The Witness's Right to Silence and Non Self Incrimination. Case-law: Considerations on the Scope of the Concept of Witness

Abstract

This paper aims to present the witness's right to silence and the right to non-self-incrimination, with reference to the legal regulations, as they were interpreted in the jurisprudence of the ECHR, the Romanian Constitutional Court and the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice. In this regard, it is important to first of all delimit the scope of the concept of witness, which also includes assimilated witnesses. On the other hand, it is equally important to emphasize the solutions to which the application of this right may lead in practice, in the absence of an express regulation in Romanian law.