Abstract: The present article analyzes the impunity case provided by the offense known in the Romanian criminal law as “lack of denunciation” of a crime against state security, as this institution is regulated in the Romanian Penal Code of 1968, as well as in the new Romanian Penal Code, of 2009. The research is focused on studying the impunity case based on the quality of spouse or close relative (de lege lata), or on the quality of family member (de lege ferenda), quality in existence between the offender who did not denounced the crime against state security and the offender who committed the act against state security. This issue is the subject of an extensive study, and the present number of the publication contains only the first part of the article; the other two will be published in subsequent numbers of the same publication. The author examines in this part, among other things, the categories of persons who can benefit of this impunity case, and a number of other general issues, such as the real or personal character of the institution, and its ratio to the hypothesis of a plurality of criminals acting together in the accomplishment of the lack of denunciation of a crime against state security. Furthermore, the article seeks to provide a rational justification for the decision of the legislature to grant such a benefit to certain categories of offenders. The second part of the article will analyze the matter of the effects produced upon the researched institution by the factual error (error facti), and the third part will study the question of the effects of the error of law (error juris).
Keywords: impunity; lack of denunciation; crimes against state security; Romanian Penal Code of 1968; new Romanian Penal Code of 2009; special meaning in the Romanian criminal law of the notions of spouse, close relative and family member.