the form of single stereotypes. Pageaux considered that the essential feature of the stereotype is that ‘it extrapolates from details into generalizations, by turning a single attribute into the essence of an entire nation’ [8]. This aspect may be easily remarked in the construction of the above headlines which use stereotypes (Romanians are called beggars) and exaggerate the dimensions of the phenomenon.

According to Beller and Leerssen (2007), ‘Members of different groups perceive matters from their own specific, distinctive perspective… Our images of foreign countries, peoples and cultures mainly derive from selective value judgments (which are in turn derived from selective observation) as expressed in travel writing and other literary sources’ [9]. In this sense, travel writing that offers British representations of Romanians appears as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, ‘crystallizes’ in the 18th century [10], has a steady development in the 19th century when the main stereotypes of Romanian identity are established and reaches its climactic point at the turn of the 19th century. In a very synthetic form, it may be stated that the image of the Romanians as reflected by the British literary sources known so far is marked by a series of negative elements which outline the portrait of a liminal (sort of) nation occupying a borderline zone (an indefinite territory), geographically and symbolically situating itself somewhere between Occident and Orient, civilization and barbarity, tradition and modernity, but belonging neither entirely to civilised Europe, nor to decadent Orient. The negative stereotypical manner of representing Romania acquires a shocking dimension with Bram Stoker’s famous novel whose events are set in Transylvania. Thus, the image of the Romanian identity becomes for ever associated with that of a vampire (in itself a liminal, parasitic, dark creature and a shape-shifter!) and hence marked as inferior, because utterly different and incomprehensible. Anyone coming from the realm of a vampire embodies the Other par excellence and must be infected with some kind of a virus (which may be taken metaphorically, as a symbol of the oriental lethargy, laziness, immorality, or quite literally, the Romanians being considered carriers of all sorts of diseases).

With all these negative characterizations of the Romanian people, it is very difficult to sustain and highlight the positive sides of migration, but as difficult as it may seem, these positive aspects do exist. Analysis of the real life situations proves, more often than not, that Romanian immigrants in England study and work hard and make the most of their experience contributing to the development of the region in which they live. At the same time, many of the aspects related to the great cultural Romanian heritage are either partially ignored or left out altogether. As an integrant part of the European culture, Romania has still many inestimable treasures (its regions of untamed nature, traditions and folklore which in many cases have remained unaltered along centuries, a cultural elite and extremely generous and hospitable ordinary people) that remain yet to be discovered. These invaluable qualities have to be brought into relief and transformed into Romania’s strong points. Romania’s image abroad should benefit more from its qualities which should be emphasized and changed into the hard core around which its brand should be constructed. Romania has indeed the possibility to contribute to the cultural


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diversity of the European cultural space (in itself a much debated concept since the Maastricht Treaty) a fact proved by the designation of Sibiu as a European cultural city. Romania has many things by which it may become an active participant in the process of Europe’s development and reform. Today, when the number of voices, claiming the necessity of reforming Europe by taking more and more into consideration its social and cultural facets which have been largely neglected along the European Union’s construction process, becomes greater and greater, the context seems favourable for (at least) an attempt at redefining the concept of Romanian identity. Perhaps, now, there is still time to make Europe a place where the discourse and media representations of the undesirable and ever rejected Romanian Other, valued and judged on the basis of a mentality of power, may turn into a discourse of ‘responsive understanding’ based on ‘irenic mentality’ [11].

2 Conclusion Given the (very) limited number of pages required, the article, in its present form, manages to establish

the main thematic and conceptual and critical tools necessary for a future in-depth analysis. The method applied was that of a close analysis of the cultural stereotypes attached to representations of Romanian identity, in the light of imagology and cultural and media studies. At the same time, the diachronic approach allowed a brief presentation of the ways in which these imagotypes took shape in the British consciousness and discourse about Romanian alterity.

The main element of novelty of this paper is represented by the multi-perspective approach, combining various media, cultural and even literary theories in the study of its topic, namely British media representations of Romanian identity. Another fresh insight is offered by its focus on the newest research in the domain of European identity that brings forth the importance of the social and cultural facet of the complex phenomenon which is the European construction and whose technocratic aspects have been too often stressed out prevailing over the socio-cultural ones.

References [1] Delanty, G. (1995). Inventing Europe. Idea, Identity, Reality. Macmillan Press LTD.:

Basingstoke Hampshire. [2] Metro UK. (28 Jan. 2013).http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/28/ [3] Mail Online. (27 Jan. 2013). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268952/ [4] Express UK. (16 Feb. 2013). http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/patrick-o-

flynn/378116/ [5] Daily Mail. (15 Feb. 2013). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279419/ [6] Mail Online. (18 Feb. 2013). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280294/ [7] Beller, M., Leerssen, J. T., (ed.). (2007). Imagology. The cultural construction and literary

representation of national characters. A critical survey. Rodopi: Amsterdam, p.8. [8] Pageaux, D. - H. in Beller, M., Leerssen, J. T., (ed.). (2007). Imagology. The cultural

construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey. Rodopi: Amsterdam, pp. 8-9.

[9] Beller, M., Leerssen, J. T., (ed.). (2007). Imagology. The cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey. Rodopi: Amsterdam, p.5

[10] Andras, C. (2002). Romania and Its Images in British Travel Writing. In-between Peripherality and Cultural Interference. In: TRANS. Internet-Zetschrift für Kulturwissenschaften. No. 14/2002. WWW: http://www.inst.at/trans/14Nr/andras14.htm, p. 3.

[11] Spariosu, M. (1997). The Wreath of Wild Olive: Play, Liminality and the Study of Literature. New York: Suny Press


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The Evolution in Law and Jurisprudence of Ways to Defend the Rights Arising from Artificial Accession

Pîrvu A.1, Duminică R.2 1 Assistant PhD candidate Faculty of Judicial and Administrative Sciences, University of Pitesti (ROMANIA) 2 Assistant PhD, Faculty of Judicial and Administrative Sciences, University of Pitesti (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Artificial accession is the merging of two property rights belonging to different owners, one of whom

will hold both rights. By applying the principle of accessorium sequitur principale, the owner of what is considered as the main property acquires the property considered as an accessory, though under the obligation of reimbursing its owner.

In court, there is no proper regulation for artificial accession and general rules are thus applied. This aspect has sometimes led to difficulties in legal practice.

In order to protect their rights, the parties involved in an accession suit have tried to identify and utilize the most effective legal means. Obviously, the means used have differed, first of all on the interest defended by each party.

Keywords: property, accession, claim, jurisprudence, damages

Using a possession claim When the owner of the accessory understands that he/she can acquire full ownership through accession

in order to guarantee him/herself full ownership of the accessory, which is regularly a building, the owner of the immovable starts a possession claim in most cases.

Defined in legal doctrine as the “the claim of the non-possessor against the non-owner”, the possession claim seems to correspond best in this situation which is actually caused by artificial accession. Obviously, the term “possessor” is used only generically. In actuality, only the builder acting in good faith can be considered as “owner”, while the one acting in bad faith is only a temporary holder. Although we say that the builder is the actual owner, by accession, that person loses this quality and becomes either its owner or holder, in spite of the good or bad faith that motivated him/her at the time of construction. The property right of the builder is one that is affected by a specific resolutive condition [1] consisting in invoking the right to accession.

For the possession claim to stand, proof of the property right invoked is required, even that the titles of ownership be compared, when both parties hold a title of ownership over the disputed property. In order to confirm the right, the claimant must prove that he/she meets the conditions of artificial accession, while the builder must prove both his/her right to the building as well as the right to make use of the land.

According to article 567 from the Civil Code in force, (art. 492 in the former Civil Code), the owner of the land is assumed to hold the right to the buildings erected on the land, until proved otherwise. “Applying these legal assumptions is acknowledging a way of obtaining the real right whereby the owner of the land is also considered the owner of the buildings, by sheer virtue of their being positioned there, without the obligation of proving the right or presenting any writ stating his/her ownership, (…), or meeting any other prior requirements, such as obtaining a building permit, in the absence of any pertinent legal dispositions in this case” [2]. The owner of the land and claimant must only prove his/her right to the building, this assuming that it is under the same legal regime as the land.

Concerning the possession claim, doctrine [1] states that sometimes the builder can also start such a claim for either the building or the materials used in the construction,.

Concerning the building, we consider that such a claim should be initiated by a the person who built the structure in good faith, who believes him/herself the rightful owner of the land also in spite of a bad property title of which fact he/she is unaware. By initiating such a procedure, the claimant has clearly lost ownership of the


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property. The builder has the right to use the possession claim if we consider that the owner’s right over the building exists only once he/she exercise his/her potestative right of accession, nut not with the incorporation of the materials. However, the builder may only do this before the owner of the land expresses his/her intention of becoming the owner of the building as well by accession. Therefore, as long as the owner does not exercise his right to accession, although in use of the building, the possession claim initiated by the builder can still be admitted.

Concerning the building materials, their owner also known as the builder has the possibility to reclaim them, every time they do not attached to the land of person who owns it. “To the extent that the materials are not incorporated into the land and despite the fact that the owner of the land gave uses them in some way, so that they have become part of the immovable, the stipulations of articles 493 and 494 from the Civil Code (articles 567 and 568 from the New Civil Code) do not apply. In other words, artificial accession in favour of the owner of the land is not valid. Therefore, the materials may be reclaimed by their owner. ” [1]

The lawmaker chose to adopt another solution when the owner of the land finishes the building with materials belonging to another person. In this case, the legislator left no room for interpretation, either in the former Civil Code or the one currently in force. Article 493 from the former Civil Code dealt with this situation by saying that “The owner of the land on which constructions, works or plantations were made with materials belonging to another person, must reimburse this person for the value of the materials. Depending on the circumstances, the owner is not bound in this case to pay damages also. However, the possessor of the materials does not have the right to remove them.” The New Civil Code stipulates that “In case the constructions, works or plantations are made with materials belonging to another person, the owner of the immovable becomes the owner of the constructions, works or plantations, with no obligation to remove them or return the materials.”(art.580 paragraph 1).“The owner of the materials only has the right to disbursements as well as damages for any losses incurred.”(art.580 paragraph 2)

Both regulations practically deny the owner of the materials the possibility of starting a possession claim for their recovery, although both the old and the new regulation make reference to the materials used to make the constructions, works or plantations when regulating the way the owner of the immovable can obtain them by incorporating them. We do not understand why this interdiction extends to the materials not actually used.

Doctrine [3] justifies this interdiction by basing it on obtaining ownership of the unused materials through possession in good faith of the movable goods. In order for such a theory to be valid, certain conditions must be met simultaneously. The owner of the immovable must show good faith at the moment when he/she obtains them from the temporary holder. It is considered [1] that accession is of no interest or even disadvantageous to the owner of the immovable, in this case, because it involves reimbursing the possessor, while based on showing possession in good faith the owner would gain free ownership. We do not understand what the justification for such a solution is, given that the conditions were not met for gaining ownership of the movable goods as an effect of possession in good faith.

Moreover, the materials cannot be reclaimed by their owner not even if the constructions, works or plantations no longer exist, given that by accession these materials have passed into the property of the owner of the immovable. It is our opinion that even if the owner of the immovable made the constructions, works or plantations by using materials belonging to another person, there should at least be a possibility of recovering the unused materials. Therefore, the losses incurred by the owner of the materials could partially be covered in nature, in accordance with the general rules.

Doctrine [4] has pointed out the fact that initially this solution came from Roman law. For this situation and many others, the Romans used actio ad exhibendum, whereby they forced the defendant to prove his/her right to the property. Subsequently, when the defendant lost based on this argument, he/she could start a real claim, the possession claim actually. Given that through this claim the defendant tried and managed to recover the materials incorporated into the constructions, works or plantations, the Law of the Twelve Tables prohibited it, considering that maintaining these buildings was in the public interest. However, the owner of the materials retained his/her right to recover what belonged to him/her, when they were intentionally or fortuitously detached from the land or the building. [4]

The right to damages Although the Romanian legislator deprived the owner of the materials of the possibility of reclaiming

them, he/she was given the right to demand and obtain damages for losses incurred. Doctrine [1] justifies awarding damages based on two things, depending on the builder showing either good or bad faith. When the owner of the immovable makes the constructions, works or plantations in good faith, damages can be awarded based on obtaining wealth without just cause. When the constructions, works or plantations are made in bad faith, meaning that the owner of the immovable realizes that he/she is using materials which he/she does not own, damages may be claimed based on tort liability. Using either justification has different consequences.


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Damages demanded based on profit obtained without just cause, will as a rule be smaller, covering only the value of the materials. Damages given based on tort liability will include all subsequent damages requested by the owner of the materials.

The lien. The right to a legal mortgage In case the owner of the immovable has become by accession the owner of the building but he/she

cannot pay damages, the court may decide to grant him/her an extended deadline. Since there is no regulation in this case, the Romanian courts have not given solutions similar to those from the old French law, which forced the owner to pay a perpetual rent to the builder, until the debt was extinguished. [4]

The builder’s lien over the construction in question is acknowledged also by the courts, for sums to be received from the owner of the immovable as disbursements for the constructions, works and plantations.

Certain courts have decided that this right is owed to both the builder in good faith ad well as the one in bad faith. This solution has been considered equitable by doctrine, “because the owner of the land exercising his/her right to accession, has relented to apply the sanctions stipulated by the law for the builder in bad faith, specifically the one whereby the constructions, works or plantations are removed from the immovable, without eventually paying damages.” [5] Some courts have decided that only the builder in good faith can benefit from this right. “Every time the builder has made a construction or a plantation in good faith, he/she is compelled to restore the place to its former condition to the owner who claims the building under the lien.”[6] Certain authors consider even in this case that the court’s intention was not to deprive the builder in bad faith of the possibility to invoke the lien. Given that the courts specifically refer to the builder in good faith depends on the case but does not “exclude the possibility of acknowledging the lien in favour of the builder in bad faith.”[5]

All these solutions have been completely ignored by the lawmaker, when he finished the Civil Code in its 2004 form. According to article 453, paragraph 2 states that “the builder may not invoke the lien, not even if the construction was made in good faith”. However, the solution is based on the former judiciary practice. Therefore, if the builder’s lien to the construction is acknowledged, “it would allow the builder to reimburse him/herself without the court’s intervention, in an exceptional or arbitrary way.”[7] Theoretically, doctrine is responsible for having instituted the practice of acknowledging the lien of the builder. The main argument supporting this theory is the special quality of the lien, which must be expressly stipulated by the law in order for it to apply. The opinion is that “the right to retain use over the construction until the debtor honours his obligation is a type of privilege, it is an exception to the common rule and therefore to the strictest interpretation.”[7] Moreover, the lien of the builder would be denied according to the theoretical real intention of the lawmaker, who treats “the owner of the land with more consideration than builder, who is at fault, either in good or bad faith.”[7] The supporters of this theory invoke French law, which acknowledge the right of the builder.

However, there were many decisions even in the old jurisprudence which acknowledged the lien of the builder.!7] This right had to be invoked, though, before the trial court. “Such an important matter, a new count, which the parties had not formulated, nor considered, and which the court did not touch, cannot be resolved by appealing the court decision whereby the builder is forced to concede the building to the owner, without violating the principle of the two jurisdictions.”[7] Recent legal practice has also confirmed this point of view.[8] Being a new claim, it cannot be used as a legal solution, least of all when appealing the decision. However, the court can suspend the execution of the decision and the trial, until the solution to the claim that aims to establish the value of the improvements to the immovable and acknowledge the lien until they are reimbursed, is declared final.[9]

The new Civil Code no longer acknowledges the lien of the builder to the land of another person, irrespective of good or bad faith. The builder in good faith however has his/her right acknowledged, the “right to a legal mortgage over the immovable for the payment of indemnification and may request the inscription of the mortgage right based on the convention concluded in its authentic form or of a court decision, according to article 589 (article 591).” The conclusion we can draw from the lawmaker’s reference to article 589 from the Civil Code, made at the end of the text, is that in such cases “the right to property over the constructions, works or plantations appears in favour of the owner of the land only by the registering in the land registry and the right of the builder to a legal mortgage exists at the moment it is mentioned in the land registry.”[10]

Prior to these regulations, the builder had no real right to guarantees over the constructions, works or plantations (mortgage or privilege) and because of this he/she could not cover the debt preferentially in relation to other creditors of the owner of the land.[5] As opposed to the lien acknowledged in the old regulation, which was not efficient unless the person invoking it effectively exercised ownership over the immovable, the right to a mortgage acknowledged by the current regulation offers an increased protection, and grants the holder the prerogatives of the continuance and preference.

Doctrine has estimated that exercising accession could also take the form of an eviction and even of “a notification through the court executors or any other form, including verbal, while the intention is proved, in


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accordance with the rules of evidence in this case.”[1] This extended interpretation is based on the fact that the Romanian legislator has not taken on the phrasing used by the French lawmaker, who expressly makes reference to the evicted third party in article 555 of the French Civil Code (corresponding to the former article 494 from the Romanian Civil Code).

In order to value this right to accession, the owner of the land has also the right to contest. As opposed to the possession claim which is in development, the contestation has a subsidiary quality. According to article 35 from the New Code of Civil Procedure “The interested party may request that the existence or inexistence of the right be determined. The request may not be accepted is the respective party may do this through any other legal avenue.”

The development of regulations The matter of protecting the rights given by artificial accession is complex. The current study proposed

to draw attention to certain modification made in this field through the New Civil Code. We consider that certain modifications in this field are welcome, the majority representing bills for lege ferenda of doctrine, legal projects which were eventually valued by the lawmaker. However, we consider that this regulation can yet be improved, given that doctrine still has the role of proposing projects for lege ferenda for situations remaining still unresolved or unclear.

References [1] V. Stoica, Accesiunea imobiliară artificială, (I), Dreptul nr. 1/2006, p-50-51, p.35, p.35, p.37,

p.38, p.49-50 [2] I.Ninu, Uzucapiunea şi accesiunea imobiliară, Ed.Hamangiu, 2009, p.270 [3] C.Hamangiu, I.Rosetti-Bălănescu, Al.Băicoianu, Tratat de drept civil român, Vol.I, Ed. C.H.Beck,

p. 229 [4] D.Alexandresco, Explicaţiunea teoretică şi practică a dreptului civil român, Atelierele grafice

SOCEC, Bucureşti, 1909, volume III, part I, p.339, p.339, p.349 [5] V.Stoica, Accesiunea imobiliară artificială (II), Dreptul nr. 2/2006, p.48, p.49, p.48 [6] A.Pena, Accesiunea imobiliară şi uzucapiunea, Culegere de practică judiciară, Ed.C.H.Beck,

Bucureşti, 2009, p.67 [7] C.Hamangiu, N.Georgean, The Modified Civil Code, with the corresponding French, Italian and

Belgian article, referencing French and Romanian doctrine and the complementary jurisprudence from 1868-1925, vol.I, 1925 Ed.Librăriei Universală Alcaly &Co, Bucureşti, p. 604-605

[8] http://jurisprudentacedo.com/Contestatie-la-executare-invocare-drept-de-retentie-inadmisibila.html

[9] http://spete.avocatura.com/speta.php?pid=4498 [10] E.Chelaru, Comentariu, in Fl.Baias, E.Chelaru, R.Constantinovici, I.Macovei, Noul Cod

civil.Comentariu pe articole, art. 1-2664, Bucureşti, Ed.C.H.Beck, p.660


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European Policy Challenges in the Productive Landscape Economy

Popa A.1, Hărmănescu M.2 1 Faculty of Urban Planning, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest, (ROMANIA) 2 Faculty of Urban Planning, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest, (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Economic and social processes characteristic for the end of the twentieth century, manifest through new

ways of organizing space and new patterns of mobility and location of population, activities and labour force, both at urban and regional levels (in the territory adjacent to urban centres). In addition to these changes, extensive urban development, due to demand for land for development and decline of interest for primary activities, is reflected in the extra-urban territory, also on landscape perception and use.

The research assumes that productive landscape is a component of generic landscape system this being one of the most common and extensive landscape systems but containing multiple values (including cultural) and proving the existence and evolution of territory. Although perceived and used most often as a common landscape with economical role, productive landscape is one of the local cultural resources, due to the values and meanings assigned, and is also one of the elements of local differentiation with respect to specificity and local identity.

From this perspective, productive landscape problematic is extended at global level from economical (oriented on maximum land use and benefits) to cultural approach, describing the actual concerns to protect the ecological and historical features in a productive landscape economy.

The paper proposes a comprehensive synthesis of European planning and legislative framework concerning productive landscapes (as perceived locally) by comparison also with the European Policies designated for spatial and economical development. The focus of this synthesis is to identify main implications of different planning documents and approaches for productive landscape, by comparing its vocation and valuation potential from economical dimension trough cultural one. The research tries to underline the main present features of European common productive landscapes and their future development, addressing both components: cultural and economical.

Keywords: Productive landscape, cultural landscape, landscape economy, European policies, economical development

Introduction and methodology The contemporary rural settlements continue to be an important element of social production and an

active factor in the environment changes, due to their specific productive activities. The study focuses mainly on agricultural landscape, which is considered an important part of rural landscape (due to its features related to productive activities, traditional practices and customs related), defined in the article as productive landscape. Due to multiple development and conversion pressures the agricultural landscape is considered one of the most vulnerable components of the rural landscape, its existence being conditioned by agricultural practices and their evolution. But in the same time, continuing urbanization process [1] and various models of spatial development (especially in the twentieth century) extends the agricultural landscape problematic to the entire rural territory which is under pressure and risk of urbanization. The urban – rural boundary manifests fragility at territorial level and in this transition territory, new relationships of the rural areas under urban pressure appears and mark its dynamic. This report discuss the influence of urban and rural development models on productive landscape features and existence, and also outlines how policies can assure sustainable development of that landscape. Both, development models and development policies are related to the ongoing social processes and cultural changes that take place rapidly. From that point of view the social features are one of the most important elements related to productive landscape and to define the exact characteristics of the society influence it is difficult.


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The research of this problematic is approached at international level at multiple scientific domains, focusing on productive landscape potential, preservation and valuation accordingly to each domain focus (geography, ecology, history, cultural and social studies, economy and development, planning, etc.). The article briefly presents the results of doctoral researches made by authors concerning agricultural- productive and rural landscape [2, 3]. The studies focused on establishing a common approach methodology combining elements from different domains, and, by comparison with methodology and regulations existing at European level determined main problems and development principles related to national planning context (strategic, legal and operational- regulatory) [4].

At international level, productive landscape problematic is approached in accordance with each country legislation and tradition research studies being influenced by this: ecological [5], productive- economic [6], spatial- structural [7], related to spatial planning issues [8].

Research method for this problematic focused on defining rural- productive- agricultural landscape by extracting the most relevant elements (considered constitutive and valuable) from different domains, investigating state of art at European level: legal provision from different domains, spatial planning strategies and tools for implementation- provisions and inadvertences. By defining a common frame with a series of general principles concerning productive landscape approach, and by reporting it to the national planning context and tools, it is possible to extract main guidelines for assessment, development and valuation, based on different indicators considered relevant for this problematic (indicating evolution or future processes) [9, 10].

Productive landscape problematic in modern planning context Similar to the general landscape concept, the productive landscape can be defined in multiple ways,

depending on the discipline. Productive landscape is related to a few components: it may be considered a productive environment which generates different sub-typologies depending on existing industrial activities within a territory; or the environment in which organisms can live and reproduce; or a cultural environment. Modern definitions of the landscape refer to its cultural sense: the landscape is the synthesis of space used as a collective space [11], or – as an extension of this definition – the space perceived by the population to whom it gives meaning and shape in accordance to their aims and objectives.

One of the essential components of the productive landscape understanding is the relationship with food and, as a consequence, the relationship with economy and population. Food production space is also represented as a cultural landscape starting with the image and function of agricultural lands [12] and ending with a local production of the place.

By extrapolating these definitions to the practice, it has resulted that agricultural landscape is directly related to the land use, and its approach should include two essential elements: the environmental dimension, the symbolic dimension and the functional (economical) dimension of productive (agricultural) landscape.

It is essential to treat the productive landscape, both as a main component of the countryside (as rural and cultural landscape system), and as a result of the natural interaction with socio-economic systems.

Increased urbanization is closely linked to increased territorial mobility [13], by generating new modes of transportation and new development patterns. These two processes have decisively influenced the way in which spatial development induced consume of productive landscape (at territorial level). Continuous extension and diverse spatial evolution of European cities (and their metropolitan areas) extends this problematic not just to the immediate area of interference between urban and rural space but also at the territorial level (rural) [14].

The three basic elements of agrarian productive space are: human settlement, agricultural morphology and culture system, where social organization and type of property are the expression of the agricultural land occupied by a certain type of structure. Based on current realities exploration of productive territory and and its typologies, means deciphering its dynamics and development based on dimensional, conceptual, functional, typological and chronological perspective.

The main European inventory and conservation methods for the productive landscape politics, including rural areas has the European Landscape Convention like common element, which is a global concept that identifies and defines the status of the landscape as a cultural and economic resource [15].

Following the specific tendency present in the legislation and politics regarding productive landscape in different European countries during the last decades we have general observations regarding landscape planning on a national level taking into account the fact that organized efforts to maintain and obtain certain qualities of the territory are more recent in our country. So, in particular case of Romania, at national level sustainable management of productive land adjacent to urban centers, trough cooperation and common development policies can provide the opportunity for the cities to re – establish territorial balance by preservation of land for agricultural – natural or recreational uses. In the perspective of development it is a clear relation between the influences indicators (ecological, land use and land cover [16], perceptive, historical, cultural and economical) who express the complexity of a productive land. Also, it is required a defined combination of these complex factors and indicators which are capable to quantify the dynamics of productive land development taking into


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account that even it is a common landscape, it represents local identity, local value, and allows to the local people to position themselves in time and place, to relate their identity to a culture and community.

Romanian planning system and approach of productive landscape Productive landscape approach at national level constitutes a recent concern and is marked by

fragmented provisions, being subject (sometimes, without a commendatory request) of spatial planning documents. Table 1 presents a synthetic description of existent spatial planning tools and landscape approach at different territorial levels. The table resulted form the researches made by the authors concerning the provisions of spatial planning documents at national level compared with the principles applied at European level [17, 18].

Table 1 Spatial Planning and productive landscape in Romania

Spatial planning document Approach of productive landscape problematic Strategic Concept for Territorial Development Romania 2030

no provisions concerning productive landscape

National Development Plan fragmented provisions concerning natural or built heritage areas, tourist areas without specific reference at productive landscape

Regional development plan without any spatial provisions and no specific reference at productive landscape problematic

County development plan provisions concerning land use (including productive landscape) does not contain provisions in order to limit urban sprawl, especially consumption of productive landscape

Municipal/ Commune Development Plan land use regulations but no specific recommendations/ provisions for productive landscape compulsory provisions just for protected natural and built heritage areas does not contain provisions in order to limit urban sprawl they are not related to financial tools designated to implement specific measures

As specific case study for Romanian space, considering productive landscape as result of spatial planning policy, main characteristics are: In accordance with “Carta Verde, Rural space zonning, Rural Development”, the rural space represents 40% of the country- in this context, increased accessibility of some rural areas, accelerates the urbanization process [19], and by consequence the profound transformation of productive landscape; at national level, the productive landscape did not change its profile in the last two decades, but it is characterized by abandonment and decreased productivity; in accordance with the analysis concerning the territorial polarization for rural space, at this stage of evolution only Bucharest and its metropolitan are characterized by a higher risk of transformation of productive landscape.

Taking in consideration that on a global level there is an obvious tendency towards degradation and creation of less valuable markets (up to the point in which productive landscapes mean more cultural landscape), conservation and protection of productive landscapes implies decisions which are not easy to take together with the need to review past theories in domains such as agriculture, viticulture, conservation of nature due to their complexity and the task to include the beliefs and values of all cultures [20].

As main conclusions, for Romanian situations we can outline: provisions concerning productive landscape preservation and valuation are generic without defining strategic principles and implementation measures, strategic provisions concerning productive landscape (if they exist) are not materialised at spatial level (priority development areas, fragile areas, areas proposed for preservation, re- qualification, etc.) [21] and are not correlated with specific financial tools.

Conclusions Although the European productive landscape protection and enhancement concerns are not recent,

national concern for this type of landscape is almost inexistent. From this perspective the work brings into question the concept of national productive landscape, with all issues arising as a consequence: definition and conceptual delimitation, protection and enhancement measures, the paper starts from the premise that the productive landscape is an essential part of landscape and a new field of study the specificity and identity of territories.


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Understanding at local level the importance, evolution and potential of this type of economic landscape becomes essential for capacity to react and adapt of local systems to economical and social contextual transformations.

Sector approach of productive landscape in different plans or policies (spatial planning, agricultural and rural development, and environmental protection) generates fragmented approach of its problematic (historical, cultural, productive elements), rarely its dynamic being understood as synergetic result of all influence factors.

References [1] Antrop, M. (2004). Landscape change and the urbanization process in Europe. Landscape and

Urban Planning 67(1-4), pp: 9-26. [2] Popa, A. (2012). Doctoral Thesis Evidence of agricultural landscape presence in territory,

University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest. [3] Hărmănescu, M. (2013). Doctoral Thesis Potential and value of the rural landscape as part of

the cultural landscape. Theoretical approach at a territorial level. University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest.

[4] Romanian Government, Law 350/ 2001 Spatial and Urban Planning [5] Forman, R.T.T. (2008). Urban regions: ecology and planning beyond the city. (print 2010)

Cambridge University Press. [6] Agnoletti, M. (2010). Paesaggio rurale- strumenti per la pianificazione strategica. Edagricole. [7] Faye, P., Faye, B., Tournaire, M., Godard, A. (1974). Sites et Sitologie. J. Pauvert. [8] Scazzosi,L. (2002). Leggere il paesaggio, confronti internazionali. Gangemi. [9] Popa, A. (2012). Doctoral Thesis Evidence of agricultural landscape presence in territory,

University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest. [10] Hărmănescu, M. (2013). Doctoral Thesis Potential and value of the rural landscape as part of

the cultural landscape. Theoretical approach at a territorial level. University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest.

[11] Jackson, J. B. (1984). Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. Yale University Press [12] Sârbu, C. (2010). Schimbări umane şi interacţiuni în peisajul cultural rural (Human changes and

interactions in the cultural rural landscape), project Măgura – Past and Present (Art-Landscape Transformations EC Project 2007-4230), ISBN 978-972-8922-92-1, Renaisance, pp: 9 -14

[13] Antrop, M. and Eetvelde Van, V. (2008). Mechanisms in recent landscape transformation, Geo-Environment and Landscape Evolution Iii. U.

[14] Popa, A. (2012). Aspects of agricultural landscape as a cultural asset in metropolitan areas: case study for Bucharest city. Science- Future of Lithuania, 4 (2), pp: 128- 134.

[15] Patru-Stupariu I., (2010). Peisaj si gestiune durabila in teritoriu, ed. Universitatii, Bucuresti, pp: 91

[16] Petrişor, AI., Ianoş, I., Tălângă, C. (2010). Land cover and use changes focused on the urbanization processes in Romania. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 9(6), pp:765-771

[17] Popa, A. (2012). Doctoral Thesis Evidence of agricultural landscape presence in territory, University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest.

[18] Hărmănescu, M. (2013). Doctoral Thesis Potential and value of the rural landscape as part of the cultural landscape. Theoretical approach at a territorial level. University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest.

[19] Popa, A., Hărmănescu, M. (2012). Challenges for urban development and landscape planning in case of Eastern European Cities. International Conference UACEG2012: Science & Practice Proceedings

[20] Hărmănescu, M (2013), PhD thesis, Potential and value of the rural landscape as part of the cultural landscape. Theoretical approach at a territorial level, University of Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest, p 153, 174-175

[21] Petrişor, AI., Ianoş, I., Tălângă, C. (2010). Land cover and use changes focused on the urbanization processes in Romania. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 9(6), pp:765-771


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Unforeseeability according to the Regulations of the Romanian Civil Code. Conditions and Legal Effects

Postolache R.1 1 “Valahia” University of Târgovişte, Faculty of Law and Social-Political Sciences (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Unforeseeability is regulated for the first time in the Romanian legal system by the Civil Code in force,

at article 1271, which constitutes the substantial legal ground for this field. Nonetheless, common law does not qualify unforeseeability, but regulates instead, expresis verbis, its conditions and legal effects, eliminating the potential confusions with similar legal institutions. The conditions and legal effects of unforeseeability, but also certain aspects inner to them, such as the forms of unforeseeability, constitute the object of the present analysis, our study aiming to particularize all these aspects and, finally, to present the legal regime of the controversial issue represented by unforeseeability; yet, the analysis will not be extended also upon the special legal norms regulating the applications of unforeseeability.

Keywords: exceptional change of circumstances, excessively onerous, attempt of negotiation, adaptation of a contract, termination of a contract.

1 General considerations In the absence of special regulations, unforeseeability has been applied throughout time on the ground

of the general provisions of article 970 of the 1864 Civil Code (currently abrogated) [2], according to which “conventions must be accomplished in good faith. They are not compulsory only when it comes to their clear constituent elements, but also to all the consequences generated upon their duties by equity, customs or law”; yet the solutions ruled by courts throughout time have not been unitary. Internal law has regulated only some applications of unforeseeability, which can be strictly interpreted, in fields concerning: copyrights and connected rights; lease contract for assets belonging to public property; volunteering.

Currently, unforeseeability is unitary regulated by the Civil Code in force – Law No. 287/2009 (republished in the Romanian Official Gazette, part I, No. 505 from July 15th 2011), in Book V (”Duties”), Title II (”Sources of duties”), Chapter I (”The contract”), Section 6 (”Effects of the contract”), article 1271. The provisions of article 1271 constitute the general legal ground of unforeseeability and its substantial legal field. Nonetheless, the Civil Code also contains some special legal norms, presented here as applications of unforeseeability, for fields such as that related to liberalities (article 1006), which are applicable according to specialia generalibus derogant; they are however subject to the analysis made by specialized literature [1] and exceed the theme of the present work.

The new legal provisions regulate unforeseeability within the field of the effects of a contract between the parties, but distinctively from the enforceability of a contract; moreover, they assign specific legal effects to unforeseeability, by particularizing it.

2 Forms of unforeseeability Not defined by law, unforeseeability signifies “the significant change of the conditions which have been

essential and determinant for the conclusion of a contract: during the execution of the contract occurs an event independent from the deeds and will of the contracting parties, unpredictable and insurmountable by them, making the further execution of the contract extremely onerous for one of them” [6].

For preserving the synthetic character of law, we describe unforeseeability as the exceptional change of the circumstances existing when the contract was concluded, which makes the enforcement of the contract extremely onerous, by creating an unbalance between the performances due.


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In relation to the will of the contracting parties, unforeseeability can take the following forms: unforeseeability – contractual clause; unforeseeability – negotiated after the conclusion of a contract; unforeseeability – “cause authorized by law” for adapting/terminating a contract; all these forms will be presented in the present work, in order to understand the mechanism and legal effects of unforeseeability.

Unforeseeability – contractual clause negotiated at the conclusion of a contract. Unforeseeability is integrated to “conventional mechanisms”, “meant to counterbalance the potential changes in the economic field” [5]. Result of the will agreement, the unforeseeability clause must be enforced in this case according to the rule pacta sunt servanda, being an application of it. Appealed in a concrete case law, the court can at most acknowledge the existence and validity of the clause, if the parties do not agree upon its application.

The unforeseeability clause is also called hardship by specialized literature, its functioning being based on the principle pacta sunt servanda, if rebus sic stantibus.

Unforeseeability, negotiated by parties after the conclusion of a contract. In this case, several “changes in the economic field” occur and, therefore, we can speak about unforeseeability, while parties, attempting to negotiate it, reach an agreement regarding the adaptation or termination of the contract, as the case may be, enforceable here according to mutuus dissensus. Integrated as well to “conventional mechanisms”, negotiation is legally and specifically based on the provisions of article 1271 paragraph (3) letter d) of the Civil Code (“the debtor attempted in a reasonable term and in good faith the reasonable and equitable adaptation of the contract”), which confer increasing value to the will of the parties.

Unforeseeability – “cause authorized by law” for adapting/terminating a contract. This is the form which has to be applied when parties do not reach an agreement regarding unforeseeability; can operate according to the compulsory provisions of law, that is article 1271 paragraphs (2) – (3) of the Civil Code, the competence for establishing it belonging to the court. This is the form of unforeseeabilty clearly regulated by the Civil Code, its conditions of application and legal effects being subject to the present analysis.

3 Conditions for applying unforeseeability According to article 1271 paragraph (1) of the Civil Code, “parties are bound to fulfill their duties, even

if such fulfillment has become more onerous, either due to the increase of the costs for one fulfilling his duty or due to the diminishment of the value of a counter-performance”. Law reintroduces the compulsory character of the contractual clauses agreed by parties, even when the onerous part changes, integrating this fact to contractual risk, borne by the debtor of the duty to be fulfilled or by the creditor, according to the case and if there is no contrary provision for that matter. In other words, it is accepted that any contract also involves risks, law approving them within the limits of normality or “reasonability”, but not touching the principle pacta sunt servanda.

The relation between risk and unforeseeability is imprecise, the change of circumstances being excluded from the field of risks, amends being determined by interpreting the convention, according to the nature of the contract (see for that matter the Commercial sentence No. 1122 of the Supreme Court of Justice, No. 1122, from 21st February 2003, www.scj.ro).

According to article 1271 paragraph (2) of the Civil Code, ”If the fulfillment of a contract has become excessively onerous, due to an exceptional change of circumstances which would obviously and unfairly force the debtor to pay back the due amount of money, the court can rule: a) the adaptation of the contract, so as to distribute the losses and benefits resulting from the changes of circumstances fairly between the parties, b) the termination of the contract, at the moment and in the conditions that it establishes”. The provisions of article 1271 paragraph (2) of the Civil Code institute the conditions in which unforeseeability can operate as a cause “authorized” for adapting or terminating a contract: exceptional change of the circumstances existing at the conclusion of the contract [7]; existence of the attempt to negotiate the reasonable and equitable adaptation of the contract, in a reasonable term and in good faith; all these will be analyzed below.

Since law says nothing about the matter, by including the provisions of article 1271 paragraph (1) in the Civil Code and placing them distinctively from the provisions of article 1271 paragraph (2) of the Civil Code unforeseeability is separated from other circumstances with which it could be mistaken, due to the common element – “onerosity”, which has a different intensity for each of the two hypotheses (“more onerous” and, respectively, “excessively onerous”).

3.1 Exceptional Change of the Circumstances existing at the Conclusion of the Contract

The Civil Code points out that the essential premise for speaking of unforeseeability is represented by the exceptional change of circumstances, which makes the enforcement of the contract excessively onerous, so that obliging the debtor to fulfill his duty is clearly unjust.


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The expression “excessively onerous” is synonymous to the creation of an unbalance between the performances due, as a result of which one part is excessively favored or, according to law, “the debtor is clearly and unfairly forced to fulfill his duty”. Although article 1271 paragraphs (2)-(3) of the Civil Code only refers to the debtor of the duty to be fulfilled, the unfairness regarding the fulfilling of the duty can concern any of the parties of the “excessively onerous” contract, as it also happens in the hypothesis provided for by article 1271 paragraph (1) of the Civil Code; the ”excessively onerous” part concerns both the raise of the costs for one party fulfilling his duty, but also the diminishment of the value of the counter-performance. Just as a debtor cannot be forced to fulfill a duty which has become excessively onerous, a creditor cannot be forced either to accept a counter-performance which has become moderate, due to the exceptional change of the circumstances considered when the contract was concluded.

Yet, the exceptional character of the change of circumstances must be established and proven by the court. Are considered [7] exceptional “only the changes which go beyond the economic forecasts made by professional analysts; practically, the factors which determine the economic unbalance of the contract concern the fluctuation of a reality expressed in indicators, such as: prices, exchange rates, inflation, economical system and growth”.

Unforeseeability must not be reduced just to inflation [7], which constitutes only one of the circumstances in which occurs a severe change of the circumstances existing at the conclusion of the contract.

We consider that are relevant only those changes having as finality, according to law, either “the growth of the costs for one’s fulfilling his duty, or the diminishment of a counter-performance”, in other words a certain result which can synthetically be described as “excessively onerous” and which makes so that the change does not remain in an abstract or theoretical plan.

The Civil Code places the exceptional change of circumstances out of the will of the parties, so as for them not to be bound to enforce the contact due to a change of which they are guilty.

- the change of circumstances occurred after the conclusion of the contract; from this perspective, unforeseeability is different from the circumstance in which the obvious disproportion between counter-performaces exists right from the moment when the will agreement is expressed;

- the change of circumstances, but also the proportion of this change were not and could not be reasonably considered by the debtor at the conclusion of the contact; in other words, the two aspects could not be predictable at the conclusion of the contract;

- the debtor did not take upon himself the risk for a change of circumstances to occur and it cannot be reasonably considered to have committed himself to such risk; for that purpose, it is important that “there is no clause by means of which parties take upon themselves the risk for a change of circumstances to occur” [5].

3.2 The existence of the Attempt to Negotiate the Reasonable and Equitable Adaptation of the Contract, in a Reasonable Term and in Good Faith

The request for “an attempt of negotiation” to exist is pointed out by law as a procedural condition, as a “previous and compulsory procedure” [1] or as the “step of the negotiation initiated by the debtor”; it is at the same time a condition for appealing the court to settle the legal action regarding unforeseeability [8] [article 1271 paragraph (3) letter d) of the Civil Code].

The condition which says that it must be an attempt to negotiate the adaptation of the contract is not a mere formality; it points out that the intervention of the court is an extreme or subsidiary measure. In fact, the French law, but also the Principles of European Contract Law approve the judicial revision of the contract only for unforeseeability, obliging the parties to renegotiate its adaptation or termination, if the enforcement of the contract becomes excessively onerous for one of the parties; they also agree to other “remedies” or alternatives for enforcing the contract, providing a certain “fixed character” to the principle pacta sunt servanda [3].

In brief, among all the conditions presented before, only the exceptional change of circumstances constitutes the relevant premise for speaking of unforeseeability, operating in the circumstances mentioned above. The attempt of negotiation is pointed out by a law as a procedural condition; its enforcement confirms the integration of unforeseeability among the conventional mechanisms, subject to common law, conferring to the parties of the contract the right to decide whether they want to adapt or terminate the contract, according to the case.

4 Effects of unforeseeability

4.1 Adaptation of the Contract Unlike the former regulations, which would rather recommend the exclusion of courts from the

contractual life of the Parties, the current Civil Code clearly acknowledges the judicial revision of the contract for unforeseeability, in the conditions mentioned above.


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The court can be appealed by any of the parties affected by the result of the negotiation attempted in an amicable way, so as to distribute fairly between them the losses and benefits occurring because of the exceptional change of circumstances.

Law leaves to courts a considerable right of assessment: on the one hand, they classify as exceptional or not the change of circumstances existing at the conclusion of the contract and, therefore, establish whether unforeseeability applies; on the other hand, taking into account the seriousness of the effects of such change, courts can rule the maintenance and implicit adaptation of the contract, or its termination, according to the case.

The adaptation of the contract is the solution which should prevail, in order to save the contract and to distribute fairly between the parties the losses and benefits resulting from the change of circumstances and reestablish the balance between counter-performances. Moreover, adaptation should be applied as the event which is out of the debtor’s will does not make his contractual duty impossible to fulfill, like force majeure, but excessively onerous.

4.2 Termination of the Contract The contract is terminated at the moment and in the conditions established by court, which also

establishes the effects of this termination. This case involves the judicial termination of the contract, with ex tunct effects, justified by the unbalance between the counter-performances of parties.

The Civil Code did not also institute the suspension of the contract, proposed by specialized literature [9], which is an effect typical to force majeure, just as the termination of the contract.

By instituting the application of unforeseeability, the sentence of the court will settle the situation of the person whose duty has become excessively onerous or of the person who, due to the severe change of circumstances, would have to accept an insignificant counter-performance, causing him or her prejudice.

In brief, in the absence of an agreement between the parties, but also to insure contractual justice, the court can finally decide to adapt or terminate the contract, as an effect of unforeseeability, the applicable provisions pointing out at the same time the preeminence of another important principle, namely equity in the enforcement of prestations or maintenance of contractual balance.

In reality, unforeseeability is “not an attack to the principle regarding the enforceability of the contract, but on the contrary, is capable to confer full force and efficiency to it” [4].

References [1] Boroi, G.; Stănciulescu, L. (2012). Instituţii de drept în reglementarea noului cod civil, Hamangiu

Publ. House, Bucharest. [2] Crişu, C; Crişu Magraon, N; Crişu, Ş. (1995). Repertoriu de doctrină şi jurisprudenţă română,

vol. I, Argessis Publ. House. [3] Malaurie, Ph.; Aynès, L.; Stoffel-Munck, Ph. (2009). Droit civil. Les obligations, 4e édition,

DEFRÉNOIS, Lextenso éditions, Paris. [4] Pop, L. (2009). Tratat de drept civil. Obligaţiile, vol. II, Universul juridic Publ. House, Bucharest. [5] Rădulescu, T.V. (2012). Art. 1271 - Impreviziunea, în Gavriş, D.M ş.a. (colectiv), Noul cod civil.

Comentarii, doctrină, jurisprudenţă, vol. I, Hamangiu Publ. House, Bucharest. [6] Ştefănescu, B. (2004). Dreptul comerţului internaţional, Note de curs, ”Valahia” University of

Târgovişte, Faculty of Law and Social-Political Sciences. [7] Vasilescu, P. (2012). Drept civil. Obligaţii. În reglementarea noului Cod civil, Hamangiu Publ.

House, Bucharest. [8] Zamşa, Cr. (2012). Art. 1271 – Impreviziunea, în Baias Fl. ş.a., Noul Cod civil. Comentariu pe

articole, C.H. Beck Publ. House, Bucharest. [9] Zamşa, Cr. (2006). Teoria impreviziunii: studiu de doctrină şi jurisprudenţă, Hamangiu Publ.

House, Bucharest.


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Methodology of Motor Learning Based on Transfer Technology in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

Potop V.1 1 Ecological University of Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This paper highlights some methodological issues of motor learning in women’s artistic gymnastics in

the case of junior gymnasts of 12 to 14 years old. The study was conducted from October to December 2012, the ascertaining stage of a post-doctoral research. The group of study subjects was formed of 16 junior gymnasts, 12 to 14 years old, members of the junior Olympic team in the centralized training at Deva. The following methods were used throughout this research: method of bibliographic study; method of pedagogical observation; method of pedagogical experiment; method of tests; method of experts; video computerized method of biomechanical analysis and the statistical-mathematical method. The results of the study highlight the methodological issues of motor learning, the level of technical training, the directions of transfer achievement on each apparatus, the improvement of key elements of sports technique by means of the biomechanical analysis of women’s artistic gymnastics exercises at the level of 12 to 14 years old juniors.

Keywords: biomechanical analysis, motor learning, transfer, gymnastics, performance.

Introduction Artistic gymnastics is characterized by a very rich content of movements, elements and connections

ranged from the simplest to the highly complex and technically difficult ones. The need to accelerate the progress in order to achieve quick results, the contribution of scientific research in the field of performance sport and the world-wide methodical experience have led to the idea of rationalization and standardization of the means and methods used in the training activity. The fundamental criterion that operated in making these changes conceptually was the maximum approach of the learning and improving process aspects to the competitive requirements. Currently it is required that the basic training, the learning of new elements and connections are made in parallel with the continuous training for competition throughout the whole annual cycle [1].

The requirements of the competition rules related to the manifestation of motor and effort ability determine also the particulars of sports technique learning. This learning of sports technique is conducted under three types that determine the same number of technical skills [2]: motor-perceptual learning (sensory-motor learning) – it consists of the behavior modification depending on the concrete conditions of the training sessions and competitions; motor learning – resulting in the formation of the skills based on sensory, kinesthetic or proprioceptive components in which the end of a movement is a triggering signal for the next movement; intelligent –motor learning is a characteristic feature of the process of learning the technique of heuristic sport branches, in which the competitor is opposable and inventive while the actions are carried out under conditions of high uncertainty.

The motor learning consists primarily of behavioral acts in which the stabilized reactions depend on the proprioceptive sensory components. The „pure” model of motor learning can be found out only in those acts in which gestures are so well learned that they can be conducted exclusively by kinesthetic sense (execution of a connection of gymnastics elements on floor or in figure skating, etc) [3].

According to Matveev, 1984 the stages of learning the technique are the following [2, 4]: 1) stage of information and formation of movement representation; 2) stage of tough (useless) movements; 3) stage of fine coordination and consolidation of technical procedures; 4) stage of improvement and over-learning of technical procedure (stage of improvement and automation).

Given the great diversity of sports technique, there can be highlighted some common features of the way to organize the learning of this one, expressed by methodological priorities, , namely [2, 4]: establishment


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of the technical training basis for each training level (beginners, advanced and performance) and specification of the main technical procedures that form the subject of the training; at all training levels, while acquiring the scheduled technical procedures one will also take into account the athletes’ individual inclinations towards some technical executions; at all training levels, the technique learning is supplemented by various and diversified requirements of competition; while learning the sports technique, an acute necessity is the setting by the coach of the actuation system (algorithms) required by each technical procedure separately, depending on the complexity of the basic mechanism, etc.

In this context it is obvious that each of the modern sports is based on exercises that are different depending on the general volume of material and on the specific structure, so the problem of motor skills transfer is highlighted differently [5].

According to V. Potop (2007), the transfer of motor skill in the process of gymnastics exercises learning is regarded as an instrument of optimization of the didactical, pedagogical, psychological, bio-mechanic processes based on transfer and the content of the education of motor abilities, highlighting the technical mistakes that were hidden in various stages of gymnasts’ sports training. In the process of technology transfer, the character with tasks of solving, influencing and/or interdependence is very important. Gymnastics exercises’ learning highlights the vertical transfer –algorithmic sequence of mastering the exercises with increasing difficulty of the same profile or different one. The author also highlights the achievement of the horizontal transfer throughout the process of gymnastics exercises learning [6, 11].

Research and practice show that the efficiency of learning gymnastics complex elements is increased if the phasic structure of elements is checked over the technical training process. In line with these ones, in the technical structure of gymnastics exercises there are periods of movement with and without support [7]. Several criteria can be used for splitting gymnastic elements into parts, such as pedagogical, psychological, physiological, biomechanical criteria, etc. The increase of objectification level goes from the pedagogical criteria towards the biomechanical ones. That is why the biomechanical criteria are used for dividing the gymnastics elements into parts. Thus, the technical structure of gymnastics elements contains three levels – periods, stages and phases [8].

