From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
1965
Constitution of Romania
was drafted by a committee of the
Great National Assembly
(MAN) and approved by a plenary session of the
Central Committee
of the
Romanian Communist Party
on June 28, 1965. It was then debated at the party's 9th Congress in July and adopted by the MAN, sitting as a Constituent Assembly, on August 21, being published in
Monitorul Oficial
that day.
[1]
It was Romania's sixth constitution, and the third of the Communist era.
The document that formed the legal basis for the dictatorship of
Nicolae Ceau?escu
(who had come to power that March), this constitution brought changes to the organization and name of the state, and to the expression of its foreign policy. It changed the state's official name from the Romanian People's Republic to the
Socialist Republic of Romania
. The “brotherly” alliance with the
Soviet Union
was replaced with the principle of “respect for national sovereignty and independence, equality of rights and reciprocal advantage, non-interference in internal matters”. The state enhanced its involvement in the
economy
(“it organises, plans and leads the national economy”) and had a monopoly on foreign trade. Like its
1948
and
1952
predecessors, it granted a series of freedoms, including speech, press, assembly, meetings and demonstrations. These rights were effectively neutered in practice by a provision that banned organizations "of a fascist or antidemocratic character” (carried over from its predecessors), and another that forbade the exercise of constitutional freedoms "for purposes against the socialist structure and the interests of those who work." As for the state organisation, alongside the MAN, which in theory remained the supreme leadership organ, the office of
president of the republic
appeared for the first time in Romanian history (via a 1974 amendment), with attributes that gave it, in the framework of the existing system, dictatorial powers.
[1]
The 1965 Constitution was modified 10 times between 1968 and 1986, after which it contained 121 articles in 9 titles. It was partly abrogated in
December 1989
, following the
Revolution
; some clauses continued in operation until December 8, 1991, when
the current constitution
was adopted.
[1]
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
Notes
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References
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- Stoica, Stan (coordinator).
Dic?ionar de Istorie a Romaniei
. Bucharest: Editura Merona, 2007.
External links
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