The Principle to Guarantee the Right to Defense in The Romanian Penal Legislation. Theoretical and Practical Aspects

ABSTRACT: The principle of guaranteeing the right to defense is a principle of a constitutional nature in the Romanian legislation, the right to defense representing a fundamental human right established by the international community in the most important international or regional documents. Romania lacks in what regards the guarantee of the right to defense, as evidenced by the numerous convictions at the ECHR regarding the violation of art. 6, point 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The inefficiency of the Romanian judicial system to ensure the defendant’s right to defense is a result of mixed factors, starting from the poor training of criminal investigation bodies, the uneven practice of courts on the application of Romanian criminal law, the unjustifiably long duration of criminal proceedings and the impossibility of the defenders to prepare an effective defense due to a limited and cumbersome access to the criminal cases pending before the Romanian courts. KEYWORDS: right to defense, suspect, defendant, legal assistance, ECH