The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the methodological issues required by motor learning based on technology transfer in women’s artistic gymnastics in the case of junior athletes aged 12 to 14 years.

Hypothesis of the study. We believe that an efficient use of a methodology for motor learning based on transfer technology in women’s artistic gymnastics will highlight the level of technical training and the directions of transfer achievement.

Methodology The study was conducted from October to December 2012, the ascertaining stage of a post-doctoral

research. The group of study subjects was formed of 16 junior gymnasts, 12 to 14 years old, members of the junior Olympic team in the centralized training at Deva. The following methods were used throughout this research: method of bibliographic study; method of pedagogical observation; method of pedagogical experiment; video computerized method of biomechanical analysis (Physics Toolkit) and the statistical-mathematical method (software KyPlot). This study shows some methodological issues regarding the motor learning based on transfer technology in women’s artistic gymnastics - juniors level (12 to 14 years old).

Results Table 1. National Individual Championship of Juniors, 25- 27.X.2012 – Deva (n = 16)

HV (points) UB (points) BB (points) F (points) Statistical indicators D E FS D E FS D E Pen. FS D E Pen. FS Total Mean 4.29 8.76 13.04 4.68 8.18 12.86 5.3 7.96 0.1 13.24 5.2 8.89 0.17 14.05 42.33 SEM 0.09 0.08 0.11 0.14 0.19 0.25 0.08 0.18 - 0.24 0.08 0.19 0.06 0.25 4.12 N 12 12 12 14 14 14 13 13 1 13 12 12 3 12 16

Table 2. National Masters Championship,16-18.XI.2012 – Onești (n = 15) HV (points) UB(points) BB (points) F(points) Statistical

indicators D E FS D E FS D E Pen. FS D E Pen. FS Total

Mean 4.45 8.88 13.32 4.28 7.73 12.01 5.23 8.29 - 13.52 5.07 8.47 - 13.54 49.785

SEM 0.10 0.04 0.12 0.21 0.28 0.39 0.11 0.16 - 0.23 0.07 0.13 - 0.17 1.52

N 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 - 14 14 14 - 14 15

Notes in tables 1 and 2: HV – vault, UB – uneven bars, BB – beam, F – floor; D – difficulty; E – executions, FS – final score; pen.- penalty; SEM – standard error means, N – number of gymnasts


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D E FS D E FS D EPen

. FS D EPen

. FS

HV UB BB F

poin

ts

C1 C2

Fig. no. 1. Results achieved in competitions

The comparative results of the performances achieved in competitions are listed in tables 1, 2 and figure 1 highlighting the different number of gymnasts who have participated in competitions and on apparatus, the increase of exercises difficulty, the improvement of technical execution and the value of final score means on each apparatus.

Biomechanical analysis of free (aerial) walkover forward, landing on one feet on beam, made by means of Physics Toolkit program, by calibrating the video image every 3 frames / sequence, with a total of 13 sequences. The anthropometrical data and the biomechanical indicators of the athlete B.A. are the following ones: Weight – 34.1kg; Rotational inertia – 74.69kgm^2; Radius of segmentary movement between: GCG – front leg = 0.974cm; GCG – back leg = 0.931cm; GCG – shoulders= 0.541cm; GCG – arms = 0.773cm.

- 0 .5

0

0 .5

1

1.5

2

2 .5

0 0.03 0.07 0.1 0.13 0.17 0.2 0.23 0.27 0.3 0.33 0.37 0.4

Times

m

GCG Foot fwd Foot bwdShoulders Arms

-50

-40

-30

-20

-10

0

10

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0.033 0.067 0.1 0.133 0.167 0.2 0.233 0.267 0.3 0.333 0.367

SP MP FP

rad/

s

Foot fwd Foot bw dShoulders Arms

Fig. 2. Features of vertical movement (y) of body segments

trajectories during execution of free (aerial) walkover forward on beam (BA)

Fig. 3. Relationship of angular velocity during execution of free (aerial) walkover forward (BA)

Fig. no. 2 shows the vertical features of body segments trajectories of the athlete B.A. while executing the acrobatic element of difficulty D= 0.4 points – free (aerial) walkover forward. The duration of movement analysis is 0.4 sec., adding the 3 sequences of calibration = 1.2 sec.

Figure no. 3 highlights the relation of body segments angular velocity (front leg, back, shoulders and arms), each one having different values depending on their involvement in the technical structure of the movement (SP – start positiotion; MP – multiplication of position; FP – final position).

The macro methods of gymnastics exercises learning were based on the stages of motor skills building in terms of pedagogical technology elements of motor representation creation, establishment of movements system by means of thorough learning of the exercises with complex coordination and improvement of movements system in the learning of exercises with complex coordination. The diagram of the linear branched algorithmic program includes [9]: purpose and tasks of learning, particularities of the multilateral development of motor skills, educational principles, methods of learning, means of learning, forms of learning, sequence of learning, correction of mistakes in the learning process, adjustment of learning, control and correction of process; quality of learning; result of learning.

The analysis of the competition routines of the 12 to 14 years old female gymnasts under study highlights the following directions of transfer achievement: 1) handspring vaults (HV) – vertical transfer achievement was highlighted by the diversification of vaults in the case of Tsukahara and Yurchenko vaults; 2) uneven bars (UB) - vertical transfer achievement was highlighted by the execution of various dismounts; the horizontal transfer was shown by using the same element on different apparatus; 3) on beam (BB) – transfer


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achievement(both vertical and horizontal transfer) was highlighted by comparing the technical elements of each gymnast (acrobatic, artistic and mixed) and 4) floor (F) - vertical transfer achievement was highlighted by comparing the progressive sequence of the somersaults in the acrobatic lines executed by each gymnast (increase of difficulty); the horizontal transfer was shown by using the same element on various apparatus.

Using the biomechanical analysis in our research highlights the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the key components of sports technique, presented according to V. Boloban, 1990 [10] and processed by means of Physics ToolKit program. In this sense we can highlight the following methodological issues:

- Each gymnastics apparatus presents the specific of the key elements of sports technique (start position, multiplication of position during flight phase (dismounts, saltos, releases) and the final position (dismounts or position of connection with another element);

- Highlighting the features of movement – linear movement (spring, artistic elements); translation movement with rotation axis around the general centre of gravity (acrobatic elements) and rotation movement with fixed rotation axis on apparatus (uneven bars);

- Presentation of the trajectories of body segments and joints depending on the structure and complexity of the movement (X – horizontally, Y – vertically, R- resultant);

- Highlighting the spatial-temporal characteristics of the movement (length of dismounts, maximum height of flight, etc) and the dynamic characteristics (linear and angular forces, energies);

- Comparison of the technical execution with the technical execution requirements by detecting execution mistakes, etc.

Conclusions 1. The results of the ascertaining study highlight the technical training level of junior female gymnasts 12 to 14

years old, regarding the scores achieved in the two national competitions. 2. The vertical transfer achievement highlights the increase of difficulty that changes depending on the group

and its number, the algorithmic sequence of technical elements learning. 3. The biomechanical analysis of sports technique key elements of gymnastics exercises performed by 12-14

years old gymnasts emphasizes both kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the movement and also the improvement of these ones through the elaboration of algorithmic programs for each key element of sports technique.

4. The methodology of motor learning highlights the effectiveness of using transfer technology during the learning of gymnastics exercises by juniors aged 12 -14 years; this effectiveness is confirmed by the results obtained in the ascertaining competitions and by the development of new training objectives on the improvement of sports technique key elements.

References [1] Vieru, N. (1997). Manual of sports gymnastics, “Driada” Publishing House, pp. 67-69. [2] Dragnea, A., Mate-Teodorescu, S., Theory of sport. FEST Publishing House, pp. 285- 300. [3] Epuran, M., Stănescu, M. (2010. Motor learning – applications in body activities. “Discobolul”

Publishing House, pp. 49- 55. [4] Simion, Gh., Mihăilă, I., Stănculescu, G. (2011). Sports training –systemic concept. Constanța,

Ovidius University Press, pp. 126 -133. [5] Gaverdovskij Ju.K. (2007). Obuchenie sportivnym uprazhnenijam. Biomehanika. Metodologija.

Didaktika. Moskva: Fizkul'tura i sport, pp. 308 - 309. [6] Potop, V. (2007). Motor learning and transfer in performance artistic gymnastics. New York:

Debridge Press, pp. 75-150. [7] Arkaev, L.Ja.,Suchilin, N.G. (2004). Kak gotovit' chempionov. Teorija i tehnologija podgotovki

gimnastov vyshej kvalifikacii. Fizkul'tura i sport. Moskva, pp. 22-236. [8] Suchilin N.G. (2010). Gimnastika: teorija i praktika: metodicheskoe prilozhenie k zhurnalu

«Gimnastika». Federacija sportivnoj gimnastiki Rossii.–Vyp.1. Moskva. Sovetskij sport, pp.5-13. [9] Boloban V.N. (2010). Makrometodika obuchenija akrobaticheskim uprazhnenijam slozhnym po

koordinacii. Pedagogika, psihologija i mediko-biologicheskie problemy fizicheskogo vospitanija i sporta. Nr.6, pp. 14-24.

[10] Boloban, V.N. (1990). System of Training Movement in Difficult Conditions to Maintain the Static- Dinamic Stability. Dissertation. Kiev. KGIFV, pp. 14 – 16.

[11] Potop, V., Grigore, W., Marinescu, S. (2012). Motor learning gymnastic exercises on the basis of transfer technologies. Science the Olympic sports. Kiev (1), pp. 47- 58.


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Exploring a New Challenge: “European Journalism”

Pricopie V.1 1 Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy and Valahia University of Târgoviște (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Transversal studies on emerging European communication policy and journalism in Europe are quite

few in number, while the approach to the journalistic practices of European member states is still very specific or contingent. In this paper, our aim is to conduct a comprehensive study of what are still the early stages of the concept of ‘emerging European journalism’ in relation to the concept of Europeanisation, with a specific bibliographical focus on journalism in the Central and Eastern European member states of the European Union.

Keywords: European Union, European journalism, Europeanisation, journalism in Central and Eastern Europe, enlargement.

1 From journalism in Europe to European journalism The latest inquiries into the transformation of journalism in EU 28 originate in the analysis of a possible

emergence of European journalism, in terms of identifying the dimensions of an European journalistic culture ([1], 144), if applicable, in relation to a potentially desirable European public sphere. In this context, P. Preston examines “the integration project” (taking the EU as a whole, in terms of “integrated Europe”) as a form of “intensified globalization”, arguing that globalisation in the European context integrates “the spatial dimensions of the socio-economical and political change” ([1], 144), and that communication via mass media is “the core of the globalization process” and “the key-factor to profound internationalization of political and cultural relations” ([1], 146). Preston’s methodological approach included conducting in-depth interviews with journalists from 11 countries of the 27 member states of the EU, in order to identify, if applicable, the markers of a common, shared journalistic culture. The conclusion of the research is that journalists use the syntagma ‘European journalism’ in order to emphasise the distinctions from ‘American journalism’, but are unable to provide clear examples of specific elements of European journalism or a specific European professional culture. Therefore, Preston comes to Bernard Cassen’s famous conclusion (Le Monde diplomatique) stating that: “There is no European journalism, there is journalism on Europe.” (apud [1], 153). Finally, Preston’s study emphasises the specific national journalistic practices of journalists, who present an exclusively ‘national’ vision/representation of all the European topics that they cover, failing to identify any indicators of an emerging European culture regarding media coverage of European Union topics.

European coverage, i.e. member states’ media coverage of Europe, is a relevant research topic in this context, given that there is a need for a conceptual definition of this syntagma if it is to be scientifically operational. J. Harrison [2] defines it as follows: “In simple and reified terms the phrase ‘mediating Europe’ refers to what the media sector ‘does’ and wishes ‘to do’ to and with Europe and what Europe ‘does’ and wishes ‘to do’ to and with the media. This simple reification is both helpful and important since it highlights the ‘doing’ that either side, private or public, undertakes or wishes to undertake, and which is carried out under the title ‘mediating Europe’ - in short, the way in which the current European communication space is occupied.” ([2], 1).

The syntagma ‘European press’ was first used in 1988 in the francophone literature of Jean-Marie Charon [3], a French specialist of the written press. Subsequently, the syntagma ‘European journalism’ was used by Philip Schlesinger from 2008 [4]; the author identifies the first favourable circumstances for the development of transnational journalism, citing the well-known example of the French-German TV channel ARTE, which is also mentioned in European Parliament resolutions and European Commission reports relating to the project to create a European public sphere; therefore, he tries to take a systemic approach to the relationship between the mass media and its sources in the coverage of European topics, which can no longer be fundamentally national topics. In this approach, ‘European journalism’ continues to be “a regulatory entity”, and not “a federal entity”, such that its visible manifestations are rare and still isolated in European space.


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Some francophone authors used similar phrases in 2009 as follows: Michel Mathien analysed European journalism in connection with cultural diversity; Gérald Arboit studied European journalists in connection with the desirable European public space and finally Renaud de la Brosse raised the issue of the identity and professional status of the European journalist, between “utopia” and “democratic need”; all these points of view are presented in the collective volume Les journalistes et l`Europe, edited by Gilles Rouet [5].

The first analysis of the implications for the transformations of both journalism and European societies was provided in 2004 by Ib Bondebjerg and Peter Golding [6] under the title Changing Media – Changing Europe, from an integrated perspective on the conjectural influence of the social change which occurred in European national societies, in the context of the social, political and cultural project of the European construction: “It is clear that both Europe and its culture(s) are changing, and that the media are a central set of organizations and institutions at the heart of these changes.” ([6], 17). Actually, if the mass media are considered to be part of society, a structural analysis of mass media transformations would arise from a study on transformations in Europe, or rather on the transforming European countries. The aim of the volume is to open the debate on the place and role of the media in creating the ‘European’ dimension of social, political and cultural transformation associated with the European Union project, starting from the inductive assumption that ‘Europeanness’ has been induced and included in public debate in all the member states through media discourse. Starting from Juan Díez Mendrano’s (2003) inquiries into how and why Europe is perceived so differently by journalists from different EU member states, Philip Schlesinger explores the specific case of the European construction, which involves the establishment and the development of “a transnational communicative space” in which European topics are the responsibility of the elites, to be explored and understood; in this case, the author excludes the possibility of a unitary European perspective ([4], 87).

2 Journalism in Central and Eastern Europe Specialised literature has analysed the transformation of the media system within the paradigm of

social-systemic transformation [7]. From this perspective, Jakubowicz and Sükösd [8] analysed mass media transformations in Central and Eastern Europe by suggesting a series of dependent and independent variables, the most important of which were considered to be transformation, integration and globalisation. In the same context, working on the assumption that “these societies are defined by both multiple transformations and a certain continuity of the elite” ([8], 24), i.e. the post-communist societies – the operational analysis model of the social-systemic transformations suggested by the two authors includes the factors presented above, previously interpreted by Morawski (1998) and structural and cultural factors specific to media systems in Central Europe, by identifying three sub-processes of the social change: a. Erasing the communist heritage, b. The “triple” or “quadruple” transformation and c. Response to global and European transformations ([8], 21). Katrin Voltmer [9] thinks that analysis of the post-communism social and political transition has ignored for too long the role of the mass media, which she considers to be “a democratic institution” ([9], 2) and a fundamental institution through its structural transformations during the transition to democracy; from the perspective of symbolic interactionism, using specific methods, the author analyses two categories of social actors in the political communication process who value the role of the mass media in the post-communist transition (politicians and citizens) and who are “active participants”, conveying political messages outside of specific media channels.

Most studies on the emergence of a European journalism defined by transnational professional practices do not offer favourable circumstances. However, there are also optimistic perspectives such as the viewpoint of S. Papathanassopoulos and R. Negrine [10], who adopt an innovative approach and compare the European integration process of the post-communist states with the emergence of a European journalism; when assessing the regulatory approach of the European Commission regarding the alignment of the East-European states with Western Europe, the two authors think that a joint effort in Central Europe to federalise the different national perspectives of the European media might have positive results in the long term.

Other recent papers assess the different media in Europe and the transformations identified in the context of an extended Europe. Thus, the volume Media in Europe today [11], published by Euromedia Research Group–a European consortium of specialists in mass media analysis, which appeared in 1982 and is formed exclusively of analysts concerned with the evolution of the mass media in the present European context–is a structural analysis of the contemporary European media divided into two sections: the first part comprises six chapters on the structural transformations of the mass media (press, radio, television and online media) in Europe today, while the second comprises eight chapters including comparative studies on the new challenges of European media policies in connection with a series of key concepts examining the entire European media context: public sphere vs. public spheres, democracy, democratic media governance, minorities etc. The introduction signed by Denis McQuail [12] examines the media evolution in contemporary Europe by emphasising the moment of instability which challenged the identity of the mass media in the second half of the twentieth century, i.e. the acceptance of structural intrusions when the boundaries defining various media had become extremely vague and even ambiguous. The moment of instability affecting the identity of the media is


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analysed in connection with the media losing their fundamental role, both within national societies and in the international relations setup process. The comparative studies included in this approach use three basic concepts: internationalisation, transnationalisation and globalisation, and even face opposition from directly related scientific developments previously achieved from a strictly national perspective. The basic premise is that internationalisation, a linking concept, refers to going beyond national borders in developing media models, while globalisation gradually diminishes the role and the importance of the media national model. In this context, “the vision of a global media system is the final argument” ([13], 25), if we take into consideration the fact that Europe is a construct which exceeds–due to its dimensions of structure, identity and mentality–all international contexts subject to similar attempts at comparative studies over the last 50 years, because Europe is simultaneously “big and small, homogeneous and multicultural” ([13], 34), i.e. it is formed of small and large states, which are united despite economic, political and cultural differences analogous to the differences and disparities in national media systems. In this respect, the authors of the volume criticise media analysts’ lack of flexibility, citing their desire to reduce European variety to operational models (which would require a greater flexibility) in order to include accurate descriptions of the European media dimension in the future.

3 Journalism and Europeanisation Our preferred operational definition of Europeanisation as a process is that offered by Ladrech and

Radaelli (2003), namely: “Process of (a) construction, (b) diffusion, and (c) institutionalisation of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, style, ‘ways of doing things’, and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the making of EU public policy and politics and then integrated into the logic of domestic discourse, identities, political structures and public policy.” (apud [14], 10). The fundamental dimension of the Europeanisation process is that of identity, which raises a defining question: ‘what is a European?’ To quote Philip Schlesinger’s point of view in this regard: “States, nations and regions remain crucially important as locales for debate and as sources of identity. Europeanization is itself a profoundly ambiguous process. Who now–and who in the future–will be permitted to be a ‘European’ is an increasingly intense focus for struggles between inclusion and exclusion both within member states and at the borders of the EU itself. Because Europeanization is a boundary-defining process as well as a transnationalizing one, it does not of itself necessarily point to a cosmopolitan outcome.” ([4], 88-89).

When analysing various EU media corpora relating to media coverage of European topics, M. Brüggemann and K. Kleinen-von Königslöw [15] identify two types of Europeanisation: ‘horizontal' Europeanisation and ‘vertical’ Europeanisation, while Europeanisation is considered to be a form of transnationalisation in the EU member states ([15], 29). From an analytical perspective and having as starting point the content analysis applied to several titles from the European quality press, the two authors identify four models of transnationalisation of the public spheres in Europe, as follows: “comprehensive Europeanization” (Die Presse), “segmented Europeanization” (Le Monde), “Europeanization aloof from the EU” (FAZ) and “parochial public sphere” (The Times), explained as follows: “1. Comprehensive Europeanization: this pattern combines high levels of vertical and horizontal Europeanization; 2. Segmented Europeanization: this means vertical, but no horizontal Europeanization. Nationally segmented public spheres would pay more attention to Brussels but not to each other; 3. Europeanization aloof from the EU: this would mean horizontal without vertical Europeanization. There would be an increasingly intensive communicative exchange between European neighbors but not more attention being paid to the EU as such; 4. A parochial public sphere: if there is neither vertical nor horizontal Europeanization, national media will not adapt in any way to the fact that political competences have been shifted away from national governments and capitals.” ([15], 29-30).

Finally, the issue of press freedom is often analysed and conceptualised as a sine qua non for democracy; thus the mass media are “a dependent and independent variable of democratic development” or “of democratic performance” ([8], 11). Murphy [16] has also analysed the relationship between the mass media and democracy in the context of globalisation, exploring the social and cultural transformations of this process and interpreting the role of the media in society as a form of negotiation of democratisation: “the place of mass media in the political and cultural life of nations negotiating democratisation while simultaneously contending with economic liberalisation and privatisation, the changing role of the state, and the reformation of civil society.” ([16], 2). Thus, Noemi Marin and Laura Lengel [17] think that the post-communist states have been marked by a “double revolution” over the last two decades, a revolution translated into “development of democratic institutions and media liberalisation”, which were conceptualised as “revolutionary transformations” ([17], 51) where we find an indissoluble link between the role of the media in society and democratic practices.

Dominique Wolton [18] addresses another topic of great concern regarding the conspicuous limits of journalism and communication as mobilisation factors at the level of European construction. Wolton thinks that “receiver’s resistance”, which is often ignored in media studies, should be the centre of concern in reinventing a new communication, “European communication”, based on European information. Again, we witness a role reversal: communication is no longer a manifestation of identity as it used to be in the nation states, but rather an


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action consolidating identity. In this new context, the amalgam of European information and communication actions is insufficient to create Desire for Europe among the anonymous representatives of public opinion.

References [1] Preston, P. (2009). Making the News. Journalism and news cultures in Europe, London & New

York: Routledge. [2] Harrison, J. & Wessels, B. (Eds.) (2009). Mediating Europe: new media, mass communication

and the European Public sphere, New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books. [3] Charon, J.-M. (1988). Presse européenne: la course d’obstacles. MédiasPouvoirs 12, pp. 104-

110. [4] Schlesinger, Ph. (2008). Cosmopolitan temptations, communicative spaces and the European

Union, in The Media and Social Theory, edited by Hesmondhalgh, D. & Toynbee, J., pp. 75-92, London & New York: Routledge.

[5] Rouet, G. (Ed.) (2009). Les journalistes et l`Europe, Bruxelles: Bruylant. [6] Bondebjerg, I. & Golding, P. (Eds.) (2004). European Culture and the Media. Changing Media –

Changing Europe Series Volume 1, Bristol & Oregon: Intellect Books. [7] McQuail, D. (2005). Mass Communication Theory. London: Sage. [8] Jakubowicz, K. & Sükösd, M. (Eds.) (2008). Finding the Right Place on the Map. Central and

Eastern European Media Change in a Global Perspective, Bristol, Chicago: Intellect. [9] Voltmer, K. (Ed.) (2006). Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies,

London & New York: Routledge. [10] Papathanassopoulos, S. & Negrine, R. (2011). European Media: Structures, Policies and

Identity, Cambridge: Polity Press. [11] Trappel, J., et all. (Eds.) (2011). Media in Europe today, edited on behalf of Euromedia

Research Group with an introduction by Denis McQuail, Edit. Intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA.

[12] McQuail, D. (2011). Chapter 1: The Media in Europe Today: Introduction, in Trappel, J. et allí. (eds.) (2011). Media in Europe today, pp. 11-22, edited on behalf of Euromedia Research Group with an introduction by Denis McQuail, Edit. Intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA.

[13] Thomass, B. & Kleinsteuber, H. J. (2011). Chapter 2: Comparing Media Systems: The European Dimension, in Trappel, J. et allí. (Eds.) (2011). Media in Europe today, pp. 23-42, edited on behalf of Euromedia Research Group with an introduction by Denis McQuail, Edit. Intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA.

[14] Papadimitriou, D. & Phinnemore, D. (2008). Romania and the European Union. From marginalisation to membership, Oxon & New York: Routledge.

[15] Brüggemann, M. & Kleinen-von Königslöw, K. (2009). `Let's Talk about Europe': Why Europeanization Shows a Different Face in Different Newspapers. European Journal of Communication 24, pp. 27-48.

[16] Murphy, P. D. (2007). Introduction: Media and Democracy in the Age of Globalization”, in Blankson, I. A. & Murphy, P.D. (Eds.) (2007). Negociating Democracy. Media Transformations in Emerging Democracies, pp. 1-15, Albany: State University of New York Press.

[17] Marin, N. & Lengel, L. (2007). Emerging Media Transformations in the New Europe: Past and Future Challenges”. in Blankson, I. A. & Murphy, P. D. (Eds.) (2007). Negociating Democracy. Media Transformations in Emerging Democracies, pp. 51-76, Albany: State University of New York Press.

[18] Wolton, D. (1997). Penser la communication, Paris: Flammarion.


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The European Idea in Romania: Discursive Traditions

Pricopie V.1 1 Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy and Valahia University of Târgoviște (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This paper analyses Romanian discourse on the idea of Europe in interwar Romania. Our perspective

focuses on the topicality of a common ‘European’ vocabulary used in different types of discourse (political and/or diplomatic, journalistic and scientific) in order to identify Romania’s place on the future map of Europe. New topics such as European equilibrium, European civilisation, community of Europe, European family and European common culture were reference points for the identity discourse of Romanian interwar elites on what they called the ‘European Idea’.

Keywords: Europe, idea of Europe, European idea, interwar Romania, identity discourse.

1 Introduction The idea of Europe or the European idea, depending on the linguistic context in which the phrase is

used, has its terminological origins in interwar Europe, after 1914, when P. Valéry published a plea for Europe [1] in which he postulated the existence of a European soul, a European spirit and a European culture. Valéry returned on these reflections in a note from 1924 [2] while operationalising the singular identity of the European: “Et l’homme y est devenu l’Européen. Vous m’excuserez de donner à ces mots d’Europe et d’Européen une signification un peu plus que géographique, et un peu plus qu’historique, mais en quelque sorte fonctionnelle. Je dirais presque, ma pensée abusant de mon langage, qu’une Europe est une espèce de système formé d’une certaine diversité humaine et d’une localité particulièrement favorable; façonnée enfin par une histoire singulièrement mouvementée et vivante. Le produit de cette conjoncture de circonstances est un Européen.” [“And man there became European. You will forgive my using these words ‘Europe’ and ‘European’ in a slightly more than geographical and historical sense, but one which is functional at some level. I would almost say, my thought abusing my language, that ‘Europe’ is a sort of system formed from a certain human diversity and a particularly favourable location; ultimately shaped by a singularly turbulent and vibrant history. The product of this combination of circumstances is a European.”] [2]. He thus considers the European idea to be a product of the identity discourse which acquires different meanings depending on the type of discourse it represents: institutional, scientific, political, public, journalistic etc. and can be generically termed the ideological European discourse. Actually, this statement is based on the mere acknowledgement that, from a historical and cultural point of view, the European idea is much older and its identity much more deep-rooted than the European Union itself. When trying to operationalise the concept “idea of Europe”, it is important to identify correctly the place of the European Union in the history of the idea of Europe, in the sense that “Indeed, the EU can be viewed as just one manifestation of Europe – perhaps the most important one to date, but one of several in recent centuries, and certainly not the only representation of the idea of what Europe is or should be.” ([3], 9). Based on A. Bance’s premise that “the European idea cannot simply reside in the unification of Europe as an end in itself.” ([4], 17), the present paper aims to identify the discursive meanings of the European idea in interwar Romania – a recently created state, which was undergoing Europeanisation, consolidating its own identity and modernising itself at the same time. For M. Petcu [5], the reference to Europe in political and journalistic discourse was a form of ‘euro-argument’, also called the ‘European obsession’, which was defined as “the extent to which the European referent contributed to the crystallisation of the national consciousness” ([5], p. 278); thus, the European aspect became a fundamental dimension of the emerging national identity. The core of the western approach to the idea of Europe in the interwar period was the spiritual crisis of the conception of Europe – an idea of the past nineteenth century, the European Age, which faced a paradigm crisis at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the new states of Central and Eastern Europe, reiteration of the nineteenth century European ideal as a priority dimension of emerging national identities simultaneously created discursive mutations of national and European identity. In this context, it is strange that, in terms of identity, the aspect that


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currently differentiates discourse on national identities from discourse on European identity was the same aspect that brought these discourses together in Eastern Europe in the interwar period, when ‘Europeanness’ became an intrinsic dimension of Romanian national identity.

2 D. Gusti: plea for Europe O. Pecican [6] makes a chronological inventory of the interwar Romanian scholars who promoted the

European idea, such as: Octavian C. Tăslăuanu [7], Paul Zarifopol [8], Mihail Manoilescu [9], I. G. Duca [10], N. Iorga ([11] and [12]), Dan Botta [13] and Tudor Vianu [14]. The two primary core topics of these discourses are a tired, lethargic Europe marked by spiritual and identity crises and a new project for Europe as a Federation of States. Dimitrie Gusti [15] is one of the scholars of the time who promoted the Pan-European movement in Romania and whose purpose was to build a Federation of the European States. Gusti operationalises the sociological concept of federalism as a social phenomenon: “The term ‘federative’ is merely the solemn expression of the conciliation of two antithetical principles that have been colliding since the emergence of human society – the principle of authority and the principle of liberty. Therefore, federalism brings us a new conception of liberty, which may be defined as follows: I give a little of my liberty in order to create an authority which guarantees me the rest of the liberty. Federalism (from foedus, foederi, pact) is a political contract. In the contractors’ world, those who enter the association: heads of families, villages, provinces, states […] receive insofar as they sacrifice.” ([15], p. 263).

Based on the geographical-identity inquiries launched by P. Valéry [1] (“L’Europe deviendra-t-elle ce qu’elle est en réalité, c’est-à-dire: un petit cap du continent asiatique? Ou bien l’Europe restera-t-elle ce qu’elle paraît, c’est-à-dire: la partie précieuse de l’univers terrestre, la perle de la sphère, le cerveau d’un vaste corps?” [Will Europe become what it is in reality, i.e. a small cape of the Asian continent? Or will Europe remain what it appears to be, i.e. the precious part of the terrestrial world, the pearl of the sphere, the head of a vast body?”]), D. Gusti redefines Europe as a “society of the European peoples”, which is so disunited, anarchic and divided that it has come to doubt its own identity. Gusti’s intervention on this topic becomes a manifesto for the European idea (in the young Romania and the old Europe alike): “Europe is not a term defining a scientific geographical notion. Geography denies the existence of a European continent that seems to be a triangular extension of Asia (…). However, Europe is a human continent, a spiritual creation, a magnificent manifestation of will and thought. Therefore, Europe is not a territory; it is a social-spiritual idea, the society of the European peoples (…). Europe is a rational and activist idea, culminating in scientific creations and their technical applications, which dominate and absorb the other human cultures. Nowadays, they talk insistently about a crisis of European culture (…). Let’s not exaggerate! We cannot talk about a crisis of European culture while European science and technology determine the destinies of all mankind. But the Europe phenomenon is interesting from another point of view. Europe is beginning to doubt itself; the global hegemony it has hitherto enjoyed is is debatable and being debated; for the first time, other continents are emerging as its rivals” ([15], p. 256). Gusti thus rejects the Asian referent which actually illustrates interwar European thinking regarding the definition of Europe, by arguing that Europe’s civilisation, culture and identity make it a unique thinking space and therefore more than a simple geographical continent (a topic that is still studied today in relation to European identity). He metaphorically compares it to a “laboratory” where “new life” is initiated, preliminary to “The United States of Europe”. Thus, Gusti proposes: “May Europe remain as charming and fascinating as it has always been; let’s not agree to its return to Asia, as we cannot believe that Europe, with its work, its power, its science, its technology and the experience it has gained, has all the reasons to start a new life!” ([15], p. 275).

3 The European idea in militant discourse Constantin Rădulescu-Motru develops the European idea at two levels, in the Romanian context of his

time: firstly, through the launch and management for over a decade of the publication Ideea europeană [16] (first issued on 25 June 1919 and then every Sunday until 1 July 1928) and secondly through the launch of a specific current with an essential European dimension – Romanism (“the catechism of a new spirituality”) [17], which ran in opposition to the nationalist orientation of the previous century and in relation to the new current of European Federalism.

The weekly Ideea europeană set itself the goal of “not abandoning the attempt to Europeanise our public spirit” [18]. In its first issue, the magazine published an article that expressed its editorial policy from an ideological point of view: “If the EUROPEAN IDEA contributes to strengthening this sense of reality in our public consciousness, it will also contribute to a better orientation of our political life. The contribution will be even more effective in orienting our literary, scientific and artistic movement. (…). The EUROPEAN IDEA will perpetuate this spiritual community underlying European civilisation in our public consciousness. Its emergence will at least provide the opportunity to discuss a question of great importance for the future of Romanian culture. Namely, how do we, the Romanians, understand our dependence on European civilisation?” [19]. The


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frequent French references in the magazine’s articles, in relation to economy, school, culture and civilisation, or the two twin cultures, Romanian and French, in both interwar France and interwar Romania, emphasise the idea that P. Valéry himself is the primary referent for discursive construction regarding the idea of Europe in this weekly. The latter first appears with a detailed presentation of his paper from 1914 [1] in the article Criza spirituală [20] and then with a fragment of the essay Note (ou l`Européen) [21] in translation – the only Romanian translation that we know – in the issue of 15 October 1926. Many of the publication’s articles are either scientific articles or pages of the travel diaries of Romanian intellectuals bringing new visions, perspectives and currents into the interwar Romanian public sphere. One of the first categories of texts proposes conceptual and/or doctrinal clarification, especially in the first year of publication of the weekly: Puțin bolcevism... (Some Bolshevism) [22], Naționalism sau umanitarism? (Nationalism or Humanitarianism?) [23], Între militantism și balcanism (Between Militancy and Balkanism) [24], Imperialismul American (American Imperialism) [25], Regionalism și democrație (Regionalism and Democracy) [26] etc. The second category relevant to this paper is that of travel diaries brought from the West by Romanian intellectuals: România și Străinătatea (Romania and Foreign Countries) [27], O scrisoare din Paris (A Letter from Paris) [28], Paradox asupra Europei (European Paradox) [29] etc. But the text that most draws our attention is that of the Transylvanian symbolist poet, Emil Isac, where the concept of Europeanism is included in a letter to Europe – actually, a form of poetic prose with emphasis on exaltation, rendering the European experiences of the intellectuals of that time: “Europe, old mother who gave birth to your daughter: New Europe, let your name be glorified and praised – Europe; with the flowers of thought, let me weave a crown for the weary Romanian. Europe, let your enchanted water fill our children’s jars and quench the thirst of weak old men. It resounds in my soul, in my ears: Europe. I have brought you home locked in wisdom and I remember you in my new prayer. Europe…, Europe…” [30].

One of the scientific publications of the time that draws our attention is Revue de Transylvanie, which was published in French in Cluj, and then in Sibiu between 1934 and 1944. ‘European’ metaphors become discursive tools for the contributors to this scientific and militant magazine (for them, the main argument is based on the programmatic article at the beginning of every issue of the magazine). The metaphors can be identified as follows: European peace [31], new family of states, “Europe du droit”/Europe of Law [32], “this new instrument of civilisation”, “common European thought”, The three basic principles of the European idea: nationalism, sovereignty and “each people and each state is entitled to its own life”, “creating a European unity, a community of the entire Europe where the border issue will no longer be as important as it is today”, “European civilisation is a whole” which requires that “Europe be organised all together”, in the “direction of common European affairs” [33] and “European civilisation” [34].

4 Diplomatic perspectives Among the political figures of the time, Nicolae Titulescu has been dubbed “Europe’s Minister”. He

was elected delegate at the Paris Peace Conference from 1920; he was subsequently appointed representative of the League of Nations, where he started working in 1921, and was twice elected as its president between 1930 and 1932. Titulescu was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs three times between 1927 and 1936 and was later dismissed from all public functions and exiled on account of disputes with King Charles II.

However, the European orientation of Romanian diplomacy continued on the eve of World War II, when Grigore Gafencu became the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He included a plea for Europe in the pages of the French periodical L`Illustration, as part of a thematic file dedicated to “New Romania” on 26 August 1939. The troubled European context at the close of the interwar period is inferred and the discourse on national and European identity, politics and diplomacy invokes a first (sensitive) dimension of the European idea – “the European equilibrium” [35]; the latter is connected to the ideal of European peace, so fragile at that particular time, but its discursive manifestation relates to what was even then called “European unity”, namely, the three core values that have encompassed the history of the European idea and which, after World War II, became core values of the European construction. “J’ai senti l’unité et l’indivisibilité de l’idée européenne dans toutes les capitales où j’ai passé, où la même civilisation brillante se débat au bord du gouffre pour ne pas périr. Je me suis surtout rendu compte de cette unité européenne en écoutant les pensées et les inquiétudes des dirigeants avec lesquels j’ai eu l’honneur de m’entretenir.” (“I’ve felt the unity and the indivisibility of the European idea in all the capitals I’ve visited, where the same shining civilisation is struggling at the edge of the abyss in order not to perish. Above all, I have been aware of this European unity in hearing the thoughts and concerns of the leaders I’ve had the honour of speaking with.”) [35].

5 Conclusions An overwhelming majority of the metaphors and core discourse defining Europe and the European idea

in the analysed corpora representative of Romanian thinking in the interwar period have now been resumed and


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are being debated intensely, both at a European level, in relation to the emerging European identity, and in Romania, in relation to the process of accession to and integration into the European Union. The privileged metaphors are European family and European spirit; other new syntagmas in interwar discourse (European civilisation, European culture and European idea or idea of Europe) illustrate the emerging common European background preparing the rise of the European Union. A core value of this European vocabulary is peace, which has become a basic principle for the current European construction, and also a re-emerging topic – the Federation of the European States – actually, an idea developed in the first two decades of the last century. In this context, it seems that the single European currency – the Euro – is the only aspect not arising from the interwar system of thinking. It may be observed how the European topics of public, political, diplomatic, scientific and journalistic discourse in the interwar period are now being reborn. Among these, perhaps the most salient topic marking actual development is that of the removal of borders between European states, an issue often arising in interwar militant discourse on the European idea.

References [1] Valery, P. (1919). La crise de l`esprit. Europes de l’antiquité au XXe siècle, Bouquins collection,

éditions Robert Laffont, 2000, pp. 405-414. First published in English in Athenaeus, April-May 1919, London.

[2] Valery, P. (1924). Note (ou l`Européen). Europes de l’antiquité au XXe siècle, Bouquins collection, éditions Robert Laffont, 2000, pp. 414-425. First published in Revue Universelle, 1924.

[3] Wintle, M. (2013). The History of the Idea of Europe: Where are We Now?. Perspectives on Europe 43:1, pp. 8-12.

[4] Bance, A. (1992). The idea of Europe: from Erasmus to ERASMUS. Journal of European Studies 22: 122, pp. 1-19.

[5] Petcu, M. (2009). Istoria presei în România și referențialul european. Revista Română de Sociologie, XX: 3-4, pp. 277-288.

[6] Pecican, O. (2008). Europa în gândirea românească interbelică. O antologie de Ovidiu Pecican, Iași: Institutul European.

[7] Tăslăuanu, O. C. (1925). Insomnia Europei. Lupta, 25 martie 1925. [8] Zarifopol, P. (1930). Un om de bine si Europa în letargie. Adevarul, XLIII, no. 14.160, 21

February 1930. [9] Manoilescu, M. (1929). Statele Unite ale Europei: aspectul economic. Observatorul politic și

social, an I, no. 6, 15 August 1929. [10] Duca, I. G., (1930). Statele Unite ale Europei. Observatorul, an I, no. 7-8. [11] Iorga, N. (1932). Ce înseamnă Europa, communication held to Rome 20 November. 1932. [12] Iorga, N. (1938). E cu putință a nouă Europă?. Neamul românesc, 6 March 1938. [13] Botta, D. (1936). Europa în spirit. Limite, eseuri, Bucharest: Cartea Românească. [14] Vianu, T. (1936). Definiția Europei. Sociologie Românească, column Cronici, pp. 27-28, an I,

no. 3, March. [15] Gusti, D. (1930, 1935). Problema Federației Europene”. Arhiva, IX, nr. 1-2, 21 februarie 1930,

pp. 1-23, second edition in Sociologia militans. Introducere în sociologia politică, Bucharest: Editura Institutului Social Român, pp. 255-275.

[16] Journal Ideea europeană, Bucharest, 1919-1929, editor-in-chef C. Rădulescu-Motru, Editorial Secretary C. Beldie.

[17] Rădulescu-Motru, C. (1936). Românismul: catehosmul unei noi spiritualități, Bucharest: Fundația pentru Literatură și Artă “Regele Carol II”.

[18] Ideea europeană, promotion text, appearing in every edition starting with no. 1/22 June 1919. [19] Rădulescu-Motru, C. (1919). Ideea europeană (article-program). Ideea Europeană, no. 1/22

June 1919, pp. 1-2. [20] Irineu, C. (1919). Criza spirituală. Ideea europeană. No. 22/16 November 1919, pp. 2-3. [21] Valery, P. (1926). Homo Europaeus (fragment translated into Romanian from the conference

held in Vienna to the Congress of the Intellectuals’ Unions Federation). Ideea europeană. No. 192/15 October 1926, pp. 2-3.

[22] Ioanițescu, D. (1919). Puțin bolcevism. Ideea europeană, no. 4/13 July 1919, pp. 1-2. [23] Strat, L. (1919). Naționalism sau umanitarism? Ideea europeană, no. 7/3 August 1919, pp. 1-2. [24] Rădulescu-Motru, C. (1919). Între militantism și balcanism, Ideea europeană, no. 8/10 August

1919, pp.1-2. [25] Bărbat, V. I, Imperialismul american. Ideea europeană, no. 12/7 September 1919, pp. 1-2.


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[26] Tonca, M. (1919). Regionalism și democrație. Ideea europeană, no. 15/28 Septembere 1919, pp. 1-2.

[27] Bucuța, Em. (1919). România și străinătatea. Ideea europeană, no. 15/28 September 1919, p. 2.

[28] I. E. (1919). O scrisoare din Paris. Ideea europeană, no. 18/19 October 1919, p. 2. [29] I. E. (1919). Paradox asupra Europei. Ideea europeană. No. 20/2 November 1919, p. 2. [30] Isac, E. (1919). Europenism. Ideea europeană. No. 4/13 July 1919, p. 2. [31] Sofronie, G. (1935). Considérations sur le problème des Habsbourg, Revue de Transylvanie, t.

II, no. 2/ December, pp. 137-143. [32] Sofronie, G. (1936). En marge des déclarations de S.M. Le Roi Charles II à l’étranger. Revue

de Transylvanie, t. II, no 3/March-April, pp. 273-277. [33] Boitoș, O. (1939). Le centenaire de la “Gazette de Transylvanie”. Revue de Transylvanie, t. V,

no. 1/ January-March, 27-42. [34] Ciocâlteu, M. (1944). La Roumanie et le problème de l’unité européenne, Revue de

Transylvanie, t. X, no 1-2/ January-June, pp. 156-166. [35] Gafencu, G. (1939). La Politique Etrangère de la Roumanie. L’Illustration, no. 5034/26.08.1939,

pp. 585-586.


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Cuvântul Liber Magazine: Active Actor in Emerging Europeanism in Interwar Romania

Rosca L.1 1 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, Department of Journalism (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract This study aims to analyse the concept of Europeanism in an era rich in debates for and against Europe,

the interwar period. The analysis focuses on the Romanian social-democratic vision with the aim of identifying a pattern for the concept of Europeanisation, as understood by the social-democratic elites. Our research has been based on issues of Cuvântul liber [The Free Word] magazine, from the second series (1924) [1]. The discourse analysis will emphasise the construction mechanisms of pro-European discourse in the corpus analysed.

Keywords: Cuvântul liber (CL), europeanism/europeism (E), justice, ideology, Romania

1 Theoretical framework

1.1 Current Scientific Discourse on Europe Europeanism is one direction of contemporary research in the extremely fertile field of social, political,

juridical and economic sciences, social philosophy and communication. Another very fruitful direction of research is that of the development of the European public sphere, in keeping with Habermas’s social philosophy [2], from a descriptive-analytical [3] and/or critical [4] position, with an important media and communication analysis component [5]. Yet another direction is that of the analysis of europeanisation from the perspective of the European Union’s role in the contemporary world and the implementation of economic, legal and political rules in EU countries. The public and scientific debate on europeanisation played a prominent part after 1988, the year that marked the failure of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and represented the beginning of the transformation processes of the post communist countries and their integration into European structures. These processes raised the issue of Europeanism (E) again, as prominently as at the beginning of the twentieth century as a consequence of the end of World War I and the emergence of new nation-states in Eastern and Central Europe.

Recent approaches [6] raise the issue of the older national-european dichotomy actually underlying the entire debate on the Europeanisation processes. Some authors operationalise the concept of europeanisation in relation to the establishment and implementation of the formal and informal EU rules, while others look for indicators of europeanisation in national-EU institutional adaptation processes (apud [6], 10). The latest works limit the analysis of europeanisation to research on EU issues: for instance, the approach to cognitive aspects and consequent impact on domestic transformations such as policy transfer and mimetism within the EU (apud [6], 11) or the impact of the EU accession process on national patterns of governance or governance mechanisms in Central and Eastern Europe (apud [6], 11).

1.2 Europe(an)ism: a Concept with Uncertain Semantics The analytical approach was based on the premise that Romanian culture has made cultural references

to Europe constantly since the beginning of the nineteenth century; in the interwar period, the term acquired significant ideological and political connotations. During the communist period, the term was used solely in literary and cultural exegesis and, after 1989, it returned to the public space enriched with numerous meanings, according to international political developments and in relation to the European Union.

Although the word europe(an)ism was noticeable in journalism at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was controversial and, while present in the editorial introductions, it was not recorded in any editions of the Universal Dictionary of the Romanian Language compiled by Lazăr Saineanu. Saineanu entered ‘Europe’ and the derived adjective ‘European’ in the Proper Nouns section, and there is no other derivative with


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ideological connotations ([7], 769). The word is not found in DEX (Romanian Explanatory Dictionary) [8] either; we find it in the Dictionary of Neologisms [9], with its general meaning: ‘European nature’, ‘attitude favourable to European unity’, its cultural-ideological meaning of ‘movement tending towards European unity (social, political, economic and cultural)’ and its linguistic meaning: ‘the linguistic form of the European languages’. We find the same entries in the Dictionary of New Words [10], but there are updated examples from modern journalism.

A brief review of newer or older journalism where we can find the terms ‘europeanism’ or ‘europeism’ reveals disconcerting semantics of the concept. We have followed the history of the idea in Romanian culture and found an impressive number of terms opposed to europeanism: Americanism, autochthonism, euro-skepticism, globalisation, gândirism (i.e. Romanian ideological and political movement developed by the magazine Gândirea [The Thought] at the beginning of the twentieth century), judaism, nationalism, neo-paṣoptism (i.e. ideology of the participants in the 1848 Revolution in the Romanian provinces), orientalism, orthodoxism, romanianism, regionalism, traditionalism. The term is considered to be synonymous with: modernisation, occidentalism, anti-nationalism, anti-orthodoxism and sometimes anti-state, while the analytical perspectives are varied: ideological, culturalist, legal, political and sociological.

Adrian Marino has used and debated the concept of europe(an)ism anew [11] in the Romanian public space, redefining it as the second discourse (referring to the valorisation of the cultural debate on national progress); while the first discourse was ‘autochthonism’, the third and current discourse revalues Europeanism as being close to ‘neo-pasoptism’, which promoted Europeanisation through the idea of individualised Occidentalisation and offered a new perspective on the relation between ‘autochthonism’ (the first discourse) and ‘europe(an)ism’ (the second discourse) by finding a way to incorporate both of them into a synthesis which was useful to progress [12]. Moreover, in the article Un ideal de europeism [The ideal of Europeanism, 13], A. Marino associates the concept with the idea of writing a treatise on comparative literature starting with the seventh decade of the twentieth century, using it as a reference point in the local cultural space.

2 Cuvântul Liber magazine

2.1 Historical Context and the Emergence of Europe(an)ist Ideas The historical moment covered by my study is marked by contradictions: on the one hand, the pride of

having achieved the ideal of national unity; on the other hand, the conflict between extreme ideologies, left versus right, which preceded the outbreak of World War II.

In this paper, the aim is to analyse the concept from a very specific perspective allowing me to focus extensively on only one aspect of the notion of europeism. I have chosen to analyse the concept of europeism as exemplified by Cuvântul Liber (CL) magazine, second series, edited by Eugen Filotti. Filotti (1896-1975) was editor of the second series of Cuvântul Liber magazine from 1924-1926, a remarkable diplomat and a member of the permanent Romanian delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva (led by N. Titulescu). He was also a writer and translator and an outstanding cultural and diplomatic figure.

The concept of europeism is found in the editorial of 26 January, 1924. Under the leadership of Eugen Filotti, CL promoted an eclectic left-wing ideology, influenced by the socialist ideas of the time, under the significant influence of Anglo-Saxon and French liberalism.

The trade union movements were very prominent at the time, thus strengthening the socialist movement from an ideological point of view. Therefore, we refer to a ‘European socialism' that developed after World War I, following the establishment of the League of Nations, which promoted a policy based on war prevention through collective security, disarmament and resolution of international disputes through negotiation. In the 1920s, the League had not suffered the failures of the 1930s, when the Axis Powers, Germany, followed by Japan, Italy and Spain, left the League of Nations. In those years, there was hope that confrontation between the world powers could be avoided through peaceful means and nations could develop equitably by virtue of the democratic values claimed by the elites of the time. In order to better understand the context of CL, it should be mentioned that, in 1924, the Romanian Communist Party, with its youth and women’s organisations, was banned and, in 1927, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu established the Legion of the Archangel Michael, the future Iron Guard, a fascist organisation which was to be tolerated in government circles.

In the 1930s, when the fascist movement and ideology was gaining strength, the idea of Europeanisation was manifest in the solidarity of European countries against the Soviet threat. The German author, Karl von Kleczkowski, summarised the problems of Romania’s Europeanisation in the spirit of the age, in a text reviewed by Anton Golopentia in 1936 [14]. The problems were as follow: to effectively blend and combine three distinct foreign cultures dividing the Romanian people; to revolutionise the Romanian people


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when a new class of active elements came to power and the intimate attitude towards Europe: “Only the general and concerted cooperation between European states against bolshevism could ensure respect for Romania’s boundaries and its freedom to develop, being a particularly endangered state” ([14], 179-180).

