A Historical Outline of the Development of Civil Procedure in Transylvania as Part of Romania

Abstract

The following study constitutes a historical outline of the evolution of Romanian civil procedure in the period between 1918 and 2013 from the perspective of the norms applicable in Transylvania as part of Romania. Romanian civil procedure in the period immediately after 1918 presented a diverse picture, with several procedural regimes applicable in the same country at the same time. This raised the necessity of unifying procedural norms, at first attempted by recodification and later accomplished by the extension of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Kingdom of Romania to Transylvania in 1943. As the Soviet-type totalitarian regime was consolidated in the late 1940s, a reform (much rather a recodification) of civil procedure occurred in the new spirit of the age, which, along with subsequent norms led to the reduction of judicial remedies and the introduction of a ‘lay element’ into the process by the presence of assessors, and it also increased the role of public prosecutors during the civil trial. Following the 1989 regime change, civil procedure in Romania at first, before a comprehensive reform, reverted to historical models, and then finally recodification was achieved.