On Certain Amendments to the Criminal Code Introduced by Law No. 53/2026. An Analysis of the New Aggravated Offences Based on a Relationship of Control and Dominance

Abstract

Through the adoption of Law no. 53/2026 on the prevention and combating of femicide and the violence preceding it, as well as for the amendment and supplementation of certain normative acts, the Romanian legislator acknowledges that acts infringing upon life or physical integrity are not always spontaneous in nature, often being the result of systematic aggressions exercised within a relationship of 'control and dominance' over the victim. The present study analyses the amendments to the Criminal Code introduced by Law no. 53/2026, which expressly define the concept of femicide and its specific forms: intimate, non-intimate, and indirect. However, an important terminological distinction is observed from the outset: while Article 3 of the Law resorts to gender-based definitions, the amendments to the Criminal Code (Articles 189, 191, and 195¹) adopt 'neutral' language, focusing on mechanisms of control and dominance applicable regardless of the victim’s sex, thereby reconfiguring the actus reus (objective element) of these offences.

Femicide does not constitute a distinct offence – a nomen juris – but rather creates the premises for the functioning of specific mechanisms to prevent and combat it. The legislator opts for a 'universalisation' of protection, transforming essential elements of femicide – control and dominance – into aggravating circumstances of existing offences.