The debate between traditionalism and europeanism at the beginning of the twentieth century marked the start of modernisation in Romania. In the current historical context of Europeanisation processes (see Chapter 1), the debate continues to be pertinent because europeism or europeanisation have been and continue to be favourite topics of public and political debate at important historical moments, concerning the country’s modernisation and adaptation to new historical circumstances.

2.2 The Editorial and the Europe(an)ist Direction The direction of our analysis is inspired by an editorial entitled Gândul nostru [Our Thought], ([1], 1),

by the magazine’s editor, Eugen Filotti. The author’s vision regarding the term ‘Europeanism’ is Manichean: some values are European because they are opposed to other non-European values. The editorial strategy guidelines for the magazine follow a moral ideal of justice, a cultural ideal and a political ideal.

The ideal of justice refers to a certain sense of justice that the journalists at CL adopted in the name of a European and sometimes utopian socialism found in the pages of the magazine.

The cultural ideal is defined in opposition to the direction imposed by Gândirea magazine, regarding the notions of nation, europeanisation, modernism and autochthonism.

Gândirea magazine was first published in 1921 in Cluj and its editors-in-chief were Cezar Petrescu and D. I. Cucu. In 1922, the magazine moved its headquarters to Bucharest, and in 1928, Nichifor Crainic became its editor-in-chief. Gândirea assumed a role analogous to that of Dacia literară [Literary Dacia], which was published in Transylvania, as “an agora of writers from all Romanian provinces” and appeared, almost ostentatiously, with no regularity ([15], 13). The dominant theme is clear from the very beginning: a theme inspired by “sămănătorism” (i.e. the ideological and literary movement developed by the magazine Sămănătorul [The Sower] at the beginning of the twentieth century), dominated by national and nationalist-rural topics, Romanianism versus modernism, traditionalism and orthodoxism. The fierce criticism of the various forms of modernism by Cezar Petrescu, Pamfil Seicaru, Nichifor Crainic et al. provoked strong reactions at the time.Orthodoxism was promoted by numerous great intellectuals of the time and, in the fourth decade of the twentieth century, gained significant mystical overtones, being also known as ‘trăirism’ [15] (i.e. an existentialist and partly mystical school of thought). CL rejects orthodoxy and tradition as “a static ideal stuck in static Byzantine-Muscovite forms of a primitive culture without evolution and without horizon”: “Our light comes from the West. We find salvation in Occidentalising this country, whose many vital organs have rotted before reaching maturity […] If we refer to assertion, the only assertion we see is active and productive: the assertion of our genius and specific spirit in European forms of culture within the harmonious and brilliant context of western culture”.

E. Filotti launches a polemical and fierce attack upon the traditional dogma which “lies at the base of the everlasting pedestal of political parasites and tyrants”. Traditionalism, as gândirism defines it, is described virulently; the tone is no longer one of polemic, but rather the one of a pamphlet – refreshed cult, ideological wall, national suggestion, impudent robbery, aestheticised mawkishness and moral gangrene. We glimpse a certain revolutionary, youthful, rebellious spirit against the stiff values of Christian traditionalism.

The cultural ideal is especially an ideal of civilisation: “being confident that soap, comfort and urbanism, the telegraph and civil law do not at all threaten the cleanliness of our race, we write a second word on our flag: Europeism” ([1], 1, 4). Europe’s unity is suggested through a metaphorical reference to anatomy: “the two lobes of the European brain: the circle of Latin-Mediterranean culture and the circle of German-Scandinavian-Anglo-Saxon culture”. Modernisation of the country is the watchword of the CL editorial.

The political creed expressed by E. Filotti includes some keywords: peace, international cooperation within the League of Nations, Democracy, etc. The political picture of the time is not encouraging at all: the liberal party was a horrible collusion of mediocrity and dishonesty, the socialist party was weak and disorganised, the peasants’ party lacked balance and internal unity and had one-sided, limited objectives. The political section of the editorial introduction includes directions regarding the minorities which would be promoted using “a policy of freedom without hypocrisy and without reviving the old Hungarian methods”. The newspaper encouraged youthful enthusiasm and spirit and even rebellion; the idealism of young intellectuals.

The artistic creed matches the political creed: the original form, modern art and even the avant-garde movement, in its ‘unleashed’ form, were encouraged; the mannerism, pedantry and nonsense of exacerbated mediocrity were avoided ([1], I, 1, 6).


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Due to its ambitious introduction and the prestigious authors writing the magazine’s columns, CL became a powerful voice in the public sphere of the 1920s and was to promote the European values and directions of the time, modern art and cosmopolitan international politics, in elaborate expressive and sometimes controversial forms.

3 The discursive construction of the term Europeism We have analysed the construction of the journalistic discourse and the significance of the term

‘europeism’ in the 48 issues of CL from 1924 onwards, in order to identify the extent to which the editorial strategy of the magazine has treated europeism as a media event with visibility and prominence in the public space. According to P. Charaudeau [16, 157-160], we have taken into account two categories of analysis: the fields of social experience to which the term relates (political democracy, civil democracy and everyday democracy) and the thematization of the headings containing the term or terms derivatives. If we relate the theme (Europeanism, for example) and general theme EUROPE, to the first category, we find that the theme is included in the field of civil democracy, while the general theme slides between political, civil and everyday democracy, focusing on the field of civil democracy.

Except for the editorial introduction, the term ‘europeism’ appears explicitly in only three of the texts studied. These are: Europeism sau Românism [Europeism or Romanianism] ([1], 2), Supărarea filistinilor [The Anger of the Philistines] ([1], 3), Neobonjuriṣtii [Rom. ‘bonjurist’: young bourgeois Romanians returning to Romania after the 1848 revolution, having studied in Paris; at the time, the meaning of ‘bonjurist’ was pejorative; etymology: fr. ‘bonjour’], ([1], 5), published in the column The Chronicle. Most of the texts contain Europe and its derivatives referring to internal and European politics, European countries and European culture: E. Filotti, Lecṭia de democraṭie [The Democracy Lesson], Dem. Theodorescu, Franṭa se matura [France comes of age] ([1], 17); E. Filotti, Suprafrancezii [Suprafrenchmen] ([1], 18); I. Vinea, Naṭionalism, rasă, tradiṭie [Nationalism, race, tradition.] ([1], 19); T. Th. Braniste, Intre presă ṣi literatură [Between media and literature], N. Davidescu, Sfârṣitul dictaturilor [The end of dictatorships] ([1], 19); E Filotti, Adevarata mobilizare morală [The real moral mobilisation] (about the Bolshevik danger), Camil Petrescu, Singura scăpare: Liga Naṭiunilor [The only escape: The League of Nations] ([1], 31); Mihai Ralea, Iluziile grandomaniei [Grandiose delusions] ([1], 38); M. Ralea, Ateismul naṭional [National Atheism] ([1], 39); I. Balica, Amurgul intelectualilor [Twilight of the Intellectuals] ([1], 46). Analysis of the corpora has revealed that the journalistic discourse is built around the keyword EUROPE and all its derivatives; therefore, the main discursive method addresses the general theme rather than the theme, as per the editorial.

The three articles which include the term ‘europeism’ were precisely aligned with the newspaper’s politics via a column called The Chronicle. Thus, there was textual unity regarding the type of text – The Chronicle. There was also thematic unity: all three articles refer to a critical attitude in public sphere. Thus the first article ([1], 2) concerns L. Rebreanu’s criticism in the publication România [Romania], from the perspective of the National Party, where europeism is seen as the antagonism between Romanianism and Europe. For CL, there is no antagonism between Europeism and Romanianism; there is no ‘or’, there is ‘and’ because it is desirable that Romanians enter a Europe “free from Balkanism, Asianism, archaism and the rustic simplicity that lingers between the churchyard and the village pub”. Supărarea filistinilor ([1], 3) is a reply to the criticism from Revista europeană [the European Journal]; unspecified criticism whose target is not personalised due to the absence of the author of the article or the editor of the magazine; the terms of criticism used are vague and metaphorical, such as: “philistines”, “they’re singing the requiem”, etc., because it is a publication (CL) that says “with more honesty and courage what they themselves would want–but do not dare–to say”. Finally, the chronicle Neobonjuriṣtii ([1], 5) is a reply to Pamfil Seicaru’s article, which (curiously) the Chronicle does not assign to a certain publication. The reply of CL in the Chronicle, by the editor of the magazine himself, Eugen Filotti, is very precise in its analysis. First of all, it praises the 1848 era, then the paṣoptist era (from 1848 onward) the revolutionary French origin of the magazine’s creed that was to make the nickname (Rom. ‘bonjurist’) famous; finally, it analyses the media’s misinterpretation of the editorial magazine. E. Filotti notes that the magazine promotes a profound rather than formal Occidentalism; the need for actions, not only contemplation (“the ecstatic return to the past”); we need “affirmation of our national spirit in forms of culture within the harmony of western culture”. We also found discursive unity in the three articles we analysed: the chronicles are written in a critical, controversial ([1], 2) tone, in a tone of criticism ([1], 5) and ‘a tone of pamphlet’([1], 3).

The articles that build the journalistic discourse around the general theme EUROPE and all its derivatives do not have thematic unity, but they have textual unity; they are all analytical-expressive and discursive texts, subordinate to analysis and criticism or analytical criticism. The language is elevated, the cultural references are numerous and the lexical richness and the multitude of ideas are remarkable.


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The analysis has shown us that the theme europeanism, as it appeared in the editorial of CL, is a determinant of the general theme, EUROPE, is included in the field of experience of civil democracy ([16], 157-160) and has thematic, textual and discursive unity. Therefore, it becomes a relevant discourse in the public space of the time and justifies the editorial direction found in the editorial. The general theme of EUROPE widens the fields of experience of political and civil democracy; it does not have thematic unity because it exceeds the limits of an editorial introduction, but it maintains discursive unity. It thus proves the coherence of the editorial vision of CL magazine, with the obvious purpose of promoting an idea, an ideology in public space with the otherwise stated aim of influencing mentalities and bringing societal change. The general tone is of a polemical-critical discourse with an analytical approach.

Conclusions The present study has revealed that Europeism is a topical issue. We have showed that the term, which

entered the public sphere in 1924 continues to be discussed, mainly in the context of European integration. In current cultural journalism, the term has proved extremely productive in provoking polemics, debates, analyses and re-evaluations, such as the re-evaluation of Europeanism from the perspective of paṣoptism or neo-paṣoptism. This study proposes an analysis of the idea of Europeanism in relation to the social-democratic ideology of the time, which can be extended into the future.

The discourse analysis has showed that the discourse on Europeism is a determinant of the general theme of EUROPE, is included in the field of experience of civil democracy and has thematic, textual and discursive unity. Discourse analysis, as we designed it in my head 3 [16] could be enriched in the future through a refinement of analytical apparatus and by extending the analysis of general theme EUROPE will allow a more contextualized the topic on Europe(an)ism.

References [1] Cuvantul liber, Second Series, 1-48, 1924. [2] Habermas, J. (1994). Citizenship and national identity. in B. van Steenbergen (ed.). The condition of citizenship. pp 20-35. London: Sage. [3] Castells, M. (1997). The power of identity, Malden, MA: Blackwell. [4] Medrano, J. D. (2009). The public sphere and the European Union’s political identity. In C. T. Jeffrey and P.J. Katzenstein (eds.). European Identity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 81-110. [5] Schlessinger, P. (1999). Changing spaces of Political Communication: The Case of the European Union, Political Communication, 16, 263-279. [6] Papadimitriou, D. and Phinnemore, D. (2008). Romania and the European Union. From marginalization to membership, Oxon & New York: Routledge. [7] Saineanu, L. (1930). Dictionar universal al limbei romane, a opta ediţiune. Revăzut şi adăogit la ediţia VI-a. Ortografia Academiei Române. Craiova: Editura „Scrisul Românesc”. [8] Dictionarul explicativ al limbii romane (1975). Bucharest: Editura Republicii Socialiste Romania. [9] Marcu, F. and Maneca, C. (1978). Dictionar de Neologisme, Bucharest: Editura Republicii Socialiste Romania. [10] Dimitrescu, F. (1997). Dictionar de cuvinte recente (second edition), Bucharest: Logos. [11] Marino, A. in dialog with Antohi, S. (2000). Al treilea discurs. Cultură, ideologie și politică în România, Iași: Polirom. [12] Mozaicul, no. 10, 2008 [13] Observator cultural, no. 61, April 2001. [14] Golopenția, A. (2002). Opere complete, vol. I, Sociologie, Bucharest: Editura Enciclopedică. [15] Micu, D. (1975). “Gîndirea” și gîndirismul, Bucharest: Editura Minerva. [16] Charaudeau, P. (1997). Le discours d’information mediatique. La construction du miroir social, Paris: INA, Nathan.


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Prevention of Exposure to Asbestos. Effects on Workers Safety and Health

Rusu-Zagar C.1, Rusu-Zagar G.2, Iorga A.3, Iorga O.4 1 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 2 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 3 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 4 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The policy in the field of occupational safety and health (OSH) is the starting point in setting the

objectives related to safety and health at work. Occupational safety and health is a set of institutionalized activities aimed at ensuring the best working conditions in the working process, protecting the life, the physical and mental integrity, the health of the workers and of the other persons involved in the working process. The pending problems concerning asbestos in Europe are due to the materials that have already been used in construction, plant or equipment. The practical problem of preventing exposure to asbestos during storage, demolition and maintenance works still exists. In this respect, it is necessary to know the physicochemical properties of this risk factor, as well as the safety at work measures applicable with a view to maintaining safety and health in the workplace and improving the quality of life. The paper deals the legislative regulations at European level applied also to our country. In order to relieve the awareness of health and safety legislation in the workplace it was conducted a case study on a construction site. From the analysis of the questionnaire completed by the employer in accordance with the Government Decision 1875/2005 it results that safety and health measures at work are known to both the employer and the workers.

Keywords: asbestos, exposure, prevention, health.

Introduction Asbestos is a very dangerous agent that can cause serious diseases and which occurs in a large number

ofworkplaces. Therefore, many workers are exposed to a potential health risk. A complete ban on the asbtos use and marketing of the products containing it came into force on January 1, 2005 (following the European Commission Directive 1999/77/EC).

The interdictions as to asbestos mining and manufacture, as well as to processing products containing it came into force in April 2006, following the Directive 2003/18/EC amending the Directive 83/477/EEC on the protection of workers against the risks related to exposure to asbestos at work, followed by the Directive 2009/148/EC on the protection of workers on risks related to exposure to asbestos at work. There are also important differences between EU Member States, as some countries have reduced the use of asbestos ever since the 1980s, while others continued to use it until the end of the century. According to the World Health Organization, more than 107,000 people die every year from diseases associated with asbestos: lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.In addition, it is estimated that several thousands of deaths which occur annually can be put down to the exposure to this type of ore existing in the house. [1], [2] The pending problems concerning asbestos in Europe are due to the materials that have already been used in construction, plant or equipment. The practical problem of preventing exposure to asbestos during storage, demolition and maintenance works still exists.


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Legislative regulations The main piece of legislation governing health and safety requirements to protect workers against

occupational injury and disease risks in the European Union is the framework Directive 89/391/CEE concerning the implementation of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work.

The national legal system includes: the Safety and Health at Work Law no. 319/2006 and the Government Decision no. 1875/2005 on the protection of workers against the risks due to exposure to asbestos.

The term asbestos Asbestos is defined as a mineral fiber whose thermal insulation properties, incombustibility, resistance

and the fact that it can be easily woven, in addition to the low cost, have justified its use in various fields, especially in construction and for the protection of buildings, for the heating system, to protect ships against fire or heat, for roof slabs, walls and floors, to reinforce asphalt and plastics, for joints, brake shoes and fire resistant clothing. The term asbestos defines a series of natural mineral fibers (rock form), of which the most common are: chrysotile (white asbestos), crocidolite (blue asbestos), amositel (brown asbestos), anthophyllite, tremolite, actinolite. [3], [4], [5]

Materials containing asbestos (MCA) Asbestos is a fibrous structure, it is fireproof and has a very low thermal conductivity. It is used as

thermal insulator, for gaskets in the industrial equipment, diaphragms (electrolytic cells), mass filter, supports for catalysts. Currently, workers need to know the information about the physicochemical properties and the preventive measures and protection for activities involving exposure to asbestos. [4], [5], [6], [7]

ASBESTOS [7] Denomination: Asbestos (and other materials containing asbestos); Other denominations: amosite (brown asbestos), chrysotile (white asbestos), crocidolite (blue asbestos), Ascari, etc..;Code (No. CAS, EU): Amosite 12172-73-5; Asbestos 1332-21-4; Chrysotile 12001-29-5; Crocidolite 12001-28-4; Chemical formula: amosite (FeMg)SiO3; anthophyllite (MgFe)7SiO22(OH)2;, chrysotile 3MgO2SiO2H2O; crocidolite: NaFe(SiO3)2FeSiO3H2O; tremolite: Ca2Mg5Si8O22(OH)2;Obtaining and uses: It has a fibrous structure, it is fireproof and has a very low thermal conductivity.It is used as thermal insulation, for gaskets in industrial equipment, diaphragms (electrolytic cells), mass filter, supports for catalysts. [9],[10] The most important marketed forms are marketed: amositel, anthophyllite, chrysotile and crocidoliteDue to its fireproof properties, it is added to various materials: cement, vinyl, plastics, asphalt, cotton. 1.Firefightings measures Materials for extinguishing fires: dry chemical, carbon dioxide, water spray, normal foam. Do not scatter material using water jets; Special firefighting procedures: The area will be isolated and the access will be banned. [9],[10]To avoid inhaling asbestos fibers, autonomous insulating breathing apparatus will be worn, operated continuously or discontinuously. Caution! The firemen’s equipment provides limited protection. If possible, without risks, the containers will be removed from the area. The generation of dust will be avoided. There will be no discharge into the drains or watercourses.The firemen’s protection equipment shall be decontaminated after use.As to the eye and face protection, the use of contact lenses shall be avoided at work. [9],[10] 2. Physical and chemical propriaties Melting Point: It decomposes; Solubility: Insoluble in wáter;Aspect and odor: Solid fibrous, odorless, different colors: chrysotile (white or gray), crocidolite (blue), amositel (gray-green); Chemical incompatibilities: strong acids can attack chrysotile forming magnesium oxide and water; in the presence of glacial acetic acid, it decomposes. Chrysotile decomposes easily in hot water. Resistant to the action of stong bases. [9],[10] 3. Stability and reactivity Toxicity: TCLo (humans, inhalation) = 1.2 f / c.c. (Exposure for 19 years) - toxic to lungs Stability: Asbestos is inert at room temperature or in high temperature conditions. It is resistant to heat, but it decomposes at 6000C (microscopic fiber structure is altered). Chrysotile is dehydrated at 600-7800C. [9],[10] 4. Ecological information Toxicity: TCLo (humans, inhalation) = 1.2 f / c.c. (Exposure for 19 years) - toxic to lungs [9],[10]

Asbestos fibers Asbestos fibers are composed of bundles of tiny fibers joined to each other. They have the particularity

of being able to easily separate on their length under the effect of processing, shocks, vibrations, friction (or air flow when there is a brittle material), form ing a cloud of very fine particles, often invisible to the naked eye, and can be store everywhere and penetrate deeply the lungs.Asbestos toxicity depends on the type of asbestos fiber (crocidolite> amositel> chrysotile), size (long> short), shape (sharp> twisted) and solubility. [9, 10] The effects on health depend on the dose (concentration and duration of exposure), smoking habits and individual susceptibility. Affected parts of the body: the respiratory system, possibly the digestive system. Primary routes of entry: Inhalation, ingestion, skin contact. All occupational diseases arising from the existence of asbestos in the workplace can cause death. [9], [10]


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Works involving exposure to asbestos There are many professions in which, unexpectedly, it is necessary to process materials that contain

asbestos: carpenters, joiners, shop-fitters, plumbers, gas technicians, electricians, computer cable installers, porters etc. Workers in demolition, dismantling and ship repair personnel, automotive technicians and mechanics can also encounter asbestos.It is necessary to make available to these professionals any information on materials containing asbestos before they start their work, and endeavor to avoid hazards. However, we must be prepared in the event that may unexpectedly encounter materials containingasbestos, onvarious grounds, the information on the location of asbestos-containing materials may be incomplete.[6], [7] Risk assessment is the first step in the prevention of occupational hazards and diseases and consists in identifying the existing hazards at the workstations as well as the risk quantification.Following the assessment, the risks at the workstations are found out, their dimension, what risks cam be eliminated, what prevention measures must be taken in order to keep under control the risks which cannot be eliminated. [7], [8], [9]

Discussion

A case study was conducted on a construction site in the purpose of knowing the awareness of the necessity to implement safety and health at workplaces, to create a safe and healthy work environment. From the analysis of the questionnaire (Table 1) completed by the employer to a site on the minimum requirements for health and safety at work referring on the protection of workers' safety from risks related to exposure to asbestos in accordance with the Government Decision no. 1875/2005 [11] it results that, it is carried out the implementation of safety and health at workplaces within the site, the safety and health at work being known both to the employer and to the workers.

Table 1. Questionnaire concerning the minimum requirements for safety and health at work relating to the protection of workers' safety from the risks of asbestos exposure

Employer response from the

pilot unit

Nr.

crt

. The safety requirements in accordance with the Government HG 1875/2005

[11] Provision

[11]

Yes

No

Not

ap

plic

able

1 Measures have been taken to ensure that no worker is not exposed to a concentration of airborne asbestos greater than 0.1 fibers / cmc, as measured on a time-weighted average over a period of 8 hours (TWA) ?

Art. 5

x

2 Enforcement activities of asbestos spray-process (spray), were banned as well as for those involving the use of insulation materials or phonic insulation of low-density (<1g/cmc) containing asbestos?

Art. 6 x

3

There were banned the activities which expose the workers to asbestos fibbers during: - manufacturing and processing the asbestos products; - manufacturing and processing products containing intentionally added asbestos? Exception the treating activities and the elimination of the

Art. 7 x

4

It was evaluated and monitored the risk of exposure to the dust arising from asbestos or materials containing asbestos, in order to determine the nature of the exposure - mineralogical variety, size fibbers - and the level of exposure of the workers to dust arising from asbestos or materials containing asbestos?

Art. 8 x

5 To give a notice to the territorial labour inspectorate, before the beginning of the work in which the workers are or are likely to be exposed to dust released from asbestos or from materials containing asbestos?

Art. 12 x

6 It has been sent a new notification whenever a change in working conditions is likely to lead to a significant increase in exposure to dust arising from asbestos or materials containing asbestos?

Art. 15 x

7 It has been taken steps that work processes are designed so as not to produce asbestos dust?

Art.16, alin.1), pct.b x

8 If not, it was taken the measure that the work processes to be designed so as not to cause release of asbestos dust in the air?

Art.16, alin.1), pct.b

9 It was taken the measure that all constructions and equipments involved in the treatment of asbestos to be cleaned and maintained regularly and effectively?

Art.16, alin.1), pct.c x

10 It was taken the measure that the asbestos or the materials releasing asbestos-containing powder to be stored and transported in suitable sealed packing?

Art.16, alin.1), pct.d x

11 It was taken the measure that the waste to be collected and removed from the workplace as soon as possible in suitable sealed packing with labels indicating that it contains asbestos (measure does not apply to mining activities)?

Art.16, alin.1), pct.e x

12 It was taken the measure that the waste to be treated later in accordance with the legal provisions on hazardous waste (the measure does not apply to mining activities)? Art.16, alin.3 x


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13

I has been performed regularly measurements of asbestos fibber concentrations in the air at work, according to the results of the initial risk assessment and to ensure compliance with the limit value of 0.1 fibers / cmc, as measured on a weighted average for a period of 8 hours (TWA)?

Art.17 x

14 When it exceeds the limit of 0.1 fibbers / cmc, as measured on a time-weighted average over a period of 8 hours (TWA), measures are taken to identify the causes of this fact and appropriate measures to remedy the situation as soon as possible?

Art.24, alin.1) x

15 It is forbidden to continue working in the affected area until adequate measures are taken to protect workers?

Art.24, alin.2) x

16 It shall immediately conduct a new determination of concentration of asbestos in the air to check the effectiveness of measures to identify cases exceeding the limit value and appropriate measures to remedy the situation?

Art.25 x

17 It is used respiratory protective equipment for each worker, if the exposure cannot be reduced by other means?

Art.26, alin.1) x

18 It has been provided work breaks, depending on the physical and climatological conditions, according to employees and / or their representatives during activities that require the wearing of respiratory protective equipment?

Art.26, alin.2) x

19 Before the beginning of demolition or maintenance it has been taken all appropriate safety and health measures, including requesting information from the building owners to identify the material that is supposed to contain asbestos?

Art.27 x

20

For certain activities such as demolition activities, asbestos removal, repair and maintenance, it is estimated that, despite the use of technical preventive measures for limiting asbestos in air, the limit of 0.1 fibbers / cmc, measured in relation to a time-weighted average over a period of 8 hours (TWA) is exceeded, measures were taken to protect workers during these activities? The measures are the following: a) Providing workers with personal appropriate respiratory protective equipment and other personal protective equipment, b) warning signs to indicate that the estimated value exceeding the limit of 0.1 fibbers / cmc, as measured on time weighted average over 8 hours (TWA) c) prevent the spread of dust from asbestos or materials containing asbestos outside the premises or work area.

Art.28 x

21 It has been established a work plan before starting the demolition or the asbestos removal and / or materials containing asbestos?

Art.31, alin.1) x

22

If so, the work plan provided the following measures to ensure the safety and health of workers at work: a) removal of asbestos and / or asbestos-containing materials before demolition techniques are applied, except where such disposal would have a greater risk to workers than if the asbestos and / or asbestos-containing materials should be left in place whereabouts; b) ensuring, if necessary, a suitable respiratory protective equipment and / or other personal protective equipment, c) checking that the risks of asbestos exposure in the workplace after completion of the asbestos removal or demolition?

Art.31, alin.2) x

23

It has been ensure appropriate training, regular for all workers who are or may be exposed to dust containing asbestos? Before carrying out demolition or asbestos removal operations, the factories have demonstrated their ability in this field, according to regulations in force?

Art.32 x

24 Before carrying out demolition or asbestos removal operations, the factories have demonstrated their ability in this field, according to regulations in force? Art.33 x

25

For the workplaces where activities in which workers are or are likely to be exposed to dust released from asbestos or materials containing asbestos were taken appropriate steps like these: a) to be clearly demarcated and marked with warning signs, b) to be accessible only to employees who work tasks in these areas, c) to be the non-smoking areas?

Art.34 x

26

For all the activities in which the workers are exposed or likely to be exposed during work, the dust released from asbestos or materials containing asbestos have taken appropriate steps to arrange: a) areas where workers eat and drink, without the risk of contamination with asbestos dust, b) adequate sanitary facilities, including showers where operations are performed when asbestos dust is released?

Art.35 x

27

It has been ensured to the workers work wear and / or personal protective equipment for all activities in which workers are or are likely to be exposed during their work activities, to dust released from asbestos or materials containing asbestos, except as provided in Article 9?

Art.36, alin.1) x

28 It was provided, subject to art. 9 health the evaluation for each worker prior to exposure to asbestos dust and / or materials containing asbestos?

Art.39, alin.1) x

29

It keeps track of employees assigned to perform the activities in which workers are or are likely to be exposed during work, the dust released from asbestos or materials containing asbestos in a register indicating the nature and duration of , as well as exposure to which they are subject, subject art. 9?

Art.43, alin.1) x

30 The register and the medical records are kept at the end of exposure, according to regulations?

Art.44, alin.1) x


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Conclusions The pending problems concerning asbestos in Europe are due to the materials that have already been

used in construction, plant or equipment. The practical problem of preventing exposure to asbestos during storage, demolition and maintenance works still exists. In this respect, it is necessary to know the physicochemical properties of this risk factor, as well as the safety at work measures applicable with a view to maintaining safety and health in the workplace and improving the quality of life. At present, while the manufacture of goods or materials containing asbestos has ceased, there is still a risk of asbestos exposure due to materials and products that are still to be found in buildings, planst and equipment.Therefore, it is important to take steps to remove or minimize the risk of exposure. The paper deals the legislative regulations at European level applied also to our country. In order to relieve the awareness of health and safety legislation in the workplace it was conducted a case study on a construction site. From the analysis of the questionnaire completed by the employer in accordance with the Government Decision no. 1875/2005 it results that safety and health measures at work are known to both the employer and the workers.

Bibliography [1] Baas, P., van Hezik, E., Burgers, S. (2006), - 139 Occupational asbestos exposure, possible

mesothelioma and reimbursement; Lung Cancer, Volume 54, Supplement 1, Page S34 [2] Bassani, C., Cavalli, R. M., Cavalcante, F., Cuomo, V., Palombo, A., Pascucci S., Pignatti, S.

(2007). - Deterioration status of asbestos-cement roofing sheets assessed by analyzing hyperspectral data; Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 109, Issue 3, Pages 361-378

[3] Dodge Woodson, R. -Construction Hazardous Materials Compliance Guide (2012), ISBN 13: 978-0-12-415841-2

[4] Massardier-Pilonchery, A., Bergeret, A.(2011) - Suivi après exposition professionnelle à l’amiante : modalités et dispositifs étrangers; Revue des Maladies Respiratoires, Volume 28, Issue 4, Pages 556-564

[5] Mensi, C., et all, (2011) - Pericardial mesothelioma and asbestos exposure; International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, Volume 214, Issue 3, Pages 276-279

[6] Mlynarek, S.P., Van Orden, D.R.(2012) - Assessment of potential asbestos exposures from jet engine overhaul work; Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, Volume 63, Issue 1, Pages 78-83

[7] Rusu-Zagar, G., Iorga, O., Rusu-Zagar C., Mocanu, M., (2012).Mediu de lucru sigur şi sănătos. Managementul securităţii şi sănătăţii în muncă într-o economie bazata pe cunoastere, Risc si securitate

[8] Rusu-Zagar, G., Iorga, I., Anghel, S.O., Rusu-Zagar, C., Mocanu, M., (2013) Occupational safety and health within the European strategy. Applicability at national level, ACTA INTERDISCIPLINARIA 2 DIDACTICS AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH- Centre of Research, Resources and European Studies AEPEEC, ISBN 978-182951503-8 din California - John Josh Publisher

[9] *** Guidance on the compilation of safety data sheets, retrieved from http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/13643/sds_en.pdf, 2013

[10] *** Safety data sheets - INCDPM Al.Darabont, 2013 [11] *** GD no. 1875/2005 on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks

related to exposure to asbestos


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Safety and Health at the Educational Institutions Level. European Strategy on Health and Safety at Work (OHS)

Rusu-Zagar C.1, Rusu-Zagar G.2, Iorga I.3, Ionescu C.4 1 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 2 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 3 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 4 Regional Development Agency Bucharest - Ilfov (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Mainstreaming occupational safety and health (OSH) in education is, at European level, an essential

component for the development of risk prevention culture. The purpose of this paper is to know the national regulations on safety and health at work, and the awareness of risk factors in the work environment in order to prevent the risks at workplaces at the level of the education staff. The objective of this paper is the development and strengthening of a culture of safety and health at the workplace at the level of education units. In this respect, the paper presents the European strategy in the safety and health at work, the manner in which was carried out the consolidation of a culture of safety and health at work, at the level of education units in several countries in Europe and the applicability at the level of our country.

An educational institution must be a safe and healthy working environment both for the staff whose entire activity takes place in schools and for the students and others who enters the organization, so as to be a safe and healthy place, suitable for education.

Keywords: educational, safety and health, European strategy.

Introduction The educational staff must be acquainted with the national regulations on safety and health at work, and

must be aware of the risk factors in the working environment in order to prevent risks at workplaces. [3], [4] Article treats the knowledge of the national regulations on safety and health at work, and the awareness

of risk factors in the work environment in order to prevent the risks at workplaces at the level of the education staff.

The objective of this paper is the development and strengthening of a culture of safety and health at the workplace at the level of education In this respect, the paper presents the European strategy in the safety and health at work, the manner in which was carried out the consolidation of a culture of safety and health at work, at the level of education units in several countries in Europe and the applicability at the level of our country. An educational institution must be a safe and healthy working environment both for the staff whose entire activity takes place in schools and for the students and others who enter the organization, so as to be a safe and healthy place, suitable for education.

1 European strategy on health and safety at work (OHS) Human resource management is a process that consists in carrying out four functions: providing,

developing, motivating and retaining the human resources. A new European strategy in the field of OSH was adopted for the period 2011-2013, which states: a) a

global approach to wellbeing at work by taking into account the changes in the world of work and the emergence


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of new risks, intended to increase the quality of work; b) consolidating a culture of risk prevention by combining a variety of political tools -legislation, social dialogue, action and best practices, social responsibility and economic incentives - based on building partnerships among stakeholders in OSH activities; c) the existence of appropriate social policies which a factor in the competitiveness equation knowing that "non-policy" entails risks.[4], [5], [6]

Complementary objectives in the field of OSH strategy are: a) a global approach to wellbeing at the workplace: continuous reduction of occupational accidents and diseases; prevention of social risks; considering the demographic changes as to the risk of accidents and occupational diseases; considering the changes in the types of employment and contractual forms, work organization and working time; considering the size of the enterprise; analysis of new risks; b) consolidating a culture of risk prevention: education, awareness, anticipation: improving risk awareness; more effective enforcement of existing legislation; complementary objectives in the field of OSH strategy; c) existence of adequate social policies: adapting the legal and institutional framework; encouraging innovative approaches; promoting the integration of OSH into other Community policies; preparing for enlargement: technical assistance programs, exchange agreements, strengthening the social dialogue at all levels, promoting statistical analysis on accidents at work and occupational diseases; developing international cooperation.[1], [2], [7]

1.1 Curriculum Based Approach In most countries, health and safety is an integral part of the curriculum being approached in several

disciplines. Safety and health are integrated as "cross-cutting themes", that is at all levels and in different disciplines. Thus, "A safe school” 'in Italy provides a conceptual and methodological framework for teachers on how to introduce OSH into the syllabus. Also, in the Italian space were found "Examples of good practices in primary school" focused on the development and dissemination of educational tools national level in order to promote the culture of prevention. "Play safe at all times" (England) aims to raise the awareness at primary school level on security issues found on the premises of the institution, and to develop the learning resource packages for different subjects of the national curriculum. The Armi Danish project focuses on the development of behaviour, fundamental knowledge and their use in a positive way to ensure the health and safety of others.[1], [2], [3]

1.2 Workplace Based Approach It is necessary to be acquainted with the most important stages of the educational process, the transition

from school to work is devoted to the integration at work, stages leading towards the professional life and the risks which are to be taken into account. These types of cases have global or sectoral themes. The Irish program "Prevention of accidents involving students and youth in the agriculture sector" envisage to develop and introduce security statements that determine how the OSH is going to be managed on a farm. ”Safer machines due to the students" (Belgium) is a specific example of students’ involvement in improving the equipment security and "Control" (England) is a multimedia educational resource with actual examples of risks at the workplace. Last but not least, in Italy, "the OSH integrated into curricula models" has as objectives planning and testing of standard training modules on safety in schools and vocational centres. [6], [7], [8]

1.3 Strategy at National Level A new European strategy in the field of OSH was adopted for the period 2011-2013, which states [5],

[6], [7]: a) a global approach to wellbeing at work by taking into account the changes in the world of work and the emergence of new risks, intended to increase the quality of work; b) consolidating a culture of risk prevention by combining a variety of political tools -legislation, social dialogue, action and best practices, social responsibility and economic incentives - based on building partnerships among stakeholders in OSH activities; c) existence of appropriate social policies which a factor in the competitiveness equation knowing that "non-policy" entails risks.

2 Principles From the analysis of the main current legal rules by which the legal institution of safety and health in

Romania operates, a number of principles can be drawn, revealing the importance attached to employment protection legislation in the labour law. Also, those principles underlie and explain the approach to organizing and conducting effective specific activity applied to prevent accidents and occupational diseases.[1], [2], [4], [7]

a) Safety and health at work - a fundamental right of all participants in the working process: The Romanian constitution, asserting the right to social protection, refers to measures of safety and hygiene. More


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specifically, the Occupational Safety and Health Law no. 319/2006 establish a general framework for organizing and carrying out the activity in the field OSH.

b) The indissoluble link between labour rights and social protection: Romania is a welfare state, the right to work is not only enshrined as a fundamental right of citizenship, but it is closely correlated with the right to social protection of employees, which includes health and safety at work, and that is guaranteed.

c) Integration of safety and health at work in the working process is a principle clearly expressed in the Safety and Health at Work Law no. 319/2006, which states that at the workplace the "obligation and responsibility to achieve security measures lies with the persons in charge of organizing and managing the working processes."

d) The preventive nature of safety and health at work: Basically, health and safety at work has a preventive character, its purpose being to prevent accidents at work and / or occupational diseases. The legal regulations in this field are established so as to protect the life, health and bodily integrity of the participants in the production process.

e) Addressing the prevention of occupational accidents and occupational diseases as a single issue: Considering that, in terms of the root causes, the event space, the subjects likely to bear, as well as in terms of the measures and means of combating them, injury and disease phenomena are identical (what is more, in many cases, the same risk factor concerned may lead, depending on the actual conditions, either to a work accident or to occupational disease), the legislator treats them as a single issue.

3 Structure

The components of the legal system of safety and health in Romania: i) Acts that legislate strictly only activities directly related to occupational safety measures, forming a so-called "basic legislation", containing: i) Safety and Health at Work Law 319/2006; ii) Government Decisions transposing the EU directives; iii) Rules for the application of Safety and Health at Work Law; ii) Documents also containing, but only in subsidiary, the legal requirements for safety and health at work (the Constitution of Romania, the Labour Code - chapters on labour protection and social security, as well as women and youngsters’ work) or rules of law which, despite having mainly a different focus and being specific to other activities, contribute, by their application, to protect the lives and health of employed persons.[4],[5],[6]

3.1 Safety and Health at Work Law The enactment under which the entire activity of health and safety at work in Romania is carried out, is

the Safety and Health at work Law. In other words, it acts as the fundamental law for the implementation of safety and health at work, being from this point of view the generating element for all the legislative provisions governing health and safety at work, no matter if they are to be found in basic or related legislative acts (except for the provisions of the Constitution and the Labour Code).

The methodological rules for the application of Safety and Health at Work Law no. 319/2006 regulates the following aspects: authorization of employers in terms of safety and health at work; prevention and protection services; workers' representatives with specific responsibility for the health and safety at work; organization and functioning of the safety and health Committee at the enterprise and / or establishment level; training workers in the field of safety and health at work; workplaces with serious and imminent danger; specific high risk areas; communication and research events and registration of occupational accidents and dangerous incidents, signalling, investigating, stating and reporting the professional diseases; approval of documentation with information and training character in the field of occupational safety and health.[2],[4]

4 Facing new and constantly increasing risks at school unit level The risk factors present in the working environment within the school units are: i) physical risk factors

(microclimate at the workplaces, lighting, the electromagnetic field, namely non-ionizing radiation);ii) chemical risk factors (dust, chemical pollutants); iii) mechanical risk factors; iv) psycho-social ones. The teaching staff must be aware of the existence of the risk factors in the working environment. Equally, the members of the staff must be acquainted with the national regulations on safety and health at work in order to prevent the risks at the workplaces. [7], [8]

A) Identification of new risks: Research priorities should include especially psycho-social issues, musculoskeletal disorders, dangerous substances, understanding the risks of reproduction, managing health and safety risks for several combined factors (eg. work organization and workplace design, ergonomics, combined exposure to physical and chemical agents) and potential risks associated with nanotechnologies;

B) Promoting mental health in the workplace: At present, the problems associated with poor mental health represent the fourth leading cause of work disability. WHO estimates that by 2020 depression will be the


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leading cause of disability. The workplace can be an appropriate place to prevent psychological problems and promote better mental health. Wellbeing in the workplace is an important objective and this can be achieved by observing the safety and health at work. [6], [7]

5 Conclusion The purpose of this paper is to know the national regulations on safety and health at work, and the

awareness of risk factors in the work environment in order to prevent the risks at workplaces at the level of the education staff.

The objective of this paper is the development and strengthening of a culture of safety and health at the workplace at the level of education units In this respect, the paper presents the European strategy in the safety and health at work, the manner in which was carried out the consolidation of a culture of safety and health at work, at the level of education units in several countries in Europe and the applicability at the level of our country.

The educational staff must be acquainted with the national regulations on safety and health at work, and must be aware of the risk factors in the working environment in order to prevent risks at workplaces.

An educational institution must be a safe and healthy working environment both for the staff whose entire activity takes place in schools and for the students and others who enter the organization, so as to be a safe and healthy place, suitable for education.

Bibliography [1] The employer’s guide as to the reduction of the workers' exposure to hazardous chemical

agents at the workplace - Labour Inspection 2002 [2] Methodological Guide for the prevention of risks related to exposure to carcinogen, mutagens

anf toxical agents for reproduction - Labour Inspection 2002 [3] Methodological Guide for the prevention of risks related to exposure to biological agents -

Labour Inspection 2002 [4] Rusu-Zagar G., Iorga O., Rusu-Zagar C., Mocanu M.,(2012). Mediu de lucru sigur şi sănătos.

Managementul securităţii şi sănătăţii în muncă într-o economie bazata pe cunoastere, Risc si securitate nr.2

[5] Rusu-Zagar G., Iorga I., Anghel S. O., Iorga O., Rusu-Zagar C., Mocanu M. (2013) Occupational safety and health within the European strategy. Applicability at national level, ACTA INTERDISCIPLINARIA 2 DIDACTICS AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH- Centre of Research, Resources and European Studies AEPEEC, ISBN 978-182951503-8 California - John Josh Publisher

[6] Rusu-Zagăr G., Iorga I., Iorga A, Rusu-Zagăr C., Mocanu M.(2013) Best practices regarding the risks of classrooms, laboratories of physics, chemistry and biology, 2013- accept publicare in ACTA INTERDISCIPLINARIA 2 DIDACTICS AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Centre of Research, Resources and European Studies AEPEEC, ISBN 978-182951503-8 din California - John Josh Publisher

[7] Rusu-Zagar G., Iorga I., Anghel S.O., Rusu-Zagar C., Mocanu M. (2013) Importanta educatiei ecologice europene in contextul globalizarii sistemelor de invatamant, Universitatea Dimitrie Cantemir, The 3rd edition of international conference on “Globalization and competitiveness in knowledge-based economy”, Bucharest, Romania.

[8] ***http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/copenhagen/resolution_en.pdf (2013)


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Safety and Health at Work – European and National Legislation

Rusu-Zagar C.1, Rusu-Zagar G.2, Zagar L.3, Ionescu C.4

1 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 2 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 3 Institute of Advanced Technology, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 4 Regional Development Agency, Bucharest-Ilfov (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Safety and health at work has become one of the most important and substantial sectors in the European

Union social policy in recent years. The role of safety and health at work is essential for enhancing the enterprises competitiveness and productivity, through the positive effects it produces: decrease in the cost of accidents, hazards and occupational diseases as well as increased motivation for work. The occupational hazards and diseases represent an enormous burden on public and private social protection systems and require an integrated, coordinated and strategic policy, as well as cooperation among the main stakeholders in the development of national policies. In this respect, the paper studies the legislative regulations at European level and how they are applied at national level, consequences of the accidents at work, occupational diseases and accidents cost assessment. The purpose of this paper is the development and the strengthening of a culture of safety and health at work.

Keywords: safety, health, legislation, culture, occupational diseases

Introduction Within the European Union workers are protected against the risks of occupational hazards and diseases

by the framework Directive 391/1989. The basic principle of the Directive is to prevent hazards and this involves risk assessment by the employer and imposing on the latter the obligation to ensure the workers’ safety and health concerning all the work related aspects. The paper studies the legislative regulations at European level and how they are applied at national level, consequences of the accidents at work, occupational diseases and accidents cost assessment. The purpose of this paper is the development and the strengthening of a culture of safety and health at work.

European regulations: The framework Directive 391/1989, provides: general principles of prevention: i) the employer’s

obligations in the field of health and safety at work; ii) the workers obligations in the field of health and safety at work; iii) the incentives and penalties in the field. [12], [13]

National regulations The national legislation on safety and health at work transposes the EU directives. The national legal

system includes: i) The Safety and Health at Work Law no. 319/2006; ii) The Methodological Norms for the application of the Law no. 1425/2006; iii) The GDs on the minimum safety and health at work for specific risks. [2], [4].


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The organization of prevention and protection within companies The organization of prevention and protection activities is performed by the employer in the following

ways: i) the employer shall assume the duties to put into practice the measures stipulated by the Law no. .319/2006; ii) the employer shall designate one or more workers to carry out the prevention and protection activities; iii) the employer shall establish an internal prevention and protection service; iv) the employer shall appeal to external prevention and protection services. [1], [10], [11]. The employer will assume the performance of the activities of prevention and protection according to art. 16 of the GD 1425/2006 by appointing one or more workers to carry out the prevention and protection activities, and to establish an internal prevention and protection services or to appeal to external prevention and protection ones. [3], [5], [6]

Table 1. The organization of prevention and protection

Prevention service Comments No. workers Internal External 1-9 Employer With the specifications from the footnote * 1-49 Employer /

designated worker Risk assessment

specialist

1-49 Designated worker Risk assessment specialist

activities from Annex no. 5 from G.D. 1425/2006

50-149 Designated worker Risk Assessment Specialist

50-149 Designated worker Activities from Annex no. 5 from G.D..1425/2006 Over 150 Designated worker

Note: if the following conditions are met cumulatively: micro or small enterprise – the activities performed within the enterprise are not those set out in Annex no. 5 from GD no.1425/2006; the identified risks cannot cause occupational hazards or diseases with serious, irreversible, that is death or disability, the employer operates effectively and regularly in the enterprise and / or unit, the employer meets the minimum security training requirements in the field of safety and health at work, corresponding to a basic level, at least.

The incidence of the occupational diseases in Romania in 2010 Ensuring active public health concerns all the professionals working in health and safety at work in a

unitary concept of knowledge on occupational risk factors and their influence on health through early detection of illness to prevent them. From the pooled data provided by the occupational doctors in public health departments revealed that the occupational exposure to chemical agents in Romania has an impact on health, with medical absenteeism, thus the necessity to implement extensive programs of prevention.

Knowing the structure of the occupational morbidity has a particular importance given that it is the effect of occupational exposure to harmful factors in the work environment and, once specified, can be remedied by technical and organizational preventive measures. The numerical analysis of the distribution of cases by areas of production in our country shows that most cases of occupational diseases were reported in the metallurgy area (554 cases - 22.12% of total illnesses reported). [14]

050

100150200250300

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

261

61

13 28

76

9 3

51

1

80

Figure 1.5 The incidence of occupational diseases in Romania in 2010 [14]


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Legend: 1 – silicosis; 2 - lead poisoning; 3 - carbon monoxide poisoning; 4 - skin diseases; 5 - bronchial asthma; 6 - ulcer, perforation of nasal septum; 7 - allergic rhinitis; 8 - Raynaud syndrome; 9 - occupational cancer; 10 - others.

The consequences of work hazards and occupational diseases In order to answer this question, you need first to have an overview of the consequences. Who is

affected and how? A first reference level, which can help us to clarify ourselves, is represented by the structure of the

society, regarded as a system - the society as a whole - with its interrelated subsystems – the individual one and the economic organization. [7]

Introducing the main aspects of human life manifestation in general (including the social ones): physical, mental, spiritual, economic, financial, demographic, political aspect, we obtain an overview of the possible consequences, no matter how remote in space and time, of a work hazard or occupational disease. [3], [8], [9]

Table 2.The consequences of work hazards and occupational diseases [3], [8], [9]

No. MANIFESTATION LEVEL

PLAN REFERENCE

CONSEQUENCES OF WORK HAARDS AND OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES

0 1 2 3 1. Biological,

Physical Impairing the anatomic and functional integrity Decrease / loss of vital and work capacity Pain, suffering

Mental • Victim: State of stress due to: i) Decreasing the confidence in their own capabilities of executing the task of work; ii) Fear of producing another similar accident; iii) Feeling of social uselessness in the case of permanent incapacity to work; iv) The humility of the deteriorated physical condition and the dependence on others persons • Other close persons: i) Pain, compassion etc. felt by those close to the victim; ii) Fear of a possible similar accident to be supported for those working in identical working places in the respective unit; iii) Hazard Image

Spiritual Decrease, partially or totally, of the creative and emotional potential (especially in the case of permanent incapacity to work)

PER

SON

Financial Decrease in the personal income of the victim and his dependents due to: temporary or permanent loss of working capacity; incurring the costs for different services as well as for care and rehabilitation, to the extent they are not fully covered by the insurance; changing social and professional status Decrease of the labour productivity Damage / destruction of tangible and intangible assets

Economic

Loss of physical production

2a.

CO

MPA

NY

Financial Decrease of gross profit

2b.

IN

SUR

AN

CE

CO

MPA

NY

Financial Consumption of resources in the form of benefits provided and the funding of prevention programs

Human Reducing the human potential (creativity, affectivity, etc..), available

Political Diminishing the confidence in the adequacy of national social protection policy Damaging the prestige on the home and international labour market

Demographical Decreasing the number and the quality of the population (in terms of anatomic and functional integrity)

Economic Decrease of the gross national product

3.

SO

CIE

TY

Financial GDP decrease due to: - reduction of the gross profit of economic agents and individual incomes; - change of the volume of funds obtained from taxes on salaries and other taxes; - increased social spending as a result of recovery efforts of hazard effects; - loss of investment and the need for additional investment for: the work force growth, training and qualification; - materialization of technical creativity in the form of fixed assets; - inobservance of contractual international market terms; - loss of prestige in front of the potential work force


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Evaluation of work hazard costs The overall objective of the evaluation is to establish a quantitative means of expressing quantifiable

consequences of hazards for: i) the calculation of work hazard e: victim (actual or potential one); the company where the accident occurred; the insurance company for work hazard; an economic or structural sector (budgetary, state, private sector) company (socio-economic cost); ii) quantification of all kinds of consequences, so that the final cost calculated must include both direct and indirect costs; iii) doing the calculation both on reliable data, for actually and previously occurred events, based on potential effects of a possible hazard; iv) expressing the evaluation result in monetary units (money); v) establishing any type of cost for work hazards: followed by temporary work disability; resulting in disability, of whatever degree, deadly, regardless of immediate or delayed death;

vi) possibility of using the results of the assessment for: profitability analysis of the companies’ activity; substantiation of the prevention program; selection of the optimal investment in the field of safety at work; substantiation of the national legislative provisions for health and safety at work.

