The threshold of emergency: sovereign power, constitutional change and the spectre of Civil War in 1938 Romania
Journal Article: The threshold of emergency: sovereign power, constitutional change and the spectre of Civil War in 1938 Romania
Journal: European Law Open (ELO delivers a dynamic, critical and contextual approach to European law in an Open Access format. The journal is open to different voices, different concerns, and different methodologies, offering a platform for rigorous analysis of both EU law itself and wider European law and governance in their political, cultural, social and economic contexts. Intellectually ambitious 'Core analysis' research papers will be published alongside shorter ‘Dialogue and debate’ pieces as well as reflections on books and classic articles. European Law Open is the bold new platform for the diverse voices of the EU law community, and can be found here)
Date of Publication: 23 December 2025
Author: Cosmin Sebastian Cersel. Cersel is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Law and Criminology, in the Department of the Interdisciplinary Study of Law, Private Law, and Business Law, at Ghent University.
How to Cite: Cercel C. “The threshold of emergency: sovereign power, constitutional change and the spectre of Civil War in 1938 Romania”, European Law Open. Published online 2025:1-14. doi:10.1017/elo.2025.10057
Abstract: This article seeks to capture the transformative potential of emergency powers, as a legal–political practice pertaining to liberal legality that ultimately can determine constitutional change, rather than a return to ‘normality’. It does so by providing an analysis of the transition from formal and limited liberal legality in Romania to the series of dictatorships that followed the instauration of the regime of royal dictatorship of King Carol II in 1938. Anchored in a close reading of the archival documents of the trial of the leader of the main far right movement, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, and the subsequent legal proceedings, the proposed article aims to produce revaluation of the jurisprudential and constitutional status of the regime of King Carol II with a view of understanding the emergency-based dimension of this rule and the particular shift it operated foundational legal categories in criminal and constitutional law. I proceed by examining the current theoretical limitations in addressing the historical role of emergency in relation to constitutional orders. I turn then to exploring the political and legal context of the prorogation of emergency measures in 1938 Romania. Last, I examine the limited status of modern legality in a situation oversaturated by emergency measures.
The full article can found here, and a downloadable PDF version of the article can be found here.
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