Legal Transplant as Socio-Cultural Engineering in Modern Romania

Generally, this paper will outline Romanian society’s steps towards (legal) modernization by introducing a peculiar Romanian understanding of what might be called “rational transplant”. A rational transplant includes what Kalman Kulcsar identified as the one society’s “continuous social change by utilizing its own, internal conditions” – recaptured as a compulsory linkage with the legal traditions- and, at the same time, postulating a social and legal change through external factors. In this context, Romanian society would not be weak because it appeals to external sources of inspiration. It would be weak only in not correctly handling the legal transplant. Conversely, Romanian society would be strong not only because it is capable to face and build on its legal past (when necessary) but also because it is capable of importing law when it is necessary, from where it is necessary and to the necessary extent. Thus, successful modernization would imply a successful transplant, understood in terms of a rational interplay between past and present, legal tradition and imported law, culture and engineered culture. The following pages are the story of the continuous balance between weakness and strength on Romanian society’s path towards (legal) modernization, a process which is still ongoing.