Thought Articles

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through: Labour & Employment 2015, (published in April 2015; contributing editors: Mark Zelek, Matthew Howse, Sabine Smith-Vidal and Walter Ahrens, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP). Romania is a civil law jurisdiction and the core employment regulation is the Labour Code. Besides the Labour Code, specific tailored legal enactments regulate other employment-related aspects, such as employment safety and health, insurance for work accidents and professional diseases and social dialogue. Collective bargaining agreements also provide binding rules and obligations to be complied with by the employers. Finally, considering Romania’s accession to the European Union, which took place on 1 January 2007, EU legislation and ECJ decisions are also relevant.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in The Corporate Governance Review - Edition 5 (published in March 2015 – editor Willem J L Calkoen). Law No. 31/1990 on companies, republished in 2004 and further amended and completed (the Companies Law) and the Capital Market Law No. 297/2004, as further amended and completed (the Capital Market Law), represent the primary sources of law relating to the corporate governance of listed companies in Romania. In addition, as an independent agency the securities regulator, the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) may issue legally binding regulations. Furthermore, Government Emergency Ordinance No. 109/2011 concerning the corporate governance of public enterprises (GEO No. 109/2011) sets out specific statutory rules for the corporate governance of enterprises controlled by the Romanian state (a significant number of the targeted companies that are listed on the Romanian regulated markets or that are envisaged for listing in the near future).

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in The Dispute Resolution Review, 7th edition (published in February 2015 – editor Jonathan Cotton). The Romanian dispute resolution framework is currently experiencing one of the most significant, substantial and extensive reforms of the last century, due to the enactment of a new Civil Procedure Code alongside a new Civil Code already in force; new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes have also been enacted. The reform seeks to put in place a legal framework able to answer the needs of contemporary developments of societal relations, with a clear view to coordination with EU law essentials. High expectations are placed on the system’s ability to absorb the new provisions aimed at speeding up trials, and avoid future allegations of systemic failure to settle disputes within ‘a reasonable time’. Particular applications of the legislator’s need for acceleration of trial proceedings include newly instituted duties of the judge to develop a written correspondence with the claimant in order to ensure the fulfilment of all validity requirements concerning his or her application, and then to coordinate the submitting of the parties’ written materials and the organisation of the hearing within a very strict time frame.

Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland. Published in November 2014 by European Lawyer Reference Series, part of Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited. This second edition of Sourcing World serves as a single starting point of reference for corporations and their advisers. It provides valuable insights and guidance to international sourcing transactions, covering both contractual and commercial arrangements and their regulation. Written by outsourcing experts, every chapter gives a detailed overview of the legal and regulatory framework within each jurisdiction and of the terms and conditions relevant to finalising an outsourcing deal.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through: Dominance 2015, (published in December 2014; contributing editors Thomas Janssens and Thomas Wessely, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). The abusive behaviour of dominant firms is prohibited by article 6 of the Romanian Competition Law No. 21/1996 (RCL) and article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 6 expressly prohibits the abuse of a dominant position held by one or more undertakings on the Romanian market or on a substantial part of it.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in The Mining Law Review - Edition 3 (published in October 2014 – editor Erik Richer La Flèche). Before 1989, when the Communism regime fell, mineral resources in Romania were exploited by state-owned companies. Although these exploitations were advertised as big economic successes of the communist governments, in reality, most of them were using outdated technology and some caused significant pollution in the mining perimeters. Moreover, in the context of Romania’s negotiations to join the European Union, some of the mining exploitations had to be shut down as they were far from being compliant with the European environmental standards.