The Constitutional Court on Wednesday, 21 October, unanimously admitted the objection of unconstitutionality to the law amending and supplementing Law no. 272/2004. It held unconstitutional the phrase “or he has committed an act with violence” in Article 86(1). This is a decision on a statute, not a sentence in a criminal case.

In the same file the Court dismissed, as unfounded, the objection to placing the child in a specialised residential service, as an institution. The statement says placement is not an educational measure under Article 115 of the Criminal Code, for minors between 14 and 18, but a form of social assistance — housing, care, education, recovery, integration. What fell is the automatic link to a vague formula, not the institution.

Also left standing is the removal of the consent of parents or the legal representative for psychological counselling of a minor under 14 who has committed a criminal act. Participation is ordered by the court, in the child’s best interest. Representatives may be heard; their consent or dissent does not condition the judicial assessment. A minimal interference, according to the Court, not a punishment.

What fell, for lack of quality of the law (Article 1(5) of the Constitution), is the stacking of the same breach as both a crime and a contravention — the parents’ duty to attend counselling — and the inconsistent use of “parents” and “legal representative”. “Act with violence” is too vague to know in advance which offence triggers mandatory placement.

The imprecision on the perpetrator of the offence of failing to comply with a court order led to the conclusion that the act would be that of a minor under 14. That breaches Articles 1(5), 23(12) and 49 of the Constitution: the legislator cannot put criminal liability on someone who, under the Criminal Code, is not criminally liable.

The decision is final and generally binding. The reasoning will appear in the Official Gazette. Dnews24 tied the text to an attack at a school in Bistrița. The a priori review is of the law, not of that file. This is not a Bistrița verdict.

Image: William John Gauthier, view from the Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, 2017, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; the palace, not a photograph of the 21 October 2026 sitting.

Sources consulted: CCR struck down a contested measure for children who commit violent acts - Dnews24; Press release - Constitutional Court of Romania - AGERPRES, 21 October 2026.