INTELLIGIBILITY OF THE LAWS – A DESIDERATUM DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE BY THE ROMANIAN LEGISLATOR Ph.D. Candidate, Ramona Duminică Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences University of Craiova

The law must be made for people with limited understanding. It is essential that all the words of the law awaken the same ideas in the minds of all men. Charles Montesquieu The Spirit of Laws

The present study is based on the following observations: - the law is losing more and more of its luster and prestige in current Romanian society - this process of decline is accelerated by the poor quality in legal drafting - the lack of quality of the law constitutes the main obstacle to ensuring its accessibility - the intelligibility of the law is a supreme goal that is difficult to achieve

The unintelligible quality of the law: - affects its effectiveness - renders the law unpredictable - causes juridical instability

At present, the following measures have been taken to ensure the intelligibility of the law: - drafting guides for professionals have been created in order to aid them in the development of norms - legal requirements which establish the qualities of style in the drafting of laws - the European Court of Human Rights constantly monitors that the principle of intelligibility is being respected

The intelligibility of the law can be ensured through: - drafting the law in the specific legal language - a concise, sober, clear and precise style in order to avoid ambiguity - strictly adhering to grammatical and spelling rules.

The clarity and precision of the style is obtained through: - the use of adequate words in relation to their usual meaning - avoiding lexical ambiguity - the arrangement of words in the phrase

Conclusions: The complicated process of developing a law and the drafting rules at the legal drafters disposal cannot always ensure the intelligibility of the law. This quality is an almost unattainable ideal, to which we must constantly aspire.