The Constitutional Court will celebrate “The Centennial of the Constitution of Unified Romania (1923 – 2023)” by the Solemn Assembly taking place Monday, 27 March 2023, starting at hrs. 10.00, at the Palace of the Parliament, the Plenary Room of the Senate, “King Michael I of Romania” (Calea 13 Septembrie nr.1-3, Entrance A1, P1).
The Solemn Assembly is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 1923 Constitution of Romania and opens the series of events organised by the Constitutional Court in 2023, which was declared by the Plenum of the Constitutional Court, at its meeting of 18 January 2023, the Year of “The Centennial of the Constitution of Unified Romania”.
Mr Klaus Werner Iohannis, the President of Romania, Ms Alina Ștefania Gorghiu, the ad interim president of the Senate, Mr Ion-Marcel Ciolacu, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Mr Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă, the Prime Minister of Romania, Judge Corina Alina Corbu, the president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church are amongst the prominent public figures invited to the event.
The event also enjoys the participation of Mr Koen Lenaerts, the President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Ms Octavia Spineanu-Matei, Romanian Judge to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Ms Claire Bazy-Malaurie, the President of the European Commission for Democracy through Law – the Venice Commission, Mr Mamadou Badio Camara, the President of the Association of French-speaking Courts (A.C.C.F.), as well as of constitutional judges of Republic of Moldova, various presidents and judges of other European courts, high representatives of central public authorities, as well as Romanian and foreign representatives of the academia.
At the event, original copies of the 1923 Constitution and the 1866 Constitution will be exhibited as part of a thematic exhibition of relevant documents and photos, in the Foyer of the Senate, in collaboration with institutional partners.
Also, in cooperation with Romfilatelia SA, a stamp issue dedicated to the “The Centennial of the Constitution of Unified Romania” will be launched.
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The day of 28 March 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of Unified Romania. Between November 1922 and March 1923, the Assembly of Deputies and the Senate, as Constituent Assemblies, drafted and debated in their committees the draft Constitution which was adopted by the Assembly of Deputies on 26 March 1923 and by the Senate on 27 March 1923. The Constitution of Unified Romania was promulgated on 28 March 1923, as constitutional scripture needed “in order to consolidate and strengthen substantially our dear Romania”.
The adoption of the 1923 Constitution marks a unique moment in Romania’s constitutional and national history, completing and consolidating, at the level of the Basic Law, the Romanian national project aimed at achieving the unitary national State of Romania, whereas it was the political and legal act which allowed the legislative and administrative unification of the Romanian State after the Great Union of 1918.
The 1923 Constitution enshrined for the first time in Romania’s constitutional history, by Article 103, “the right to rule upon the constitutionality of laws and declare inapplicable those which are contrary to the Constitution”.
External Relations, Press and Protocol Department of the Constitutional Court