The 1965

Constitution of Romania The current Constitution of Romania is the seventh permanent constitution in modern Romania's history. It is the fundamental governing document of Romania that establishes the structure of its government, the rights and obligations of citizens, ...

was drafted by a committee of the

Great National Assembly Great National Assembly or Grand National Assembly may refer to: * Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, an assembly of Romanian delegates that declared the unification of Transylvania and Romania * Great National Assembly (Socialist Republic of R ...

(MAN) and approved by a plenary session of the Central Committee of the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

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 ''Monitorul Oficial al României'' is the official gazette of Romania, in which all the promulgated bills, presidential decrees, governmental A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, general ...

'' that day.Stoica, pp.93-4 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 Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was ...

(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 Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian People ...

. The “brotherly” alliance with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

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 An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

(“it organises, plans and leads the national economy”) and had a monopoly on foreign trade. Like its

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

and

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

predecessors, it granted a series of freedoms, including speech, press, assembly, meetings and demonstrations. These rights were effectively rendered theoretical in practice by a provision that banned organizations "of a fascist or antidemocratic character," 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. 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 In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

; some clauses continued in operation until December 8, 1991, when the current constitution was adopted.

Notes

References

* Stoica, Stan (coordinator). ''Dicționar de Istorie a României''. Bucharest: Editura Merona, 2007.

External links

Text of the constitution
{{DEFAULTSORT:1965 Constitution Of Romania Socialist Republic of Romania Constitutions of Romania Constitution Of Romania, 1965 1965 in law

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

1965 documents 1965 in politics August 1965 events in Europe