Naşterea Constituţiei. Limbaj şi drept în Principate până la 1866

The Genesis of the Constitution traces the constant refinement of the juridical language in the Romanian space and its application in matters related to civic rights and liberties of the individual and the legitimation of political power. This phenomenon signifies the imposition in public life of one of the central themes of juridical modernity, namely the supremacy of the Constitution. The emergence of this theme fosters changes in Romanian society, identifiable at three levels: intellectual mutations that set the stage for the introduction of juridical concepts, both these elements being conveyed through a new, appropriate vocabulary.

The crystallization of the legal language starts at the beginning of the nineteenth century (1802) with a project which, by attempting to harmonize the English monarchic principles with the French republican ones, introduces timid conceptualisations of the separations of the powers in state and of the peasants` representation "in a lower chamber" through secondary ballots. And this process of "language change" culminates with the issuing (1866) of the first fundamental law of modern Romania, the Constitution, which assured the equality of the individuals in front of the law and the stipulations of Habeas Corpus, eliminated juridical pluralism, encouraged new branches of law, ultimately created a "metajuridical" discourse and provided the possibility for revisioning its content subsequently.

The most relevant dates in the evolution of the constitutional language and its vocabulary are: 1822, 1838, 1848, 1857 and 1859. Though the project of 1822 validates a regime of "nobiliary democracy", its initiators, "cărvunarii", second-rate boyars of Moldavia, introduce liberal precepts such as natural rights and the social contract. Closely linked with the political action of its promoter, Ion Câmpineanu, the document of 1838 is the outcome of the first articulated political opposition, by claiming that the governors need to have the consent of the governed. Innovative in terms of juridical language, the act of 1838 discusses the extension of the rights to the entire body of citizens, and pictures the individual as an autonomous political actor.

1848 and its radical ideas, emerging through direct contact with revolutionary Paris, lead to a situation without precedence, as the political project of Wallachia, "Proclamaţia de la Islaz" can be seen, putting to test both the vocabulary and concepts such as the rule of law and the separation of powers. 1857 brings the political sanction (discourse of Mihail Kogălniceanu) of the grand theme of Romanian modernization, "our path has to be an European one," whereas the project of 1859 advances coherent lexical and legal solutions, and they will be inserted as such in the Constitution of 1866.