The Legal Protection of the Personality Right in the Romanian Civil Legislation

Abstract

Personality rights are part of the category of non-patrimonial subjective rights, as they protect values without a monetary expression, such as life, dignity, honour, image, private life and so on. At present, in Romania the personality rights enjoy an express regulation in the Civil Code, starting with the provisions of art. 58 providing the right to life, to health, to physical and psychical integrity, to dignity, to his/her own image, to respecting the private life, and other such rights recognised by law. Th e specifi cation made by the Romanian lawmaker is given as an example, so other rights also have the vocation to be characterised as personality rights. Because they belong to the category of non-patrimonial personal rights, personality rights shall have the legal features specifi c to this category, being inaccessible, intransmissible, indistinguishable, not performed by a representative, indefeasible, opposable to all. Starting from such considerations, this work deals with the issue of legal means of defence of such rights from the perspective of the Romanian Civil Code which dedicates them a whole title named ”Defence of non-patrimonial rights”, representing the common law in the matter, additions or derogations being able to exist from this regime by special provisions.