Conclusions The paper studies the legislative regulations at European level and how they are implemented at the

national level, the consequences of accidents and occupational diseases and accidents cost assessment The purpose of this paper is the development and the strengthening of a culture of safety and health at work. Currently, the national legislation is harmonized with the European one. The lack of investment funds for upgrading marks especially the industrial sector, which is why the incidence of occupational diseases in Romania is high, on the first place being the silicosis. The increasing of the capacity of the economic agents to manage the professional risks management, safety management and health in work, maintaining and promoting the health and safety of the personnel, decreasing the number of work accidents and occupational diseases will lead to the increasing of the quality of life.

Bibliography [1] Becker, G.S., (1997) The Human Capital. A theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special

Reference to Education, All Publishing House, Bucharest, 1997; [2] Darabont A., Pece Şt.,Dăscălescu, A.(2001) Occupational Health and Safety Management, Agir

Publishing, Bucharest. [3] Dăscălescu, A. (2003) The Cost of Work Hazards, Atlas Press Publishing House, Bucharest. [4] Dobrotă, N., (1999) Dictionary of Economics, Economic Publishing House, Bucharest [5] Dorman, P., (2000) The Economics of Safety, Health, and Well-Being at Work: An Overview,

Focus, ILO [6] Martinez, M.M.A., (1991)Economic Criteria for Investment in the Field of Labor Protection,

Seguridad Mapfre, Spain, no. 41,p 3-9; [7] Mossink, J.C.M.de Gier, H.G., (1996) L’évaluation des conditions de travail – Les pratiques

européennes, Fondation européenne pour l’amélioration des conditions de vie et de travail, Dublin, Irlande;

[8] Pece Şt., (2002) Risk Assessment in the System Man - Machine, Atlas Press Publishing House, Bucharest;

[9] Pece, Şt. Dăscălescu, A., (2001) Health and Safety at Work - explanatory Dictionary, Genicod Publishing, Bucharest;

[10] Rusu-Zagar, G., Iorga, I., Anghel, S.O., Iorga, O., Rusu-Zagar, C., Mocanu, M.(2013) Occupational safety and health within the European strategy. Applicability at national level, ACTA INTERDISCIPLINARIA 2 DIDACTICS AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH- Centre of Research, Resources and European Studies AEPEEC, ISBN 978-182951503-8 din California - John Josh Publisher

[11] Rusu-Zagar, G., Iorga, I., Anghel, S.O., Rusu-Zagar, C., Mocanu M., (2013). Importanta educatiei ecologice europene in contextul globalizarii sistemelor de invatamant, Universitatea Dimitrie Cantemir, The 3rd edition of international conference on “Globalization and competitiveness in knowledge-based economy”, Bucharest, Romania, 18-20.04.2013

[12] Safety and Health at Work Law no. 319/2006 [13] The methodological norms for the application of Safety and Health at Work Law no. 319/2006

approved by the Government Decision no. 1425/2006 with subsequent amendments; [14] ***http://www.insp.gov.ro/


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Management within Organizations

Rusu-Zagar G.1, Rusu-Zagar C.2, Ionescu C.3, Mocanu M.4 1 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 2 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 3 Regional Development Agency Bucharest – Ilfov (ROMANIA) 4 “Dimitrie Cantemir” University, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract An organization that desires to thrive must be in continuous change as a response to the significant

evolutions of the environment, such as the change of the clients’ needs, the technical advancement and the new government’s regulations. The study done in the article was based on the management of the organizations.

In this respect, were chosen for case study two hotels of four stars one in Bucharest and one in Timisoara. The used diagnostic tools were: the documentary analysis, the observation, the completion of some questionnaires, and the work in group so that to capture the image of the driver.

The article deals both with the importance of management within an organization in the context of globalization, decisions, control and with the issue of ethics in business which is in fact the conflict between the economic performances of the company, measured in revenues, costs, profits or debts and its social performances.

Keywords: globalization, economy, management, ethics.

Introduction Besides the positive effects of the globalization such as economical growth, new work places, better

living standards, there are also negative consequences regarding human rights, working conditions and status, environment and health problems, mostly for developing countries. The research conducted in the article was based on management in organizations. In this respect, were chosen for case study two one four star hotels in Bucharest and one in Timisoara.

The diagnostic tools used were: documentary analysis, observation, completion of questionnaires, group work so that image capture driver.

Fundamentals of business management Decision represents the core of business management. It sets the goals and objectives of any economic

system as follows: [2], [3] 1. The decision must be the result of a rational decision-making process; the diversity of economic

phenomena, the permanent increase in their complexity require a logical and scientific analysis (in a word, rational) in the economic, technological social, political context, etc. in which the events which have imposed making that that decision take place.

2. Making a decision requires a choice (of the solution) out of several possible ones. The observance of this requirement involves using a large amount of information which should simultaneously reflect the economic, social, political, scientific, technological, reality etc.

3. The choice must be the result of a conscious, deliberate act. 4. The decision implies the existence of a measurable and precisely determined objective that should

allow the periodical and final assessment of the level of touch. 5. The decision is the moment within a management process which marks the passage from creative

thinking to action.


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The manager, by virtue of his hierarchical position, is fully responsible for the effects of the decisions taken and sent to its employees for execution. [11], [12], [13]

Control - assessment moment of time management activity The control creates the means for conscious knowledge of what is happening within the organization,

since all the employees of that organization become involved, to the limit, in the enforcement of the manager’s decisions. [4], [6]

Through control in an organization, all employees know: what goals they should pursue, how they should to act to meet each of them and which are the necessary changes, if any, to maintain their actions at the level of performance forecast by the managers as satisfactory. [5], [7]

Management and globalization At micro-economic level, in Romania it is necessary to ensure the development of professional type

management, specific to many Western countries, by setting up a national training and development system for managers, appointing in executive positions persons with managerial skills, expanding consulting firms in the field of management. [1], [7], [9]. A special role is played by the international transfer of managerial knowledge, which shall cover all the components of the management system related to the introduction of modern management methods and techniques used in other countries that should also be accessible to Romanian managers; the use of some motivational, effective systems which were performing in cultures that used them and which are consistent with the traditions of the Romanian people. [8], [10].

Case study There were chosen for the case study two 4-stars hotels one in Bucharest and one in Timisoara. We

aimed to identify both types of leaders at the studied hotels and the personal profile of the manager of the two hotels.

Types of hotel managers studied (desired and real):

Fig.1 The personal profile of the direct chief as a result of the response to the questionnaire - hotel Bucharest


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Fig.2 Personal profile head directly as a result of the response to the questionnaire-hotel Timisoara

Following Fig. 1, 2, we can notice that the autocratic leadership style is used more than it would be desirable by the employees, while the paternalistic and consultative styles which would be most in demand are used less than the employees desire. Consequently, the future hotel management should adopt a rather consultative leadership style than an autocratic one.

Fig.3 The personal profile of the direct manager as a result of the answers to the questionnaire-hotel Bucharest


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Fig.4 The personal profile of the direct manager as a result of the answers to the questionnaire-hotel Timisoara

As far as the manager’s professional profile within the hotels is concerned, (fig. 3, 4), a general conclusion for the two hotel units is that the direct chief always asks for maximum efficiency.

Also, this is sometimes considered unable to settle conflicts. The existence of evaluation interviews with subordinates at the level of the two hotel units is necessary.

Management sets up the long-term guideline and performances of the organization, ensuring the achievement of a careful formulation, of a correct implementation and continuous assessment of a set strategy; it is the process of formulating and reformulating the objectives focused based on the analysis of the operating environment, with a pre-set finality and orientation through strategic planning.

In Romania, it necessary to ensure the development of professional type management specific to Western countries, by setting up a national training and development system for managers, appointing in executive positions persons with managerial skills, expanding consulting firms in the field of management.

Bibliography [1] Bari, I. (2001). Globalizarea şi problemele globale, Bucureşti,Editura Economică [2] Balaure, V., Vegheş, C., Roşca, M., Toma, S. (2002), Marketingul în procesul dezvoltării

economice şi sociale, 1972-200: 30 de ani de marketing în România, vol. I, Marketingul în era globalizării,Bucureşti, Editura ASE

[3] Caracota, D., Caracota, C.R. (2004), Dimensiuni contemporane ale dezvoltării durabile şi competitive, Ed. ASE, Bucureşti.

[4] Danciu, V. (2001). Marketing internaţional. De la tradiţional la global,Bucureşti, Editura Economică

[5] Comănescu, M. (1999). Management european, Ed. Economică, Bucureşti, p.166, 112 [6] Gilpin, R. (2004). Economia mondială în secolul XXI. Provocarea capitalismului global, trad.

Diana Istrăţescu şi Cristina Aboboaie, Ed. Polirom, p. 127 [7] Popescu, I., Bondrea, A., Constantinescu, M. (2004). Globalizarea mit şi realitate, Ed

Economică, p. 261 [8] Fiman (1998). Dezvoltarea managementului în România, Schiţă de strategie, Ed. Alternative,

p.3-10 [9] Nicolescu O., Verboncu I. (1996). Management, Editura Economică, Bucureşti, p.29 [10] David W. Rees, (1996) Arta managementului, Bucureşti, Editura Tehnică [11] ***http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson05ManagerialDecisionMaking.pdf [12] ***http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson10HumanResourceManagement.pdf [13] ***http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson11HumanResourceManagement.pdf


The Evolution of the Managerial Requirements in a Permanent Changing Society

Rusu-Zagar G.1, Rusu-Zagar C.1, Ionescu C.3, Mocanu M.4

1 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 3 Regional Development Agency Bucharest – Ilfov (ROMANIA)

4 “Dimitrie Cantemir” University, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract

Modern management involves a wide range of skills and guidelines, many of which require skills related to statistics, the use of information technology, accounting and mathematics. The paper reveals both the discussion of the changes occurred in the organizations and in the management practices due to the development of modern management theories and the adaptability of the manager’s role in a permanent changing society.

Such an example presented in the paper is the implementation in organizations of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which means going beyond the fulfilling of the legal requirements by investing "extra" in human capital, the environment and in the relationship with the stakeholders.

The paper treats extensively both constraints and opportunities in CSR implementation in our country and the measures that can be taken to facilitate the implementation of this concept at national level

Keywords: manager, organization, society, culture, principles.

Introduction

The field of management interferes with a great number of disciplines: social sciences, logics, philosophy, mathematics, information technology, international relations, linguistics and culture. In order to be well-trained, the future manager needs a wide variety of knowledge in various domains and skills that allow him to fulfill a number of functions; all these will help him it improve qualitatively his decisions and skills. [1], [2], [3]

The purpose of the article is to highlight the changes issued in the organizations and in the management practices due to the development of modern management theories and the adaptability of the manager’s role in a permanent changing society.

In this regard, such an example presented in the paper is the implementation in organizations of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which means going beyond the total fulfilling of the the legal requirements by investing in "extra" human capital, in the environment and in the relationships with the stakeholders. In the paper are presented both constraints and opportunities in CSR implementation in our country and the measures that can be taken to facilitate the implementation of these measures at national level.

Modern managerial actions

A useful method of understanding management is establishing the actions that the managers should do in order to achieve organizational objectives and the actions that they actually do.

Mintzberg characterizes the situations in which the manager, in his interaction with the others, performs the roles of figurehead, leader or liaison, as follows [4], [16], [18], [21]: i) Leader - Mintzberg considers that leadership is a very important role of the manager as it involves the interaction with the others, determining the manager to transmit energy and enthusiasm to the vision he wants to convey to the people; ii) Liaison – the role of liaison refers to the manager’s action of maintaining relations of cooperation with people and structures outside the organizational unit he leads; iii) Figurehead - this activity is focused on the quality of symbol of the manager. The manager acts as a disseminator of information within the organizations, a great part of his working time being used in receiving or providing information. Mintzberg divides this role into three areas: iv) Monitoring – As managers are bombarded with a lot of data, reports, phones, rumors, gossip, analyses and minutes of meetings, correspondence, specialty journals, media, different meetings forming a kind of

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informational smog, they must decide what information should be recorded and used for decision-making and what information should be ignored; v) Dissemination – The manager must act as a turntable of the communications within an organization. He transmits information, facts, opinions or values (hopes, ideals, aspirations) inside or outside the organization, both from top down and bottom up within the organization; vi) Spokesman – In this role the manager provides information outside the organization, in its environment. [15], [17], [20] The most important managerial activity is decision-making. Mintzberg identifies four roles in this category: a) Entrepreneur - In this role the manager must identify opportunities and makes decisions that involve risk taking and changes; b) Crisis Settling - in any organization occur unforeseen events that trigger crisis or disturbances in the organization occur, and the manager must make decisions and take action; c) Resource Allocation - the ability to allocate resources represents for many the basis of the managerial power because this activity involves allocation of money, time, equipment, workforce and space. d) Negotiator - closely linked to its roles of figurehead, spokesman and resource allocator, the manager may also be asked to make decisions ass to various negotiations.

The mix of the managerial skills

The specialists from the Center of managerial skills from IESE Barcelona who initiated the Healthy Leadership Program groups the managerial skills as follows [6], [8], [19], [20]: i) Strategic skills –facilitate the generation of economic value for the firm through a superior adaptation to the environment: business vision, focus on customer, decision making, resource management; ii) Organizational skills –facilitate the development of the staff capacity and the good understanding between them: communication, teamwork and its management, coaching, negotiation, organization, networking; iii) Personal efficiency skills –facilitate the self-management in an efficient way: self-knowledge, initiative, motivation, learning, self-control, self-criticism, time management, optimism, creativity, integrity, stress management, emotions management (emotional intelligence). [5], [7], [9]

The talent and the natural inclinations have, undoubtedly, an important role to become a manager because it is not possible for someone to become a manager only after graduating from a management course. [10], [11], [12]

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The concept of R.S.C. means going beyond the total fulfillment of the legal requirements of the law, by investing in "extra" human capital, in the environment and in the relationships with the stakeholders. [13], [14], [22], [23]

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) emphasizes that the unit / company shall provide a safe and healthy working environment and take effective measures to prevent potential accidents and injuries to the health workers that occur and are associated or occur during the work, by minimizing as far as possible, the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment, given the current knowledge of the industry and of any specific hazards. [22], [23]

The managers of important international companies that have branches in our country have provided and put into practice social responsibility measures. [23] These examples are encouraging initiatives but to ensure the implementation of a widely successful concept of CSR in Romania it is needed concerted activities of support from organizations with experience in managing organizations and concerned issues of social responsibility.

Constraints and opportunities in CSR implementation in our country

Constraints in implementing CSR in our country At legislative level

Fast harmonization of legislation in the EU after Romania joined the European community legislation involving new legislative regulations, occurred in a short period of time

At economic level

Romania has gone through profound changes and a long transition which effects are still felt now: - The low productivity, technological losses, uncompetitive products and services that hinded the economic development - The lack of investment funds for refurbishment

Socials Underdeveloped middle class and still preoccupied with material stability. The upper layer of the Romanian society is limited and not very interested in social responsibility in its aspects. The bottom layer very poor, the most numerous. A lower layer majority involves high social costs.

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The consumption habits of the poor population are based on choosing products with prices as low as possible to ensure their survival.

Socio-Cultural

The civic culture is still in training and the involvement in issues of community interest is still weak. The perception of the risks to health and environment is more developed to enable the population with higher education

Opportunities in CSR implementation in our country At the legislative level

Currently the national legislation is harmonized with the European one which facilitates economic exchange and the labor, international partnerships and investments in Romania.

At economic level

The foreign investments of renowned companies and with economic performance, technology and quality of products or services provided can give a concrete example of responsible business approach. Romania has access to EU funds for financing research-development projects . Many projects financed by European funds contributed to a sustainable development of the regions in which the projects were implemented.

Socio-cultural The young people specialized both nationally and internationally and with their multidisciplinary preparations represents the hope of improving the quality of life The adoption of more responsible ways of consumption, in terms of resources, of products life cycle.

Measures to promote national implementation of CSR measures

To implement the concept of CSR in Romania in maximum organizations are necessary the following measures: promoting the concept of CSR; definition of an institutional framework to ensure support to the organizations in implementing CSR; training the concerned parties and those involved in implementing CSR;

Conclusions

The modern management involves a large number of skills and guidelines, many of which involve statistical skills related to the use of information technology, accounting and mathematics The paper reveals that discussion of changes in organizations and management practices due to the development of modern management theories and the adaptability role of the manager in a changing society.

An example presented in the paper is the implementation in organizations of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which means going beyond the fulfilling the legal requirements by investing "extra" human capital, the environment and relationships with the involved parties.

Bibliography

[1] Constantinescu, D.A. (2000)., Management general, Editura Naţională S.A., Bucureşti. [2] Fayol, H., (1996).Administration industrielle et generale, Ed. Dunod, Paris. [3] Gelinier, O., (1967). Fonctions et taches de direction generale, Ed. Hommes et techniques,

Paris. [4] Heyel, K., (1963). Enciclopedia of Management, Reinhold Publishing Co, New York. [5] Lazăr, I., (2002) Management general, Ed. Dacia, Cluj-Napoca. [6] Massie, J.L., (1967). Methodes actuelles de direction des entreprises, Les Editions

díOrganisations, Paris. [7] Mihuţ, I et all, (1998), Management, Ed. Univ. 1 Decembrie, Alba-Iulia, 1998. [8] Mintzberg, H., (1988). Generic strategies, J.A.I. Press, London. [9] Mocanu M., (2011) Management in English for Professionals, Ed. Universitară, Bucharest. [10] Nicolescu, O., (1992) Management, Ed. Didactică şi Pedagocică, Bucureşti. [11] Papa, Michael J., et al. (2008). Organizational Communication Perspectives and Trends (4th

Ed.). Sage Publications. [12] Phegan, B. (1996–2000) Developing Your Company Culture, A Handbook for Leaders and

Managers , Context Press, ISBN 0-9642205-0-4 [13] Porter, M., (1980). Competitive Strategy. Techniques for analysing industries and competitors,

The Free Press, NewYork.

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[14] Cardona, P., Lombardia P.G., (2002) Como diagnosticar y desarrollar competencias, IESE – „Revista de Antiguos Alumnos”, Nr. 86.

[15] Skinner B. F., (1974) “Reinforcement Theory and Contingency Management in Organizational Settings”, John Wiley and Sons.

[16] Torrington D., Hall L., (1995) “Personnel Management”, Ediţia a 3-a, Prentice Hall. [17] Russu, C., (1993) Management. Concepte, metode, tehnici, Ed. Expert, Bucureşti. [18] ***http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson01NatureOfManagement.pdf [19] ***http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson13Communication.pdf [20] ***http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson09Staffing.pdf [21] ***http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson18Learning.pdf [22] ***http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/soc-dial/csr/ [23] ***http://www.cnmp.ro:8083/pncdi2/program4/documente/2010/sedinta/rez/D9/92107.pdf


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Human Resource Management - Key to Success for an Organization

Rusu-Zagar G.1, Rusu-Zagar C.2, Anghel S.O.3, Mocanu M.4

1 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 2 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 3 The National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety „Alexandru Darabont”, Bucharest (ROMANIA) 4 “Dimitrie Cantemir” University, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The human resource management consists in the overall activities aimed at ensuring, developing,

motivating and keeping human resources within the organization in order to achieve its objectives with maximum efficiency and meet the employees’ needs. The article deals with the human resource management within organizations, taking into account the fact that the individual is more than a component of the productive factors, and the human resource management exceeds the rigid principles of the asset management of the firm, having to take into account a number of characteristics that escape the economic calculation.

The study carried out in the article was based on the management of the two organizations. In this respect, were chosen for case study, two hotels one in Bucharest and one in Botosani. The used diagnostic tools were the completion of questionnaires; the work in group so that to observe the image of the leader and the perception of the workers to the leader.

The research objectives were to identify the possible changes that can and should be made at the management level in the investigated organizations.

Keywords: organization, success, management, human resource.

Introduction Human resource management consists in the overall activities aimed at ensuring, developing,

motivating and retaining human resources within the organization in order to achieve its objectives with maximum efficiency and meet the employees’ needs. [1], [15]

Only by taking into account all the aspects that define the human personality - skills, knowledge, aspirations, temperament and character traits, the management may be able to lead the most precious resource, the only resource endowed with the ability to know their own limits and overcome them. [11], [12]

Exacerbation of human resources at the expense of others affects the dynamic equilibrium of the organization. [7], [10]

The study carried out in the article was based on the management of the two organizations. In this respect, were chosen for case study, two hotels one in Bucharest and one in Botosani. The used diagnostic tools were the completion of questionnaires; the work in group so that to observe the image of the leader and the perception of the workers to the leader.

The basic principles of human resource management are: [2], [4], [5], [16] i) Assessment of the human factor as a vital resource; ii) Linking, in an integrated manner, the policies and systems regarding human resources with the organizations mission and strategy; iii) The steady preoccupation of concentrating and targeting the capacities and individual efforts with a view to achieving the effective mission and objectives; iv) Developing a healthy organizational culture.


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Functions of human resource management Human resource management is a process that consists in carrying out four functions: providing,

developing, motivating and retaining the human resources.

Fig.1 - Functions of HRM

Ensuring the human resources The human resources insurance includes the following activities: 1. Human resource planning - aims to assess the needs, strategies and philosophies of the organizations

human resources, including the estimation of demand and supply on the labour market. 2. Recruitment and selection are complementary in the staff hiring process. ● Recruiting - refers to the confirmation of the need to hire new staff, finding and attracting the

stakeholders to apply for the positions offered; ● Selection - is the final stage in the recruitment decision, representing the overall processes by which

the people who meet the qualities, knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to achieve the objectives, tasks, competences and responsibilities for certain positions are chosen. [13],

3. Employees’ integration - aims at facilitating the faster integration into the organization. [8], [9]

Human resource development The function of human resource development includes the following activities [6], [14], [17]: 1. Employees’ training and development - aims to identify, appreciate, and - through planned training –

to facilitate the development of the key skills that allow the individuals to perform tasks related to some present or future positions.

2. Career Management - aims to ensure the long-term correspondence between the employees’ needs for career development and the positions and the career paths available within the organization.

3. The organizational development - aims to ensure healthy intra and inter-group relationships and to help the groups anticipate, initiate and manage change.

Maintaining human resources The maintenance function consists in ensuring those working conditions which the employees consider

necessary in order to remain within the organization. It includes the following activities [3], [12], [15], [16]: 1. Discipline, security, health – consist in ensuring the optimal conditions of hygiene, occupational

safety and strict work discipline as in carrying out programs to combat the causes of indiscipline at work


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(reducing fatigue, rehabilitation programs, ensuring consistency between employees and the goals of the organization, etc.).

2. Employees counselling and stress management – consists in the provision of services for employees, advice on different areas - including solving personal problems.

Case study The case study consisted of filling out questionnaires at a hotel in Bucharest and one in Botosani in

which the employees answered to the question: "Do you think that an employee who takes the complaint to a higher level than his direct boss will bear

any consequences later?" (fig. 2, 3).This correlates very well with the fact that most of the employees think about the possible consequences they may incur when appealing to a higher level than to their direct boss (18% certain, 44% likely –Bucharest respectively 19% certain, 37% likely, Botosani), Fig.2 and 3.

Fig.2 Survey conducted on the question: "Do you think that an employee who complains to a higher level than

directly to his boss will bear eventual consequences later?" - Hotel Bucharest

Fig.3 Survey conducted on the question: "Do you think that an employee who complains to a higher level than

directly to his boss will bear eventual consequences later?" - Hotel Botosani

This fear of possible consequences (often found in organizations with a high power distance and with a high index of uncertainty control) is encountered within the organization investigated especially at the level of executive positions for employees having no more than 13 years of education (table 1 and 2).

Table 1. The correlation between the fear of consequences to complain to a higher level and the years of education - Bucharest hotel

Years of study There is fear <10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 >17 TOTAL %

Yes, there will be consequences (safe and probable)

14 9 18 11 4 3 2 - 4 65 62

There will not be consequences (safe and probable)

8 1 6 4 3 4 3 6 5 40 44

Total 22 10 24 15 7 37 5 6 9 105 100


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Table 2. The correlation between the fear of consequences to complain to a higher level and years of education - hotel Botosani

The lower the level of education is, the higher the fear of the consequences is (Table 1 and 2), which symbolizes that most of the employees think of working in the hospitality system until their retirement.

Conclusions Human resource management is a complex of activities oriented towards the efficient use of personnel

of an organization, pursuing both its objectives and the employee’s needs. The current article deals with human resource management in organizations, considering that the

individual is more than a component of the productive factors, and human resource management is beyond the rigid principles of the company’s asset management, taking into account a number of features that evade the economic calculation.

Thus, managers must take into account the working conditions that employees regarded as necessary in order to remain within the organization. Following the case studies carried out in the two organizations it results that the relationship between the staff management and the employees need to be improved, to a more important opening to the employees with higher education and to those with a lower level of studies.

Bibliography [1] Adams, J. S. (1963). “Toward an Understanding of Equity”, Journal of Abnormal and Social

Psychology. [2] Black, Richard J. (2003). Organizational Culture: Creating the Influence Needed for Strategic

Success , London UK, ISBN 1-58112-211-X [3] Bligh, Michelle C. (2006) "Surviving Post-merger 'Culture Clash': Can Cultural Leadership

Lessen the Casualties?" Leadership, vol. 2: pp. 395 - 426. [4] Cameron, Kim S. & Quinn, Robert E. (2005) "Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture:

Based on the Competing Values Framework", The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series, ISBN 13 978-0-7879 -8283-6

[5] Corporate Leadership Council (2003). Building Organizational Culture for High Performance. Corporate Executive Board. Retrieved from www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com.

[6] Cummings, Thomas G. & Worley, Christopher G. (2005), Organization Development and Change, 8th Ed., Thomson South-Western, USA, ISBN 0324260601.

[7] Harris, Stanley G. (1994) "Organizational Culture and Individual Sensemaking: A Schema-Based Perspective." Organization Science, Vol. 5, (3): pp. 309–321.

[8] Hofstede, G., B. Neuijen, D. Ohayv, şi G. Sanders (1990) Measuring Organizational Cultures: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study across Twenty Cases, Administrative ScienceQuarterly , 35, 286-316.

[9] Jex, Steven M. Jex & Britt, Thomas W. (2008) Organizational Psychology, A Scientist-Practitioner Approach, Wiley, USA ISBN 978-0-470-10976-2 .

[10] Papa, Michael J., et al. (2008). Organizational Communication Perspectives and Trends (4th Ed.). Sage Publications.

[11] Phegan, B. (1996–2000) Developing Your Company Culture, A Handbook for Leaders and Managers, Context Press, ISBN 0-9642205-0-4.

[12] Skinner B. F. (1974). “Reinforcement Theory and Contingency Management in Organizational Settings”, John Wiley and Sons.

[13] Torrington D., Hall L., “Personnel Management, Ediţia a 3-a, Prentice Hall, 1995 [14] http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson10HumanResourceManagement.pdf [15] http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson11HumanResourceManagement.pdf [16] http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson20Motivation&ItsTheories.pdf [17] http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson39Stress&StressManagement.pdf

Years of study There is fear <10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 >17 TOTAL %

Yes, there will be consequences (safe and probable)

9 5 6 7 4 4 5 2 3 45 56

There will not be consequences (safe and probable)

7 2 4 3 2 4 3 5 6 36 44

Total 16 7 10 10 6 8 8 7 9 81 100


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Europe in Virtual Reality of Computer Games

Samoylova E.1, Shaev Y.2

1 Post graduate (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) 2 Associate Professor (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) blu_sky_angel@ mail.ru, [email protected]

Abstract Modern information technologies affect more and more on different aspects of human life. One of the

forms of their manifestation is the so-called computer games - a special virtual reality, which reflects the different aspects of contemporary life: historical, temporal, and spatial. Particular development in computer games is regarding the phenomenon of identity, which is often refers us to an alternative world of Europe or to an alternative retelling of historical events. The identity in these games becomes a pointing factor by which the player can understand in which European country the action takes place and “touch” the cultural and historical aspects of the game. Computer games thus act as a representation of countries and peoples, and often reflect the social and political component of the society. Europe is some kind of a cross point not only for different cultures and events that occur in the current reality, but in video games - it is a stronghold storyline of virtual life. Computer game is representation of historical and social development of Europe, and allows gamers touch to the phenomena of virtual reality. Thus the phenomenon of European identification can be analyzed from the philosophical and semiotic points of view.

Keywords: computer games, identification, Europe, virtual reality, history, society, information technologies.

Introduction In modern society, we pay more and more attention to the development of computer technologies,

which more or less, directly or indirectly effect on human life. One of the most rapidly developing areas of computer technologies are computer games.

In addition to its entertainment function, the computer game allows modern man to find answers to the deep philosophical questions of freedom, good and evil, love, war and peace, as well as to realize his creative abilities. Computer games have achieved a high level of the development, that today on the screen we can see an alternative, "living" world in all its brilliance. Furthermore the special equipment (goggles, special motion sensors) can create the illusion of immersion in virtual reality.

Propose of the study In such circumstances, a special development receives the phenomenon of identity. It becomes a kind of

indicator of cultural identity in a multicultural reality. In the present study, we consider the phenomenon of identity as a cultural, social, political and historical component of virtual reality. The specific purpose of the study will be a review of this components and who the gamer percept virtual reality which displays "real Europe." Moreover, nowadays in Europe, we can see so called crisis of the identity of European person. Such crisis of the reality is reflected in the virtual world. Complicated social processes which are taken part in Europe are revealed in virtual reality. They are revealed as a complex of the signs. Socio-cultural realities, heroes of the game are represented as a complex signs. To analyze it we use semiotic approach. As for sign we understand as a unity of significant and significance. Significance is the complex of the effect and reactions which are connected to the sign.

Methods of the study To achieve this goal, we will use such methods as: the method of semiotic analysis, hermeneutic

method, the method of comparative analysis, descriptive method, the method of analysis and synthesis, method


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of semantic analysis. We also use the method of semiotic reconstruction i.e.it is attempt to renascence in the sing universe relations and connection which are existed in the real world.

Background of the study The term "virtual reality" was introduced in the middle Ages, but its modern interpretation associated

with the name Jaron Lanier who developed and promoted the technologies of the future. Philosophical analysis of virtual reality was held by foreign scholars who have focused on changes which were passing under its influence in the person inner world and in the society (E. Reid [1], H. Reinhold [2], J. Suler [3], J. Donath [4], [5], etc.). A special attention should be paid to the article of J. Suler “Identity management in cyberspace”. In the article the author note that: “We express our identity in the clothes we wear, in our body language, through the careers and hobbies we pursue. We can think of these things as the media through which we communicate who we are. Similarly, in cyberspace, people choose a specific communication channel to express themselves. There are a variety of possibilities and combinations of possibilities, each choice giving rise to specific attributes of identity” [3]. Another author who devoted her article to the cyberspace theme is Judith Donath. Speaking about identity she wrote: “New ways of establishing and of hiding identity are evolving in the virtual world. There is no formula that works best in all forums: balancing privacy and accountability, reliability and self-expression, security and accessibility requires a series of compromises and trade-offs whose value is very dependent on the goals of the group and of the individuals that comprise it. […] It is a world that has evolved an intricate system of signals and behaviors that aid in establishing identity and in controlling identity deception”. [4]

Main argument The identity reveals various aspects of human life in virtual reality. By itself, the identity is realization

of belonging to different social, national, professional, linguistic, political, religious, racial and other groups, the realization of social and personal position within the social roles. The concept of "identity" originally appeared in psychiatry in the context of studying the phenomenon of “identity crisis” that describes the state of mental patients who have lost their understanding of themselves and of the sequence of events of his life. American psychoanalyst Erik Erikson moved it into the psychology of development, showing that the identity crisis is a normal human process. At the present stage of human development, identification can be seen as a complex dialectical process, which was mentioned by I.S. Cohn. In reality of computer games, a person modify their identity and puts on a "mask" thereby becoming another, a man that does not exist in the current reality. Thus, a computer game cleans out all the external factors which are irrelevant, and leaves the gamer face to face with what he said o did. This type of reality gives a chance to choose. And here the gamer finds the opportunity, which he denied in everyday life - to understand who he really is, what he wants, how the people will react on his actions and his behavior. This "mask" frees one from the social, political, ethical rules, because in the world of video games, even the concepts of "good" and "evil" are often blurred. No matter whom the person is, no matter where in the planet he is, the computer world gives him the opportunity to "touch" the cultural customs and traditions of other countries and peoples.

The psychological aspect of computer identity is closely related to cultural and historical aspects. On their own computer games can be considered as a memory of generation, which bears traces of human activity, and may be associated with religious, mythological, or even a magical worldview of a people. There are plenty of games based on mythology, or combine elements of archaic, archetypal images and the reality of the modern man. For example the game “Loki” tells us the story of the hero's journey not only about the ancient Scandinavia, but also about Egypt, ancient Greece, and Latin America. In all locations the player must face the monsters that have been taken from ancient beliefs and legends. As we see the psychological aspect of the test is closely connected with the cultural and historical.

Often in computer games, the gamer can immerse themselves in the historical events that interact with historical figures, and “influence” on the course of world history. For example, a series of computer games “Assassin's Creed” allows the player to travel and act not only in Damascus, Jerusalem, Venice, Rome, Florence, but also "interact" with the well-known historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Caterina Sforza, Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, Niccolo Machiavelli, Pope Alexander III, Robert de Sable, Richard I the Lionheart.

The actions of another computer game “Velvet assassin” occur in the XX during the Second World War. The player will play the role of Violet Szabo, a girl who was an English spy, secret agent. In this way the player moves on a destroyed Europe, performing a variety of military missions. Here, the player identifies with real historical figure - Violet Szabo, who lost her husband in the war, joined the ranks of British intelligence. In occupied France as an agent she spends several successful operations. But in the end she had been discovered and captured. Violetta was shot in Konigsberg in 1945. Players are invited to repeat the exploits of the famous spy: the story of the game is presented in the form of the “memories” of the protagonist. Thus, the player does


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not just identify with the protagonist of the game, but his identity becomes strictly connected with the personality of the main hero.

In other game «Gray Matter» key feature is that the player can not only visit to Oxford as a student, to enroll in a club, but also to participate in the neurobiological research on methods that approximate real.

The cultural but not historical component can be detected in a series of computer game “Need for speed”, in which the gamer can “participate” in the races that are taken place around the world, but also in Europe (London, Cataluña, Rouen, Riviera). Driving around the streets of the cities, the participant can see replicas of attractions, drive through the famous streets, or even ride in a virtual copy of the Coliseum. Identity in a game remains the same, but it is enriched with different for its own culture, cultural components. However, even such games have storylines where the hero often a driver (usually an American or English), from lower social classes, is involved in street races, because he has to earn a money for living. This "mask" defines not only a national identity, but also social and political.

Results After analyzing the various types of computer games, we can make the conclusion that, in the most

vivid games, there are three interrelated aspects that determine the identity of modern man: psychological, cultural and historical, each of which contributes to an invaluable treasure in the vision of a complete picture of the new reality.

The psychological aspect, the most significant, effects on the player, allows a person to "live" a new life in the world of computer technologies, discovers their creative and intellectual abilities. "Living" in the role of a character often abstracts the individual from the outside world and allows us to solve some philosophical problem (the problem of time and space, freedom). "Living" in the role is directly related to the human understanding of the culture, and therefore the cultural aspect in the whole.

Cultural aspect is reduced, not only to the mythological, but also to the historical conception of the game. In most cases, computer games are the only way for a person to feel the spirit of a bygone era, to open and appreciate the art and architecture of ancient times and fell different aspects of being.

References [1] Reid, E. (1991). Electropolis: Communication and community on internet relay chat. Thesis,

Dept. of History, University of Melbourne. [2] Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier.

MA: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. [3] Suler, J.R. (2002). Identity Management in Cyberspace. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic

Studies, 4, pp. 45 -460. [4] Donath, J. (1998). Identity and deception in the virtual community. Communities in Cyberspace.

London: Routledge. [5] Donath, J. (1995). Sociable Information Spaces. Proceedings of the Second IEEE International

Workshop on Community Networking, Princeton, NJ, June, 1995.


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Kantian ethics vs. Utilitarian and Consequentialist Ethics in the Kidney Transplant

Sandu A.1 1 Associate Professor PhD. Mihail Kogalniceanu University of Iasi; Lumen Research Centre in Social and Humanistic Sciences (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract At the end of August 2013, Romanian mass-media presented a controversy regarding the ethics in the

transplant policies, generated by the fact that a well-known artist, aged over 70, received a kidney from a donor in cerebral death, after being on the transplant list for only 3 days. Certain representatives of NGOs show that the financial situation and the wide popularity of the patient – and therefore the transfer of notoriety towards the doctor performing the surgery – where the criteria that the preferential transplant was based on. We will argue that both the patient and the doctor acted correctly from the deontological point of view: the patient accepted the treatment that could save his life, thus respecting the duty towards himself as a person, and the doctor performing the surgery acted according to the duty towards his own patient, respecting the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. In our opinion, the doctor that performs such surgeries should not be burdened with the necessity of such ethical decisions that exceed the effective implementation of a set of deontological principles. In the transplant policy, a situation of discrimination based on the social value of the patient may be concerned. We make a distinction between the deontological approach according to which life and health state are values that should equally be defended for all patients, regardless of their social status on one hand, and the utilitarian-consequentialist approach that justifies a privileged situation based on the social value as a potentially socially useful patient and implicitly the maximizing of social good generated by the choice – the number of persons that will appreciate the artist’s creation – on the other hand.

Keywords: Kantian ethics, utilitarianism, kidney transplant, consequentialist

Introduction At the end of August 2013, Romanian mass-media presented a controversy regarding the ethics in the

transplant policies, generated by the fact that a well-known artist, aged over 70, received a kidney from a donor in cerebral death, after being on the transplant list for only 3 days. Representatives of certain NGOs implicated in social work and care for patients with chronic kidney failure criticize the actor for accepting the surgery, and the doctor for actually performing the surgery, showing that transplant waiting list includes young people that have been waiting for more than 7 years to receive a compatible organ, some of them facing a high risk of death. The judgement of the representatives of the NGOs shows that the financial situation and especially the wide popularity of the patient – and implicitly the transfer of notoriety towards the doctor performing the surgery – were the criteria that the preferential transplant was based on. We start this case study from the declaration of the Director of the transplant Centre where the surgery was performed, according to which the eligibility for transplant is dependent on the social value of the patient (the Director’s declaration was taken from the local press). We will argue that both the patient and the doctor acted correctly from the deontological point of view: the patient accepted the treatment that would save his life, thus respecting the duty towards himself as a person, and the doctor performing the surgery acted according to the duty towards his own patient, respecting the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence.

In the transplant policy, a situation of discrimination based on the social value of the patient may be concerned. We make a distinction between the deontological approach according to which life and health state are values that should equally be defended for all patients, regardless of their social status on one hand, and the utilitarian-consequentialist approach that justifies a privileged situation based on the social value as a potentially socially useful patient and implicitly the maximizing of social good generated by the choice – the number of persons that will appreciate the artist’s creation – on the other hand.


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We emphasize the existence of a conflict between the value of the human life in general, and the value of a certain life in particular, of a significant individual from the community. The utilitarian perspective brings into question the choice between a well-known person who is, rightfully, a personality in the cultural field, but who will only be able to perform for another relatively short number of years due to old age, and an unknown young person that might become anything, either a genius or a terrorist, but who will be socially active for a larger number of years.

The deontological perspective of Kantian inspiration targets the intrinsic, just or unjust nature of an action, regardless of their consequences. This is an essentialist perspective based on the premise that there is a moral value that could be known by the moral agent and that should determine moral nature of its own actions. The ethical principles should be emphasized by the very natural order of things since the moral norm is a universal maxim. In our opinion, its identification represents the essence of the moral agent’s autonomy. The application in the moral norm practice ensures the moral fairness of the behaviour, regardless of its consequences. Moral values are included in the principles and derive from them as a logical consequence. Therefore, moral values are also universal [1].

Regarding the constructionist ethics, on the other hand, we consider that the moral values are results of a collective action of negotiation of the interpretations on what is truly valuable. Principles represent the way in which the interpretive community choses to transpose the ethical values into the social practice. The first ones establish the ethical fundament of a social practice, while the second set of values governs the process of social implementation of the first values. Once the values and principles are being accepted in an interpretive community, they gain constructive value, similar to that of essences in the essentialist ethics.

The process of social construction is continuous, being the structured environment of the social interaction. This is why he is not acknowledged by the moral agents that assign constructs a value of essence. Only the deconstruction processes can emphasize the interpretive pact that sets forth a moral value and implements it under the form of certain principles of ethical actions. We therefore consider that the principlist ethics are such models of social construction of ethical principles that highlight the ethical postulates. Those postulates are accepted by a community as being a common morality and transform them into principles of practice as if they would have an essential value per se. The principlist ethics can be considered, in our opinion, as belonging to the deontological paradigm only under the aspect of the ethical decidability. The ethical justification of actions is only done by reporting to the principle, either as essence or social construct, both having maximum moral value. Turning back to the case mentioned in the introduction, we shall analyse from the deontological perspective – the deontology understood as ethic of action according to certain universally valid compulsory ethical principles regardless of whether these have an essential or social construct value – the position of the 3 characters: the patient, the doctor performing the surgery and the institutions and competent services that perform and implement the transplant policies.

1 The libertarian and utilitarian perspective The libertarian perspective includes, among the selection criteria of patients for transplant, the ability to

pay for the service, the age of the patient, the social value of the individual and the degree of social autonomy [2]. The economical capacity of the patient targets a transaction outside the community framework of the sources of transplanted organs. As for the economic criteria as a criteria for selecting the transplant beneficiaries, we limit ourselves to highlighting the inequitable and potentially discriminating nature of a marginal population. The predominant utilitarian health policies can disadvantage certain vulnerable populations, the impoverished categories of the society, and can encourage the illegal practices of selling organs [2]. The existence of parallel categories of population that benefit and don’t benefit from live prolonging therapies, among which we have the organ transplant, are considered sources of major inequity[3] with risk of oppression and social order impairment. We support the unjust nature of creating a category of population with a higher life expectancy due to the economic inequity [4].

The utilitarian perspective brings to attention the principle of social utility by maximizing welfare and minimizing the suffering for a larger number of individuals. The balance of welfare includes a component of cost-benefit analysis at the social level, as a fundament of the ethical decision regarding the opportunity of any life prolonging therapies, including transplant. As utilitarian criteria for selecting the patients for transplant, they invoked the quality of life after the transplant (QALY Quality Adjusted Life Years) – criteria that gains a wider proportion that the clinical emergency. Another criterion is the post-transplant estimated productivity of the individual for the society [2]. The objections target the discrimination of certain categories disadvantaged on economic criteria of suffering from socially incapacitating diseases, etc. Criteria such as: emergency, life expectancy, compatibility, the degree of limitation of resources, the capacity to tolerate the post-transplant treatment [2].


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1.1 The Perspective of the Patient The press reproaches the patient the fact that he accepted the transplant after being on the waiting list of

potential beneficiaries of transplant for only 3 days. This action comes in the detriment of other patients that have been waiting for many years. From the deontological perspective we do not consider relevant the age of the patient, the social status, the prestige and the fortune. We consider it implicit the existence of an ethical dilemma the patient is facing, namely the value of his own life versus value of a life of another human being.

We eliminated the age criteria, the position and the social status because they have accident nature for the human condition and the universalist ethical principles cannot take into account the particularities and specificities of different moral agents. The Universalist ethics formulate compulsory principles for all the categories of moral agents regardless of their particular situation. Therefore, they are not contextual or contextualized. The patient is facing the situation of having to choose between his own life and the life of other human beings. In our opinion, only one situation requires analysis, the one where the patient could benefit from another therapy to keep him alive, even with the price of a lower quality of life, and there would be persons on the transplant list that patient is aware that, in the absence of an immediate transplant, would be condemned to death. In any other situation, the patient has to choose between equal moral values whereas his life and the one of another person are human lives as should be considered equally important. The principle of respecting the autonomy gives the patient the right to choose between equal values, his own life being the closer to him of the two values.

In the situation of the aforementioned exception, only in the case in which the patient would be aware of the particular situation of another patient that, in the absence of a transplant, would be condemned to imminent death, and that the already existing organ would be compatible with that patient, the moral duty of the patient to sacrifice his own quality of life in favour of the life of the other patient may be invoked.

However, it is not natural to assume that the patient has exact knowledge of the transplant list; therefore we reject the mentioned exception as implausible. In conclusion, from the deontological point of view, the patient opted correctly for his own life, exercising its own autonomy. The duty towards his own life can be considered an additional argument that the patient acted correctly from a deontological perspective.

1.2 The Perspective of the Doctor Performing the Transplant The surgeon performing the transplant should not be facing any ethical dilemma because he acts in

favour of his patient, respecting the principle of beneficence and non-maleficence. The doctor performing such surgeries should not be burdened, in our opinion, with the necessity of such ethical decisions that exceed the effective application of a set of deontological principles such as the ones mentioned. The particular situation the doctor might face if, aside his physician status, he should also be a part of the management of the sources of the organs for transplant is not object of this level of analysis because this is another status and it implies another level of ethical analysis. We only highlight that the hypothetical situation in which the doctor performing the surgery is also implicated in managing the resources for transplant, would place the doctor in an ethical dilemma of having to choose between the life, or at least the quality of life of his own patient, and the ones of the other existing patients. The way out of this dilemma might be to voluntarily giving up one of the positions either by delegating a colleague to perform the surgery, or by abstaining from assigning the organs for transplant.

1.3 The Perspective of the Decision Makers and the Health Policies From the point of view of the decision makers, of all people implicated in creating and implementing

the transplant policies, the deontological perspective would start from the equal respect for the value of life of all patients. The egalitarianism is, in his opinion [5] the current from the political and ethical philosophy that defends the idea of social justice based on substantial equalities among the members of the community. The egalitarianism targets the fundamental principles of justice that create standards of moral evaluation and that allow evaluating the degree of justice or injustice of a situation, practice, policy [5]. The mentioned author makes a distinction between the distributive egalitarianism and the relational egalitarianism. The distributive egalitarianism refers to the egalitarianism of chance, egalitarianism of opportunity and relational egalitarianism. The distribution of justice targets the existing resources at the level of society and the existing advantages [5], [7]. The application of this principle in the transplant policies aims at offering equal chances to all potential beneficiaries to have access to the treatment.

Due to the limited nature of the organ resources for transplant, one cannot speak of equality of benefits. Not all potential beneficiaries will be able to benefit from the transplant. As is, the establishment of certain policies regarding the equality of chances to have access to the treatment is imposed. For example, the simple method of picking chances for the order of the beneficiaries is not equitable, in our opinion, because it does not respect the equality of opportunities. Criteria such as compatibility between the available organ and the patient, the risk of death of the patient in the absence of transplant, life expectancy, etc. may constitute criteria that will


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achieve equity of therapeutically opportunities. The mentioned criteria are no longer part of the deontological field because it wards off from the universal, going into the particular of the moral casuistry. The mentioned criteria are of consequentialist nature. The ethical decisions starting from the worst condition and the most favourable prognosis are also choices made from utilitarian consequentialist perspective since it targets the maximum good for a large number of beneficiaries, where good is defined by the expected health state after the surgery. The simple chronological approach based on a waiting list does not reflect the equality of chances to a good life, because some of the patients might benefit from other therapeutically treatments in order to improve their quality of life, whereas other patients that enter the waiting list later, may be facing imminent death if not getting the transplant. The consideration of equity and equality of chances opens the way to a consequentialist analysis as a source of ethical deliberation. If, from a deontological perspective, the action is per se moral, from a consequentialist point of view we avoid the discussion between right or wrong, transferring it in terms of consequences of the decision. The deontology leads the way to moral judgment over the nature of the moral agent’s facts, whereas the consequentialism leads the way to ethical deliberations on the possible consequences of the ethical activity. An action might seem unjust from the perspective of a subjective and strictly deontological egalitarianism, but it might gain fair nature in terms of its consequences. In the mentioned case, we emphasize the existence of a conflict between the value of the human life in general, and the value of a particular life of a significant person in the community. In this context, it is useful to draw attention to the possibility of certain abuses of regulation in the field of ethics, similar to the abuse of rights that is being discussed in the context of legal normativity [6]. The utilitarian perspective calls into question the choice between a well-known person who is a personality of the cultural world but who will only successfully perform for another couple of years more due to old age, and a young person, hypothetically chosen from the list, that might become anything, either a genius or a terrorist, but who might be socially active for a longer period of time. This dilemma introduces the utilitarian consequentialist perspective, the privileged situation according to the social value as potentially social usefulness of the patient and implicitly the maximizing of social good generated by the choice – the number of persons that will appreciate the creation of the artist. This ethical deliberation falls outside the egalitarian field postulating different social values of the life of the individuals and cannot be, in our opinion, recognized as decision criteria which are acceptable from a deontological view. On the other hand, on the level of common morality, despite the egalitarian declaration, a different value of life for the persons with a privileged social status is being tacitly accepted. The conflict of values is at the level of common morality, asking, on one hand, equity and equality in front of law, and, on the other hand, accepting the inequity of certain privileged positions. In the case we analysed, the consequentialist choice based on social values is counterintuitive from the egalitarians and deontological perspectives. Our opinion is that the dilemma is completely fake because the categories of good compared are from different fields of social reality, the first one targeting the value of life is part of the field of fundamental values related to the human being, and the second one, related to the potential utility of the artist as an instrument of creating social welfare, is from the field of welfare, therefore, on the second level.

Conclusions Concluding the analysis, we support the idea according to which both the patient and the doctor

performing the surgery have acted ethically in the deontological limits of the duty towards own health in the case of the patient, and the duty towards his own patient and respecting the beneficence and non-maleficence as principles of practice in the case of the doctor. In the case of the decision makers, we claim that the deontological ethics is insufficient to ensure a real equality of chances to a better life. We join the idea of consequentialist analysis in the theory of the ethical decision regarding the transplant policies. We dissociate from the inconstant utilitarianism which, in order to maximize social good, illegitimately mixes the level of the value of life with the one of social value of a particular individual. We didn’t bring into discussion the inequity generated by the inequalities of resources needed to finance the medical act, situation which we considered as not being part of the current research.

