Modificările propuse pentru modificarea Codului Penal în vederea combaterii răspândirii coronavirusului

Abstract

The article analyses the changes made to the existing statues of the Criminal Code, by emergency ordonnance, aiming to criminalize or increase the penalties for dangerous behaviors in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The formal issues are related to the means through which the legislator made the changes - the emergency ordonnance, as well as the qualification of these measures as temporary criminal law. The essential changes are aimed at art. 352 Criminal Code, the crime of „thwarting the repression of diseases”. The new statues sanction the failure to comply with measures of quarantine and hospitalization, notions which have been used differently by the legislator, depending on the legislative instrument that he used. The crime becomes one of abstract danger, which could raise issues regarding the significant extension of the incrimination. The punishment has been increased and aggravated forms have been added. In the case of the latter, they constitute crimes of material result, and not abstract danger. This, in turn, means that the crime, in its basic form, is an „obstacle-crime”. Forms are aggravated in regard to the degrees of guilt of the result of the crime. Other changes are aimed at the crime of „false declarations” and „the failure to declare information”, enshrined in art. 326 and 3521 of the Criminal Code. In this case, the legislative technique is questionable, as well as the terminology, which may be lacking predictability. Such is the case of the general notion of „essential information”. It remains to be seen whether the new crimes of aggravated forms of preexisting crimes will prove efficient in the fight against the pandemic.