Dreptul românesc în Basarabia – înainte și după Marea Unire

Abstract

The article aims to present some elements regarding the history of Romanian law in Bessarabia from 1812 until the period immediately following the Great Union. The evolution of Romanian law in this period could be described by three determinants: unity, survival and unification. In 1812 there was a cohesive system of legal norms in Bessarabia, a true autochthonous law, so that the annexation of Bessarabia by the Tsarist Empire did not mean the automatic replacement of the applicable rules of conduct, but some legal institutions survived until the Great Union. Moreover, immediately after the annexation of Bessarabia, there was the intention to draw up a „Civil Code for Bessarabia”, the jurist Petru Manega succeeding in carrying out such a project following the model of the Napoleonic Code. The last stage analyzed is that of the process of legislative unification of Bessarabia, a difficult process and, unfortunately, with a short-term effect. Last but not least, the study aims to bring up in actuality the personality and the work of two illustrious Romanian lawyers, Andrei Rădulescu and Vespasian Erbiceanu.