The Withdrawal of the Initial Complaint and the Settlement by the Parties, Expressions of Christian Forgiveness

Abstract

For offences that harm private interest or have a limited social impact, the Criminal Code of 1969 provided the withdrawal of the initial complaint and the settlement by the parties.The draft of the Romanian Criminal Code, submitted for approval to Parliament, tacitly repeals the institution of the settlement of parties, which, as the founder of Romanian criminal law argued, “may be more useful for restoring legal order and prevent other disturbances that may have stemmed from the lingering resentments of the two subjects of the litigation.”In most modern criminal laws we can no longer find the explicit settlement by parties, but rather the presumed settlement inferred from the withdrawal or abandonment of the criminal complaint. In Romanian criminal law, over time, offences for which settlement was possible have varied from one era to another. In the Sturdza Codex, settlement was possible and considered as mitigating. In the proposed Criminal Code bill of 2004, settlement by the parties also existed.The will to reach a settlement by the parties may be determined by Christian reasons. Forgiveness of one's fellow man is a commandment of the Lord Christ, which He himself fulfilled on the cross and preached.What is the contribution of Christian teaching to the emergence, development and application of the criminal law institutions of withdrawal of initial complaint and settlement by parties?