Formally elected by the Grand National Assembly at the beginning of each new assembly session, the council's term of office continues until the election of a new council by the succeeding assembly. Both collectively and individually, the council members are responsible to the Grand National Assembly; and in the interval between assembly sessions, to the Council of State. The Constitution asserts that the Council of Ministers is to operate on the principle of collective leadership to ensure the unity of its political and administrative actions.
In late 1969 the Grand National Assembly enacted legislation aimed at strengthening the concept of collective leadership in the ministries and extending the principle to other national administrative agencies. In the case of the Council of Ministers, the measure provided for the establishment of a collegium in each ministry consisting of the minister, department heads, certain specialists, and representatives of labor unions or other organizations. Purposes of the collegium included collective decisionmaking, review of ministry activities, and recommendations on ministry programs and policies. The meetings of the collegium, at which decisions are made by majority vote, are also attended by representatives of the PCR appointed by the party Central Committee. In the event of serious disagreements within the collegium, the law provides for the matter to be referred to the Council of Ministers. No such disagreements have been reported, however.
Since the promulgation of the 1965 Constitution, the Council of Ministers has been reorganized several times. In late 1971 the importance of a number of the ministries and state commissions was emphasized by the prominence of the party position held by their ministers or chairmen: almost all of the members of the Council of Ministers were either full or alternate members of the PCR Central Committee; the chairmen of the General Union of Trade Unions, the National Union of Agricultural Production Cooperatives, and the State Planning Committee were full members of the party Executive Committee; the chairmen of the Council of State Security and the State Committee for Local Economy and Administration were alternate members of the Executive Committee, as was the head of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. The chairmen of the State Planning Committee and the Council of State Security and the ministers of internal affairs and the armed forces also were members of the Defense Council.
The general organization and functioning of the judiciary is established by the Constitution and by the 1968 Law on the Organization of the Court System. Overall responsibility for the functioning of the courts is vested in the Ministry of Justice, whereas the prosecutor general (attorney general) is charged with the general application of the law and the executing of criminal proceedings.
To fulfill its responsibility for the functioning of the courts and the supervision of state marshals, state notaries, and the national bar organization, the Ministry of Justice is divided into six directorates: civil courts, military courts, studies and legislation, personnel, administration, and planning and accounting. In addition, the ministry includes a corps of inspectors, an office of legal affairs, the State Notary Office, and a lawyer and legal expert service.
The court system includes the Supreme Court, judet courts, lower courts, military courts, and local judicial commissions. The Constitution places the judiciary under the authority of the Grand National Assembly; and between assembly sessions, under the authority of the Council of State. The Supreme Court, seated in Bucharest, exercises general control over the judiciary activities of all lower courts.
Members of the Supreme Court are professional judges appointed by the Grand National Assembly to four-year terms of office. The Supreme Court functions as an appeals court for sentences pronounced in lower tribunals and, in certain matters specified by law, may act as a court of first instance. It may also issue guidance, in the form of directives, on legal and constitutional questions for the judicial actions of lower courts and the administrative functions of government agencies. To fulfill its responsibilities, the Supreme Court is divided into three sections: civil, criminal, and military. Each of these sections is presided over by a panel of three judges, and plenary sessions of the entire court are held at least once every three months in the presence of the minister of justice for the purpose of issuing guidance directives.
With the territorial-administrative reorganization of February 1968, the jurisdictions of the former regional and district courts were restructured to correspond to the new administrative units. Accordingly, there are thirty-nine judet courts and the municipal court of Bucharest, which has judet court status. Each court on this level is presided over by a panel of two judges and three lay jurors, known as people's assessors, and decisions are made by majority vote. People's assessors were first introduced in December 1947 and given additional legal status in 1952 by the Grand National Assembly's Law on the Organization of Justice. The law required these lay assessors to be Romanian citizens and at least twenty-three years of age. Most of the people's assessors are appointed by the PCR or by one of the district bodies of the mass organizations (see ch. 9).
Below the judet courts, and subordinate to them, are the lower courts. In the city of Bucharest these consist of eight sectional courts, which function under the supervision of the municipal court. For the remainder of the country the number of these lower courts and the extent of their territorial jurisdiction are established by the Ministry of Justice. Courts on this level are presided over by a panel composed of one judge and two people's assessors; decisions are based on a majority vote.