The anatomy of a doctrinal enthusiasm turned into national despair

Abstract

The concept of the rule of law was a rather new one for the former socialist states, including the Republic of Moldova, but it was a necessity since the fall of the totalitarian regimes in the early 1990s. Until then, there was a broad range of scientific studies on the rule of law in Western literature. The domestic doctrine took up the rich Western scientific sources with enthusiasm and without stepping down the democratic character of the rule of law, emphasized the individual’s freedom as a key element, even though the rule of law implies many other defining features. This undue optimism on the possibilities of the institutions to guarantee the rights and freedoms of individuals has not been accompanied by an analysis and a review of the staff of those institutions that should have promoted a new approach of the relationship between the citizen and the state and, as a result should have put themselves in the service of society, to protect citizens. The researchers left out the question of the quality of the human factor, the human resources that originated in a society where everything was controlled by the Communist Party bodies and proceeded to work within a society where nothing (or almost nothing) was subject to society’s control. The independent media was established later, mostly as a response to the communist’s arrival to power (in 2001). Article developed within the Project `Modernisation of Governing Mechanisms Focused on the Protection of Human Rights”, cipher 20.80009.1606.15 in the Scientific Research Laboratory `Compared Public Law and e-Government”, Law Faculty, Moldova State University