References [1] Sandu, A., Caras, A., (2013). Deconstruction of Charity. Postmodern ethical approaches, pp 72-

99. [2] Holman, A., (2011). Criterii etice de selecție a pacienților pentru transplant, Etica politicilor de

sănătate, Worksop desfășurat în cadrul proiectului Etica politicilor de sănătate, UMF, Gr.T. Popa Iași.

[3] Harris, J.,(2004). Immortal Ethics , Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci 1019: 527- 534.


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[4] Sandu, A.,(2013). The Anthropology of Immortality and The Crisis of Posthumane Conscience, presented on International Conference, PHEADE, 2013, Suceava, 30nov-1 december 2013.

[5] Huzum, E., (2013). Egalitarianismul, în Huzum Eugen, 2013(coord), Teorii și ideologii politice, Editura Institutului European, Iași.

[6] Ignătescu, C., (2013). Abuzul de drept, Editura Lumen, Iași. [7] Rawls, J., (1971) A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press.


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Instances of Social Construction of Chronic Patients’ Autonomy

Sandu A.1 1 Associate Prof. PhD, Mihail Kogalniceanu University, Iasi; President of Lumen Research Centre on Social and Humanistic Sciences, Iasi, (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The aim of the research was to "identify the mechanisms through which are build the responsibility for

own health condition and the autonomy of the chronic disease patient, during the care process, at the interface with family and the medico-social and religious institutions involved". Present presentation is considering a secondary analysis of data obtained from “Ethics of Health Policies” project. Reading data focuses exclusively on identifying mechanisms of social construction of patients’ autonomy in the particular Romanian context. To say that a concept (autonomy) is socially constructed is equivalent with saying that there is no unique essence of autonomy, invariant to cultural, social, historical factors etc. Autonomy, as a social construct, is the result of a series of negations on the meaning assigned to concept within a community. We have identified a number of specific instances of social construction of self, specific to the Romanian culture: a culture of paternalism, organic social solidarity, a culture of poverty and weakness, humbleness valued as humility, a culture of duplicity and relativization of values, personalizing the therapeutic relationship and the distrust in institutionalized systems. The data shown supports the conclusion that the Romanian cultural features are not favourable for chronic care models based on the principle of autonomy.

Keywords: instances, autonomy, social construction, chronic patients

Introduction This article considers a secondary analysis of data from "Ethics of Health Policies" project. Reading

data focuses exclusively on identifying mechanisms of social construction of patient's autonomy in Romanian particular context. The research purpose was to identify mechanisms through patients with chronic disease build responsibility for their own health condition, and their autonomy in the care process, at the interface with his family and social-medical and religious institutions involved.

1 Romanian cultural context Data interpretation is based on constructionist paradigm that involves a process of constant negotiation

of interpretations of the significance of events and social context in which the interpretative process occurs [4]. For the present study we sought to identify features in the Romanian context in which is build the

meaning of the concept of autonomy of the patient. The significance of autonomy, which transpires from philosophical or bioethical specialized works, places autonomy as a value in a liberal or neoliberal context that values the individual, epitomized him as a supreme value. Peculiarities of the Western model, mainly American, put the individual in the middle in terms of ideal. Without being the subject of our study, we consider that common morality, even in American society, is divided, in one based on the central value of the autonomy from libertarian nature, which has established itself as mainstream in bioethics research, and one communitarian, conservative and paternalistic often stating in policy ethics, but that is still less obvious in the area of bioethics, except anti-abortion appeal movements. On the other hand, the model of traditional Romanian culture is permeated by individualistic vision. Romanian mentality stems from a minority ideology of a society that assigns historical and minor community status and characteristics of minority identity [1].

2 Methodology The present research is based on results obtained through a series of individual and group interviews

which were conducted with specialists in diabetes treatment and family doctors involved in the care of diabetic patients, on the subject of the individual autonomy of patient and responsibility towards its own health condition.


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Both the individual and the group interviews took place during July 2011-September 2012, being made in Iasi, Romania. During the research had place five focus groups and a series of ten interviews. Focus groups lasted on average 90 minutes, and interviews on average 60 minutes, and were recorded on tape recorders, and later transcribed. The focus groups were attended by seven doctors, who work both in the public and private practice, 15 family doctors, with individual practices in urban or rural areas. Selection of participants was done with the support of Diabetes clinic from Iasi, and also the Association of Family Doctors. Patients and their families were from both urban and rural areas, being interviewed both male and female. Patients were selected both that were in early stages in experimenting condition chronic diabetic, and patients suffering from the chronic condition for more than 10 years. In one of the focus groups were invited representatives of the clergy, whom were involved in the chronic care condition.

For this research was obtained the approval of the Ethics Committee, within "Gr. T. Popa" Medicine and Pharmacy University, Iasi.

Taking into consideration the limits imposed by the specific of publication, we considered that the en-vivo structures could be removed from the analysis. Only few and very representative examples of interviewed subjects remained.

3 Discussions The validity of data is limited to the investigating discursive universe, namely the specialist in diabetes

treatment and family doctors in Iasi County, but with extrapolation potential at least at national level, given the similarities in medical practice in the care of diabetic patients.

4 Results

4.1 Humility as Ethic Value vs. Ethics of Obedience Humility is the gesture of divine recognition of misterum traemendum, omnipotent and overpowering

force. In front of divine omnipotence the only morally permissible act autonomously is kneeling in prayer. Humility involves respect, modesty, decency and love of the other. Humility involves understanding each site in the world. Interviews with priests conducted during research show awareness of the importance of collaboration with the physician for a complete healing of mind and body or at least quality care to enhance the quality of life. Humility, however, as a deep Orthodox value, has a component related to subjected attitude, heteronomous. The heteronomy of humble person derive from the feeling of his own finitude and from a waiting attitude of a good. The good’s nature is not known from a Universe generally benevolent, structurally and completely penetrated by the invisible presence of deity. In these circumstances, autonomy as self-determination or informed decision about their own life-style can be regarded as an act of pride. This interpretation does not mean denial of autonomy, but of the individualistic acceptation of this. The autonomy of Christian Orthodox appears rather as a spiritual quest. Illness and pain can be interpreted as portents of humility, by reference to divine omnipotence and hope in healing from God, or on contrary folly, rebellion against suffering, understood as undeserved divine punishment.

Opposite of humility is slavish attitude. It substitutes unconditional obedience towards divine omnipotence, with flattering and partial obedience to authority. We have not identified, in research conducted, a slavish report towards to medical decision makers. We have identified the humble attitude of patients towards doctors, as active compliance factor. A patient consults the family doctor, showing his / her specialist physician prescriptions and saying: "If you do not let me take them, I do not take them." Attitude to require a doctor's subjective control, in whom the patient trusts, the specialist who is seen as impersonal, is in our opinion, an assumed heteronomy, and can be made, inter alia, on account of the particularities of the paternalistic environment where the patient was socialized. He needs a confirmation from the authority he recognizes beyond formal medical authority. Formal authority has a mundane character, while informally recognized authority, and vested with confidence, becomes a transcendent tone. Feature autonomy in the Romanian paternalistic model seems to be just choosing informal authority and apparent adherence towards formal authority. We believe that this Romanian cultural model is a socialized instance, and as such is a cultural background of the construction of autonomy. Not in all cases was seen the calling of deity. Some interviewees expressed their spirituality distance and lack of waiting to divine. The attitude of these respondents, however, was marked by the same paternalism and reporting to recognized authority, actually this being on a "hopeful fatalism."

4.2 Mundane Transcendence / Religion – Instance of Social construction Chronic condition can introduce distortions in the representation of concepts of world, time and

necessity that are seen from the perspective of transfiguring ethos of early exit from time, by reference to a


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transcendent reality. Life can be understood as a drama to which the individual makes particular expectations, both from himself and from those close him. The way in which the individual realizes this ego otherness dialog depends very much the way he crosses towards their existence, to their own spirituality, their own relationship to Divine. In our opinion, the Romanian mentality, similar to the Balkan one, with all its own differences, is specific for a "spiritual space without limits" complementary to what Lucian Blaga called “mioritic” space, of endless succession hill valley. Sense of self Romanian has accent delimitation. The normative, axiological is, for a Romanian under the influence of Orthodoxy, situated in a cosmic transcendental, and the earth, this institutional normative world, is a test area, without significance, direct soteriological. [1]

A second parallel normativity, pseudo-traditional governs social reality. Parallel norm comes from a sense of an "anomie of reality" which is nothing but the result of primordial drop. Parallel to anomic order, there is an ancestral order of integration of normality in the cosmos, by what Mircea Eliade called cosmic Christianity.

4.3 Cultural Paternalism Managing poverty Managing poverty appears as an attribute of the current Romanian society. Vitiated by half a century of

levelling communism, prosperity is generally attached to the collective mind as immorality. One of the general practitioner interviewed indicate that at least in rural areas, diabetes is a disease less prevalent (less diagnosed). This makes that diabetes to be considered, and therapeutic adherence to be more increased, than in the case of cardio-vascular diseases considered most common. "Managing poverty" implies either a lack of adherence to treatment or formal and partial adherence. Elements of refusal of treatment, occurred in people who prefer selling glucose meters instead of monitor their health status, are formal elements of expressive autonomy. These patients are in an ethical dilemma having to choose between their own and their family temporarily welfare as immediately utility, and maintaining their health conditions in the long term. In fact we consider a cultural model element specific to managing poverty paradigm, creating minimum wealth with the price of own health. Doctor’s respondents are aware that in many cases patients cannot choose specific lifestyle diabetic chronic condition due to lack of resources and low living standards.

During the medical discourses, are often invoked the systematic underfunding, short time for consultancy settled by the Insurance House, insufficient careers etc. It is realized a comparison between the public and private sector of care. The emphasis on community care is in our vision a form of statist paternalism. Public vision seems to lead to the idea of generalized welfare state, which in practice fails into post-liberal models of social welfare management.

4.4 Systematic Duplicity as Traditional Value Systematic duplicity is based on the existence of parallel discourses, one official modern and one

particular paternalistic. The private sphere extends illegitimately upon the operation of the public sphere through courts of no institutionalized control. The private sphere assumes public management through institutional mechanisms for institutional personalization. We find the weak state model of whose institutions are not invested with trust by the public. Respondents show discrepancy between official discourse and practice within the system.

Respondents indicate that it creates a parallel course of the patient in health care system, in order to avoid system failures. It creates networks of doctors based on mutual trust between professionals. Care quality is guaranteed by the network, and the system manages mutual trust as a tool to ensure quality of care. One of the physician considers it is essential that the patient be sent to certain people (specialists - note).

5 Ethical considerations From our perspective taking institutional language is a necessary prerequisite but not sufficient for any

reform. The forms create content in time, and as such they will be the prerequisite for the social construction of a Romanian neo-modernity. Autonomy, in its bioethics meaning, is currently a form in a full process of social construction of a particular fund. In our opinion, it will be neither identical to the classic principlism, nor opposed to it. The autonomy construct will manage also in the Romanian common morality, and hence in the Romanian bioethics, where we have the idea of self-care and will be correlated with patients' rights. It will be added a particular shade, namely expressive autonomy [2].

We understand the patient's expressive autonomy as beyond the pure expression of his subjectivity as a human being, with an attitude of overcoming the immediate, where the individual is passive to his suffering, through an active control, which is socially mediated, upon his decisions. Expressive autonomy differs of self-determination. The first expresses the quality of the individual as a person - in the spiritual sense - being tied to the dignity of the human condition, while self-determination mostly refers to the particular individual and his dignity. Expressive autonomy has a hint of assuming passive suffering as an existential condition. Expressive


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autonomy has not only a side of therapeutic compliance, but of solidarity against the systemic based on personal trust. Formally, in the logic of the care system, the emphasis is on an ethic of social justice and equity in accessing the services. Informally, the emphasis is on an ethics of care, with a communitarian focus. Care is personalized, avoiding standardization that is systematically denied, being seen as dehumanizing and robotics of the medical practice.

5.1 Doctor’s Particular Status as Authority The doctor himself is often seen as part of the treatment, as often the patient adheres to the treatment in

order to please the doctor. Good doctor is one who facilitates the patient the good patient patient role. Risk management realized is made through trust that is given to the various professional groups responsible for the quality of life of subjects. Trust is one of the main elements of the doctor-patient relationship, whereas is an assigned element, and allows the transformation of and individual subjective fact in an interpersonal relationship. Past experience and credibility are not the only criterion for the award of trust [3]. Generally, it occurs a subjectivity note in moral reasoning which is no longer based solely on evidence. Trust is given to a person without an obvious credibility and even if evidence that the person is unreliable [3]. The decision on granting or not granting trust is an act of the subject, as the autonomous moral agent. Autonomous decision of allocation or non-allocation is based on a moral judgment that is not reasoning based on evidence, in strictly Kantian meaning. It takes into account the motives such as sympathy, sense of confidence, willingness to trust, faith, etc.

The lack of ability to provide trust, and treat others as a priori being distrustful people, generates arbitrariness in the decision process. Trust is not the result of a certainty upon moral behaviour of the other; it is rather the result of uncertainty about the person's action. Therefore trust is generally granted for a limited set of social actions. A doctor can be trusted as a professional, and so the patient accepting that it will work in the interest of giving the patient the best possible treatment but also considered the doctor of no confidence in other respects, for example car driving safely [3]

Established trust relationship between doctor and patient is founded on the progressive relational autonomy, both from doctor and patient. Doctor's authority is quasi spiritual, being derived mainly from the prestige of the medical profession and less of the physician's. Prestige is not enough for managing trust, thus being done on personal relationship.

Conclusions Summarizing the most important conclusions we can say that: The Romanian cultural peculiarities are not conducive for chronic care models based on the

principle of autonomy. In the Romanian cultural model prevails expressive autonomy against self-direction. The

Romanian Cultural favours expressive autonomy. Systemic duplicity acts as a stabilizing factor in generating certain incriminating systems based on weak

institutions. The system generates parallel efficiency, coherence and solidarity. Moral relativism is assumed as a social construction and reconstruction of ethical values depending on the cultural context. Central value of humility, in its deeper Christian meaning, could successfully replace the principle of autonomy in a Romanian ethno-ethical space.

Acknowledgements Postdoctoral fellow within the project “Postdoctoral studies in the domain of ethics in health policies”

at „Gr. T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy from Iasi

References [1] Sandu, A., Bradu, O., (2009) Romanian Mentality. From Homo Balcanicus to Home Europeaus,

Revista Românească pentru Educaţie Multidimensională Year 1, No. 1, August, pp: 6-11 [2] Sandu, A. (2012b). Etica si deontologie profesională, Iasi, Editura Lumen. [3] O'Neill, O., (2001). Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics, Cambridge University Press. [4] Sandu, A. (2012a). Appreciative ethics. A constructionist version of ethics, Saarbrucken, Lap

Lambert.


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Virtual Philosophical Cafe as Appreciative Philosophical Practice

Sandu A.1

1 FSEAP Stefan cel Mare University from Suceava; Social and Humanistic Research Center Lumen, Iasi (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract Specifics existential dilemmas, which can be addressed by philosophical practice, is often linked to

conflict of values, generated by opposing or conflicting cognitive positions, which interferes with the social functioning of the individual. The philosopher practitioner role is to present to the individual a number of possibilities of interpretation for the situation he / she is in, in accordance with one or another of the philosophical doctrines, and to provide theoretical justifications for its practical attitude.

Philosophical Café is a technique for facilitating philosophical dialogue on various topics of current impact. Philosophical café can be used in stimulating philosophical debate by a public without prior philosophical training. Article aims to present an innovative methodology of philosophical practice through internet called Virtual Philosophical Cafe, model based on the idea of Philosophical Cafe and adapted to the features of discussion groups existing on the social sites. In this context we have chosen the theme of debate about bioethical issues. VirtualPhilo Cafe has the form of a discussion group on the Internet, which transposes into the specific of virtual communication a model derived from the restructured Philosophical Cafe, starting from the experience of Appreciative Socialization Groups and the type of participatory practice of World Cafe.

Keywords: virtual philosophical café, philosophical practice, appreciative socialisation group

1 Introduction Philosophical Café is a technique for facilitating philosophical dialogue on various topics of current

impact. Philosophical café can be used in stimulating bioethical debates by a public without prior ethical training. The article aims to present the methodology of VirtualPhilo Cafe, model based on the idea of Philosophical Cafe and adapted to the features of discussion groups existing on the social sites. In this article we will present the results of a bioethical debate through virtual cafe, starting from postnatal abortion subject.

2 Philosophical practice The purpose of philosophical practice, as thought by Lou Marinoff [1], is to solve the current problems

of individuals, or how we translate it, the existential dilemmas that they face in everyday life, through philosophical instruments. Specifics existential dilemmas, which can be addressed by philosophical practice, is often linked to conflict of values, generated by opposing or conflicting cognitive positions, which interferes with the social functioning of the individual. The philosopher practitioner's role is to present to the individual a number of possibilities of interpretation for the situation he / she is in, in accordance with one or another of the philosophical doctrines, and to provide theoretical justifications for its practical attitude. Practical philosophy applies in areas such as: psychosocial counselling, management strategies, ethical guidance. Philosophical counselling proposes to transform lives through the rediscovery of interrogative and interpretative dimension of human consciousness, and its application on everyday experience. It is an experience of freedom transposed from the metaphysical plan into the social one.

2.1 (Bio)ethical Counselling Ethical counselling is a process that facilitates identification of ethical dilemmas faced by individuals or

organizations, and also ways out of these dilemmas, which are converging with the shared vision of the individual or organization. Ethical counselling is done as a gradual process that covers a series of steps to increase the client's self potential [2]. This definition is adapted from the specifics of social work counselling,


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and allows us to affirm that this is a particular situation of counselling closer to philosophical practice, through the frameworks of addressing it. Ethical expertise, ethical consultancy and ethical counselling are fields of practical philosophy, become transdisciplinary, being at the interface between the major ethical theories (philosophical ethics), psychological theories of the moral agent, practices regarding social welfare, and applied ethics - bioethics, technoetics (ethical evaluation of technology), ethics in public services, etc. All areas of the current social field have an ethical commitment.

2.2 Philosophical Café The model of philosophical practical called philosophy cafe (PhiloCafe) turns out to be a framework of

general philosophical discussions, and the issues discussed being the most varied, without involving a professional philosophical training. The founder of this philosophical practice was Marc Sautet [3], first philosophical café being opened in Paris in 1992 [4].

His ideas aimed the return of philosophy to its original practice of intellectual exercise for an intellectual public that is not necessarily an aristocratic one [3]. Our approach takes into account both the practice of philosophical café proposed by Sautet, and also the participatory investigation of cafe world type [5].

2.3 The Appreciative Socialization Group Appreciative socialization group was set up by Simona Ponea and Antonio Sandu, as a social group

practice (such as appreciative summit, [6] Bushe, 2010), that intents to create a framework aimed at facilitating the shaping of group empowerment, by identifying the maximum potential of development of the group members and strategies for self-actualization of this potential, through socializing actions of peer group [7].

2.4 VirtualPhilo Café VirtualPhilo Cafe has the form of a discussion group on the Internet, which transposes into the specific

of virtual communication a model derived from the restructured Philosophical Cafe, starting from the experience of Appreciative Socialization Groups and the type of participatory practice of World Cafe.

The functioning of VirtualPhilo Cafe is based on the idea of peer group socialization, use of practical reason, and freedom of choice of the issues, and learning deliberative practices and of discursive reason.

VirtualPhilo Cafe .. where we talk about everything and everyone .. where we philosophize at any discretion, from the theme proposed every day by someone in the group ... There will be no rules and no wrong answers. The role of Philo Cafe is to make the participants to reflect, to acknowledge, to ask questions ... and philosophize! (VirtualFilo Café)

Discussions in this group are designed to familiarize all, regardless previous philosophical training, with certain specific features of the Philo Cafe philosophy. In this discussion it would be nice if they move from the empirical to the conceptual. Also the discussions' specific in a Philo Cafe are related to conceptual clarifying not argumentation. Philo Cafe claimed to maieutics and Socratic dialogue without completely ignoring the Aristotelian practice of argumentation (VirtualFilo Café).

The ideas are not presented contradictory, but aim to explore in depth the ideas accepted as general true, take for granted. Some will be supported as valid at the end of the dialogue and others rejected as unconvincing.

3 Controversy of post-natal abortion as a pretext for philosophizing in VirtualPhilo Cafe

Post-natal abortion generated a broad debate especially in the blogosphere, which was wear especially with the "ad personem" type arguments against the Australian philosopher, of Romanian origin, Julian Savulescu [8]. Post-natal abortion is a name given for infanticide. The article that generated bitter criticism against Julian Savulescu is called: After-birth abortion: why should the baby live? written by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva [9] and was published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, whose editor is Julian Savulescu. Article claims that the moral status of a newborn is equivalent to that of a foetus lacking of both characteristics: rationality and self-determination capacity, in order to justify the right to life. In the authors' opinion, the right to life is connected with the person's ability to assign a value to their own lives and the ability to sense its loss through death [9]. Infants alike foetuses are considered potential persons [9].

Savulescu [8], as editor, shows that the role of a philosophical journal is to present unbiased philosophical reviews properly constructed and substantiated.

Discussion regarding post-natal abortion started from the fact that there are worldwide strong voices in both directions, the conservative one being in principle based on the Christian orientation. In the U.S., according


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to post-natal abortion opposing Christian sources, there is an intense debate on the legalization or not of the woman's or doctor's right to decide killing alive born child after a failed late abortion [10]. During the communist period, In Romania, a country that has adopted before 1989 a legislation prohibiting abortion, including for medical reasons related to imminent danger to the mother's life, have been reported a number of cases of abandoned children after birth, to die in bins, or toilets. Are these similar practices of post-natal abortion? How common is this practice really, and how socially acceptable, or what moral response raises in the public consciousness, despite blaming it in public discourse.

Starting from the controversy of post-natal abortion can be hold a philosophical Cafe entitled: Is post-natal abortion a philosophical chimera or a social practice widespread? Philosophical Café is a technique for facilitating philosophical dialogue on various issues impacting the current life. Philosophical café can be used to stimulate bioethical debates within the general public without prior ethics training.

What are the characteristics that allow the integration of an entity as a member of the human species?

Is there birth from parents sufficient to belong to the human species?

Are reason and self-consciousness the only indicators of belonging to the human species?

Is child is abandonment in maternity and post-natal abortion equivalent?

What is the current opinion on the relationship between ethical acceptability of post-natal abortion and post-natal euthanasia practices in post-communist Romania?

Most arguments against post-natal abortion, as an ethical perspective, came from the religious field. There were no pro-choice views among the participants, but there was a higher degree of axiological neutrality views, which passed to the level of analysis of ethical significance beyond mere moral disapproval. Correlation between conceptual plan - even ideological sometimes - and social practices have allowed the construction of a problematic philosophical dialogue.

Responses have generated reflections on the human condition and the bioethical status of it. Summary of discussions show that participants have opinions regarding the need of legal regulation, from the ethical perspective, of the situation of persons conceived / born outside traditional male-female

Practices such as experiences on human embryos, human cloning, etc. require ethical value and legal regulation to deter corruption in this area. Lack of morality can lead to carry out experiments even abominable and therefore should not be left solely to the discretion of the moral conscience of the researchers; the ethical dimension of the involved by this process should be doubled by legal regulation. In general, the participants from virtualphilo cafe were sceptical about assisted human reproduction practices that exclude natural conception of the child.

Post-natal abortion is generally seen in legal terms and emphasizing its criminal dimension. Another conclusion was that post-natal abortion is rejected precisely because it is trying his argument in terms of ethical issues related to self-awareness namely the absence of it in the case of a newborn. We must, therefore, to overcome the correlation between membership to the human species and its status as possessing self-consciousness. Post-natal abortion is compared with the situation fairly widespread of newborn killing, but unwanted children, and effectively thrown in the trash immediately after birth. Such practices were found in Romania during the communist period and in other states. Communist experience was correlated with illegal abortions resulted in physical and psychological traumas, including the death of some of the women whom resorted to this practice. Our observation during the debate was that participants correlated in the discussion other issues such as: abortion itself, child abandonment in maternity, religious dimension of ethics, the limits of human knowledge, the foundation of rational social action etc.

4 Conclusions Using communication technology to stimulate deliberative practice in ethics can help shaping the

argumentation of ethics policies in controversial areas. Bioethical deliberation may integrate elements of mentality and common decency by transferring specific ethical reason the speculative arguments from the constructive debate.

References [1] Marinoff, L. (2001). Philosophical Practice, Academis Press 1 editions, p. 411, ISBN 978-

0124715554.


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[2] Zastrow, (1987). Introduction to Social Welfare, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California.

[3] Sautet, M. (1955). Un café pour Socrate: comment la philosophie peut nous aider à comprendre le monde d'aujourd'hui, Paris, R. Laffont

[4] Chaplin, T. (2007). Turning on the mind: French philosophers on television, University of Chicago Press,

[5] Slocum, N. (2005). The World Café, in Steyaert Stef , Lisoir, Hervé (2005) PARTICIPATORY METHODS TOOLKIT, A practitioner’s manual, King Baudouin Foundation and the Flemish Institute for Science and Technology Assessment (viWTA)

[6] Bushe, 2011), Bushe, G.R. (2010). A comparative case study of appreciative inquiries in one organization: implications for practice. Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, 29, 7-24.

[7] Ponea, S., Sandu, A. (2012). Grupul de socializare apreciativ, Editura Lumen, Iasi [8] Julian Savulescu, (2012). “Liberals Are Disgusting”: In Defence of the Publication of “After-Birth

Abortion”,, Practical Ethics, available online at http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/02/%E2%80%9Cliberals-are-disgusting%E2%80%9D-in-defence-of-the-publication-of-%E2%80%9Cafter-birth-abortion%E2%80%9D/

[9] Giubilini, A., Minerva, F. (2012). After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?, Journal of medical Ethics, JME Online First, published on February 23, 2012 as 10.1136/medethics-2011-100411

[10] Razzell, N. (2013). Kermit Gosnell: Philadelphia's abortion 'monster' revives US debate, BBC News Magazin, online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23004693


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Modern Information Technologies and Identity

Shaev Y.1 1 Associate professor (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) [email protected]

Abstract In the modern world information technologies are rapidly developing. In the world of computer

technologies are intertwining different realities and various layers of existence. One of the most important part of reality for the modern man is a virtual reality. The society which lies at the intersection of the real and virtual worlds, is suffering the significant changes. This is primarily related to the processes of self-identified person. Appear the destruction of the old and the formation of new identification, behavioral, perceptual codes. The information universe is presented nowadays not only as a different type of data blocks in the traditional sense, but also as a media phenomenon (modern computer games, interactive movies), as well as new forms of social interaction (social network). In these circumstances, personal identity, the identity of behavioral and even deeper ontological dimension of man's understanding of the "I" quite differently conceived. In the heart of these processes stands a modern Europe, where the processes of understanding of traditional forms of identity itself are scientific, philosophical and political problems. To understand the profound changes that have undergone the process of understanding of modern Europeans of the "I" requires a comprehensive philosophical analysis.

Keywords: information technologies, identification, Europe, identity, media.

Introduction Information technologies are rapidly developing in the modern world. Virtual reality becomes a very

important part of the reality for the modern man. Society that lives at the intersection of the real and virtual worlds, suffers the significant changes. These changes are primarily related to the processes of self-identified of the person.

Propose of the study The aim of this study is to analyze the philosophical transformation of the identity, with its connection

with the development of modern information technologies. In the present study, we analyze the changes of the man “I” in the cyberspace. Also, we reveled the semiotic means which are used to create such transformations.

Methods In our study, we use the method of complex analysis, synthesis, hermeneutical circle (the relationship of

part and the whole), phenomenological method, the method of semiotic sliding, and a semiotic analysis of the comparative method. The comparative method is simultaneously examination of events and phenomenon of the real world and of the virtual space. As for example the virtual reality of the computer game, interactive cinema and social net. Also within the frameworks of the comparative method is realized the correlation between real social and political process and theirs reflection in the virtual narrative.

Main argument In modern Europe is an important issue the identity of the individual. This is due to a complex set of

factors: economic, historical, political, social. Now Europe suffers difficulties due to the failure of multiculturalism policy and the lack of capacity to deal with these problems at the political level. European countries are faced with the problem of cultural assimilation of migrants seeking the benefits of European civilization, but bringing together the elements of non-European cultures. Also, don’t lose the urgency and severity of the classical problem of complex relationships between East and West. If in the Middle Ages the two civilizations were clashed and sometimes interacted mainly in the East, now the epicenter of the interaction is in


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Europe itself. These processes can produce quite different problems, ranging from geopolitical and ending with the ethical.

Nowadays the experts have different points of view to the question, how to resolve existing cultural, political and economic problems. As we see it, the problem of integration into the modern world in general and Europe in particular, is suffering significant changes. This is associated with globalization in the economic, cultural and social life of a modern society. If in these areas globalization can be uneven and disparities, so in the spheres of information, the field of cyberspace, in our opinion, there are more opportunities to erase all sorts of borders and leveling of differences.

We analyze cyberspace in terms of philosophy of the sign as a complex phenomenon in which the unfolding semiotic relationships are affecting on human identity. In our view, the phenomenon of self-identity is a complex phenomenon and includes a number of system levels and dimensions. Thus we can identify ethnic component, historical, cultural, stratification, language, and others. Some of these levels may be represented in cyberspace and perform an integration function. For example, the identity of linguistic factors (as for the Europe, it is represented in the internet with the English-speakers). This part of cyberspace is associated with textual and linguistic level of information that is both the most important factor in the processes of social identity and self-identity. We can note such internet resource as Wikipedia, based on the principles of open access and the creation of the resource of data mass.

It should be said, that the virtual space is not limited to the information provided in textual form, but also includes audio and visual phenomena. In general, multimedia technologies - are a particular dimension of the virtual space. This dimension has a large effect on the people who are presented in the virtual space in various ways. An example of a presence in the virtual space can be a computer video game. A man playing a computer game is starting to feel quite differently, in a special way to self-identify themself. Some experts in the field of psychology and neuroscience claim that people who strongly enthusiastic to computer games, playing them all day, may partially change the consciousness defined by the individual, for example, may increase violence, problems can occur with a normal communication, and more. Moreover, some modern video games pose problems of identification in the philosophical aspect.

For example, in the game Assassin's Creed, the attention is paid to the issue of identity in its philosophical formulation. The main character is a descendant of famous assassins bygone eras (the plot is based on the confrontation between the two organizations - the Assassins and the Templars, who, according to the idea of the game, are still leading the confrontation). Using a special computer (using the information of its DNA), the hero is able to recover the memories of his ancestors, and to live their lives over again in order to establish a finding of a mysterious artifact - the Apple of Eden, which is giving the control of the world. In this game, the problem of identity, in our view, put a multifaceted way. In - First, there is the problem of East-West, which has a very interesting presentation.

In the first game, a simple American Desmond Miles is traveling through the memories of his ancestor - Altair – Muslim, fanatic of the Assassins sect during the events of the Crusades. By itself, this is an interesting fact - perhaps Altair is the first major positive character, who is a Muslim fanatic and leads confrontation with the civilized Europe at that time. Here, of course, we see a complex of web between Western and Eastern identities. It is well known that during historical confrontation between Assassins and Templars, East and West formed their philosophical and civilizational imperatives that in some moments intertwined (for ex. technological innovation, indoctrination, practices the secret war and spot killing undesirable persons, which was the property of the special services of almost all the countries of the modern world). Secondly, this game raises the problem of fragmentation of the human "I", which has become one of the important issues in the modern philosophy. The human "I" in the modern world, as in the game, is fragmented on the one hand and on the other – the man tries to prevent the fragmentation and "contract" in a single point of all the levels of meaning of their identity.

The hero is trying to cope with the of self-elimination, and play the role to relay the information to achieve his goal. Lots of genetic code integrity of human beings, arguing the idea of serial and mass production, the frequency of the phenotype in the links of the chain of generations (that is close to Baudrillard arguments about the "serial" and "uniqueness" of works of art) [1].

The DNA code “destroys” the integrity of the human Dasein, the impossibility of possessing the fullness and wholeness of his being [2]. The man in these circumstances turns into a sign or symbol of his absence [3].

We should note the socio-pragmatic aspect of identity and related problems associated with virtual reality. The problem of identity in pragmatic terms is related to the representation of the individual in the network.

The problem of social networking has become particularly urgent now, as the number of members of these networks increases, so is increasing the influence of "network lifestyle", because of the time spending "on-line". Assessments of this phenomenon among researchers are different. So, J. Suler [4] claims that human identity can be shredded, or can be integrated. Indeed, the social network can help some people to cope with the


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problems of their identity and create their desired image (which is not always possible to create in reality), for others finding itself in a network can be some kind of the personal problem. This may occur as a result of the fact that people spend too many time "on-line" and are incapable of communicating and interacting with society in reality. The communication in the network can be a kind of surrogate method of constructing pseudo-social relationships with other people. If here we apply the methodology and philosophy approaches of the sign, we will see that a man turns into a kind of sign, as a set of characteristics, functions and social environment defined by perceptual and behavioral reactions.

In this regard, there is destruction of the old and new identification formation, behavioral, perceptual codes. People are starting to accept each other, basing on the image created in the network. It is said that in the real world, we all, to some extent, create the image, capturing those personal qualities that we would like to represent. These features do not always correspond to reality, but fasten the human "I", providing, in the words of D. Dennett [5] its integrity. Modern information technology and in particular, social networking, in our opinion can make the image more expressive, especially in those cases when in the reality for the expression of the image the person doesn’t have enough money. At the disposal of the modern man are special programs for processing photos and videos that construct the desired image. This process has a dialectical character. On the one hand, a person registers and tries to gloss over certain qualities, which are not very expressive in reality. On the other hand, "having" a similar set of qualities a person strives to be like his image in the reality, at least partially.

Such interest in multimedia technologies for the fixing and creating their identity, in our opinion related to the deep ontological problems of our time, one of which - is the lack of genuine possession being, lack of access to the "nature", which is almost impossible for the inhabitants of the modern large metropolis, contentment surrogates different order (food, entertainment, recreation, etc.).

Results Thus, the problem of identity in relation to information technology is sophisticated and complex. It

includes several layers and system levels. The identity of modern man, who is living simultaneously in two worlds - the real and virtual (created with the help of information technologies), undergoes various modifications and are affected by different codes - from the perceptual and behavioral ending. The problem of identity is manifested in all areas of virtual reality – in textual, multimedia and pragmatic-social levels, which reveal its complex nature and ontological relationship with the major problems of our time.

The paper is published within the framework of the project 6.3572.2011 “The study of the sing and the sense in the structure of the discourse of cyberspace” by state order.

References [1] Boudrillaurd J. (2007). Pour une critique de l’économie politique du signe. Moscow: Academic

prospect. [2] Heidegger M. (1967). Sein und Zeit, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer verlag. [3] Derrida J. (2000). Hcriture et la difference. Saint Petersburg: Academic prospect, 430 p. [4] Suler, J.R. (2002). Identity Management in Cyberspace. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic

Studies, 4, pp. 455-460. [5] Dennett D.C. (1982). How to Study Human Consciousness Empirically or Nothing Comes to

Mind // Synthese, 53 (2), pp.160.


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The Economic Security Trends in Republic of Moldova during its Engagement into the European Neighbourhood Policy

Soimu O.1 1 Independent researcher, Bilbao (SPAIN) [email protected]

Abstract In this article the author explores the evolution of economic security of Republic of Moldova during the

implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy’s economic measures and propositions. In addition, there are some suggestions related to sectors and policies that are vital for Republic of Moldova’s economic security: agricultural, energy and competition policies. In terms of importance, this article gains by its methodological approach by combining the quantitative data with qualitative interpretation. Not ultimately, the body of cited literature in security, systemic transformation and foreign policy domains helps the delimitation of the appropriate variables the correlation of which illustrates an interdisciplinary character of this study. Besides, the author is going to reach both conclusions of general and a country – specific framing order. Thereby, this article can be considered as one more contribution to the European Neighbourhood Policy implementation and economic security debate in Republic of Moldova. Finally, among concluding thoughts author highlights that the gate was open for Moldova regarding the economic cooperation with the European Union but the conditionality and convergence issues are still unresolved. Moldova should learn yielding itself sufficient resources to safeguard the domestic market from prospective threats and risks. This is also a good prevention of the long-term consumerism of foreign aids – a capacity that Moldova gained from the former Soviet form of economic policy, yet.

Keywords: Economic security, European Neighbourhood Policy, European Union, Republic of Moldova

1 Introduction Nowadays, countries interact and economies operate under new security rules, focused on

neighbourhood principles. For this reason, inter-state relations are ruled by Foreign Economic Policy (FEP) objectives [4, p. 211]. Among them, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is viewed as an effective “tool” for security and stability purposes [14, Abstract]. Meanwhile, ENP is debated concerning the conditionality issues and asymmetry of powers [19] and the effects of its implementation in Republic of Moldova (Moldova) exhibit to what extent Moldova could reach capacities to accumulate resources for the economic self-defence; and the extent to what the European Union (EU) is important “provider of security” towards its immediate vicinity [3], even though “the ENP does not offer usually very strong incentives” [12, p.12]. Generally, the analysis of Moldovan economic trends will allow reaching conclusions related to “ENP transmission mechanisms” [11, p. 1211] in economic terms. Finally, this article gains in importance because to the “ENP as a tool for economic development and convergence” is still paid less attention [16, Abstract].

2 Methodological framework The author has a clear purpose: to make an overlook of the evolution of economic security in Republic

of Moldova during its engagement into the ENP, maintaining the nexus the ENP – economic security – Republic of Moldova. Therefore, it is hypothesised that: once with the engagement into the EU foreign neighbourhood policy, Republic of Moldova improves its capability to safeguard the economy and it receives new level of recognition on the EU market.

To test hypothesis, the author analyses the macroeconomic phenomena in Moldova and their trends according to domestic and foreign policy implications. Thus, the author of this article will conduct an analysis of data relying on Creswell´s (2009) mixed research methods [2]. It will be combined the analysis of the


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quantitative subjects that are macroeconomic indicators with the interpretation of qualitative subjects that are domestic institutions and policies implemented. In addition, whereas the study exhibits a developmental character, the variables are classified as it follows: Dependent variable which is economic security - also considered an outcome that the ENP produces; Independent variable which is represented by the ENP because it influences the economic security of the engaged country; Intervening variable is represented by the set of foreign/domestic policies, institutions and measures that compound the systemic transformation of Moldova towards a democratic and prosper society.

3 Moldova in international ranking: a portrayal of the economic security during its engagement into the ENP

In this section the author is going to put in light the Moldova’s economic security level since 2005 in parallel mentioning some ENP outcomes. It was a critical period for Moldova because along with taking advantage of the new EU foreign policy, it also experienced new wave of systemic transformations.

Hence, the increasing trend of foreign debt as ratio to the GDP [2005 ≈ 69%; 2006 ≈ 74%; 2007 ≈ 76%; 2008 ≈ 68%; 2009 ≈ 81%; (calculated by author according to the WB data)] has almost the same dynamics when transition from centrally planned to market economy started (data for 1998) [22, p. 31]. These harmful trends upon economic growth can be assessed as an institutional mutation whereas Moldovan government was not able to diminish it at least till the critical level – 65% [22, p. 31]. The incapacity to control the indebtedness is worsen by the massive imports that overrun exports [2005 ≈ 48%; 2006 ≈ 39%; 2007 ≈ 36%; 2008 ≈ 32%; 2009 ≈ 39%; (calculated by author according to the WB data)]. The overall backwardness makes evidence of high rates of shadow economy in Moldova.

It is a worrying sign that the level of corruption ranks Moldova on the position 94 aligned to India, Mongolia, Greece, Colombia and Senegal amongst 176 countries that were taken into account [21]. On the other hand, although Moldova faces issues related to the freedom of trade because of bureaucracy, weak investment capacity and insufficient regulatory framework [13], the Heritage Foundation places Moldova on the 115th position (World rank: between Kenia on 114th and Senegal on 116th) concerning the economic freedom with the overall score of 55.5 and on the 39th position -Regional rank [13].

Whereas, according to the UNDP [22] the share of the shadow economy doesn’t have to overrun the 15-20 %, Moldova still shows increased distrust for its partners and during 2006 – 2011 it records about 22,5 -25,5 % [1]. However, Moldova took advantages from engaging into ENP and decreased in shadow economy from 46% in 2006 in contrast to 2011 about 40% [17].

Placing emphasis on imports from EU ratio to the total imports to Moldova [2005 ≈ 45, 3%; 2006 ≈ 45, 2%; 2007 ≈ 45, 5%; 2008 ≈ 42, 9%; 2009 ≈ 43, 3%; (calculated by author according to the WB data)] and from CIS ratio to the total imports to Moldova [2005 ≈ 39, 5%; 2006 ≈ 38%; 2007 ≈ 36%; 2008 ≈ 35, 4%; 2009 ≈ 34, 7%; (calculated by author according to the WB data)] during the last years in both cases it surpasses the threshold of 15-20% of regional imports [22 p. 31]. The exports towards EU ratio to the total exports from Moldova [2005 ≈ 40, 6%; 2006 ≈ 51, 1%; 2007 ≈ 50, 6%; 2008 ≈ 51, 5%; 2009 ≈ 51, 9%; (calculated by author according to the WB data)] have the increasing tendency giving more and more preference to the EU in contrast to CIS market where the exports towards CIS countries ratio to the total exports from Moldova decrease [2005 ≈ 50, 5%; 2006 ≈ 40, 3%; 2007 ≈ 41%; 2008 ≈ 39, 1%; 2009 ≈ 38%; (calculated by author according to the WB data)]. It means that at certain extent, convergence and approximation with the EU succeeded but this on the other hand could affect and thus limit Moldovan export companies to have a multi-vectoral capacity for other foreign markets.

According to Global Financial Integrity (GFI) Report, Moldova is placed on 93rd position among 143 countries included in classification regarding average of annual illicit financial flows [15]. Another issue concerns fiscal deficit and according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) it deepened in 2010 and 2011 because of corruption and economic and political crises during 2009-2011[5].

Generally, in Moldova, the country risk is mainly determined by the volatile trends of GDP per capita as well as the long-term indebtedness capacity. Hence, according to the “Failed State Index 2012” [10], Moldova is placed among countries with high level of country risk (in social, political and economic terms) and is considered the most risky in Europe, ranking 73 (between Lesotho and Benin, but in the same group with Russia and Kazakhstan as being countries in danger) with the score of 78, 7 [10]. In this context, a stable neighbour for Moldova is valuable, especially for security purposes.

Finally, once with deepening the relations with the EU through the ENP implementation, the EU becomes main destination for Moldovan exports, summing around 50% of total exports [17].


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4 What should be done? From the Action Plan implementation towards the European Neighbourhood Partnership Instrument

(ENPI), Moldova recorded significant institutional transformations notably in politics and economy [8]; however there are three important but meantime vulnerable sectors that require urgent interventions and assistance in Moldova. Therefore, the agriculture and rural development, competition and energy policy are vital for Moldovan “economic health” and sustainable development. Besides, only 6 % of financing are attributed to energy sector in Moldova by EBRD, 24 % of total amount of credits goes to the corporate sector (agribusiness, manufacturing and services, property and tourism and telecommunications), 36 % of financing compounds financial institutions by which there are made investments in small and medium sized enterprises and 34 % municipal infrastructure and transport [6]. Whereas significant losses in economy are caused by unilateral external dependency in energy resources, the EU assists Moldova in this sector because it is aware of energy sources choice, energy supply security, environmental impact, oil price evolutions and energy market functioning [7].

Taking into consideration the competitiveness pressure on international market, Moldova does not enjoy high capabilities to face it. In this connection, according to the “Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013” Moldova is placed on the position 87 out of 144 with the score of 3.9 [20]; and the “Doing Business Report” places Moldova on the position 81 (in 2012) of the 183 countries a change in rank with 18 position up against last year [23].

Using the above assumption, the EU Common Agricultural Policy perfectly matches with Moldovan realities in area of agriculture thus aiming increasing the land surfaces for planting crops and legumes; improvement of food quality and more attention is going to be paid to ecological agriculture [9]. Likewise, a strengthening sign, since Moldova is engaged into the ENP, is that it continues to advance in policy-making, however. Therefore, the Government Decision No. 1199 regarding the Development Strategy of agro-food sector for 2006-2015 is one more effort made by Moldovan government in order to align the domestic Agricultural Policy to the EU standards [18].

5 Conclusions If before 2004 the ENP was considered by Moldovan authorities an alternative for Moldova’s economic

recovery, now, one can say with certainty that this foreign policy vector is an advantage, a contribution and a real chance for Moldovan economy and economic security purposes. This article aimed to make an overview of economic security of Moldova and how the engagement into the ENP has influenced it. The result is obvious that still, a lot has to be done, but the EU at least proposed to Moldova a peddled pathway by its experience along the years in cooperation and partnership patterns.

The extent to what the EU is provider of economic security for Moldova, author demonstrated by the exports capacity in terms of half of total exports of Moldova towards the EU.

Even though in Moldova the imports create deficit in trade balance, emphasis on innovations and import of technologies must be put according to the domestic needs and capabilities.

Many times, asymmetries between EU foreign policy objectives and domestic policy of Moldova are the result of monopolistic and autarchic features of Moldovan decision - makers. The incompatibility between the executive and legislative is evident. Government should now concentrate on policies that bring prosperity, stability and security and on which depends the country’s image on international arena. In this context, placing emphasis on the key policies it is urgent for Moldova to consolidate the legal framework and structural transformations for businesses as well the infrastructure, concentration on products’ diversification and more concentration on ecological products.

References [1] Costandachi, Gh. (2012). Moldova pradă a economiei subterane şi evaziunilor fiscale. IDIS

“Viitorul” [2] Creswell, J., V., (2009). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods

approaches. 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications [3] Delcour, L., (December 2010). The European Union, a security provider in the eastern

neighbourhood? European Security, 19(4), pp.535-549 [4] Dent, Ch., M., (2007). Economic Security. In: A. Collins, ed. 2007. Contemporary Security

Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 204-221


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[5] EBRD, (2011). Transition Report 2011, Country assessment – Republic of Moldova . [pdf] Available at: <http://www.ebrd.com/downloads/research/transition/tr11.pdf> [Accessed 30 August 2012]

[6] EBRD, (2011a, March). Country Strategy for Moldova (approved in 2010). Available at: <www.ebrd.com>

[7] European Commission, (2001). Green Paper – Towards a European strategy for the security of energy supply, COM(2000)769

[8] European Commission, (2012a). Implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in the Republic of Moldova Progress in 2011 and recommendations for action. Joint Staff Working Document, Brussels, 15.5.2012, SWD(2012) 118 final

[9] European Commission, (2012b). Directorate – General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Common Agricultural Policy Explained, pp. 4-19 [pdf]AAvailable at: <http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/publi/capexplained/cap_en.pdf> [Accessed 14 December 2012]

[10] “Failed State Index 2012”. Published annually by the “Fund for Peace” and the magazine “Foreign Policy” [online] Available at: <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/failed_states_index_2012_interactive> [Accessed 26 January 2013]

[11] Gawrich, A., Melnykovska, I. and Schweickert, R., (2010). “Neighbourhood Europeanization through ENP: The Case of Ukraine”. Journal of Common Market Studies, 48(5), pp. 1209–1235

[12] Hanf, D., (2011). The ENP in the light of the new “neighbourhood clause” (Article 8 TEU). Research papers in Law, 2, pp.1-15

[13] Heritage Foundation, (2013). 2013 Index of Economic Freddom. [online] Available at: <http://www.heritage.org/index/country/moldova> [Accessed 26 January 2013]

[14] Kahraman, S., (2005). The European Neighborhood policy: the European Union's new engagement towards wider Europe. Journal of International Affairs, 10(4), pp.1-28

[15] Kar, D. and Freitas, S., (2012). “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2001-2010”. Global Financial Integrity [pdf] Available at: <http://iff.gfintegrity.org/documents/dec2012Update/Illicit_Financial_Flows_from_Developing_Countries_2001-2010-HighRes.pdf> [Accessed 12 January 2013]

[16] Monastiriotis, V. and Borrell, M., (January 2012). Political and Political Economy Literature on the ENP: Issues and Implications [pdf] Available at: <http://www.ub.edu/searchproject/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/WP-1.5.pdf> [Accessed 22 January 2013]

[17] National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova (NBSM), (2012). www.statistica.md [18] Republic of Moldova, (2006). Hotărârea Guvernului cu privire la aprobarea Strategiei de

dezvoltare a sectorului agroalimentar pentru perioada 2006-2015, nr. 1199 din 17.10.2006. Monitorul Oficial no. 170 din 3.11.2006

[19] Sasse, G., (2008). The European Neighbourhood Policy: Conditionality revisited for the EU’s Eastern Neighbours. Europe-Asia Studies 60(2), pp.295-316

[20] Schwab, K., (2012). Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013. World Economic Forum, Geneva: Switzerland [pdf] Available at: <http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2012-13.pdf> [Accessed 30 January 2013]

[21] Transparency International, (2012). [online] Available at: <http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results> [Accessed 24 January 2013]

[22] UNDP, (1999). National Human Development Report Republic of Moldova 1999. Transition and Human Security [pdf] Available at: < http://www.undp.md/publications/doc/1999_english_all.pdf> [Accessed 22 December 2012]

[23] World Bank and International Finance Corporation, (2012). Doing business in a more transparent world, [pdf] Available at: <http://www.doingbusiness.org/~/media/FPDKM/Doing%20Business/Documents/Annual-Reports/English/DB12-FullReport.pdf> [Accessed 20 January 2013]


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The Road to Europe: Changing the Street Names in Nineteenth Century Bucharest

Stahl I.1 1 Researcher, Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract As Romania was making great strides towards its independence from Ottoman rule, in the second half

of the nineteenth century, the capital city of Bucharest was undergoing some significant changes. Developed as an important trade centre, and, like most of the cities in the region, built without any initial city planning, Bucharest had an irregular and tortuous street network. This made orientation particularly difficult for outsiders, especially foreigners, often leading them to refer to it as an oriental city. The streets were not properly marked and many did not even have a name. This article deals with the particular moment at which, taking the example of other European capitals, the city’s officials started attributing new names to streets. It will question the changes which occurred in the different names categories during three particular years: 1871, 1879 and 1900. The 1871 list of street names was the first published inventory. The 1879 list came out right after the War of Independence, in 1878, when about a dozen streets were renamed in order to honour the victorious army. As urbanization accelerated, towards the end of the century, the increasing number of streets drove the authorities to take firm measures towards naming them and numbering the buildings. In this, as in many other initiatives, the young Romanian state followed the example of other European nations, with whom it wished to be associated.

