The established obligation for the ordinary courts to interpret the law in the light of the interpretation provided to the Convention by the Constitutional Court of Romania

Abstract

In the last years the Constitutional Court of Romania was asked to rule on the constitutionality of the erga omnes obligatory interpretations provided by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Through such constitutionality review, the Constitutional Court manages to impose its own interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights on all national ordinary courts whenever such courts are to ensure that the European Convention of Human Rights is observed and respected in a pending case. This paper sumarises a couple of such rulings, pointing out that through such constitutionality review rulings, the Constitutional Court of Romania has also established that it has the competence to impose, at the national level, the unique interpretation that can be given to a norm whenever that unique interpretation was already imposed by the High Court of Cassation and Justice.