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October 11, 2025

The souvereign and national feature of the constituent power - premise of legitimate and democratic constitution. The case of the Republic Moldova and Romanian constitutions

Key Points

The legitimacy of a constitution is tied to the expression of the sovereign will of the people, thereby enhancing national identity.
Historical analysis shows that constitutions from 1924-1978 and 1948-1965 were largely illegitimate due to lack of public reflection.
A legitimate constitution is perceived by citizens as a true representation of their aspirations for personal and societal development.
Reconstructing the shared constitutional history of Moldova and Romania is crucial for affirming a unified constitutional identity.

Abstract

In this article, the author analyses the relationship between the real expression of the sovereign national will expressed by the Constituent Assemblies and the legitimacy of the constitutions they have drafted. The more the constituent power and its institutional expression - the Constituent Assembly - reflect the sovereign will of the people, its aspirations and its genuine needs for development and progress, the more expressive the constitutional identity of the nation in question will be, and the constitution voted by it will be fully legitimate and will have, by its content, the qualities of a national project. Seen within these limits, a legitimate constitution strengthens the mutual relationship of belonging between state and citizen. A constitution is legitimate to the extent that it is perceived by citizens as their constitution, the mirror and expression of their real aspirations for personal development, as well as their political, socio-economic and cultural development. From this perspective, the author analyses the constitutional moments that culminated in the adoption of constitutions in the Republic of Moldova between 1924-1978 and in Romania between 1948-1965 and concludes that the fundamental laws in question were illegitimate, undemocratic constitutions in the sense that this term has in European constitutional doctrine, since they did not reflect the sovereign will of the respective peoples, they were, in fact, constitutions imposed, granted by a ruler who was the legitimate holder of power. As for the two republics, they shared a common constitutional path at certain stages in the evolution of their state existence. In this context, the author points out that at the academic and scientific research level, it is necessary to reconstruct and wisely recover the true, real common history of the two states to restore and affirm a single constitutional identity.

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