A standard iterative coding process was used to establish categories of names among the three street lists. This coding process provided clusters of data items representing a code, cluster or theme. The measurement of the data cluster size determined the importance of the various categories. These categories were then examined by percentage comparison across the three specific dates in order to reveal change across time. This permitted the construction of a time line which reflects changes within the Romanian society during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Keywords: street names, local and national identity, nineteenth century Bucharest, iterative coding method.

Introduction The investigation reported in the current article was undertaken in an effort to understand the

progression of the cultural identity of the city of Bucharest which evolved as a spontaneous conglomeration of village communities, with buildings, gardens, streets, and open spaces situated around churches. Through the concrete study of street names, but also the forces which shaped decisions about the names selected, one can gain insight into how and why the current city design developed from a spontaneous human endeavour to a formalized city, and what social issues moulded the decisions which lead to Bucharest’s changing city scape over the centuries. The focus of this study was not on the resultant physical structure of the city design, but rather the shift in identification with the oriental world of the Ottoman Empire, to a more European cultural way of thought as testified to by changes in street names.

Historical background The first mention of Bucharest in historical documents dates to 1459. However, it was not until 1580

that the first street name within the city was mentioned in written form. Emerging as a trade centre, and, like most of the cities in the region, built without any initial city planning, Bucharest had an irregular and tortuous street network. This made orientation particularly difficult for outsiders, especially foreigners, often leading them to refer to it as an oriental city. The city streets were not properly marked and many did not even have a name. The unofficial names under which some of them were known made reference to their appearance, or to prominent material markers to be found in the nearby environment (churches, prominent buildings, wells, fountains, waterways, vegetation, markets or various areas). Social, ethnic or professional human groups were


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also mentioned, as well as prominent persons or local characters. A few streets were identified by names of the locations to which they lead. [1]

As the city grew, it subsequently incorporated the surrounding villages, which soon became city quarters (mahalale). The mobility of the local population was generally low and the residents did not usually venture far from their neighbourhood. Consequently, street names were not necessary. Locations were instead described using material and human markers. [1] This practice persisted till the second half of the nineteenth century, when the first lists of street names were finally published. As fires, floods and earthquakes constantly reshaped the city, the streets’ network was friable. The general view of the settlement was that of a garden-city, an agglomeration of houses, surrounded by gardens and abundant vegetation, connected by streets. From an outside point of view, the streets of Bucharest seemed to be “a labyrinth of dirty and crooked passages which went on for many kilometres”, as an Austrian visitor described it in 1855. [2, p. 89] While the small streets did not benefit of any particular maintenance, the main streets of the city were paved with wood-logs, which gave them the name and the appearance of bridges (poduri). The first stone paving of a street in Bucharest was undertaken in 1824 and later expanded.

The first attempt to compile an inventory of street names was initiated in 1834 by city officials [1], [3] . The intention was to have the street names painted, on the building walls, at each crossroad or, in the absence of buildings, to have their names exhibited on wooden planks. The initiative, however, failed, as the inventory could not be accomplished. At the same time, the numbering of the buildings was also on-going. Each building in the city was provided with an official number, supposed to make the spatial identification easier.

The first official naming of a street occurred in 1843, when the name of the former Russian Governor of Wallachia and Moldavia, General Pavel D. Kiseleff, was attributed to a street. [1], [3] Kiseleff, whose reformative initiatives had also brought great urban changes to Bucharest, had initially been offered a memorial statue, but had declined it, pleading for a more sensitive use of the allocated money, which he preferred to have invested in the city planning. Consequently to his wish, the city officials conducted rehabilitation work of one of the important streets in the city, which later was given his name. Kiseleff street thus became the first “memorial” of Bucharest. The city dedicated its first memorial statue much later, in 1869.

Attempts to inventory the street names intensify towards mid-century. Still in 1848, the Chief of Police was calling for the City council to provide a comprehensive list of street names, in order to better enforce the law. Once more, the council was unable to provide a list. [1], [3]

After the retreat of the Russian troupes, in 1854, Bucharest was occupied by the Austrian troupes which, according to an agreement made with the Ottoman Empire, were supposed to maintain order in the city. Out of military necessity, the Austrians drew a new plan of the city, and also put up blue planks with the streets’ names, which lasted for three decades. [1], [3]

In 1859, the Romanian provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia were united, and Bucharest became the capital of the new state in 1862. The city expanded rapidly, as a result of the large influx of people. Responding to the increasing housing demand, large property owners began to subdivide their land into smaller sections for sale. This lead to a large number of new streets, which had to be named. They usually received the name of the land owner, but they were also given new types of names, unrelated to the nearby environment, “as seen in the other states of Europe.” [4, p. 254] Foreign names (e.g. French, Greek and Roman Antiquity), unfamiliar to the local residents were introduced, which lead to endless alterations. [1, pp. 153-154]

Exasperated by the large number of irregularities encountered in Bucharest in 1870, a physician wrote an article [5] in a local newspaper, in which he argued the need of a catalogue of streets’ names which should be made widely available through police officers, hotels, shops, etc. Soon after, in 1871, the first list of streets was published. [6]

In 1878 the Romanian state gained its independence from Turkish rule. With the occasion, the city council of Bucharest decided to change several street names, “without any historical significance” to names honouring the Romanian army. The argument justifying these changes was, according to the local mayor, that “the names of the men who have illustrated themselves with the occasion should forever be under the eyes of the people” [1, p. 174]. The decision was rapidly made, just in time for the new street names’ plates to be posted before the victorious army returned to the city and marched through the renamed streets.

Towards the end of the century the city went through an intense process of modernisation. People needed an address with a street name and a house number in order to conduct routine activities (mainly for commercial, employment and banking reasons). Other European capitals were often cited when arguing about the changes in street names. In 1902, a city counsellor argued: ”Between the different manifestations through which a nation proves its degree of culture and civilization can be mentioned in particular the cult that that nation is professing for the memory of the great departed. This way, if we take a look at the great capitals of Europe, we will find monuments, statues, schools, boulevards, streets everywhere wearing the name of men who have distinguished themselves either by military deeds, or by important meritorious actions made by statesmen, by literary men, by men of the sciences, arts, etc. These manifestations prove, on one hand, the will of present generations to pay tribute in recognition of those who, with their own work and devotion, have illustrated their


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country, and, on the other hand, serve as a role model to the youth, to get inspired by their memory and to follow their example.” [1, pp. 176-177]

Methodology Research in social sciences is often quantitatively based and indeed this approach has yielded much

valuable information. However, in some circumstances, quantitative data loses the richness of human thoughts and interactions which may best be understood through qualitative analysis. In the current investigation, both quantitative and qualitative approaches have been undertaken to insure the widest possible understanding of the available data. The primary purpose of this methodology is to permit the emergence of findings from “the frequent, dominant, or significant themes inherent in raw data, without the restraints imposed by structured methodologies” [7, p. 238] found in quantitative research. These themes or patterns within the data provide minimum organisation while describing the data set in some detail. [8]

Three lists of Bucharest street names have been used in the analysis: one from 1871; [6] another from 1879; [9] and finally, one from 1900. [10] Evidence suggests that the 1871 list was the first published list of street names in Bucharest. [5] It contains 669 street names, written in alphabetic order. The 1879 list contains 755 street names and the 1900, 1039 street names.

A standard iterative coding process was used to establish categories of names among the respective lists. This coding process provided clusters of data items representing a code, pattern or theme. The measurement of the data cluster size (prevalence) determined the importance of the various categories. These categories were then examined by percentage comparison across the three specific dates, in order to reveal change across time. This permitted the construction of a time line and reflects changes within the Romanian society. Changes were considered significant if they were three percentage points or greater in either a positive or negative direction. Due to rounding to nearest hundredth of a percentage, totals in graphic representations may not equal one hundred per cent.

Results The coding process revealed thirteen primary categories (Fig. 1), several of which contain

subcategories. The primary categories include: religion; local life; history; culture and science; mythology; abstract constructs; geometry; botany; zoology; geography; astronomy, astrology and meteorology; others; and unknown names.

The religion category consists of church names, names of persons (priests, saints, hierarchs) and other religion related subject matters. The local life theme (Fig. 2) includes names of persons (prominent community members such as land owners, church founders, boyars, midwifes, local characters etc.), corporations and professions, ethnic and regional groups, constructed environment (institutions, significant buildings, markets, wells, particular installations or devices), natural environment (open spaces, trees, vineyards, orchards, local waterways), villages that were gradually incorporated into the city, or city neighbourhoods and finally, street characteristics. The category labelled history (Fig. 3) was subdivided into national and universal subcategories which were in turn also divided. Names of persons, dates and places of military battles, army corps and other street names which could not be appropriately placed elsewhere within this subcategory comprised the national subcategory. Greek antiquity, Roman antiquity, modern history and other street names were coded into the universal subcategory.

Analysis of the data categories demonstrated a decline of 3% in the number of total street names in the religion code between the initial list of streets in 1871 and the subsequent list in 1900. Whilst the religion category revealed a decline, the local life category witnessed nearly an 8% rise with an 11.1% surge in the use of person’s names during the same period. The national history coded data also reported an increase on a magnitude of 4.8%. The use of names of persons provided the largest portion of the increment from 1871 to 1900. Dates and places of military battles accounted for a significant initial increase in street names at the 1879 date but its growth lagged in the following decades. This pattern was also seen with the army corps coding within the national history subcategory.

The thematic categories of culture and science, mythology, abstract constructs, geometry, botany, zoology, geography, astronomy/astrology/meteorology, others and the unknown showed no significant changes as a percentage of the total number of street names during the nearly three decades examined.

The street names analysis confirms the written records on the decision of the city council to recognize prominent local and national men. The total increase of person’s names rose to 13.4% from 1871 to 1900. If the religion related names are put aside, then the increase is 14.8%.


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1.4

3.1

2.7

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38.9

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0 10 20 30 40 50

Unknown

Others

Astronomy & Astrology &Meteorology

Geography

Zoology

Botany

Geometry

Abstract constructs

Mythology

Culture & Science

History

Local life

Religion

1871

1879

1900

Fig. 1 Street name changes by category from 1871 to 1900,

reported as percentages of the total street names.

2.3

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Street characteristics

Villages & neighbourhoods

Natural environment

Constructed environment

Ethnical & regional groups

Corporations & professions

Names of persons

1871

1879

1900

Fig. 2 Changes in the local life street name category from 1871 to 1900,



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3.1

16.3

4.4

14.3

4.2

12.6

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Universal history

National history 1871

1879

1900

Fig. 3 Changes in the history street name category from 1871 to 1900,


Conclusions The analysis of Bucharest street names reflects the concurrent quest for both local and national identity.

The subsequent changes in street names captures the transition undertaken by the city from that of a typical south-eastern European city (which development was largely uncontrolled by the local authorities), to that of an European capital. This history reflects a shift from a spontaneous and informal Romanian city environment to one more closely approximating the structure of the great cities of Western Europe. By its choices of street names, especially after independence was gained in 1878, the city council embarked Bucharest on an European path. If, however, the undertaken model of change was one following the European “fashion”, the changes implemented were of local origin. The national history related names are pushed forward, as well as names of local personalities. As a consequence of the massive subdivisions of land, many street names in 1900 were those of less prominent people, as land owners, or other local characters. In time, however, these names decreased, allowing national values to resurface. Religion related names also decreased, being replaced by more secular notions. All these changes are silent witnesses to the progressive acceptance of European thought.

References [1] Stănculescu, I. [Stahl, I.] (2000). Apariția și evoluția denumirilor de străzi din București

[Apparition and evolution of the first street names in Bucharest]. București. Materiale de Istorie și Muzeografie, vol. XIV, pp. 137-185.

[2] Popescu, M. (1935). Descrierea orașului București făcută de căpitanul austriac Ștefan Dietrich în anul 1855 [The description of the city of Bucharest written by the Austrian Capitan Steven Dietrich, in 1835]. Bucureștii vechi. Buletinul Societății Istorico-Arheologice “Bucureștii-Vechi”, vol. I-V, pp. 87-97.

[3] Stănculescu, I. [Stahl, I.]. (2002). Les noms des rues. Bucarest XIXe-XXe siècles. Diplôme d’Études Approfondies en Sciences Sociales, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

[4] Petre, M. (1982). Toponimia urbană din perspectivă sociologică [Urban toponymy from a sociological perspective]. Studii de onomastică, vol. III, pp. 249-260.

[5] Obedenaru. (1870). Adressele în Orient și în Europa Occidentală [The addresses in the Orient and in Western Europe]. Informațiunile bucureștene, no. 38, 13 January 1870, p. 2.

[6] (1871). Guid de toate stradele aşezate pe alfabet [Guide of all the streets, in alphabetic order]. Bucharest: Imprimeria Statului.

[7] Thomas, D.R. (2006). A General Inductive Approach for Analysing Qualitative Evaluation Data. American Journal of Evaluation, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 237-246.

[8] Boyatzis, R.E. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: thematic analysis and code development. Sage.

[9] (1879). Călăuza Bucurescilor [Bucharest guide]. Bucharest:Tipografia “Independența”. [10] (1900). Carte de teorie a Sergentului de oraș [Theory book for the city Sergent]. Bucharest:

Tipografia I.Binder.


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A Reflection on Women’s Vulnerability through Toxic Organizations

Stăiculescu A.R.1, Stan A.2 1 Ovidius University (ROMANIA) 2 Bucharest University (ROMANIA) [email protected] , [email protected]

Abstract The question of toxic organizations has been widely debated in human management and behaviourist

field by scholars such as Chappell, Duncan, Vittorio Di Martino, and Einarsen (1996), who argued that incivility, causes a vicious circle and is relevant in predicting work dissatisfaction. This paper presents the issue of work violence in the public sector with special attention to the construction of female vulnerability in the workplace. Specifically, we will address the problem of a toxic work environment and indirect violence in order to underline how female employees define the harmful acts as justifiable or not, and how they react according to their perception. Firstly, in this article we will address the problem of workplace violence and incivility in the public sector as negative behaviours specific to a toxic work climate. Thus, we will provide a wider context for the socially constructed notion of harmful acts, taking into account how victims and perpetrators establish a line between right and wrong. Secondly, using a qualitative approach, we gathered data from multiple respondents belonging to 15 organizations, covering urban and rural areas in Romania. The overall response to questions about stressful situations at work may assist us in acquiring some understanding on mobbing, and can also provide a potential instrument to control the phenomenon of violence in the workplace. Finally, although the current study is based on a small sample of respondents, taken together with previous studies it will enhance our understanding of the individuals’ perceptions of violence.

Keywords: violence in the workplace; toxic organizations; perceptions; gender.

Introduction The present article examines how the work environment influences the feeling of being subject of

harassment at work. We will undergo an exploratory study regarding women's perception on a hostile work climate and the construction of a helpless feeling towards negative acts from colleagues or superiors. Daily interactions bear the print of work conditions, especially in an industry marked by uncertainty and austerity measures (i.e. public sector). The article opens with a recap of findings from previous studies on mobbing. We then proceed to establish a model for these conducts based on interviews regarding employees' experience of practices of violence in organizations and the individual perceptions.

1 A tale of public organizations: recollecting mobbing In empirical studies, scholars include in the lists of workplace violence: the use of derogatory names,

the use of "silent treatment [1]", handing out legal benefits [2], refusing to acknowledge the employees demands [3], changing their tasks [4], assigning mundane tasks or tasks below their qualification [5], choosing to spread gossip, making negative or offensive comments about one’s abilities, offering advice or giving signals that he/she should leave the job, or making persistent criticism. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in workplace violence and quality of work relationships, where gender is a crucial factor [6]. Mobbing is defined as “repeated and persistent negative acts towards one or more individual(s), which involve a perceived power imbalance and creates a hostile work environment “[7]. It is usually asserted that defining mobbing implies the work of framing a notion in a wider context, taking into account the specificity of each case. Nevertheless, questions have been raised about safety at work and the effect of mobbing on individuals and organizations [8]. Traditionally, researchers have subscribed to the belief that mobbing is a specific form of violence adapted to daily life interactions, and social interaction also offers the opportunity to explain these behaviours. Numerous studies have attempted to explain how the concept of mobbing can be defined, but there is little consensus among scholars and practicians in human resources. Furthermore, when an extensive research was conducted in


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the European Union and the United States, covering different industries, the results offered a wide range of harmful behaviours [9]. Half of these studies focused on the role of a climate of insecurity, stress, cultural and organizational context, traditional style of management or lack of communication in the organization in fuelling violence.

In our study we seek to understand the specificity of recollecting acts of interpersonal violence occurring in the public sector, in the wider context of a subsequent sense of security at work that is hindered. Consistent with previous approaches, we conceptualized the representation of such events and their significance in the biography of public service workers. We chose to address dysfunctional work relationships in the public sector, deploying 5 million workers in Romania (civil service, health, education). We note that the definitions are multiple, sometimes conflicting, as theory and practice are unable to be clear about how the content of mobbing can be asserted. In attempting to re-enter and realign the notion, it is important to recognize that according to Leymann [10] there are three forms of harassment, i.e. horizontal, vertical upward and downward vertical, divided into 45 possible behaviours. Considering all the points raised by the doctrine, we analyzed the categories of violence depending on the nature of the relationship between victim and perpetrator mostly hierarchical or vertical violence, co-worker violence or horizontal [11]. Given data from previous studies, hierarchical violence is more common [12]. Reports quoted by other studies show that the horizontal harassment is less frequent with rates varying from about 12% to 23% according to some studies and vertical harassment occurs in 25%-30% of workers. However, harassment is rarely vertical ascendant, as the percentage of workers committing acts against their superior is not higher than 1%. It is often mixed, being the result of collective practices and of a culture of impunity for such behaviours [13]. Based on this literature, a "negative work environment" requires the commission or omissions of acts in relation with the intent to cause damage or prejudice. In addition, the actions must be carried out by a co-worker or employer on a hierarchical level. It is therefore necessary that the act is committed with the intention of inflicting pain, a physical or psychological injury; secondly, the act is abusive, hostile because of their nature or severity, including verbal abuse - negative remarks, insults and indirect intimidation; lastly, the result is harm, either physical or psychological.

2 A qualitative approach to toxic organizations Our aim is to analyze the theoretical models of behaviours that are not directly defined by victims as

mobbing. This research sought to solidify the specific kinds of violence in organizations and identify aspects favouring bullying. We focused on a qualitative approach based on Grounded theory, an inductive method, founded on a plausible relationship between concepts and sets of concepts. The population for this study consisted of 32 females working in 15 organizations belonging to the public sector, occupying a variety of positions, from junior manager, to teacher, secretary, senior accountants and chiefs of departments. We chose this number of interviews in order to offer validity to our subject, as supported by scholarly theory, as Creswell recommends a sample size of 25-30 respondents [14].

The research question that represents the essence of this study is: How do females perceive violence as part of their work environment and how do they define the acts of workplace violence? The interviewees were asked to recount if they had negative experiences at work, how they addressed it, how the organization culture reinforces toxic behaviours. Also, the interviewer allowed the participants to explain their responses and describe their experiences and general work satisfaction. Each individual experience was explored through structured interview questions that allowed participants to fully explain their responses. In this study we used the qualitative method called grounded theory, developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in 1967 [16], later developed by Strauss and Juliet Corbin in the ’90s. The data collection method comprised the transcription of all our 32 interviews, conducted in Romania in February 2013. Thus, data were collected during one hour long interviews, addressing the participant organizations’ experience with violence from the individual respondent’s perception, in search of general categories of types of hostile acts and organizational patterns [15]. Consequently, we chose Grounded Theory in order to establish the key attributes of hostile behaviour and its emerging structures. Our data established categories, grounding the importance of a positive organizational culture.

With the assistance of the automated analysis tool, Atlas.ti, the appropriate coding established conceptual networks [17]. In this process, the initial data from the transcript were collected and analyzed; then codes were selected based on their relevance in the basic document. Thus, a step forward implied a movement from the primary text to a qualitative analysis. This process helped us to determine relevant categories, i.e., the categories which most frequently occur in the unit of analysis/analysis unit. The analysis performed identification, naming, categorization, description of phenomena and properties mentioned in the text includes: changes in the organization, poor management skills, overload, and are also in line with the results from the previous studies. Firstly, by generating codes in Atlas.ti, we grouped the concepts from the interviews according to a whole-part relationship as being acts that could be considered as mobbing in a broader context. By appointing open coding we grouped data by using properties/attributes and actions taken from the transcript of


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the interviews into larger categories such as: a toxic environment, precarious work, specifically perceived effects. Moreover, we can emphasize the usefulness of different types of graphical analyses in depicting and highlighting the distinctive characteristics of mobbing in our data.

By using computer assisted data analysis we could count the most frequent occurring codes in our transcript. It is noteworthy that the code” poor management” creates logical relations with other codes like: no positive feedback, negative effects on the victim's health, negative image of the victim, unclear expectation, worthless, treated unfairly, feeling that the victim is not good enough, abuse, slander, malicious gossip, invading personal space, no privacy of correspondence, exclusion from the workplace, public humiliation for personal appearance. A few distinctive patterns were revealed from the graphical analyses. In this context, it is necessary for us to corroborate the acts of bullying with the long lasting effects on their victims and to further correlate them with a climate of incivility, destabilization and lack of authority.

3 Discussion This article unravels the ways in which female employees view the “hostile work experiences” different

based on their everyday experience and peer support. The researchers had access to these individuals through personal previous contacts and their professional association. The respondents were selected purposely as permanent employees in a public sector organization, from different hierarchical levels. We identified a sample of 32 people from 15 public sector organizations selected purposely, which suffered a restructuring, reorganization in the last year. The first part of the interview focused on previous work experience and work satisfaction underling the importance of a history of unfavourable treatment, as the interviewees were describing their working environment as uncertain, they are undervalued, stressed and overworked. As one participant mentions: “(T.B.) overworking was constant. No matter what you did, it was never enough. You ought to answer the phone at any hour; you should check your email constantly, even if you took medical leave. If something happened at work during your leave it was mandatory that you cancel your plans and take care of everything. Legal holidays and days off did not mean you ceased all activity, they were viewed as a bargain made by the manager, not your legal right.” Regarding the culture of impunity, one respondent mentions that she transferred to escape the conflicting work environment. “(N.R.) One of my colleagues claimed from the very beginning that I was useless to the organization, a burden that only would make things worse“. The escalation of the conflict came after a change at the top management and the respondent described her previous experience with intimidation: “I was so stressed that I could not even sleep at night. What will she do the next day? From constantly changing my attributions, to making a fool of me in front of colleagues and our superiors, she never stopped. When I filed a grievance with the HR, I was asked if I would take into consideration moving to another department. First I said no, because it was not my fault, so why should I leave my position, but then they explained that my boss also believed that I was indeed not qualified for the job (...)”. Women are more likely to be victimized at work during unreliable economic conditions. They become precarious workers having a low income level, occupying a predominant part in the Romanian public sector. Gender is one dimension in the construction of power, thus relevant in mobbing.

Our group of respondents also mentioned the stressful effect of the wage gap, temporary contracts and social rights. As one of them said, “taking my maternity leave was not considered ok. (...) the employer mentioned frequently that I did not care about their problems, that I took my maternity leave even if they needed me”. Another account also suggests that female employees feel the pressure of proving loyalty and commitment to their work. Secondly, our categories identify the external effects in order to establish and makes a clear distinction between the negative interactions and their effect. More controversial is the question as to whether the victims are also responsible for their maltreatment. While our research is not representative of all hostile work interactions, it is important to acknowledge the specificity of positions held mostly by women in the public sector. Thus, a clear limitation of our study is the fact that victims are often described as being too sensitive, emotional, or trying to justify their own actions by altering their recollection of events.

4 Conclusions The main conclusion that can be drawn is that most respondents perceive a negative work environment

as accentuating an already strained work environment. In general, it seems that a culture of intimidation is appreciated as having a negative effect on their quality of life. The phenomenon is also accentuated by Romania’s economic realities and reforms in the public sector. Another point is that due to a cultural model of victim blaming, the interviewee will super compensated their need for security and focus on the emotional impact of their relationships, frequently redirecting the course of the interview to the same event and reconstructing their discourse around that crucial moment. Nevertheless, the structure of the interview provided a frame for the recollection of relevant experience with work intimidation. Following this, we could retrieve the most commonly occurring categories and transform our data into “quasi-quantitative” data. The respondents


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frequently appealed to some expressions and words like: ‘so stressed’ (41%), ‘having a difficult time’ (64.9%), ‘loneliness’ (35.2%). Their experience with “name calling” occurred in 47% cases in the interview; such acts were frequently' connected to factors like ‘change’, ‘lack of authority’. Incidentally, their recurrent description of such incidents draws a map where work culture and impunity accentuate the vulnerability of victims of such events/victims’ vulnerability. The study noted that the words ‘harass’, ‘bully’ and ‘harassment’ were never used by the subjects; instead, our respondents used terms such as: I was completely isolated, was repeatedly threatened, intimidated, blamed, false statements, ignored my grievances, made me resign, withhold my benefits, accused me of misconduct, had a bad behaviour.

Regarding the effects of bullying, a great part of the respondents’ narration is marked by a painful experience and grief or resentment. Work satisfaction is changed completely by mobbing. Hence the person who was interviewed could later identify that she wasn’t the only case, but until she became a victim she associated such behaviour as uncivil, but not harmful. The overall approach towards work satisfaction declined afterwards (Fig.1). Also, we noticed that one third of the subjects described the events as unbearable situations, expressed the lack of solutions or the feeling of being trapped. Our study indicates that if the organization proves disdain towards the conflict, it is more likely that the interviewee characterize the situation as being highly tensed. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that even when the superior was not the bully, the deficient management style created a culture of intimidation. The negative climate and lack of support from peers makes the situation unbearable and their response highly emotional (the use of the expression ‘close to tears’ occurs in 36.56% cases). We can conclude that the victim is dominated by fear, accepting injustice due to a wrong sense of precariousness and fear and also due to the fact that the great majority of the respondents does not know their rights in the workplace, granted by the law.

References [1] Einarsen, S., & Skogstad, A. (1996). Bullying at work: Epidemiological findings in public and

private organizations. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 5 , 185 − 201 [2] Zapf, D., & Einarsen, S. (2005). Mobbing at work: Escalated conflicts in organizations [3] Zapf, D. (1999). Organisational, work group related and personal causes of mobbing/bullying at

work. International Journal of Manpower, 20(1/2),p. 70. [4] ChappeL, D., & Di Martino, V. (1998). Violence at work.p.9-13. [5] Leymann, H. (1996). The content and development of mobbing at work. European journal of

work and organizational psychology,5(2), 165-184. [6] ChappeL, D., & Di Martino, V. (1998).op.cit..p.145-155. [7] Salin, D. (2003). Ways of explaining workplace bullying: A review of enabling, motivating and

precipitating structures and processes in the work environment. Human Relations,56, 1213− 1232

[8] Cowan, R. L. (2011). “Yes, we have an anti-bullying policy, but…:” HR professionals' understandings and experiences with workplace bullying policy.Communication Studies, 62(3), 307-327

[9] Glasø, L., & Vie, T. L. (2010). Toxic emotions at work. Scandinavian Journal of Organizational Psychology, 2(1), p.14

[10] Leymann, H. (1990). Mobbing and psychological terror at workplaces. Violence and victims, 5(2), 125.

[11] Yıldırım, H., & Uysaloglu, B. (2012). Impact of Demographic Factors on Employee's Perception of Mobbing: A Case Study from a Logistics Company. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, 634-644.

[12] Leymann, H. op.cit. p.123. [13] Hubert, A. B., & Van Veldhoven, M. (2001). Risk sectors for undesirable behaviour and

mobbing. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 10(4), 415-424. [14] Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory into

Practice, 39(3), 124. [15] Sobre-Denton, M. S. (2012). Stories from the cage autoethnographic sensemaking of workplace

bullying, gender discrimination, and white privilege. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 41(2), 220-250.

[16] Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, 41.

[17] Hwang, S. (2008). Utilizing qualitative data analysis software A review of atlas. ti. Social Science Computer Review, 26(4), 519-527.

[18] Muhr, T., & Friese, S. (2004). User’s Manual for ATLAS. ti .Berlin.


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Constitution and Legitimacy

Tăvală E.1

1 Faculty of Law, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract In the middle of the discussions about constitutional revision in Romania, one ought to take into

consideration a possible introduction to the new Romanian fundamental law as an introductory part, in the form of a preamble. It usually sets the reasons for the enactment of the statute and the purpose thereof. It was not used in the past, but in recent years such preambles have been included in the constitutions of the former communist countries. The comparison will be used as a method of research and presentation. That is why the paper will include a presentation of some of the technical parts which are to be met in the content of a preamble, as well as of three of the most suggestive preambles (Germany, USA and South Africa) which should be useful examples for Romania, too.

The paper is intended to underline the importance of such a preamble for the people who should know from the beginning their power into the state and into the Romanian legislative system. It underlines some aspects of sociology of law and, at the same time, of anthropology of law. As recommendations and conclusion I do plead for introducing such a part in the future Romanian fundamental law and a proposal to this effect is put forward in the present paper.

Keywords: Romanian constitution, preamble, national identity, national values, invocatio Dei

1 Introduction During my studies abroad, I discovered the importance and the impact of a constitutional preamble over

constitutional law. I was very surprised to find dozens of pages of commentaries on the preambles of Swiss or German constitutions, and later on the very beautiful and metaphorical preamble of the South-African Constitution.

In the actual context of Romanian discussions on a possible new fundamental law or a revision of the present one, there were some discussions and proposals on the possibility of introducing a preamble for the new Romanian constitution. There was much reticence because, in May 2013, there came such a proposal on the part of the Orthodox Metropolis of Moldavia and Bucovina (Iassy) through which the bishops in this part of the country suggested the possibility to introduce an invocatio or a nominatio Dei (possibly) in a preamble to the new constitution. They argued their initiative by taking into account the Christian tradition of the Romanians. Mention should be made here of the fact that, as early as 2009, the presidential Commission for analysis of the Political and Constitutional Regime in Romania pleaded for such a new part of the Constitution.

1.1 What is a Preamble? A preamble is a facultative part of a law or constitution. In the case of a law, the preamble is very rarely

met, but it is often present in the Acts of the Parliament and has political character. The preamble may sometimes be present in the decisions of the Parliament. It is placed before the introductive formula and it presents the aim of the act and, if necessary, its motivation, in a synthetic form.

On the contrary, the normative acts that come into force on the basis of a law or normative act of the Government may have a preamble. It includes the legal basis for the enactment of the act starting from the introductory formula, the legal texts the act is based on and in whose execution it was issued. According to art. 43 par. 4 of Romanian Law 24/2000, the normative acts issued by the authorities of the central or local public administration will mention in their preamble the “bills envisaged by the law”. We may infer from this paragraph the compulsory character of a preamble in such cases [1].

The preamble to an Act usually sets out the reasons for the enactment of the statute and/or the purposes thereof. Even if we mentioned the theoretical cases before, a preamble was not frequently used in the past, and it occurred mainly in statutes dealing with constitutional matters and private Acts of Parliament. As seen before, in recent years preambles have also been included in Acts dealing with a variety of other matters.


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In formal terms, a preamble is the introduction to the constitution and usually bears the formal heading “Preamble”. There are also some alternative or equivalent titles, such as the case of the Constitutions of Albania or Bahrain, where this part is called Foreword, or the preamble of the Japanese Constitution which is called Preface. Alongside a formal classification, it is possible to identify a preamble through its content.

In substantive terms, a preamble does not require a specific location in the constitution but, rather, a specific content. It presents the history behind the enactment of the constitution, as well as a nation’s core principles and values [2].

2 Comparative presentation of preambles An analysis of a random sample of fifty democratic countries revealed that most of them have included

a formal preamble in their constitutions: thirty-seven countries have a preamble (74%), while thirteen countries (including Romania) do not (26 %) [3].1 Countries that do not have a formal preamble often include introductory articles that may be regarded, in substantive terms, as a preamble, which may be the case of Romania as well, given that the first article of its Constitution was presented or interpreted as a preamble as well. Therefore, a preamble is a common constitutional feature. Mention should also be made of the fact that most of the countries that have adopted a constitution in recent years, particularly in Eastern and Central Europe, have included a preamble.

Despite the fact that most Constitutions are preceded by a preamble, the latter has largely been ignored by legal scholarship. In America, for example, most constitutional writers consider the preamble to the Constitution of 1787 to be lacking in legal value. In Europe, constitutional preambles gained increased attention during the work of the European Convention chaired by the former French President, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, in the context of the heated debate over the question whether reference should be made to Christian values in the preamble to the Constitutional Treaty of Rome.

2.1 The German Preamble One of the preambles that has come to my attention and whose meaning was discovered in a special

dissertation [3] several years ago, is the Preamble to the German Fundamental Law. The first sentence of the preamble to the German constitution states that: “Aware of their responsibility before God and man, inspired by the determination to promote world peace as an equal partner in a united Europe, the German people, in the exercise of their constituent power, have adopted this Basic Law.” This invocatio dei makes reference to the idea of God; it is not an advocatio Dei which would directly place the constitution under the will of God, as is the case in the constitution of many other countries, such as Ireland or Greece. According to Prof. Gerhard Robbers at the University of Trier [4], a preamble does not restrict its reference to the Christian idea of God. It would be unthinkable that, after the murder of the Jewish by the Germans in 1949, in the attempt to reconnect Germany with its pre-Nazi and anti-Nazi good traditions, the new German constitution would exclude the Jewish idea of God. It is generally understood that a preamble to the Basic Law does not refer to any specific idea of denomination, be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim or any other specific concept of God.

Instead, reference to God is a reference to religion as such. The preamble to the German constitution by making reference to God acknowledges the existence of transcendence, of the idea that there is more out there than the visible world, that there is something beyond what people acknowledge as such [4]. By this reference to some responsibility before God, the preamble of the Basic Law accepts that there is something beyond the state and its constitution, something that goes beyond what is made by human kind. It is thus acknowledges that the state, which is organized and structured by the constitution, is not all-encompassing [3]. Reference to God in the German constitution is anti-total, anti-totalitarian. This reference is of great interest, because, as shown before, there has always been debate on this subject of the presence of divinity in such preambles, at both European and national level.

2.2 The South African Republic Preamble One of the most interesting preambles, which may serve as a model for a possible future preamble of

Romanian Constitution is the one of the South-African Republic. Although the preamble is largely rhetorical in form, it does have an interpretative function. Reference

may be made to it in order to understand the meaning of a constitutional provision which is unclear. In interpreting the interim constitution, the Constitutional Court has referred to the preamble of the document on a number of occasions. The role of the preamble is particularly evident here, where the court adopted a so-called purposive approach to interpretation, which required the court to find what might be termed as the moral values

1 See A.V. Dicey, Introduction to the study of the Law of Constitution, in Liav Orgad, loc.cit., Footnote 6.


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underlying the constitution and to interpret the constitution in the light of those values [5]. The South-African preamble, rhetorical in tone, is a good place to begin the search for such values.

The entrenchment of the past is readily apparent. It is against the background of apartheid in the short term and of a history of injustice in the longer term that the constitution is adopted. Indeed, the first aim of the constitution is expressly to heal the divisions of the past [5]. The extent to which the preamble is concerned with the constitution as an instrument for healing the ills of the past, an instrument of transformation, is therefore striking. In comparison with the other preambles presented in this material, it may be said that, in some countries, the constitution is a legal instrument that formalizes a historical consensus of values and aspirations that have increasingly evolved from a stable past to accommodate the needs of the future. The South African constitution is different: it only retains what is defensible from the past; it can be seen as a decisive break from and a rejection of that part of the past which is fully racist, authoritarian, insular and repressive. It also represents a commitment to a democratic, universal, caring and egalitarian ethos openly expressed in the Constitution. [6] The contrast between the past, which it repudiates, and the future, to which it seeks to commit the nation, is stark and dramatic.

3 What should a preamble contain? The content of preambles can be classified into five categories [2]: The Sovereign. Most preambles specify the source of sovereignty. In some cases, sovereign power rests

with the people (“we the people. . .”). This is a relatively neutral term with which most of the population can usually identify. Another phrase relates to the source of sovereignty as stemming from a particular nation (the “Lithuanian Nation,” the “Spanish Nation,” etc.). This terminology refers to a specific national group and is less neutral; therefore, it cannot be used in the case of Romania, or by contrary.

Historical Narratives. Preambles typically include historical narratives of a state, a nation, or a people, telling specific stories that are rooted in language, heritage, and tradition. These stories shape the common identity (“we”). The reference is often to past events that have influenced the establishment of the state.

Supreme Goals. Preambles often outline a society’s fundamental goals. They may be universal objectives, such as the advancement of justice, fraternity, and human rights, economic goals, such as nurturing a socialist agenda or advancing a free market economy; or others, such as maintaining unification. These goals tend to be abstract ideas, such as happiness or well-being.

National Identity. Preambles usually contain statements about the national creed. Understanding the constitutional faith of each country and its constitutional philosophy cannot be complete without reading its preamble. Preambles often include an additional element about future aspirations and may also include a commitment to resolve disputes peacefully, to abide by the principles of the UN Charter, or to further national aspirations as stated in a declaration of independence.

God or Religion. A preamble may include reference to God. Some preambles emphasize God’s supremacy, such as the preambles to the Canadian Charter (“the supremacy of God”) or to the Swiss Constitution (“in the Name of Almighty God”). Other preambles make reference to religion: the Greek preamble mentions the Holy Trinity; in the Irish preamble, the Holy Trinity is mentioned as “our final end” and a source of authority to which all actions of “men and states must refer.” Conversely, a preamble may emphasize the separation of state and religion or the state’s secular character.

While common characteristics can be identified, each preamble has its own distinguishing features. Preambles come in various lengths; they may harmonize with or contradict the body of the constitution, and may be enacted together with the body of the constitution, as well as at a later constitutional moment.

4 Instead of conclusions ... a proposal As early as 2009, a proposal was made to include a preamble in the future Romanian Constitution.

According to the presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Romanian Political and Constitutional regime (2009), this would create a fundament for the teleological interpretation of constitutional texts. As shown in the mentioned report, the current tendency is to introduce preambles before constitutional texts. As shown before, the primary role of a preamble to the Romanian Constitution would be to introduce and give some explanation of, or context to, the text that follows. This may involve a statement of facts, such as a historic account of how the text came to be enacted or an explanation of the purpose of a statute or the intention of Parliament to enact it. More precisely, reference should be made in such a preamble to the Romanian people in its capacity of unique constituent power. I think this might be the key in assuming and realizing the responsibility of the people, who actually have the power in enacting and bringing into force the new constitution. Finally, we should refer to a saying in the Romanian Literature that has become a classic over time: They are stupid, but they are many! (ro. Proşti, da’ mulţi). Constitutional democracy begins with its acknowledgement by the people who actually hold the power in such a system, and who acknowledge the values that represent the fundamental building blocks of


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the system. In this respect, national identity may be mentioned as an important aspect of the Romanian people who, aware of what is important, also assumes its European identity, which is now part of its culture.

The preamble of South Africa may be a good example of a nation assuming its past and healing its painful memories. Following this example, the Romanians, as holders of the power in a constitutional democracy, may also make a statement on the communist and authoritative regimes of the 20th century in such a preamble.

Last, but not least, reference to divinity, as an invocatio Dei, may be taken into account, after the cases of Switzerland, South Africa, Germany and Ireland, or as a nominatio Dei, as reference to Christian values and the Byzantine symphony that characterized the relation between throne and altar during the Romanian history. As shown before when I presented the three preambles, the presence of divinity in the preamble does not affect the liberty of conscience or the liberty of religion, but it presents the fact that there is something more beyond the state and its constitution, something that goes beyond what is made by humans [4].

Even if preambles have been disregarded as symbolic statements for a long time, a growing number of countries have legalized the language of preambles. The purpose of preambles, their concept and sociological functions are different. Preambles encourage cohesion or exacerbate divisions; they express constitutional identity and are called upon to serve as a device of national consolidation or to make up for past wrongs. Their impact depends on their wording but also on the political environment from which they once stemmed. Such examples are the three preambles presented in this material, which were adopted in different periods and in different socio-political and national contexts. Through its preamble, the defeated Germany was able to proclaim its dreams and its attachment to a new Europe, and a shattered South Africa was able to perform the healing of memories, which Romania also needs.

References: [1] Vida, Ioan (2012). Legistică formală [Formal legistics], Ed. a V-a, Ed. Universul Juridic,

Bucureşti. [2] Orgad, Liav (2010). The preamble in constitutional interpretation, vol. 8, no. 4 International

Journal of Constitutional Law, Oxford University Press. [3] Vogt, Andreas (2007). Der Gottesbezug in der Präambel des Grundegesetzes. Historische

Grundlagen und juristische Interpretation, Verlag Dr. Kovač: Hamburg, p.7 [4] Robbers, Gerhard (2010). Religion and Law in Germany, Kluwer Law International, pp: 294-

295. [5] Fagan, Eduard (2012). The constitutional entrenchment of memory, in Sarah Nuttall, Carli

Coetzee (ed.), Negotiating the past: The making of memory in South Africa (Oxford University Press), pp: 250-251.

[6] de Ville, J.R. (2000). Constitutional and statutory interpretation, Goodwood, Western Cape, Johannesburg.


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A Utilitarian Approach to Ethics Audit

Terec-Vlad L.,1 Terec-Vlad D.2 1 MA, „Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, 0040 749 978 910 (ROMANIA) 2„Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, 0040 754 906 272 (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract

Organizational ethics has different priorities, depending on the importance it is given by theory and practice. For the traditionalists, a company’s mission is to generate utility, the instrumentalist approach limiting the company to profitability and ethical behavior being just a way of ensuring the fulfillment of the function for which it was established. From the non-utilitarian point of view, one can say that being ethical is a goal of the individual and not a way of making money, moral behavior being considered the means by which an organization acknowledges its role in the society and provides examples of conduct in this respect.

An organization based on integrity focuses on ethical behavior, preventing damage, and, at the same time, determining the implantation of stimuli in order to ensure the commitment of responsible, moral attitudes. One of the tools used to ensure this type of compromise is represented by ethics audit as an alternative to the organizational sphere commonly used in the United States, England and Germany, but relatively new in Romania; its function consists in evaluating the behavior of organizations and agents. Specifically, it assesses the damage or the benefits resulted from the actions undertaken (in this context, we include issues such as: human resource management, connections established with other organizations and relationships established with state institutions), in order to detect the errors that might cause the loss of credibility. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of ethics audit within organizations as an expression of utilitarianism.

Keywords: ethics, ethics audit, utilitarianism, trust capital, organizations

Introductory aspects The term organizational culture emerged in the 60’s of last century, but came into prominence during

the 80’s, with the publication of the paper "In Search of Excellence" [1]. Although there is no universally accepted definition for this term, in the specific literature it is described as "a set of values that belong to the organization and helps its members understand the goal they set" [2: 1-31], or "a set of values and beliefs shared by the staff of an organization, which has certain meanings and provides rules for acceptable behavior" [3:38].Within the organizations that share the same object of activity and a roughly equal number of employees the organizational culture is different; each company has a different identity, given by the leader's personality.

In the context of organizations, an essential element is ethics, which provides trust capital [4]. The actions undertaken over time are valued at the organizational level in terms of morality and values. Although on the first impulse ethics and morality can be considered one and the same thing, at a closer look, ethics actually makes recommendations, while morality directs the actions of the individual towards the achievement of Good.

In democratic societies we witness debates regarding ethics and morality in both the social services as well as the organizational sphere. In this context, ethics audit is being increasingly used also in business ethics in order to analyze the inappropriate behaviors and to outline the codes of professional conduct or in changing circumstances that may occur during the life of the enterprise. The ethical climate of organizations was identified by Hodgson and includes:

- Dignity - Autonomy - Loyalty - Honesty - Fairness - Humanism - The Common Good [5].


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Ethics audit, an expression of utilitarianism Developed under the European Institute of Business Ethics, ethics audit is a utilitarian tool which helps

us assess the degree to which the ethical standards deliberate the decision making [6: 27-33] The reasons why organizations require periodic ethical auditing are influenced by the behavior of the business partners as well as by the improvement of the performances, due to the fact that ethics audit "offers a picture of the value system at a particular moment of the company’s life" [6: 27-33].Antonio Sandu believes that the assessment of the ethical risk areas can be achieved only by ethics audit[7: 169-172]; from this point of view, empirical circumscription is a projection of the reality of the organization and the business environment. Beyond the relationship between the organization and the business partners, we identify the compromise and the influence of the society upon the crisis situations. From this point of view, the usefulness of ethics audit is given by the identification of the emerging causes and by certain organizational contexts that may cause negative effects for the image of the organizations. In order to avoid such situations, ethics audit aims at creating a climate of transparency and accountability, and, on the other hand, it is intended for internal control [8]. Exceeding the organizational frameworks, ethical control identifies the etiquette provided by the societal framework, by trying to identify the empirical elements that lead to a negative image in order to improve the relationship between the organization and its partners. What needs to be added is that it is necessary to take into account the recommendations of ethics audit, because the negative impact of the company may have negative consequences in terms of socio-economic issues.

Regarding the usefulness of ethics audit, one should take into account the fact that the individual actions have two dimensions: the good and the evil; in this context, ethics audit aims at achieving good, because this is the only way the organization will able to maximize the profits and ensure its sustainability over time. Related to the Millian theory, ethics audit considers the distinction between the public good and the private good, and calculates the benefits obtained in both situations. For this reason, one should formulate utilitarian questions such as: what should be done or how should we live or what should we admire? The answer to these questions is given precisely by the most important elements of the empirical framework of the organization’s ethical analysis, because the identification of the problems provides the opportunity to correct the organization’s attitude towards the business partners in due time and helps it understand the fact that relationships are built over time and are based on trust; an unfaithful attitude would certainly lead to human and financial losses. For this reason, ethics audit should provide a framework of values that are applicable to all the fields of activity, in order to identify the vulnerable areas and subsequently correct the behaviors that contradict the moral principles. Beyond these issues, there are a number of steps outlined by T. Agheroghiesei: defining the aim, reviewing the mission, collecting and analyzing the relevant information, examining the results, reporting the observations and specifying the actions implemented [6]. The usefulness of ethics audit is given by the policies that can be implemented, but also by the aspects related to the organizational culture of the company. For this reason, the role of ethics audit is not only to identify the areas of vulnerability, but also to provide certain relationships of trust capital both externally and internally, by bringing together all the factors that affect a company's reputation [8].

During this paper I have highlighted the role of ethics audit within organizations; utilitarianism provides a view which is able to promote the interests of the organization from both the social and the economic perspective. We deal with the issue of common good on the one hand and on the other hand with the issue of the usefulness of ethics audit. If we refer to the common interests, we talk about the ability to adapt to the conditions imposed by ethics audit, which seek to build a relationship based on trust, which is able to adapt to the changes that may occur over time. Research in the field of applied ethics not only indicates the relevance of ethics audit within organizations, but also focuses on the ways of relating to the business partners and thus to the consumers. For this reason, the tendency towards the common good could provide a reasonable compromise in the institutional structures; I refer to the fact that eliminating the non-ethical practices requires a policy change in order to create certain changes in favor of the economic actors involved.

Including ethics audit in the organizational culture in order to increase the trust capital is considered to be an expression of the knowledge based society, which focuses on the business functionality. In particular, the orientation towards the common good highlights the usefulness of ethics audit, making it indispensable in locating the managerial errors. However, despite the assessments and recommendations, ethics audit is the expression of changing and reassessing the priorities and the institutional procedures. On the other hand, even when we talk about changing the organizational reality, ethics audit analyzes the functionality of the organizational system by highlighting the forms of manifestation of the business partners in different contexts.

From the utilitarian perspective, ethics audit keeps track of the effects of the decisions taken at a certain time, determining the consequences of an action in terms of its consequences. Considering Bentham's postulates, ethics audit may determine the fairest decisions the society might benefit from. Being considered a moral resource of the enterprise, ethics audit provides:

- Tools for decision-making, identifying conflicts, reducing the cost of internal and external coordination


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- Determines the interests and promotes the dialogue between different groups in order to resolve the conflicts

- Defines the key elements for the firm's reputation - Fosters the company’s innovation, creativity and competitiveness [9]. On the other hand, researchers in this field believe that ethics audit involves: plans, strategies, projects,

policies, procedures and practices, but also the examination of the integrity and the ethical values: the existence and applicability of codes of professional conduct, accepted commercial practices, enforcing the rules of ethical behavior on the groups of interest, reviewing the information system, contracts and programs, the structure and functioning of the organization’s units, products and services, complying with the legislation in force, internal accountability [10]. Beyond these issues, ethics audit must be unique for each company depending on its size, its sector of activity and its corporate culture [11: 230-260]; this is the only way it can prove its usefulness and efficiency.

Conclusions Besides the function of analyzing the ethical issues within institutions, ethics audit is largely responsible

for complying with the code of professional conduct, so that there are no abnormalities regarding the behavior of the organization’s members in relation to the business partners. During a control activity contextual situations may arise; they may be identifiable at organizational level and visible in the internal space. Since the purpose of ethics audit is to identify the features that may have a negative effect on the institution, highlighting the problems and implicitly correcting them becomes the ultimate goal of ethics audit. By stressing the importance of the values in the organizational context, the solution to the ethical problems provides medium to long-term answers to certain contextual issues. Despite the fact that it seems purely theoretical, this type of audit helps create trust capital by enforcing the moral values and principles. By making a connection between ethics audit and utilitarianism, we have reached the conclusion that the elements favoring the emergence of audit ethics are closely related to the social reality and the relationships established with the business partners. However, the aspects that shape the theoretical framework reflect the empirical framework due to the different contexts in which this type of audit is achieved. By claiming the place of ethics and its usefulness within the institutional sphere, researchers in the field believe that a high degree of morality provides stability and trust capital, which are elements that make the distinction between failure and success in business.

