I am a Romanian jurist with twenty-seven years in the judiciary, having served as a judge at every hierarchical level of the Romanian court system, including as President of the Court of Appeal of Târgu-Mureș. From January 2011 to October 2016, I was a member and, for one year, President of the Superior Council of Magistracy of Romania, the constitutional body charged with guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary. At the European level, I served on the Executive Committee of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) and coordinated its Working Group on the Independence and Accountability of the Judiciary (2012 – 2016).
I have worked extensively on judicial ethics and the rule of law: as a trainer in ethics and professional deontology at Romania`s National Institute of Magistracy; as coordinator of a European judicial rule-of-law training project (EJTN, funded by the EU Justice Programme); and, on an ongoing basis, as a rule-of-law, anti-corruption, and justice-reform expert for the Council of Europe and other international partners.
My research focuses on judicial independence, national identity (political and constitutional), the rule of law, and constitutional adjudication in the European context.
A constitutional or supreme court that annuls a democratic election no longer merely reviews the exercise of public power as part of the system of checks and balances; it places itself, functionally, above the executive and legislative powers. In December 2024, the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) did exactly that: by Ruling no. 32/2024, … →
