Military courts are established on a territorial basis, subdivisions being determined by the Council of Ministers. The lower military tribunals have original jurisdiction over contraventions of the law committed by members of the armed forces; the territorial military tribunals exercise appellate jurisdiction for decisions of the lower units. In certain situations specified by law, cases involving civilians may be assigned to military courts. At each level, the military courts, when acting in the first instance, consist of two judges and three people's assessors. In appeals cases on the territorial level, the courts consist of three judges only. As in the civil courts, decisions are reached by majority vote.

In 1968 the Grand National Assembly enacted a law establishing a system of judicial commissions to function as courts of special jurisdiction in the state economic enterprises and in localities. These commissions were designed as "an expression of socialist democracy" to provide for the increased participation of working people in the settlement of problems involving minor local disputes and local economic issues. Functioning under the direction of enterprise management or municipal executive committees, the judicial commissions are assigned such matters as labor disputes, misdemeanors, property disputes, and violations of proper social conduct, a category that appears to provide broad latitude for prosecution. As a rule, the commissions consist of five members elected for a term of two years; however, in labor disputes two additional members are added to the commission, one representing the enterprise management and one representing the labor union committee.

General supervision over the application of the law and the initiation of criminal proceedings is exercised by the Office of the Prosecutor General. Headed by the prosecutor general, the office exercises supervisory powers that extend to all levels of the society, from the government ministries down to the ordinary citizen. Subunits of the Office of the Prosecutor General are hierarchically organized and include offices in each judicial district plus the prosecutor's military bureau. The prosecutor general is elected by the Grand National Assembly for a four-year term and is responsible to the assembly or, between assembly sessions, to the Council of State for the activities of his office. Three deputy prosecutors assist the prosecutor general in carrying out his official duties.

An important part of the prosecutor general's responsibilities consists of supervising the activities of the courts to ensure the uniform application of the law. Prosecutors on the judet level have a consultative vote in the meetings of local government agencies when important legal questions are being decided. The prosecutor general participates in those plenary sessions of the Supreme Court at which guidance decisions are made. In the event the prosecutor does not agree with a decision, he may appeal to the county people's council or to its executive committee for a review of the decision. On the national level, the Office of the Prosecutor General may appeal alleged violations of the law to the Council of Ministers.

Local Government

Local government bodies, known as people's councils, exist on the judet, town, and commune levels. The 1965 Constitution had also provided for subunits of state administration on regional and district levels, but a territorial-administrative reorganization voted by the Grand National Assembly in 1968 replaced the existing sixteen regions and 150 intermediate districts with a system of thirty-nine counties and forty-four independent municipal administrations. The expressed purpose of the change was the provision of more efficient administration.

In addition to the establishment of county and municipal people's councils, local councils were also set up in 142 smaller towns, and communal councils were formed in rural areas. A number of the smaller communes were combined in order to give them a larger population base. Boundaries of each of the new judete were drawn to include about fifty communes consisting of some 4,000 to 5,000 persons.

Along with the territorial reorganization, the decision was also made to combine party and government functions of the judet level so that the same person acted both as party committee first secretary and people's council chairman. In explaining this fusion of party and state authority, Ceausescu stated that there were many instances in which offices in both the party and the government dealt with the same areas of interest, a practice that resulted in inefficiency and the unnecessary duplication of party and state machinery. He asserted that the consolidation of these administrative positions would serve to eliminate this overlapping. At the same time, Ceausescu declared that, inasmuch as the government was responsible for the implementation of the PCR's economic decisions, there was no justification for the continued existence of the numerous economic sections of the party Central Committee and that future economic policy would be implemented within the structure of the government (see ch. 9).

According to the Constitution and the 1968 Grand National Assembly's Law on the Organization and Operation of People's Councils, the people's councils are responsible for the implementation of central government decisions and the economic, social, and cultural administration of their particular jurisdictions. Deputies to the people's councils are elected to four-year terms—except for the communes where the term is two years—from single-member constituencies of equal population. Based on population, the judet people's councils may have a maximum of 231, or a minimum of 141, deputies. The membership of the Bucharest People's Council is fixed at 369, and there are 151 deputies on the councils of each of its subdistricts. City people's councils range from eighty-one to 221 deputies, and those of the towns consist of from thirty-five to ninety-one deputies. Commune council memberships range from twenty-five to seventy-one persons.

Organized on the basis of highly centralized control, the people's councils function under the general supervision of the Grand National Assembly; and between assembly sessions the councils function under the direction of the Council of State. The Law on the Organization and Operation of People's Councils specifically places the people's councils under the overall leadership of the PCR as the leading political force of the society.