References [1] Peters T., Waterman R., (1982). In Search of Excellence, Harper & Row, New York. [2] Griffin, R., (1990). Management, Houghton Mifflin Co. [3] Davis, S. (1984). Managing Corporate Culture, Balinger, Cambridge [4] Maxim S.,T., (2010). Peripatetic, Pim Publishing House, Iași [5] Hodgson, K., (1992). A Rock and a Hard Place: How to Make Ethical Business Decisions when

the Choises are Tough, Amacom, New York. [6] Agheorghiesei T., (2011). Business Ethics, Al. I. Cuza University, Iași. [7] Sandu, A., Ethics and Professional Deontology, Lumen Publishing House, Iași. [8] Carmichael S., Hummels, H., ten Klooster, A., van Luijk, H., (2010). How Ethical Auditing can

Help Companies Compete more Effectively at International Level, seen on 19th September 2013, at http://aactrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/global/ilo/code/audit.htm

[9] Marza Garcia, S., (2004). Etica Empresarial: Del Dialogo a la Confianza, Madrid, Trotta. [10] Rodriguez Córdoba, M.P., Castaño Vélez, C.F., Osorio Gómez,V., Zuluaga Arcila, H.F., Duque

Uribe, V., (2006). La Auditoría ética: Herramienta para Fortalecer la Integridad del Carácter Organizacional - Innovar. Revista de Ciencias Administrativas y Sociales, vol. 16, no. 27.

[11] Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., Ferrell, L.,( 2008). Business Ethics, Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.


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Crimes and Offences Regarding Genetic Manipulation

Tudurachi E.1 1 “Petre Andrei” University in Iasi (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The study aims to outline the history of infractions against the person, given that the offences and

crimes regarding genetic manipulation bring prejudice to the life of the individual from several perspectives – physical, moral, spiritual; the study also aims to bring arguments for the necessity to incriminate them. It is not easy for a democratic State, with the rule of law, to maintain a perfect balance between sanctioning all the deeds that prejudice the right to life and respecting the rights of those who violate it. Criminal law has the hardest job regarding the right to life: the criminal law has to incriminate as infractions all the deeds that prejudice directly or indirectly this social value.

However, these deeds represent only a limited part of the potentially dangerous deeds, with possible consequences on the genetic identity of the individual or involving a certain degree of genetic engineering use. From this viewpoint, the approach of the Legal commission, which created the Project of the New Criminal Code, was an efficient one, but it failed to enter into force. Currently, in order to deal with new situations, I believe it is necessary for the Romanian legislator to get inspiration from the laws adopted by other States of the world (especially the European ones), which have taken significantly more measures in this field. The best example is represented by the French bioethics law of 19941, modified and completed in 2004, when it also entered to be effective. This law is dedicated exclusively to the regulation of genetic engineering, regardless of its form.

Keywords: genetics, manipulation, infraction, cloning, incrimination.

1 Introduction Life is the most precious asset of the individual. Throughout time, man has defended his life,

individually or collectively, anarchically or in an organized manner – under the rigours of the law – through all means available to this purpose. For a long time at the beginnings of humankind, the protection of the right to life was ensured in an original manner, sometimes by diverse and often bizarre customs, considering the logics and morality of the present. Hence, starting from the abovementioned aspects, I will present, in the following lines, a brief history that I consider necessary [1], [2].

In regard to the infractions on genetic manipulation, taking into account the recent evolutions in this field, no such deeds were incriminated by the old regulations. The New Romanian Criminal Code – published in The Official Gazette, Part I no. 575 of 29 June 2004 (yet to enter into force) – has not ignored the medical evolutions and, in art. 193-197, it incriminates certain deeds regarding genetic manipulation: art. 193 – Genotype alteration: “The alteration of human genotype in full knowledge, by any means, is punished by strict imprisonment from 2 to 5 years”. In addition, art. 194 – Dangerous use of genetic engineering: “The dangerous use of genetic engineering to produce biological weapons or weapons of mass destruction is punished by severe imprisonment from 15 to 25 years and the prohibition of certain rights”. Art. 195 – Illegal creation of human embryos and cloning states “(1) The creation of human embryos in other purposes than procreation is punished by strict imprisonment from 3 to 10 years and with the prohibition of certain rights; (2) The same punishment is reserved for the creation of a human being genetically identical to another human being, either living or dead, by cloning”. Art. 196 – Sanctioning the attempt: “The attempts to the offence stipulated in art. 195 are punished”; art. 197 – Sanctioning the legal person: “The legal person will be sanctioned for the offences stated in the present chapter”. In regard to the object of these genetic manipulation offences, I believe it should involve both the

1 The Bioethics law, which entered into force on the 6th of August 2004, published in the Journal Officiel, on the 7th of August 2004.


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protection of the common genome of humanity and the protection of the individual genotype in its integrity, which leads to the right to health and dignity. The objective side will explore the violation of the person’s right to information and consent, including of the couple’s rights, in the reproductive cloning and the sex choice documents, as well as in the documents concerning the age limit for procreation or the incorrect genetic manipulations on species of seeds, plants, or animals. The Romanian legislator has not incriminated the alteration of the human genotype and the cloning in a special law, but the solution was to incriminate them in the provisions of the New Romanian Criminal Code, published in the Of.G., Part I, no. 575/29.06.2004, approved through the Law no. 301/2004. Given that this Criminal Code has been delayed several times from entering into force, our country has been in a kind of legislative void in this respect, considering that the genetic manipulation deeds have no coverage concerning the criminal protection of the social values in this field. Romania is the first country in the Balkans to have legislated the GMOs, through the G.O. 49/2000. This order – approved and modified through the Law no. 214/2002 – regulated for the first time the “obtainment, testing, use, and commercialization of genetically modified organisms through modern biotechnics, as well as their products”. The same order defined the GMO as an organism that contains a new combination of genetic material, obtained through the means of modern biotechnologies, which adds new characteristics. From the perspective of criminal law, the pre-embryo or embryo is not a human being. Hence, their deliberate destruction does not constitute a criminal deed. In agreement with one of the systems, only 13 countries conduct research on pre-embryos. In countries such as Germany, Israel, Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland, the law prohibits the research on embryos. The most important reports on the research on embryos have come from the Walter Committee in Australia, the European Human Society, and Embryology Reproduction, as well as from the Society for Reproductive Medicine and the European Parliament. The benefits of the research on pre-embryos concern four great medical fields: infertility research, improvement of clinical outcomes, diagnosis of genetic anomalies, and the therapeutic use of the embryonic tissue to transplant the life-threatening conditions [3].

2 Historical elements regarding the infractions against the person a. The ancient period. For a long time, the behavioural norms were tradition-based, and this tradition

became the mandatory norm through which the forms of the new preponderant economy were protected. In the tribal matriarchate – where, considering her role in the productive activity, the woman benefitted from a special protection – killing a mother was the most serious crime and the revenge was mandatory. Patriarchate eliminated this tradition by replacing it with another one, where the man’s power was the expression of economic interests [4]. Hence, in Assyria, homicide could be redeemed by paying material compensations, but if the parties failed to reach an agreement, the death penalty was applied [5]. The ancient Egyptians punished homicide with the death penalty [5]. The death sentence execution in case of the ancient Jews – applied for voluntary manslaughter – took place in public; the murderer was killed with stones, either by the family of the victim or by the collective. In the last case, the crown witnesses threw the first stone, and then all the members of the collective threw a stone, until the body was totally covered by stones. During the nomad phase, the Jewish people observed the supreme law of “blood revenge”; in fact, the principle survived until much later2. Death required a death penalty; the family of the murdered victim had to kill the killer or a member of his family. The Law of the “blood revenge” was also conserved later, during the sedentary phase, and it was completed by the legal principle – common to many Semitic peoples – of the “talion”3. The Persians punished murder with the death penalty; the penalty was executed in one of the following manners: poisoning, impaling, crucifying, hanging upside down, killing with stones, skinning alive, head smashing, smothering with hot ashes, burying alive up to the neck, and other such horrors [5]. The ancient Indians also applied the capital punishment [5] for the person who murdered a woman, a child, or a Brahman [4]. In China, too, murder was punished by death penalty. Also in China, the family vendetta was practised, which the texts of Confucius considered a duty: “the son cannot live under the same sky as his father’s killer” [5]. Though it was the most developed law system of the ancient society, the Roman law also punished the one who took a life (almost) exclusively by the death penalty. Hence, in 671, the Law Cornelia de sicariis stated that the noblemen who killed someone would only be deported, while those of the middle-class would be beheaded, and the low-class people would be crucified and then given to wild beasts. This law – just like the laws Cornelia de falsis and Pompeia de parricidiis – stipulated the indictment of legal proceedings against the person who committed the incriminated deeds, considered public crimes, following a special procedure and submitted to a special jurisdiction [4]. For parricide, the Law Pompeia stipulated “He who killed a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, will be punished by being whipped till he bled, sewn up in

2 Genesis, IV, 15; Exodus, XXI, 12; Second book of Samuel, III, 27, XIV, 7. 3 “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exodus, XXI, 24-25). The word “talion” comes from Latin (“talio”, from “talis”- “such''), given that the Romans also adopted – until the 2nd century BC – this cruel legal principle. Not even the Jews applied it “ad litteram”, considering that a sum of money could be laid for the ransom of one’s life (Exodus, XXI, 29 sqq.), unless the person in question was a murderer.


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a sack with a dog, cock, viper, and ape, and thrown into the sea, if the sea was at hand, and if not, by a constitution of Hadrian, he was exposed to wild beasts”4.

b. The period of Middle Ages. In regard to the period of the Middle Ages, the governing principles of legal justice are very different compared to the principles of the contemporary legal policy. Hence, for homicide, the Celts stipulated “the price of honour”, and only if the murderer could not pay it, he was sentenced to death [5]. The ancient Germans did not consider that punishing a murderer fell under the competence of the State; if the defendant claimed to be not guilty, he had to defend himself before 12 jurors – members of the community – who judged his behaviour from the past, since they had known him. Eventually, the defendant could appeal to the judgment of gods: ordeals or legal duel. Later, the Edict of Theoderic stipulated a financial compensation for murder (Wergeld), as follows: for an underclass freeman 200 golden solidi; for a semi-freeman – 60 golden solidi; for a house slave – 50; for a swineherd – 50 (if he had more than two helps) or 25 (if he had just one or none); for a goatherd or shepherd – 20, while for his help – 12. After paying the compensation, if the plaintiff decided to kill in order to get revenge, he had to pay to the family or to the master of the person killed the double of the compensation for a death. However, the death penalty was stipulated for a slave killing his master and for a wife killing her husband. The same retributive view is also stipulated by the Arabians; the Islamic law sought to replace the vendetta by a ransom sum (diya) – but only for the first killing, not for subsequent ones. Unlike the Jewish Pentateuch, the Koran distinguishes between voluntary (intentional) manslaughter and second-degree murder – which excludes vendetta and replaces it with the ransom sum5. The Middle Ages also comprise a development of the tortures for murder, which became diabolically diverse. For instance, in France, the accused was usually strangled before being hanged, and in some cases, he had his arms or tongue cut off.

c. The modern and contemporary period. Influenced by Beccaria and Beccarianism, which anticipated the modern criminal law, rational and humanitarian ideas began to be applied, thus underlining the importance of crime prevention, requiring more respect for the rights of the accused, as well as the abolition of torture and death penalty. A new idea emerged: in the application of the punishment, the determining point should be the assessment of the damage incurred by the wrongdoer first of all to the society. The old views of defending the individual’s right to life by judging the murderers through “sui” generis procedures and by condemning them to suffering the same thing they did – expressed in manifestations and forms of the vendetta – were present in the ancient and medieval law. Today, they are still present only in the mafia-specific “raw force retaliations”. However, the views of modern law proved effective, reason for which they have been preserved in the contemporary period. Over time, people realized that their individual existences conditioned each other, that human life became a social value requiring imperious protection. Furthermore, the framework of the governing principles for the modern criminal law systems is highly different from the one of the past, given that they ceased to be applied arbitrarily and considering the legal classification for homicide. The French Criminal Code of 1804 – also called the Code of Napoleon, which includes a discussion on the influence of Bentham’s utilitarian philosophy – reduced indeed the framework of the crimes punished by death penalty. However, it did maintain this penalty for crimes such as parricide, poisoning, assassinate, torturing to death or barbarian deeds, murder preceded, accompanied or followed by another murder, as well as homicide under certain circumstances. Soon afterwards, the issue of abolishing the death penalty led to a real abolitionist movement: the death penalty was abolished in Romania (1864), Portugal (1866), Holland (1870), and Italy (1899), even for certain types of homicides. After the instauration of fascist regimes in Italy and Germany, a recrudescence of repression was registered, even in other countries with dictatorship-oriented political regimes; hence, the death penalty was restored not only for political crimes, but also for those against life. This way, the death penalty was restored in Italy in 1925 and 1930, in Romania in 1938, etc. Following World War II, a new abolitionist movement on death penalty emerged and it was victorious in Italy (1947), in the Federal Republic of Germany (1949), and in Turkey (1950). Nowadays, crimes against life are severely sanctioned in most countries, in an attempt to protect the right to life not only by drastically punishing those who commit crimes against life, but also the other way around: by eliminating from the legislations the death penalty for those who commit such crimes.

d. Evolutions on the Romanian territory. At the beginning and throughout the evolution of the Dacian State, the council of noblemen decided the punishments for crimes against life and for other crimes. In the Roman Dacia period, the provincial governor was the deliverer of justice and he had imperium merum: power of life and death. The law of talion was applied in those times; for instance, Lucius Iulius Bassus, decurion and quaestor, killed while in Băile Herculane to treat health issues, was avenged by his brother [4]. Later – in Romanian laws such as Cartea Românească de Învăţătură (Code of Law) of 1646 by Basil Lupu and Îndreptarea Legii (The Great Code) of 1652 by Matthew Basarab – the most serious criminal deeds, among which the crimes against life, were punished by the death penalty. During the reign of Dimitrie Cantemir, the sanctions for the

4 At the beginning of the Republic, the death penalty was the exclusive repression mean of the public criminal procedure

and it always remained the main mean; in exchange, at the end of the Republic, Pompeius abolished it, even in case of parricides.

5 Koran, V, 49.


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crimes against life were applied differently, by social class: the noblemen were beheaded, while the low-class thieves and murderers were hanged. In the modern period, though Beccaria also influenced the modern Romanian criminal law, the death penalty for crimes against life was not abolished. Hence, the Caragea Code stipulated the death penalty for – among others – first-degree murder and passion murder with a weapon or with a cutting instrument. Furthermore, the Calimach Code stipulated death penalty for homicide, parricide, and poisoning. The Organic Regulation in Wallachia abolished death penalty, but this type of punishment was conserved in Moldavia. The Criminal Code of 1864 was a legislative victory for Beccarianism: the death penalty was abolished, even for crimes against life; the abolition was then instituted through the Constitutions of 1866 (art. 18) and of 1923 (art. 16). The Constitution of 1938 reintroduced the death penalty for robbery followed by murder, among others. Republished in February 27, 1948, The Criminal Code of 1936 maintained the death penalty, and, among the crimes against life, homicide was sanctioned by death penalty (art. 4641). The Criminal Code of 1969 maintained the death penalty for the crimes against life, with three degrees: manslaughter (simple or specific), second-degree murder, and aggravated murder. Following the 1989 revolution, one of the first legislative acts of the Council of the NSF abolished death penalty. The law-decree no. 6 of 7 Jan. 19906 abolished the death penalty and replaced it with life in prison (art. 1). Art. 2 stated that all provisions regarding death penalty in the Criminal code, in the Criminal Procedure Code, and in other normative acts – besides the ones expressly abrogated by art. 4 of the law-decree – would refer to life in prison and that the death sentences pronounced by a court, definitive but not yet executed, would be commuted to life in prison, according to the law on death penalty abolition. Of course, these provisions also referred to homicide. An article in the 1991 Romanian Constitution reinforced the success of the abolitionist idea: “death penalty is prohibited” (art. 22 par. 3).

3 Conclusions However, criminal law is not perfect when it comes to incriminating crimes against life. For this reason,

criminal law should specify the notion of cloning; it should highlight cloning as a crime, as an “attack” to the man’s life, considering the fame acquired by progresses in all realms of life and the need to modernize the fundamental laws of States (France, Switzerland). I believe it useful for the Romanian Constitution to stipulate the prohibition of cloning as an aspect of the fundamental right to life, to physical and mental integrity, and to human dignity. I also believe it necessary to incriminate, in the field of genetic manipulation, the following deeds: human genotype alteration, use of genetic engineering to produce biological or mass extermination weapons, creation of embryos in other purposes than procreation. As for the prohibition of human genotype altering, the examination of the human genetic characteristics should be regulated. I believe that it should only be permitted for medical or scientific research purposes, only with the express and previous consent of the person, which the person may revoke at any time. Genetic uniformity is a crime because it diminishes the genetic diversity as progress of the evolution in the nature; it denies the freedom and responsibility of man, which derives from the genetic diversity and uniqueness. Similarly, eugenics is a crime; mostly concerning negative eugenics, the person has the right to be informed on the risks of his genome or to agree to individual or couple’s therapy regarding the risk of transmitting pathological genes to the offspring. Considering the meaning and human signification of the various scientific discoveries, the law will favour the development of human-favourable science and it will protect the human values against diverse risks and abuses. A special attention should be paid to the protection of embryos and gametes. There should be an express incrimination for the illegal creation of embryos in other purposes than procreation. Many countries forbid the creation of embryos for scientific purposes, but they do allow the study on the existing ones; however, clear-cut conditions should be stipulated for such an approach.

References [1] Lazăr, V., Pascu, I. (2003).Drept penal. Partea specială. Infracţiuni prevăzute în Codul penal român,

Lumina Lex, Bucharest, p. 313. [2] Ungureanu,A. (1997).Consideraţii în legătură cu aplicarea unor dispoziţii ale Legii no. 140/1996,

pentru modificarea şi completarea Codului penal, Revista Dreptul no. 4, p. 60. [3] Ostnor, L.(2008). Stem Cells, Human Embryos and Ethics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Springer, 1

edition, p. 81. [4] Poenaru, I. (1994).Pedeapsa cu moartea. „Pro” sau „contra”?, Lumina Lex, Bucharest, p. 34. [5] Drîmbă, O.(1984).Istoria culturii şi civilizaţiei, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucharest, p. 78.

6 Published in The Official Gazette no. 4 of 8 January 1990.


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Freedom of Labour and Limiting Overlapping Functions in Romania

Ţop D.1, Pădure Petrişor L.A.2, Ţuţuianu A.3 1 Associate Professor PhD, Valahia University of Târgovişte (ROMANIA) 2 Lecturer PhD, Valahia University of Târgovişte (ROMANIA) 3 Associate Professor PhD, Valahia University of Târgovişte (ROMANIA) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

Abstract Freedom of labour is enshrined as a fundamental principle by the Romanian Constitution. As an

expression of the freedom of work, article 35 para. 1 of the Labour Code provides that any person has the right to work at the same employer or different employers, based on individual employment contracts, with the salary corresponding to each of them.

Article 35 para. 2 of the Labour Code states that there are exceptions situations when the law provides for overlapping functions incompatibilities. Overlapping of functions is completely forbidden for foreign employees.

Law no. 329 of 2009 prohibited the accumulation of pension to wages if the net pension in payment exceeds the gross average wage in the economy used to substantiate the state social insurance budget.

It is necessary to distinguish between overlapping of functions and overlapping qualities, the latter referring to the total quality active person (you get professional income) with the retired social foundation of overlapping normative foundation of quality legally resident in the elderly right to be an active and integral part of society, and everyone's right to a decent income.

Keywords: labour freedom, plurality of functions, overlapping of functions, cumulative salary and pension.

Introduction Labour freedom is enshrined as a fundamental principle by art.3 para.1 with reference to art.38 para.1 of

the Constitution, according to which the right to work cannot be limited, choice of profession or job being free, art. 3 para.3 stating in this context that "no one can be forced to work or not to work throughout his life in a particular job or a certain profession, whatever it may be." Such provisions are consistent [1] with the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which in art. 6 pt. 1 specifies that the right to work includes the right for everyone to have a living by work freely chosen or accepted and with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, too, which proclaims in art. 23 section 1 that everyone has the right to work, to free choice of profession and type of work to good conditions of performance of this work.

Given the importance of the principle of freedom enjoyed under general principles of law, violation of this in the conclusion of any convention attracts absolute nullity, the law stating that such an agreement is void of law.

The analysis of the principle of freedom of labour takes into account not only the comparative method which aims to reflection of this principle in national legislation, but also in the European, but also a diversified methodology from multiple relevant aspects.

1 Freedom of labour in national legislation As shown in the literature [2], the right to work is guaranteed in part, mainly, on the freedom of labour

and employment stability. [3] As an expression of labour freedom, stated in art.38 para.1 of the Romanian Constitution, art. 35 para.1

of the Labour Code provides that any person has the right to work at the same employer or at different employers, based on individual employment contracts, with appropriate salary for each of them.

Labour legislation doesn’t require that all hours worked under several individual employment contracts does not exceed the maximum working time. However, labour legislation does not establish the existence of a


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duty breaks from work performed under two or more individual employment contracts. Rule of 48 hours per week takes into consideration working time under a single labour contract. In the event of overlapping of functions does not work prohibition on the 48 hours per week regardless of that individual labour contracts are concluded with a single employer or multiple employers.

At the same time between the same parties, the employer and employee cannot conclude two individual labour contracts for the same function, for example to have a full-time employment contract and a part-time employment contract of the same person for the same office.

As long as the law does not provide for a maximum duration of work done in the case of overlapping, the length to be exceeded by two full-time jobs, it is legal to hire a person based on two individual employment contracts with full-time at two different employers. A contrary view would violate the constitutional right to work and to freedom of labour.

Also, the law does not expressly provide for incompatibility of the function with the head office HR staff with the personal inspector in the same compartment.

But, given the appropriate powers of the two functions, practically, their accumulation within the same compartment is impossible.

The addition of the function is therefore in principle free [4], one condition that would be required is that the work rules to two or more employees - if these are expressed as a standard time - do not overlap, the duty of loyalty of the employee requires his implicit and partial limitation.

The existence of prohibited clauses that cannot be inserted in the employment contract [5] are null and void, such a clause the employee would stop working in his spare time for another employer.

2 Legal limitations on freedom of labour In judicial practice, courts do not allow invocation of the exclusivity clause by the employer, holding

that it violates the constitutional freedom of labour. Hearing the failure of the employee the exclusivity clause, the courts did not order to pay these damages, considering that, unlike non-compete clause, which protects some legitimate interests of the employer, the exclusivity clause would deprive the employee of exercise the right to work in leisure time. In addition, under art.35 of the Labour Code, the overlapping of functions is free, restrictions can be provided only by law.

The employee may not be entitled, however, to employ by overlapping of functions to a competitor of his employer. Such a ban, being general, does not require concluding a covenant, special clause, in the employment contract, because the employee bears, according to the Labour Code, the duty of fidelity to his employer. However, it is estimated, in terms of practice, that the legal obligation of fidelity, having, in terms of non-competition, a generic, "it cannot exist and function" if it is not specified, during the execution of the contract, in the individual employment contract, to collective agreement applicable or in internal rules [6] and that, "the current way of regulating the fidelity makes it virtually unenforceable (in terms of non-competition) ". [7]

It should be noted that international and European norms do not set [8] any hourly limit on the daily or weekly or on other period for the individual part-time employment. So, on these contracts their number is unlimited, the only problem being the biological limit on the performance of such contracts, given labour time agreed by the conclusion of such contracts.

Article 35.para.2 of the Labour Code states that there are exceptional the situations in which by the law there are provided incompatibilities for overlapping functions.

Some incompatibilities include [9]: the incompatibilities provided by Law no. 514/2003 which expressly prohibits legal adviser overlapping of functions, he cannot enter into a new contract or trade union of his own unit [10]; incompatibilities of elected officials, established by Law no. 215/2001 [11]; incompatibilities on civil servants, judges, notaries, lawyers, bailiffs, police officers, chartered accountants, doctors and pharmacists ( which cannot accumulate the two qualities ), customs officers, forestry and active military personnel.

Overlapping quality of employee with the administrator within the same joint stock companies is prohibited. Director of the company stock will end just a term contract: he may not be employed by the unit.

Overlapping of functions is completely forbidden for foreign employees. They have no right to have two employment contracts under the same work permit, or right to require two work permits in order to complete two functions in the system of overlapping of functions.

Legal literature distinguishes between overlapping of functions and overlapping qualities, the latter referring to, "quality overlapping for active person ( who gets professional income ) with the retired, social foundation of the normative foundation of overlapping legally quality residing in the elderly right to be an active and integral part of society, and everyone's right to have a decent income." [12]

According to GEO no. 230/2008 [13], pensioners for age limit in the public system and those of the institutions of the judiciary, defence, public order and national security, could not accumulate pension with


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income from a salaried office of the state budget. According to the complaint of the Ombudsman, GEO no. 230/2008 is contrary to art.115 para.6 of the Constitution according to which, the ordinances cannot affect the rights, freedoms and duties set out therein.

Ombudsman considers that the provision of the law affects both labour rights, provided by art. 41 of the Constitution, that "the right to work cannot be limited: choice of profession, trade or occupation, and the job is free" and pension right, provided by art. 47 para.2 Thesis I, citizens are entitled to pensions and other forms of public or private insurances provided by law.

According to the Ombudsman, through their content, these are complex rights including the right to reasonable pay and the right to life, ensuring a civilized and decent citizens living.

Also, the Ombudsman considers that the provisions of GEO no. 230/2008 are contrary to art. 6 section 1 of the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified by Decree no. 212/1974.

However, according to the arguments of the Ombudsman, the provisions of this ordinance are in conflict with the provisions of art. 135 para.2 letter f. of the Basic Law that established by the State the obligation to create conditions for improving the quality of life, but also with art.44 of the Constitution, concerning the right to private property.

In the unconstitutionality exception it is stated that the provisions of Emergency Ordinance according to which the pensioners cannot accumulate pension with income from a salaried office of the state budget are contrary to article 1, paragraph 1 of the First Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms.

In request to the Constitutional Court it was also shown that salary and pension being private goods, protected by art. 44 of the Constitution and the First Additional Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the prohibition to combine salary with pension practically being equivalent of an expropriation. "However, according to art.44 para.3 of the Constitution, no one may be expropriated except in the public interest, established by law, with fair and prior compensation.”

Pensioners which were required, according to GEO no. 230/2008, to choose between the state pension and salary they were able to continue their work under the civil agreements.

Government maintains its view that " no one in Romania do not have to pay the aggregate of the state pension and that Romania is not correct, it is not moral for people who received money from hundreds of millions lei, or even billions to accumulate pension with salary ".

Action taken by the Government, by GEO no. 230/2008 by which the retirement age in the public from the institutions of the judiciary defence, public order and national security, cannot accumulate pension with income from a salaried office of the state budget, it was said, that it is based on three principles.

Firstly it is an act of justice, an act of justice, and ultimately a moral act. It is not natural for a person to receive such payments in the billions of lei, or hundreds of millions of lei to receive a pension after tens of millions of lei and then to re-engage and receive a salary tens million lei, being gathered all together.

GEO no. 230/2008 also aimed to encourage the young people in the system. The last principle is the need to achieve budgetary savings.

If people fall under the emergency ordinance " opting to remain with the pension, obviously, will not be entitled to salary, if choosing to stay with wage, will have to return those billions of lei that they received as amounts compensatory and then will be able to continue working ."

Constitutional Court decided by majority vote, that the provisions of GEO no. 230/2008 by which it was banned from aggregation state pension with the wage, is unconstitutional, thus acknowledging notification age by Ombudsman. By the provisions of the Law no. 208/2009 it was rejected the Ordinance 230/2008 as a result of the acceptance of the plea of unconstitutionality by the Constitutional Court decision no. 82/2009 [14], as,” prohibitions and obligations imposed by the order affect, by limiting, both pension rights provided by art.47 para.2 of the Constitution, and art.41 of the Basic Law. "However, by declaring the unconstitutionality of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 230/2008, the Government is not stopped to promote compliance with the constitutional provisions mentioned above, non-discrimination and equal rights and other norms and principles of the Constitution, the necessary measures relating to cases and circumstances in which pension can be aggregated with income from work. "

3 Situation of the overlapping salary pension Law no. 329 of 5 November 2009 on the reorganization of public authorities and institutions [15],

rationalization of public expenditures, business support and compliance framework agreements with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund banned pensions to be combined wages under certain conditions.

Pensioners overlapping pension with income earning entry into force of Law no. 329/2009 were required, within 15 days, to express in writing their choice between suspending pension payments during exercise activity and termination of employment or service or the notice of appointment, whether in the net


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pension payment exceeds the average of the gross wage in the economy used to support the state social insurance budget, approved by the state social insurance budget law.

Law 329/2009 envisages wages or pensions to be combined, if necessary, treated as wages by law from carrying on an activity based on individual employment contract, the service or the basis of the appointment, and that these revenues can be combined with the pension if the pension does not exceed the net earning gross average state social insurances budget and approved by the state social insurance budget law.

The provisions of this law are not applicable to income from service contracts. At the conclusion of service contracts, budget institution must comply with the provisions of Law 500/2002 on public finances. [16]

In terms of overlapping salary pension beneficiaries we must show that survivors' pension may have the wage income, provided they do not exceed a quarter of the average gross wage in the economy used to support the state social insurance budget.

The possibility of overlapping but currently is unconditional only in the private sector. Under our law, the possibility to have the right to work has every citizen, without distinction based on

race, sex, political or religious affiliation, to carry out certain activities, according to their professional skills and training [17], and right to work expresses „ in a needed legal the citizen demands freedom with market economy and social character of the state. " [18]

Conclusions We appreciate that free labour on overlapping or overlapping functions salaries and pensions is not

absolute, being governed, in many cases, by social or economic reasons. The labour freedom component is a quantitative measure that considers various aspects of the legal and regulatory framework of a country’s labour market, including regulations concerning minimum wages, laws inhibiting layoffs, severance requirements, and measurable regulatory restraints on hiring and hours worked.

References [1] Dan Ţop, Treaty of the Labour Law, Wolters Kluwer Publishing, Bucharest, 2008. , p. 58. [2] C. Ionescu, Constitutional Law and Political Institutions, Volume II, Lumina Lex Publishing

House, Bucharest, 2000, p 332. [3] Considered element of Labour Law and fundamental principle. See I.T. Ştefănescu, Theoretical

and practical Treaty of Labour Law, Legal Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, p 73. [4] Raluca Dumitriu, Individual employment contract. Present and Prospects, in Economic Tribune

Publishing, Bucharest, 2005, p 164. [5] Raluca Dumitriu, Individual employment contract, in Economic Tribune Publishing, 2005, pp.

177-183. [6] M. Volonciu in the Labour Code: Comments on articles, vol. I, Articles 1-107, Al. Athanasiu,

M.Volonciu, L. Dima, O. Cazan, Ed C. H. Beck, Bucharest, 2007, p 116. [7] I.T.Ştefănescu, Controversial issues from the field of Labour law in the Romanian private

law No. 6/2012, p 207-218. [8] Mara Ioan, The lack of a minimum limit of the working time in labour contract, in Romanian

Review of Labour Law no. 5/2008, pp. 89-92. [9] Dan Ţop,Treaty of Labour Law, Wolters Kluwer Publishing , Bucharest, 2008 , p 210 . [10] I .T.Ştefǎnescu, Treaty of Labour Law, Legal Publishing House, Bucharest, 2010. , P 447. [11] Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 204 of 23 April 2001. [12] Alexandru Athanasiu, Ana Maria Vlăşceanu, Pension accrual with professional income,

C.H.Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, page 2. [13] Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 4 of 5 January 2009. [14] Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 33 of 16 January 2009. [15] Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 761 of 9 November 2009. [16] Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 597 of August 13, 2002. [17] Raluca Dumitriu, Right to work within the meaning of current Romanian law, the "Law" no.

10/1997, p 37-47. [18] Magda Volonciu, Labour Freedom, Fundamental principle of Labour Law "Romanian Law

Studies" no. 3-4/1991, p 152.


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Time Banks in Russia: Filling an Empty Gap in Time Bank Research

Valek L.1 1 Faculty of information technologies and management, University of Hradec Kralove, (CZECH REPUBLIC) [email protected]

Abstract The research of active time banks around the world is a very challenging effort due to lack information

and dynamic changes in the existence of the systems. This includes all possible changes in start-up, closing or working state of the time bank systems. There is research aimed at finding the answers of how many time banks (or complementary currency systems in general) exist in the world today. This paper aims to contribute to these mapping efforts by filling the gap about the situation with time banking in the Russian Federation as it seems to be untouched so far. As the topic is quite complex, the methodology in this paper includes several points: Enquiries of the people involved and time bank activists, a questionnaire survey, tracing time banks in other available resources on the internet and beyond. The results show that time banks exist in Russia with various levels of activity which are elaborated in detail in the paper.

Keywords: Time bank, Russia, complementary currency, sustainability

1 Introduction This paper aims to fill the informational gap in the literature regarding the existence of time banks in

Russia. Similar to other complementary currencies time banks as special kind of exchange system are being developed in many countries, though not always successfully. Time banks are a great addition to local economies and have a very positive effect on the broader sustainability of the economy [2]. Keeping track of the creation or closure of time banks is almost impossible, especially because of organic and dynamic changes they are going through. This is actually similar for most complementary currencies as most attempts to make typologies or even name things properly have been disappointing [1]. The fact is that time banks are not officially registered anywhere, their name often does not clearly state that it is a time bank, they usually operate on the local level and also they start and cease to exist quite often. Anyway there are attempts to record what is happening with complementary currencies, as the situation is similar there, including time banks.

None of the sources discovered and researched is complete and probably will never be, but with on-going effort the final list of complementary currency systems could reflect reality closer. This paper is focused on adding more information about previously unknown time bank efforts, and by doing so it will contribute to the data gathering effort related to time banks. Because the public relations of time banks are focused locally, information about attempts to establish one never leaves the country, and remains unknown to researchers in the time bank field. This paper is also part of broader research which includes other papers about the state of time banks in the Czech Republic [6].

The structure of the paper is as follows: At the beginning we look at the reasons why research was performed with relation to the literature. In the next section the research methodology is explained, followed by a description of the results of the research and the document is finished by discussion of results.

2 Relevance to literature After a review of the literature and other sources, it was found that there are no Russian time banks

mentioned anywhere, including the latest mapping efforts which deal extensively with complementary currency systematization and which also includes the cataloguing of time banks [3]. Time banks are part of the mutual exchange group of grass root currencies. In this mapping effort there are some missing countries, including Russia, which is understandable considering the facts mentioned above. The reasons for picking the Russian Federation for this research are therefore the following:

To fill the gap existing in time bank mapping in relation to such a big and significant country as Russia


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The author had possibility to observe one of the most active of the Russian time banks personally Nizhniy Novgorod Time Bank provides an information source about other Russian time banks and is

willing to share it, moreover it helps other time banks with starting

3 Methodology The situation in time banking in Russia is very hard to evaluate. The foremost issue is to learn about the

existence of time banks at the first place. It is necessary to distinguish between time banks and other organizations that call themselves time banks, but work on other principles. Then it is necessary to determine what is really exists and works as a time bank system, or what only uses the time bank name and works on other principles. Another problem is that time banks are usually based on a non-profit, non-governmental basis, which typically means that people running them work as volunteers and have other jobs, resulting in the situation that they are overwhelmed and not willing to engage in other business such as research activities [5]. These two issues mean that if researcher contacts a time bank staff, they usually do not respond. It is very hard to find out on this stage if it is only lack of time of time bank staff or if time bank does not exist anymore. An alternative way to conduct research would be for researchers to register into the system, but as most of the systems are local including exchanges, it is not realistic even on national level, not to mention international. Also it would be extremely time consuming. Therefore a qualitative questionnaire and personal visit was selected as a method to learn more about the time banks. None of the questions in the questionnaire is obligatory, so that time bank executives need only invest as much time as they wish into research.

Table 1. Contents of the questionnaire

The questionnaire consisted of following questions:

Name (optional):

Country:

Number of employees/volunteers:

Type of system (time bank, complementary currency system or other):

Please describe specific features of your system:

1. How many users are included in your system? 2. How is your system financed? 3. Why did you decided to open the system? 4. Did you encounter any specific obstacles in your country (related to the

culture, religion, habits etc.)? 5. Is your system based on some institution (governmental, university, private

etc.) or it is NGO (non-profit, non-governmental)? 6. Do you use some specific IT system or knowledge base (even shared discs

or cloud services like Dropbox, google docs etc.)? 7. Do you use services of volunteers? 8. Do you cooperate with commercial enterprises or even with company

clusters? 9. Where did you learn about Time banks or complementary currency

systems? 10. Are there some specific changes you did to the original idea of the system? 11. Do you consider your system prosperous or you think it will survive for

long and why? 12. What do you consider the biggest success of your system?

When the time banks do not respond, the only source of the information is the internet, and by comparing the most recent update dates or links to grant funding, it could be determined if the system is still active [4]. In addition to the aforementioned methodology personal contacts were used to find links to the time bank systems as they are characterized by a strong local focus and it is almost impossible to track them outside of their region if they do not promote themselves.


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4 Results Information was obtained from only one time bank system, the Nizhniy Novgorod time bank, Russia

(NNTB). This time bank also provided contacts for other time banks in Russia. These unfortunately did not respond to the communication and according to representatives in NNTB which was the founding entity, they are mostly inactive. Analysis of the results from questionnaires and site visit are elaborated in the following part of this paper.

4.1 Nizhniy Novgorod Time Bank NNTB is very active time bank operating in the city of Nizhniy Novgorod, the city which has

approximately 1 200 000 inhabitants and it is one of main activities of NGO called Nizhniy Novgorod Voluntary Service. To date, 1187 users are registered in the system. The system was founded by private businessman Andrey Ivanushkin who discovered time banks in the UK and from the beginning until 2011 he funded it by his foundation “Nachalo” (in English: “The beginning”). Aside of that, from 2009 until the present time, the system has been funded by the Charles Stewart Moss foundation. Six people are included in the running of the time bank. The system works as an ordinary time bank on an “hour to hour” basis and only services, no goods are exchanged. NNTB also does not cooperate with any legal entities or commercial structures. Company clusters act as partners in the system. The main reason for starting the time bank is that its aims corresponded with the founding NGO strategy of promotion and support of voluntary activities, and it also helps to solve social problems. NNTB works as a part of Nizhniy Novgorod Voluntary Service, but there are thoughts about its separation in future. Services of volunteers are often used, especially for organizing various events or promoting or phone calling within the membership base in order to organize exchanges. The main obstacle faced by the time bank is the rigidity of people in the sense of their unwillingness to step out of the “traditional paradigm”, they do not understand why they should participate; what kind of profit it would bring to them. A system which is based on mutual trust and has as its main motivation for existence the improvement of human life looks too suspicious to be trusted. The only IT system is the website and Facebook page used to advertise necessary exchanges, and future plans are to expand to other 15 Russian regions. Expansion progresses by franchise-like method, where NNTB assists with opening, but the running of a local branch is under the supervision and leadership of local representative. Of course newly founded time banks are dependent on the enthusiasm of the local founders and their leadership and fundraising skills, which over time results in problems in development and even existence itself.

4.2 Kirov Time Bank The time bank in Kirov founded in cooperation with NNTB is running on the basis of the governmental body

known as Center for International Cooperation and focuses mainly on international voluntary activities, internships, au-pair etc. At the present time the Kirov time bank is rather dormant. It is powered by voluntary efforts which have passed their peak state and are now in decline.

4.3 Kaliningrad Time Bank The time bank in Kaliningrad is not responding to efforts to contact and according to NNTB is inactive.

4.4 Time Bank in Naberzhniye Chelny The time bank in Naberzhniye Chelny is quite active regarding the information from NNTB, but it is

absolutely reluctant to respond to contacts from outside, so there are not really viable data about their activities.

5 Discussion and results As expected, access to information is on a very bad level, and some information was found only

because of personal contacts with the time bank in Nizhniy Novgorod. The results show that even though time banks usually become inactive after some time, it is not case of all of them. NNTB in particular is showing a high level of resilience to the surrounding negative influences. Of course a big reason for that is the continuous funding which gives NNTB the possibility to employ staff, who keeps the flow of exchange running and the time bank alive. Eventually NNTB was able to persuade enough citizens to join even though they had their own prejudices, thus creating big enough critical mass of services which is able to satisfy needs of users and therefore raises willingness to use the time bank system repetitively. Inclusion of a voluntary base which helps with promotion and organization seems to be a good blend for sustaining a time bank in the heart of Russia. On the other hand, time banks which only rely on volunteers suffer from imminent danger of having their personnel


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burn out, because the people who run the time bank also must manage other jobs and their regular daily lives. It is too early and there is not enough relevant information to determine if that is main problem for failure of other time banks mentioned in this paper, but it is definitely one of main ones. The most probable chain of events would be that lack of funding leads to various personnel shortages which in turn leads to the situation where the bank is not able to engage adequate public relations, maintain the growth of its user base and sustain quality of services and exchanges. The result is a loss of trust from the local populace from which most of users are recruited. Failure of the time bank system at the local level greatly complicates the conditions for the inception of other time bank systems, due to loss of trust in the system in general. This is especially true in countries where people are very suspicious like in Russia. This research shows that there are four known time banks in Russia to date of which only one (NNTB) is really working and sustainably developing itself.

Acknowledgements This paper was created with the financial support of the ESF project INDOP CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0327

and the specific research project 2/2013 “Cooperation mechanisms of network organisations” funded by the University of Hradec Králové.

References [1] Blanc, J. (2011), Classifying “CCs”: Community, complementary and local currencies’ types and

generations, International Journal of Community Currency Research 15 (2011) D 4-10 [2] Jasikova, V., Valek, L., (2013), Time Bank and Sustainability: The Permaculture Approach,

International Conference Logos Universality mentality Education Novelty 2013, Iasi, Romania. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, ISSN: 1877-0428, Elsevier Publishing

[3] Seyfang, G. and Longhurst, N. (2012), Money, Money, Money? A scoping study of grassroots complementary currencies for sustainability. 3S Working paper,2012 Norwich: Science, Society and Sustainability Research Group

[4] Timebank.ru, platform for time banks in Russia maintained by Nizhniy Novgorod Time bank, [online], [acessed on 10. 03. 2013], Available: www.timebank.ru

[5] Valek, L., (2013), Complementary currencies and time bank: Possible use in company clusters, Hradec economic days 2013, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic, pp. 311-316, 2013, ISBN 978-80-7435-250-8

[6] Valek, L, (2013), Time banks in Czech Republic: Filling an empty gap in time bank research, 21st International Business Information Management Association conference, Vienna, Austria, pp. 393 – 398, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9821489-7-6


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The Forms of Domestic Violence

Vlădilă L.M.1

1 Lecturer PHD, “Valahia” University of Târgoviște, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract A complete analysis of domestic violence cannot overcome its forms of manifestation. In order to do

that we have started from the actual Law No 217/2003 modified in 2012, but we have also considered different international and European regulations, as well as recent studies in this area. We have concluded that nowadays, at least at a European level, there is a concordance regarding the forms of domestic violence. In our research we discover that the main forms of the domestic violence are: physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, economic violence and social violence. All this forms are regulated in our legislations as we will see below. In the EU and UN regulations there are retains other forms, like marital rape or genital mutilations, but I considered that special forms of sexual violence. Beyond all the theories that define all this forms, unfortunately these are the most common acts of violence in the domestic field and in the love relations, as the statistic shows us. From my point of view the most widely spread form of violence in our country, but not only, is the verbal and psychological violence. Another aspect of this theme is that the victims are principally women and children.

Keywords: domestic violence, forms, sexual violence, spiritual violence

1 Introduction The theme of the domestic violence is one of the actuality in the Romanian juridical landscape. This

article is only a part from a boarder analysis, in which we have engaged in more than a year on this topic. Through it we want to bring out the various forms of violence, as they were detained by the Law no. 217/2003 modified, and by the other international instruments or by different authors, to achieve a full and detect all forms of violence recognized thus far. Our research was based on a careful study of both the law and the doctrine, that's right of a more sociological nature, whereas legal studies found in the country are relatively few. In our analysis I have discovered, gladly, that the Romanian legislation after March 2012 covers all forms of domestic violence, an even added a new form, as we shall see in the following article.

2 The forms of domestic violence In the meaning of Art 3 of the modified Law No 217/2003 domestic violence represents any physical or

verbal action deliberately perpetrated by a family member against another member of the same family that causes a physical, psychological, sexual suffering or a material prejudice, including threats, constraint or arbitrary deprivation of freedom, the domestic violence includes a wide range of violent phenomena and forms. Starting from the definition we note that it refers to at least four forms, namely physical, psychical, which could include emotional and psychological, verbal and sexual violence. We have appreciated these as being forms of a direct violence perpetrated by a family member against another. Outside these, the law states a form of assimilated violence, namely “the hindering of the woman to exercise her fundamental rights and liberties” [1].

These forms were mentioned by most Romanian consultant authors [2], to which are added economic and social violence. Modifications brought in March 2012 to the Law No 217/2003 on preventing and fighting against family violence meant, on the one hand, the recognition and definition of these forms of domestic violence, but also the completion with another form, a rare one in other legislations or doctrinaire opinions, namely spiritual violence. One can say that no other international or European document mentions spiritual violence. Its inclusion among possible forms of violence is considered as a positive and novelty phenomenon of the Romanian legislation.

We now present the definitions of these forms of domestic violence stated by Law No 217/2003: - Verbal violence consists in using an offensive, brutal language, as well as in using insults, threats,

degrading or humiliating words and phrases (Art 4 Point a));


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- Emotional or psychological violence consists in imposing the will or personal control, causing stress conditions and physical sufferance by any means possible, demonstrative violence against objects and animals, by verbal threats, ostentatious display of weapons, negligence, control over personal life, jealousy, any kind of constraints, as well as other actions with similar effects (Art 4 Point b));

- Physical violence consists in causing to corporal integrity or health a harm by hitting, shove, grips, pulling hair, stinging, cutting, burning, strangulating, biting in any form and by any intensity, including masked ones as the result of an accident, by poisoning, intoxication, as well as any other actions with similar effects (Art 4 Point c));

- Sexual violence consists in sexual aggression, imposing by degrading actions, harassment, intimidation, manipulation, brutality with the purpose of forced sexual intercourse, marital rape (Art 4 Point d));

- Economic violence consists in prohibiting professional activity, deprivation of economic means, including deprivation of primary livelihood means, such as food, medication, living necessities, purloining the goods of a person, prohibiting the right to own and use common goods, inequitable control of common goods and resources, refusal to support the family, imposing hard and noxious work to the prejudice of health, including of a minor’s family member, as well as other actions with similar effects (Art 4 Point e));

- Social violence consists in imposing isolation of person from family, community and friends, prohibiting school attendance, imposing isolation by detention, including in the family residence, intentional deprivation of access to information, as well as other actions with similar effects (Art 4 Point f));

- Spiritual violence consists in underestimation or decrease of the importance of satisfaction of the moral-spiritual needs by prohibiting, limitation, mock or penalty of the family members’ aspirations, access to cultural, ethnical, linguistic or religious values, imposing an unacceptable faith or spiritual and religious practices, as well as other actions with similar effects (Art 4 Point g)).

We must note that Law No 217/2003 states comprehensive definitions of the forms of violence but, some specialists stated other forms or sub-forms of violence or have appreciated, in a different manner, certain manifestations of it.

For instance, foreign literature adds to these forms female genital mutilation and forced marriage, presented as different forms of violence, but almost inexistent in Romania [3]. The first of them can be included in sexual violence, and the second in psychical violence, but even so they have a special degree of autonomy and specificity.

The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 48/104 on February 23th, 1994 adopting the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the Beijing Platform in 1995 stated five forms of violence, namely physical, sexual and psychological violence, exploitation of women and female genital mutilation occurring in the family, in the community or, which are just tolerated by the state. Art 2 of the Resolution 48/104 states the most common forms of domestic violence: “physical, sexual and psychological violence … battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation” [4].

The Beijing Platform of 1995 insists on sexual violence, including female genital mutilation, sexual intimidation, marital rape, forced prostitution, forced sterilization, forced abortion, coercive use of contraceptives, female infanticide and prenatal sex selection [5]. Most of these practices (rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and forced pregnancy) are included in the definition of war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to Art 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

According to the opinion of the authors of the American Bar Association study, destroying personal objects of the victim, as well as those of common use of the victim and aggressor represents a manifestation of physical violence, but as seen before, according to Art 4 Point d) it is considered by the Romanian legislator a form of psychological violence [6].

Ina-Maria Ropotică [7], in her paper “Violența intrafamiliară”, distinguishes four forms of violence: physical violence, violence as an aggression, as penalty and violence as penalty with latent symmetry. For the author, physical violence is the most common form of aggression and consists in beating, in its multiple forms. This conclusion arises also from the statistics of the National Agency for Family Protection, both for 2005-2008, as well as for the first semester of 2009.

From our standpoint, different from the above mentioned author, violence as an aggression, as a penalty and violence as a penalty with latent symmetry shall include all forms of violence stated by our special law (Law No 217/2003 modified), only that they are analyzed from the perspective of the relations created in a couple. According to Ina-Maria Ropotică violence as an aggression is represented by that violence occurring between two partners involved in a symmetrical relation (equality) consisting in beating. In this case, both partners claim the same statute of force and power, the confrontation being seen as existential. Violence as penalty occurs in a complementary relation where partners have unequal positions. It means sanction, maltreatment, torture, negligence or lack of care. In this case, one of the partners claims a statute superior to the other, who is


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considered inferior, subhuman, unworthy or abnormal and, in this context, he assumes the right to punish the latter one, to manifest in a cruel manner, considering that he deserves it, being forced to bear it without protests or opposition, the victim having no choice. Due to the fact that their relation is unequal, violence is unidirectional and intimate [7]. But still, in our opinion, reinterpreting the analysis of the mentioned author, violence as penalty with latent symmetry is a particular form of violence as penalty, manifested by the fact that, despite the disproportioned relation, the victim is willing to react, fight back, and does, at some point, which will increase his further “punishment”.

Also, the same author considers isolation and misinformation of the victim as forms of psychological violence; instead, according to Art 4 Point b) of the Law No 217/2003 considers such a situation as a form of social violence.

The authors explains in an analytical manner, amending the law, the nature of the sexual violence, including forcing the victim to sexual intercourse with other partners (for excitement or money) or to acts the partner does not agree to (oral or anal sex, sadistic acts, bestiality) [8]. In the Romanian statistics for 2003 [9], this was a form of violence exclusively against women, representing 2.6% of the women who were victims of gender based violence. Also, in 2003 this was the violence most rejected by the population of all forms present in Romania, being under the European average (on a scale between 1 to 5 in 1999 in the EU (15), sexual and physical violence were seen as the most serious forms with an average of 3.86% while in Romania the average for rejection, though the highest, was under the European one, reaching 3.6%).

In another listing [6], emotional violence is seen as a form of psychological violence, beside verbal violence and consists of insults, offenses, threats, intimidation, emotional blackmail, inducing fear, continuous pressure, terror, deprivation of food or sleep, discrediting in front of others. According to the statistics of the N.A.F.P, emotional or physiological violence is the second form of violence present in Romania, with an average of 26,3% between 2005-2009.

In the study conducted by Prof. PhD Carol Hagemann-White and Prof. Sabina Bohn from the University of Osnabrück, Germany, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, regarding the effective implementation of the Recommendation Rec (2002)5 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States [10], the authors note that it settles nine forms of violence against women [11], of which by 2007 the most frequent ones were general domestic violence (25 states of the 41 surveyed), rape and sexual violence (16 states) and sexual harassment (15 states), except Germany and Holland who have legislatively recognized them all since then. Romania stated at that moment only two forms of violence against women of those mentioned by the Recommendation, but there were actually three [12], namely general domestic violence, sexual harassment, non-responding to questions regarding the other seven forms of violence. Today the situation is identical, even though, the other forms of violence stated by the Recommendation are civilly or criminally sanctioned even if they do not have a separate regulation.

3 Conclusions As a conclusion, we can say that there is a variety of forms of domestic and gender-based violence.

Many of them can be included in the seven main forms stated by the Law No 217/2003 modified, which, in this respect, is a reference document. The differences in including a certain manifestation in a form of domestic or gender-based violence in the documents studied are due to the differences of definitions and concepts. Some documents or doctrinaire standpoints refer to domestic violence, which may include violence against other family members than the women, while gender-based violence refers in most cases to violence against women. But appreciations of this aspect will be the subject of a future study.

References: [1] According to Art 3 Para 2 of the Law No 217/2003 on preventing and fighting against domestic

violence, initially published in the Official Gazette No 367/29 May 2003 and re-published after modification inserted by Law No 25/2012, in the Official Gazette No 365/30 May 2012, renumbering the texts.

[2] Lupșa M. L., Chesnoiu Z. (2007). Forme de manifestare a violenței. În lucrarea coordonată de Stancu T., Odorica C. Violența în familie – prevenire și combatere, Ed. Sitech, Craiova, p. 32.

[3] These two forms are stated by the statistics and studies conducted by the Council of Europe. See in this regard, Protecting women against violence – Analytical study on the effective implementation of Recommendation Rec (2002)5 on the protection of women against violence in Council of Europe Member States, conducted in 2007, available on the Council of Europe’s official website: http://www.coe.int//equality/, p.14.


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[4] The Rezolution of the United Nations General Assembly No 48/104 of 1994. It can be accessed on http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/48/104&Lang=E&Area=RESOLUTION

[5] The point 113 of the Beijing Platform for Action of 1995. It can be accessed on http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/pdf/BDPfA%20E.pdf

[6] Final Report on 30 April 2007 of the Project Domestic Violence in Romania: the law, the court system – American Bar Association, Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative and USAID, pp.7-8.

[7] Ropotică I.M. (2007). Violența intrafamiliară. Ed. Prouniversitaria, București, pp. 50-59. “She must follow her master and obey to him” – Ibid, p.52.

[8] Neamțu C. (2008). Dimensiunile psihosexuale ale violenței domestic. În lucrarea-studiu Turlic M.N., Tobolcea I., Violența în familie – între stigmatizare, acceptare socială și intervenție terapeutică, Ed. Universității Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iași, pp. 96-97.

[9] The statistics were taken from the study National Research on domestic and work related violence, pp. 123-125, presented on the site of the The Equality Partnership Center (EPC) http://www.cpe.ro/romana/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=48. The research was conducted by the Institute for Marketing and Polls – IMAS, during july-august 2003, on a nationally representative sample, as it is: - 1800 people aged 18 and over, of which 1200 women and 600 men; - 182 representatives of the decision makers in public institutions with responsibilities in the domain; - 190 experts from the local authorities, Police, Institute of Forensic Medicine, family physicians, emergency hospitals and NGOs. EPC has developed this project, with the support of the Center for Legal Resources, through funds obtained from Open Society Institute.

[10] Hagemann-White C., Bohn S. (2007). Protecting women against violence – Analytical study on the effective implementation of Recommendation REC (2002)5 on protection of women against violence in Council of Europe members States, printed by the European Council, Strasbourg, pp. 7, 11, 52-53.

[11] We reiterate the nine forms of violence: rape and sexual violence, general domestic violence, sexual harassment, forced marriages, female genital mutilation, crimes committed in the name of honor, violence committed during or after conflicts, violence committed in an institutional environment and respecting the right to choose regarding reproduction.

[12] We must add rape and sexual violence, which have been inserted since 2001. Regarding sexual violence, either because of the poor wording of the Romanian report, or because of other causes, the reporters analyze the Romanian situation based on an outdated legislation, modified since 2001.


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Political Responsibility of Political Function Holders in the Republic of Macedonia

Zendeli F.1, Elezi Z.2 1 PhD (MACEDONIA) 2 PhD (MACEDONIA) [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The experiences of many European countries show that institutional reforms are closely related to the

installation and operation of powerful mechanisms of control and accountability at all levels of government. By using legal and political instruments of control the intention is to maintain and advance the functioning of democratic institutions, and democratic and civic values in the protection of public and private interests. Political control is defined as a constitutional function of an assembly; it ensures the accountability of ministers to the assembly, so that they have sufficient independence to undertake activities and implement measures for the subsequent application of government policy, but at the same time it prevents a certain independence that might bring them into the position of ignoring the assembly and public opinion. Responsibility means that a person or authority should be able to explain and justify his actions to another person or authority, and that no authority should be excluded from the investigation of other institutions. During the operation of the Republican Parliament so far, we have heard through the media, political parties and citizens, many cases of violations of the Constitution and the law by different stakeholders of public functions, but all this has not resulted in either individual or collective responsibility of the government. In the context of this paper we will analyze documents, publications and other relevant information so that we can finally achieve the set objectives of providing conclusions and recommendations to the paper.

Keywords: control, responsibility, politics, functions, institutions.

1 Introduction The experiences of many European countries show that institutional reforms are closely connected with

the powerful installation and function of the mechanisms of control at all levels of power. Through the use of judicial and political instruments of control we aim to preserve and advance the

function of democratic institutions, as well as citizens’ democratic values in order to protect public and private interests.

Power separation as one of the principles of power state organization is the foundation of building political and juridical systems. The contemporary idea of power separation was first mentioned in the doctrine of the philosopher John Lock at the end of the XVII century and was accepted in the middle of the XIX century by the Frenchman Montesquieu, who made the principle of power separation world famous. A very important part of its administrative efficiency is the principle of professionalism and the de-politicization of public and state administration; the enforceability of this principle should be under the political control (parliamentary) of the administration, which in Macedonia is done under the control of ruling political parties.

The objective of this paper is to highlight the responsibility of the holders of public functions in the RM as political instruments, who have not been used as simply decoration or who have not misused political power as a result of a lack of institutional democracy and individual accountability for obligations to the law and society.

2 Meaning of political control In everyday language, by “control” we mean all forms of control, observation and confirmation in

general. In legal theory there are a variety of theories and definitions about defining the notion of state control

and surveillance. By the end of the XIX century and especially the beginning of the XX century, in England there began to function the system of “general government,” a government that responds to parliament for its


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work, and more specifically the House of Commons. Political responsibility in legal terms will become sine qua non for each state with parliamentary public regulation. From England the system of parliamentary responsibility gradually spread throughout the world with the installation of constitutional parliamentary monarchic regimes. It is only in the USA, and later some other countries that copied the American system, where the principle of the separation of powers does not allow the installation of political responsibility. The system of “general government” functions quite well in many different countries, where the forms of political responsibility are stabilized with certain differences. Political responsibility is the responsibility taken on by the politically powerful in their work. Political responsibility can be legal and non-legal. In this notion, political responsibilities meet both what is right and politics. The difference lies in that political responsibility is regulated by the Constitution, laws and other legal acts, while non-legal political responsibility is moral, political, and social or from political parties etc. The subjects of legal and political control are the same, being holders of public office. In legal control, one that controls is able to influence the work of the one being controlled, from which might flow legal consequences that cannot appear under political control. Control implies the existence of two subjects; one that takes control and has powers and rights, and the second one obligations and responsibility in relation to the entity that performs this control. Political control defined as constitutional and assembly function ensures the accountability of ministers to the assembly, in a way that gives ministers sufficient independence to undertake activities and measures for the consistent implementation of government policy, but at the same time prevents a certain independence that might bring them into a position of ignoring public opinion and the assembly. The beginnings of political control are inseparably connected with the appearance of political responsibility. Political control is a way, method, or procedure of achieving the realization of political responsibility. In the early year’s only criminal responsibility for ministers existed. (Until the installation of political responsibility, there was criminal responsibility.)

Responsibility in a democratic society is a complex and pressing issue, given its role and importance. Responsibility as a mechanism represents an accountable society, where instruments can be institutionally installed to enable the consistent implementation of the accountability system, and promotes the overall development of democracy.

Platoon thinks that the employee should be "keepers of the law" [1] to verify its honesty, especially with regard to misuse of power.

Implementation of the principle of political responsibility, individually and collectively, means implementing mechanisms for its realization, i.e. mechanisms for exercising political control.

The importance of political responsibility is in that it is an instrument at the level of the Constitution. However, political responsibility would be an abstract category at the same time if it did not provided mechanisms for its initiation and implementation. This means that the definition of political responsibility for the carriers of executive power establishes mechanisms for its implementation. In most countries, political responsibility is defined by constitutional norms, while provisions which specify responsibility, and procedures for its use (building debate, voting etc.), are determined by the procedural rules of their parliament. There are certain differences and specificities in certain countries; first of all, the procedure for its implementation, which is the result of the specifications that characterize the constitutional systems of certain countries, much more than the result of political power, economics and so on, is what, determines its realization. But the political control mechanisms, through which parliament follows, evaluates and criticizes the work of the government, and through which they initiate the procedure for their political responsibility in all countries with a parliament, are the same.

Parliamentary questions, interpellations and no-confidence votes in the government are standard instruments with almost the same performance. Political control can be organized in different ways, and can be realized with the implementation of various institutional instruments. The area of political control is very large and depends on the subjective assessment of parliament.

The purpose of political control for the government and ministers, in performing of their functions or undertaking certain measures and activities, is to always respect the position of their parliament. Parliamentarians as representatives of the people earn the right to follow the work of the executive power as the executive organs perform their functions, how the laws apply, and how professional, competent and with what responsibilities the government carries out its own affairs. The results of this control may be different for the holders of public functions, the government and the ministers, and depend on the mechanisms that will be used, as well as the final desired effect by the performed audit. This means that political control through defined mechanisms and defined normative procedures as a consequence will be the determination of responsibility and political sanctions.

Another form of responsibility of the government and public officials is the political responsibility of the ministers and government before parliament. This as a rule it is characteristic of all countries with a parliamentary system, although with modifications and specifications depending on the constitutional order of the country, but according to the conditions and circumstances primarily of the structure of the party system, whether a functioning two-party system or a multi-party system in the organization of the government. The


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political responsibility of the holders of power was first initiated through the available mechanisms of parliament. Parliamentary control mechanisms are associated with political responsibility otherwise it would not exist, and would be declarative of, if not determined by, the way it was built. The political responsibility of ministers and government, as holders of executive power to parliament, presents one of postulates distinguishing a parliamentary system from a presidential system. The constitutions of some countries explicitly define political control as one of the functions of parliament. At the same time, the constitutions of many countries determine the mechanisms that are available in parliament in conducting political control, and regulate fundamental questions about their use.

3 Responsibility of the holders of public functions The constitutional system of the Republic of Macedonia is built as a parliamentary system, where the

key element is the political responsibility of the government before an assembly. Parliamentary control finds its source in the control that creates representatives of the people acting with executive power. This is essential for representative democracy. The political responsibility of the government before the assembly is double: the responsibility of the government in general (solidarity and collective responsibility), and the responsibility of ministers (individual responsibility) [2].

Montesquieu [3], in his famous book “The Spirit of Laws” emphasizes that “It is vital experience that every man who has power is prone to misuse, doing that until he encounters obstacles.” The purpose of surveillance is to assess whether public administrative bodies and employees carry out their functions efficiently and on time, and if they abide by the established principles and procedures. In other words, monitoring aims to provide the administrative principle “management by law”, because in principle protection is essential for the public’s interests and individual rights.

Accountability means that a person or authority has to explain and justify his actions to another. It also means that any authority should not be excluded from investigation by other institutions. It can be put into effect through different mechanisms, including investigation by the courts, appeals to a higher administrative body, ombudsman investigations, inspections by a board or commission and investigations by special parliamentary committees. Accountability is an instrument that indicates whether the principles of legality are respected, open, transparent, impartial and equal before the law. Accountability is essential to ensure the values of efficiency, effectiveness, reliability and predictability in public administration. Responsibility contains within itself multiple elements both subjective and objective. All these elements can be observed in different aspects (historical, economical, political, sociological or psychological etc). Therefore, in studying responsibility there may be different scientific aspects, such as politico-logical, juridical, sociological, economical etc. [4]. Responsibility presents one of fundamental relationships between man and power, which is society. It presents a social relationship, which in legal terms means: to subordinate to sanctions of determined legal norms.

The basis of political responsibility is defined by non-opportunistic work, which is not in accordance with the attitudes, views, opinions, or forum interests of the authorities to whom you give accountability.

It is known that the realization of political responsibility is brought about by the main employees of the state apparatus, such as ministers, mayors, deputy-mayors, secretaries, heads of departments, and other people who are elected as their representatives in government bodies, and at the same time who are engaged as employees by the state apparatus. The realization of this kind of responsibility only appears when they do not do justice to the confidence of voters. Even the nature of the measures put upon the state employees has a political character. As a rule power is revoked by the electors themselves, and not by any state body. In this particular case responsibility is not connected with the violation of obligations that comes from work relations, because the employee is revoked for the reasons we mentioned above. Political responsibility implies responsibility for non-opportunistic work, and not for illegal work (because in that case we would be dealing with other forms of legal responsibility). With political responsibility sanction is expressed by its relationship to voter confidence in cases of revoking, building up, or more specifically, withholding an office-holder from their function by the forum or the organ that was designated or elected to practise that function. The political responsibility of ministers can be individual or collective. Individual responsibility implies responsibility of the minister itself, whereas the collective responsibility is bon by the government. Individual responsibility is based on the acts and actions of the respective minister, whereas collective responsibility is based on the work of the government as a collegial forum. In order to observe the institutional mechanisms and the participants in the process of the realization of political responsibility, as a comparison it is necessary to point out the initiators of the procedure, bodies that participate in it, as well as the types and nature of sanction over political responsibility.

The initiators of the procedure may be presented as Members of Parliament, and a pre-determined number of electors.

For a placement related to political responsibility, as a rule to a competent body, or namely the forum or body which has been appointed or elected as office-holder of a public function, specifically the minister, so can the entrusted mandate be taken up only by the one who has been entrusted with it. All these mechanisms and


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institutions aim to strengthen in more effective way the action of law, transparency, responsibility, effectiveness and efficiency as main principles in public administration and civil service. In other words, they aim to protect individual rights as well as the public interest, to improve the quality in decision-making, and finally to improve the credibility, legal security and legality of public administration. The functioning of the Republican Assembly so far, and the parliamentary instruments set out as interpellations and voter confidence, may conclude that in addition to exploiting the political effects of these instruments we do not know of any case where there was expressed any distrust in the government or any public office holder by the Assembly (exception: the impeachment motion against the government (“experts”). This is for the reason that a parliamentary majority has executive power given the level of civic and political awareness and the disciplined representatives of party-political decisions; as a final epilogue there is not known any case of the responsibility of government or holder of political power being held to account. From the official data that we could get from institutions, and especially the Republican Parliament, we may conclude that the current governments and public and political officials have performed their obligations in accordance with the Constitution, law and work ethics. During the functioning of the Parliament so far, through the media we have heard of many cases of violations of the Constitution and laws by the holders of various public offices, but none resulted in the individual or collective responsibility of the government. This has been happening in Macedonia since we lost the meaning of political control, namely the meaning of parliamentary control over the executive government. Also, interestingly enough, one gets the impression that the government politically controls the Parliament and the Representatives of the people, which is an exceptional case in parliamentary practice and theory. A typical example of this was the events in the Macedonian Parliament with the approval of the Budget of 2013; there was a violent removal of the parliamentary opposition from the parliamentary session, and the even more drastic measure of the forced removal of the mass media and journalists; the budget was approved by parliament without parliamentary opposition and without the presence of the mass media. All of this was done under government directives, respectively parliamentary position

All this shows the low level of the democratization of public institutions and the lack of accountability of office-holders within them; with this standard of practice we cannot pretend that we are worthy to be part of the European family.

4 Summary Through the use of legal and political instruments of control it is intended to preserve and promote the

functioning of democratic institutions, and the democratic and civic values in terms of the protection of public and private interests.

Challenging the practice of delegating responsibility at the lower levels of political and administrative decision-making will increase the responsibility and motivation of administrative managers to meet European standards, and it would enable more efficient conditions to improve measures against corruption, or a full de-politiciatization of the administration.

The purpose of exercising administrative control and measures is to apply legality in order to determine the responsibility of the administration and its office-holders who have violated the law. In the Republic of Macedonia this control system functions based on legal and political definitions, and its operating system does not provide adequate results in terms of converting the administration into a professional, apolitical institution, efficient in providing services to the citizens.

The quality of political control could be improved with an increase in the powers and means which the holders of control possess, a definition of clear criteria, and an improvement of control procedures, particularly with an increased awareness on the parts of the holders of the control and the administrative employees; the necessity of this control for the political administration. This means that political control through defined mechanisms and defined normative procedures, as a consequence will be the determination of responsibility and political sanctions.

References [1] Platoon: Laws: (1971) Beograd, pp. 201-202. [2] Shkariq, S. (2005) Constitutional law, Second book, Skopje, pp.667. [3] Jovicic, M. (1997) Ombudsman- guardian of legality and citizen rights, Beograd,pp.57. [4] Gianoni, F. (1953) Laresponsabilte en droit des gens,Universit de Paris.


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Subjective and Objective Perception of Justice in Romania

Gavriluță C.1 1 Professor, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The multitude of standards, rules, and social requirements which can be found in the contemporary

world generates behaviours, attitudes and social representations of the most diverse. Their presence can be interpreted as the expression of postmodernism, the multiplication of social and symbolic marks or as a sign of weak thinking evoked by Gianni Vattimo in his writings. Thus, at the society level there appear quite clear reactions of acceptance and rejection of the rules, or deviant behaviours in accordance with accepted social norms, positive and negative representations of law and justice. In our opinion, these social effects bring forward an older debate on subjective and objective law. Correlating this Neo-Kantian approach with a number of current social phenomena can lead to a better understanding of a series of social phenomena and, implicitly, different ways of achieving social control.

Keywords: subjective law, objective law, social control, social phenomena, social perceptions and representations.

Introduction A piece of research conducted in October 2013 by the Institute for Evaluation and Strategy on a sample

of 300 subjects aged over 18 years had the theme ’Perceptions on the functioning of the justice system in Romania’(http://www.ires.com.ro/articol/242/perceptii-privind-functionarea-justitiei-in-romania).

The results of this piece of research show that Romanians’ trust in justice recorded a downward trend, hovering, as IRES researchers noted, at one of the lowest rates of recent years. More specifically, the research data evoked above show that only 20% of people surveyed say that they have much and very much trust in justice and 79% say they trust this system little and very little.

Such low results are also present in expressing opinions about a number of institutions and actors that are part of the system of justice. Thus, 79% have a little and little confidence, 70% in the Constitutional Court, 66 % in the general prosecutor, 74% in courthouses, 73% in judges, and 53% in the ombudsman. It is worth mentioning that out of the people investigated, 88% said that they haven’t had any connection with the justice in the recent years and 50% of those who had to deal with the judiciary system have been the victim. The same piece of research shows that the confidence in the Constitutional Court, in the general prosecutor's Office and in a number of actors in the system (lawyers, prosecutors, judges) decreases as it finds an increase in age. The segment of the population aged 18-35 years old and the youngest of the sample aged over 65 years trust the most these actors of the system.

The interpretations made by IRES researchers highlight that the results of the research have a multiple explanation: the lack of information related to the field of justice, the media and the political debate, people's personal experiences with the legal system.

As the effects of such perceptions we might evoke a decrease in the authority of the system and the credibility of justice together with the decrease of social control achieved through justice. Moreover, political disputes and public debates and media can generate certain timidity in exercising the functions and attributions of the system coming exactly from the will of improving the public image. Such attitudes may lead to perverse effects which may affect even more the image of the Romanian justice system.

The results of the research previously evoked bring back in discussion a number of elements related to mechanisms of perception and representation of law. They give rise to a series of questions such as: Which are the fundamental elements of the legal system and how do these affect the social perceptions and representations on the system of justice? To what extent the social representations and opinions on the system of justice are signs of deficient operation of the system? The philosophical and juridical debates on the topic of the subjective and


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the objective law could shade the conclusions of research and would bring a number of explanations regarding the presence of some social phenomena which focus mainly on issues of law and justice.

1 Objective and subjective law The perceptions and representations on justice also relate to deeper aspects which are connected to the

ideal of rightness and justice in a society. Evaluations such as those conducted by the prestigious Institute of Research IRES capture the image of the justice system both at the social level and aspects of different methods of assuming and expressing the ideal of rightness and justice. In this case, negative results show the outcry which rely on a series of expectations that have a double determination: objective and subjective. Therefore, the sociological research is hiding behind the figures and sociological interpretations and also issues of philosophical nature.

In a Neo-Kantian perspective of the Romanian philosopher and jurist Eugeniu Speranția law has a triple connotation: cognitive, subjective and objective. If the cognitive one refers to scientific character of the concept of law (majoring in law, doctor of law, civil law, constitutional law, etc.), objectivity and subjectivity of the law relate to the totality of rules that form a system of law (Roman law, French law, etc.) and personal, subjective elements, on which is based an objective rule (the right to associate, the right to free speech, the right to possess a property, the right to be defended or to be convicted etc.). In this context, justice appears as a fundamental element of the system of law.

These different touches from the philosophy of law, to which we will get back later, subsume to a Kantian approach, that of the ideal law. The idea was promoted, among others, by Rudolf Stammler. He emphasises on two concepts: the will and the perception. The object of perception is not in this case, the exterior object, but “this ideality of means in order to achieve the goals.”[1] Thus, opinions, and also collective representations and perceptions of justice bear the imprint of this ideality of the means (the achievement of justice) in order to achieve this goal. At the limit, goals cohere with means. Why? In order not to betray what Stammler called to be the idea of justice, the essence of justice being of a spiritual nature in the Kantian sense. Beyond this spiritual touch which shapes the expectations and social representations of law and justice, the fulfilment of rightness is made in accordance with a particular social ideal, in Stammler’s vision. Thus, “the justice is the purely logical form through which people link, form transposed into a will that binds these links to the mandatory rules which guide them through social life” [2]. The free will and the idea of community are those which enable the formulation of ultimate purposes and ideals of justice which vary according to a number of socio-historical coordinates [3].

Personal rights are called subjective rights by Eugeniu Speranţia. They can be reached through the analysis of what we call the social solidarity. According to Eugeniu Speranţia this can be explained by the tendency towards a maximum of sociability. However, an important element of sociability is the need for justice. Organizing legal order involves not only the state and the social interests, but also certain spiritual elements, as Speranţia says. The deepest need of the human being is at stake: “to live as a human, as a spiritual being” [4]. Or, the spiritual being is “a goal in itself”, has an autonomous finality, as noted by the Neo-Kantian Speranţia. In this case the state cannot necessarily be considered responsible for a justice exerted in a deficient manner. The social actors that cannot exert justice in compliance with social ideals are responsible in this case.

It is worth noticing that subjective justice exists, but we do not confuse it with subjective interests. Not any personal interest which manifests itself at a time can be considered subjective right. The difference is that the subjective right always has a norm which ensures it (e.g., the right to bear the consequences of the law). So, the subjective rights ensure the existence and applicability of the objective rights. In the absence of the subjective one, the objective rights “would only be a sum of not important statements; some simple projects without the power of achievement” [5].

In the context of these approaches, the subjective rights approach more the philosophical discourse. This means that it does not have a social understanding. The objective rights are closer to the sociological and historical approach. [6] Its purpose is to make possible the existence of the society relying on the compelling force of the state. This does not mean that the objective law aims at ensuring individual and collective rights. It mainly aims at ensuring sociability. “The respect for the norms is the categorically imperative of positive law” [7], A. Brino points out. The idea had appeared long before Hugo Grotius, who points out that many of the civil laws have as their foundation the principle of natural law, “which requires that each should comply strictly with promises they have made.”[8]

Being read from this perspective, the Romanians’ perceptions on the system of justice are an expression of dissatisfaction regarding the failure to comply with the promises arising from the contractual principles evoked above. They express the dissatisfaction regarding an order, in relation to the state which does not manage to comply with the obligations arising from the contract.

Making a comparison between the subjective and the objective law, one can see that, while the former is based on human freedom as an expression of human will, the latter finds its expression in the agreement


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“between the two free wills – the contract.”[7] Basically, thanks to this approach of the social contract are outdated the medieval theocratic conceptions (omnis potestat a deo) regarding the existence of the state. Finally, the state is approached from a secular perspective and it is seen as a result of the social contract based on human will. This fact gives to the modern state the power and the authority arising from joint wills. It acquires a “higher status on us and on our property, in so far as this is necessary to achieve the stated purpose” [9]. It is the guarantor of normalcy and social order. In this context all the state is held liable when there are shortcomings in the realization of justice.

As shown by the 2013 research, The Prosecutor’s Office, the Constitutional Court, and the Court of Justice register quite low degrees of trust. The causes may be of the most various: poor performance in solving issues, the overload of the system, deficiencies with regard to the formulation of laws, the existence of a too ‘bushy’ legal system which complicates the act of justice, etc. On the other hand, there must be taken into account the fact that the institutions which form the system of justice are instruments of power and of the state’s authority. In a Faucaunian approach, [10] the manner in which they exercise their functions in controlling the society is greatly influenced by the nowadays’ development of sciences and of the institutions which dispute their authority over the whole mechanisms of control. If social finalities circumscribe essentially to the same principles, the means to achieve them vary a lot, being influenced by the development of psychiatry and psychology, medicine and new disciplines and technologies which propose new formulas for social control. In these circumstances the subjective law is imprinted with new connotations while the objective one subsumes to the same social desiderata.

2 Social perceptions of justice in the context of objectivity and subjectivity At a first glance, the Romanians’ perceptions on the justice system do not announce in any way any

philosophical connotations related to the objective and subjective law. Moreover, the subjectivity and the objectivity of the subjects part of a sample of a sociological research seems to be more influenced by the epistemic perspectives of the research, by the methodological variables (accuracy of sociological approach) or by some social variables (experiences, contexts, backgrounds, education, status, role, etc.). Subjectivity, in this case, has a weak sense. It shows the turning away from the truth, uncertainty, imitation, conformism. It loosens the research results, knowledge being placed at the level of opinion, perception, and representation. Regardless the value of the allegations related to the Romanian justice system, what appears in the foreground is the image of justice. Therefore, the truths and the images are constructed from a set of objective and subjective perceptions. According to these, the attitudes, behaviours and social attitudes emerge.

However, we notice that, at the level of common sense, objective and subjective law is converted into perceptions and representations that announce a lack of confidence in the justice system and also in the actors involved. In the absence of an appropriate legal culture under the influence of all kinds of disruptive factors, the subjective and objective law continue to manifest at the level of social perceptions and concerns. Political, ideological and media disputes on the subject of justice have only the purpose of outbidding on each of the two fundamental components of the Law. Even in these conditions objectivity and subjectivity of the Law represents a double reading gridline of the legal system and what phenomena revolve around. The negative perception of the Romanian people regarding the system of justice shows dissatisfaction in relation to the idea of ideal means, but also regarding the social purposes of justice. Thus, there are considered some issues related to the legislative construction, but also formulae related to its applicability. The social effects of such perceptions determine, among other things, suspicion, distrust, it affects the authority of the state’s institutions, increasing their chances of failure to comply with the law.

Following the Neo-Kantian approaches, the objective order of law is a priority in relation to the subjective justice, as 'we' is stronger than “I" [11]. The priority of the objective law would stand, according to Speranţia, in assuming individual social norms, but also in the fact that "legal order confers the greatest certitude that one can enjoy a certain consecration" [12]. The ideal solution proposed by Speranţia is that of the perfect balance between subjective and objective law. "This balance results from the fact that the rule is both a creation of spiritual life, the mind or the intellect, in which case it belongs to individual lives, but derived from a variety of faiths and ideologies, that is, from the collective consciousness. Thus, the social norm becomes the order of law. “[12]

These are all arguments in favour of carefully evaluating the perceptions and representations of social justice. Behind an assumed bias, the collective perceptions and representations can sign up to the logic of creative predictions [13] which take the shape of appropriate social behaviours and attitudes. Moreover, as the social perceptions of the justice system presents itself, we note that, beyond the social and political contexts, the objective and subjective justice remain the two reading grids of the legal system. Considering these, there can be thought strategies of improving the legal system with direct effect on ensuring social control and social normality.


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References: [1] Nicolae Popa, Ion Dogaru, Gheorghe Dănişor, Dan Claudiu Dănişor, The Philosophy of Law.

The Main Theories, Bucureşti, Allbeck Publishing House, 2002, p.248 [2] Nicolae Popa, Ion Dogaru, Gheorghe Dănişor, Dan Claudiu Dănişor, The Philosophy of Law.

The Main Theories, Bucureşti, Allbeck Publishing House, 2002, p. 249 [3] Eugeniu Speranţia, Introduction to the Philosophy of Law, Cluj, „Cartea Românească”

Publishing House, 1946, p.250 [4] Eugeniu Speranţia, Introduction to the Philosophy of Law, Cluj, „Cartea Românească”

Publishing House, 1946, p.367 [5] Eugeniu Speranţia, Introduction to the Philosophy of Law, Cluj, „Cartea Românească”

Publishing House, 1946, p.369 [6] Eugeniu Speranţia, The Fundamental Principles of the Philosophy of Law, Cluj-Napoca, The

Institute of Arts, „Ardealul”, 1936 [7] A. Brimo, Les grandes courants de la philosophie du droit et de L’ Etat, Paris, Editura, A.

Pedone, 1978, p. 99 [8] Hugo Grotius, About the Law of War and Peace, Bucureşti, Ştiinţifică Publishing House, 1968,

p. 86 [9] Hugo Grotius, About the Law of War and Peace, , Bucureşti, Ştiinţifică Publishing House, 1968,

p. 193 [10] Michel Foucault, To Oversee and to Punish, Pitești, Paralela 45 Publishing House, 2005 [11] Nicolae Popa, op.cit., p. 274 [12] Nicolae Popa, op.cit.,, p.275 [13] Ilie Badescu, Noological Sociology. The Spiritual Order of Society, București, Mica Valahie

Publishing House, 2007, p.30


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Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow via Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory

Mihăilescu C.1

1Lucian Blaga University Sibiu (ROMANIA) [email protected]

Abstract The purpose of the paper is to show how Amis through his postmodern technique of fast rewind and his

artifice of the divided self has imaginatively recreated and refreshed the topic related to the atrocities from the concentration camps in order to teach his contemporaries a moral lesson. Kelly’ s psychological theory will assure an explanation to what is being felt under the circumstances not only by the victims but also by the victimizer and an illumination of the character’ s awareness via the well-known pattern of the “box-man.” As Martin Amis’ main concern is man’s fallen condition, a hermeneutics of the collective shadow will be exploited for explaining the individual’s negative resources and his potential for acknowledging them by bringing them to conscious view.

Keywords: Martin Amis, Kelly, personal constructs, Jungian psychology, self, feeling, image

1 Introduction

Martin Amis is a British novelist born in 1949. In writing his novels, Amis revealed himself residing in a tension between the present day which is far away from Edenic time we have all lost and his mind intuitively seeking and inspiringly creating that one background we can all meet upon, that of fiction. Within this background we can see an Amis functioning as a critic of the present day society interested how we all socially, aesthetically and intuitively understand as readers when irony is intend by the author to criticize modern world. For what else are his best known literary contributions but instances of irony out of each his ethics of fiction - that of teaching his contemporaries a moral lesson - finally erupts. So, Money (1984) is a rather long novel which neither diverts nor nourishes our ability to sympathize with its main character. All we can do is to share Martin Amis’ opinion on the present day society, namely the fact that “we’re pretty much agreed that the twentieth century is an ironic age, downward looking. Even realism, rock bottom realism is considered a bit grand for the twentieth century.” [1] With the second novel, A Suicide Note, Amis makes us all drown with the characters in incomprehensibility, failing again to win our sympathy regarding his characters’ moral and professional issues.

With this socially, morally and psychologically defined background in mind, we can take a further step and focus our attention on Time's Arrow, our main research topic. So, Time's Arrow deals with the old topic of mass assassination of Jews in concentration camps. The objective of the paper is to reveal how the intricate technique of fast rewind has been successfully employed by Martin Amis to imaginatively render such disturbing and alarming experiences and to teach the modern world a moral lesson so that such things should never happen again.

2 The Body of Analysis To meet this end, a concise presentation of the topic of the novel is of utmost importance, in spite of its

purely descriptive nature. So, the story is apparently simple: a German boy is born, marries, becomes a physician, and has a child who dies soon after birth, joins the SS and works in the concentration camps, kills people. When the Germans lose the war, he manages to avoid being caught by the Russians, leaves for Portugal and finally for the United States.

As an American citizen he permanently fears that he might be discovered. At the beginning of the book he is lying paralyzed, on a hospital bed. At this very moment, through the technique of fast rewind, he starts recalling his life experiences. His split personality, his self, divided between “I” and “He”, focuses on these reverse sequences, and reevaluates them from the perspective of the one who comes from the future and who regards the future as belonging to his past.


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Any logical criterion is contradicted, and reverse chronology becomes the source of many comic effects. The hero’s inner self (referred to in the novel as “I”) considers everything as if he just opened his eyes lying on the hospital bed, within a paralyzed body, as if he moved back towards his birth perceived by him as the end of his life.

3 Methodology For the technique of fast rewind to be properly comprehended, Kelly's psychological approached will be

closely turned to good account. So, Kelly, in his work Psychology of Personal Constructs focuses his attention on how a person as “a personal scientist” can get involved in an adventurous “personal inquiry” [2] into the “unknown” [2] and make sense of self and the surrounding world.

To engage in personal inquiry means, according to Kelly, to explore aspects of imagination and to regard behavioral issues as “guests” [2], as explorations of the human psyche. Mair’s article on Kelly insists on the psychologist’s concept of the self “as if” it were “a community of selves” [2] and on the fact that personal reality is in “feeling, in felt engagements, not in the events described” [2].

Following Kelly’s methodology of entering more fully into a feeling, the image that best articulates what is being felt is that of the divided self, the “I” and “he” of Amis’ novel. The “I” and “he” can be regarded from the perspective of Kelly’s “community of selves” [2], divided, and yet, unconceivable in separation.

The physical self (the body) is referred to as “he”, Tod Friendly, John Young, Hamilton de Souza, Odilo Unverdorben (all these names are associated with one and the same person). It knows the real meaning of his life story but refuses to reveal it. We can hardly infer what he thinks or, as Vianu states, he hardly thinks at all due to his demolishing and paralyzing anxiety of being discovered. On the other hand, the inner self (the “I”) keeps complaining that the world described through the technique of fast rewind, of moving from the old age towards one’s birth makes no sense to him. Following Kelly's model we gradually get to what the private inner self is feeling. Moreover, we become familiar with the concentration camp, which, for the sake of convenience, can be regarded as a “tight box-like” place [2]. Such an approach based on a concrete image facilitates an imaginative journey on the part of the reader because the image of the box is easier to visualize compared to an abstract concentration camp. The private inner self (the narrator of the first part of the novel) can be imaginatively approached following Kelly not only as looking at the “box-like” concentration camp but as being in the box-like camp (as part of the concentration camp). The story might look incredible unless we bear in mind the fact that Amis plays upon the reverse logic of the text. The novel describes the “resurrection” of the Jews’ corpses by the German physicians from the camp, the main hero (the outer self) being one of them. Resorting to the reverse logic, Amis claims that cruelty arises from kindness, because it consists in killing which precedes resurrection [1]. As such, the German physicians are described as merely “benefactors”. Amis is adverse to the mental and physical suffering caused by the German physicians from the concentration camps and, through the technique of reverse chronology, he implies that the private self only perceives “their kindness”, because “he moves from the future backwards into the past” [1].

For searching to understand the author’s hidden intentions and his unusual technique, the decoding of the chapters’ titles is of little help before finishing reading the entire novel. They should be re-read and re-interpreted only after having become familiar with the technique of the fast rewinding of the text.

The chapter entitled “What Goes around Comes around” reveals to be one of the novelist’s strongest artifices. It is meant to suggest that you can become young again, in sharp contrast with the laws of human evolution.

“You Have to Be Cruel to Be Kind” is an illustration of the reverse image of the concentration camps. The novelist uses abstract words to refer to it, such as “cruelty vs. kindness”, “resurrection vs. death”. Likewise, the chapter entitled “Because I Am a Healer, Everything I Do Heals” reveals the fact that the private self hardly feels the discomfort of that place because all he knows is that he is a gynaecologist. Only later in the novel we find out that this was his profession in the concentration camp when he made experiences on Jewish women. The chapter entitled “You Do What You Do Best, Not What’s Best to Do” reveals a darker and more threatening atmosphere of the box-like image of the concentration camp. It offers a clue to the hero’s criminal surgical interventions which can no longer be misinterpreted and overlooked, once we have become familiar with the real meaning of the events described in this novel. We learn that Odilo – the outer self – is a killer who experiences no remorse. Moreover, he considers himself a martyr victimized by the terrible camp environment where he lived and worked (he has become impotent, has sacrificed his family life, his wife despises him and his daughter died when she was very young). All these issues are credible and they are described by the novelist who resorts now to the usual ordinary rational chronology of events, opposed to the reverse chronology employed so far.

The chapter entitled “Multiply Zero by Zero You Still Get Zero” is again ambivalent. It is focused on the moment when the character’s child was born, informing us briefly that she died soon after her birth.


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According to Vianu, if we observe either the normal chronology or the reverse one, zero multiplied by zero is still zero. In terms of interpretation of such a syntagm, we can further expand on it, mentioning the fact that concentration camps have been mnemotechnically and ironically interpreted by Amis, both as life and as dead sources, destroying all rational understanding, so to put it, offering zero understanding. The chapter entitled “She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not” is grotesque and hilarious, at the same time. It is hilarious because it offers the image of Odilo’s wife growing ever younger until she turns into a baby again. Amis’ technique of fast rewind is meant perhaps to underline this time the diminishing of her resentment for her husband’s “healing” the dead bodies. Under the circumstances, she is no longer obliged to face his impotence, his cruelty and the loss of their child. The omnipresent private self regards her present behavior (which is actually her past) as a consequence of her past (actually her future), if we regard it from the perspective of reverse chronology [1]. Vianu further claims that such a technique offers two simultaneous perceptions of the story. One reflects the real sequence of events which involves the past, the present and the future. The other one, through the technique of fast rewind, causes confusion. She concludes that Amis’ technique is deliberately meant to imaginatively recreate and refresh the old topic related to the atrocities from the concentration camps. Since words are never powerful enough to render such meanings, professor Vianu adds that the author resorts to the kinematic technique of fast rewind in order to teach his contemporaries a moral lesson [1]. The descriptive dimension of the present paper has to be completed with the research component closely related to Kelly’s searching for understanding. So, searching for understanding” [2] is part of Kelly’s psychological perspective and involves the mixture of feeling and imagination. Kelly regards feeling as “an activity of intimate exploration, involving touching and being touched by experience” [2]. For this exploration to be successful, we are encouraged to question the character’s life. Such an approach is ultimately meant to reveal significant changes in the character’s and reader’s awareness so that his life could turn into a “transforming journey” [2]. In order to do that, we should find out the circumstances under which the character is caught up in the violence from the concentration camp. As the hero was almost born during Nazism, he was, willingly or not, part of the massacre. When Germany was defeated, he first left for Portugal and then, for New York, under a false identity. He keeps hiding his past and his real identity hoping that they will never be discovered as he had “no criminal record” [3]. Regarding the concentration camps as a box, in Kelly’s terminology, helps us to find out that the main character has been engaged in the suffering of other people, having actually been the cause of that suffering. Being in the camp, in the box, according to Kelly’s psychological and methodological experiment, for quite a long time, assures, in his opinion, a fuller articulation of what is being felt under such circumstances. The articulation of what was being felt within the box-like concentration camps can be further expanded upon via Kelly’s psychological model which is ultimately focused on “significant changes in awareness”[2]. Amis’ novel offers a lot of details, most of them apparently irrelevant and rather frightening, until the reader realizes their profound moral connotations. Such a detail refers to the showers of death in the concentration camp. We are told that the guards are used to touching women. Before entering into further details regarding this scene, mention should be made of the importance of language which is central to the realm of psychological inquiry. Mair stresses the idea of using “living words”, even the simplest words in “living ways” [2]. As such, the syntagm “showers of death” acquires new symbolic connotations. Amis himself claims that the touching of the Jewish women while taking the showers of death could be symbolically interpreted. He considers that life and love should go further, should continue, adding that “there is a nuance of cruelty, of sharp cruelty, as if creation destroyed” [3]. In terms of language items, the inner self identifies himself with the image of the showers of death, first using the third person pronoun in the plural “they looked at us with contempt and suspicion”, then the first person pronoun in the singular in “I understand them” [3]. Such an understanding of what is being experienced by those Jewish women has been evoked and expressed in a “living way” using “living words”, in Kelly’s terminology. In this type of environment the above quoted words have become “gateways to a new and powerful psychological reality” [2].

4 Results of the Psychological Research and Conclusions Since Kelly’s basic assumption is that “man is a form of motion”[2], this potential fluidity will be

exploited by us in the sense that the private inner self is not only in the box, he is the box, having physically and spiritually identified himself with the victims of the Holocaust. We can contemplate, exactly as Kelly did, another imaginative move in our psychological research, namely that the box is made of skin, as if, “the symbolic cardboard has changed into skin” [2]. We assume that the end of the novel where the character is a baby, then within his mother’s womb, can be again interpreted resorting to Kelly’s model in the sense that the box made of skin “feels like a womb” [2]. Here comes the moral lesson. Pushed back into his mother’s womb, Odilo leaves us. It is the moment of his death, when he is allowed “to change” and when another life seems to be in store for him. The two selves - the inner and the outer selves mingle and we all sense the novelist’s warning that history could be reiterated. “We’re away once more, over the


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field, Odilo Unverdorben and his eager heart. And I within, who came at the wrong time – either too soon or after it was all too late”[2]. It is the moment of “changed, of improved awareness” when the private self abandons the body of the criminal physician, who becomes an American citizen. The past becomes the past again. “Wrong time” reveals, according to Vianu, the wrong, reverse direction of time’s arrow, namely from future into the past in order to render the meaning of Holocaust actual again through a serious engagement in the suffering of its innocent victims, the main argument of our paper, continuously and obsessively debated upon. It generates the transformation in consciousness that Kelly speaks about within his psychological inquiry. It is the improvement of the readers’ quality of awareness that, through Kelly’s model, we have tried to analyze. Moreover, such an experience has been referred to by Kelly as “enchantment”.

So, “enchantment” as a “raised and transformed state of consciousness” may be involved in “recognizing and living in relation to an ideal or a set of values that can take you through dangers and difficulties that would otherwise have seemed impossible to face” [2].

Such transformations can be also explained via Jung’s archetype of the shadow whose analysis in the modern context of Amisʹ novel will further enrich the research component of our paper. Our considerations on the archetype of the shadow within Amisʹ novel will only prove that art, in our case literature, should be employed for “constructive” not “destructive” [5] ends. Interpreting the novel via Jung offers us an “alternative construal” [5] of Amisʹ character. This is due to the fact that for Kelly “construing” [5] signifies understanding an event or putting an interpretation on an event, which offers new meaning to it.

Getting back to the archetype of the shadow in relation to Amisʹ character, mention should be made of the fact that Odilo did most of the unpleasant and morally damaging actions required by the camp. He adopted a social mask and totally identified himself with it. It appears that after having identified himself with the social mask, Odilo unconsciously experiences “the inflation of the persona” turning into a mere “reflection” [4] of society, being entirely deprived of his individuality. Only by facing the shadow, the dark side of his personality, one can experience the annihilation of its coercive force.

The bringing to conscious view of the dark side of one’s personality also signifies the annihilation of that dark self, its death. So, Odilo’s death can be also symbolically interpreted as the death of the dark self. Moreover, Odilo’s relationship with the dead Jewish collectivity establishes him as an archetypal figure, related not only to the individual shadow but also to the collective shadow. The sinister power of the collective shadow is imaginatively and symbolically illustrated in the novel through the persecution and extermination of the Jews in the described concentration camp. According to Jung, all inhuman persecutions should be regarded as the shadows cast by those who closely, uncritically, and fanatically follow an ideal, be it communist or fascist in essence, an ideal which resembles the one present in modern dystopian novels such as Huxley’s Brave New World or Orwell’s 1984.

To conclude, all good authors realize the power of their “personal or public ethos” [5], in Kellyʹs terminology, and admit responsibility for the images created. And this is what Amis has done in Time’s Arrow, where, through the symbolic death of the characterʹs dark self, interpretation derived from Jungʹs psycho-analysis, the author has managed to create a new community of selves, for us, his readers, out of the ashes of the old order appeared after World War II.

References

[1] Vianu, L. (2010). The AfterMode. Significant Choices in Contemporary British Fiction. Bucharest: Bucharest UP, Print, pp. 89-275 [2] Mair, M. (2012) Enchanting Psychology: The Poetry of Personal Inquiry. Journal of Costructivist

Psychology 25, Routledge. Print, pp. 184-196 [3] Amis, M. (2005). Săgeata Timpului. Iaşi: Polirom, Print, pp. 80-103 [4] Jung, C. G. (1968). Psychology and Alchemy, second edition (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). London: Rutledge, pp.

80-202 [5] Kelly, G. A. (1955) The Psychology of Personal Constructs: Vol. One – A Theory of Personality. New York:

Norton, pp. 196-199

Author Index

Alexandrache C., 3 Alexandru P., 7 Anghel S.O., 327 Anitei N., 1 Aniţei N.C., 13 Apostu I., 17 Arhip O., 21 Azizi A., 27 Badea M., 31 Berdigulova A., 213 Berna B., 47 Berna I.B., 51, 55, 59 Bezus S., 63, 67 Borcoman M., 71 Buhociu D.H., 75 Bădescu L.E., 43 Bădălău A.G., 35, 39 Caras A., 1, 79 Cetean-Voiculescu L., 85 Ciongaru E., 89 Ciucă L.B., 93 Ciulei T., 97 Coca G., 101 Cojanu D., 105 Cojocaru M.C., 109 Constantinescu L.M., 113, 117 Cozaru G.C., 121 Crăciun C., 75 Damboeanu C., 125 Dobrilă M.C., 233 Drulă G., 129 Duminică R., 273 Dumitru F., 117 Dutu A., 135 Elezi Z., 391 Florescu T.C., 75 Floroaia M., 139 Gavriluță C., 395 Gelei I., 143

Genoiu I., 147 Ginghină A., 151 Godeanu T.N., 155 Grigoraş-Popa C.I., 159 Hurbean A., 163 Hărmănescu M., 277 Ignat A., 167 Ionescu C., 311, 315, 319, 323 Ionescu R.V., 171 Ionescu-Tănăsescu B.L., 175 Iorga A., 305 Iorga I., 311 Iorga O., 305 Jackson B.L., 179, 183 Jeder D., 187, 191 Jucan C.N., 195 Jucan M.S., 195 Jugastru C., 201 Karzhaubajeva K., 217 Khalikova K., 205, 209 Khalykov K., 213, 217, 221 Lungu E., 225 Lupu M.S., 229 Macovei C., 233 Manea C.N., 237 Mareş P., 241 Maulenova G., 213 Maxim S.T., 245 Mihail R., 249 Mihăilescu C., 399 Milewski N., 253 Mitea N., 257 Mocanu M., 319, 323, 327 Nagy R., 261 Neacșu C.R., 35 Neacșu D., 39 Nurtazin Y., 265 Papari A.C., 121 Popa A., 75, 277 Postolache R., 281 Potop V., 285 Pricopie V., 1, 289, 293

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Pîrvu A., 273 Pădure Petrişor L.A., 379 Pătrașcu C., 269 Rosca L., 299 Rusu-Zagar C., 305, 311, 315, 319, 323, 327 Rusu-Zagar G., 305, 311, 315, 319, 323, 327 Sakhamanov A., 221 Samoylova E., 331 Sandu A., 1, 335, 341, 345 Sandu M.L., 121 Shaev Y., 331, 349 Soimu O., 353 Stahl I., 357 Stan A., 363 Stăiculescu A.R., 363 Terec-Vlad D., 371 Terec-Vlad L., 371 Tudurachi E., 375 Tănăsescu D., 117 Tăvală E., 367 Valek L., 383 Vlădilă L.M., 387 Zagar L., 315 Zendeli F., 391 Ţop D., 379 Ţuţuianu A., 379

Tradition and Reform Social Reconstruction of Europe

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