Dragoș Călin
PhD in Law (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law), analysing the dialogue between constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union; Judge, Bucharest Court of Appeals; EU Law Trainer, National Institute of Magistracy; Associate Researcher of the Institute for Legal Research of the Romanian Academy – Centre for European Legal Studies; Co-President of the Romanian Judges’ Forum Association. My research and expertise focuses in particular on EU law, rule of law, constitutional law, human rights and mediation.
“An important driving force behind the Romanian rule of law referrals was an individual judge: Dragoș Călin, co-president of AFJR. Having obtained a doctoral degree in law on the topic of The Dialogue Between Constitutional Courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union, Judge Dragoș Călin was one the first three interns at the ECJ before Romania’s accession, where he translated the historical cases of the Court and made them available for the National Institute of the Magistracy, thus creating a learning basis of European law for young trainees. Later, he became a trainer of the same Institute in the field of European Union law. In an interview in 2021, Judge Călin explained that the activity of the Romanian Judges’ Forum Association, established in 2007, was centered around a group of Romanian magistrates amounting, in some periods, to 3,000 judges and prosecutors. The publication of the association, the Judges’ Forum Journal, collected the points of view of judges and academics from outside Romania regarding the rule of law developments in respect of judicial independence.“
Sorina Doroga and Raluca Bercea, The Role of Judicial Associations in Preventing Rule
of Law Decay in Romania: Informal Communication and Strategic Use of Preliminary References,
in German Law Journal (2023), 24, pp. 1393–1411
”Perhaps the most astonishing example of between-the-bench alliance judges comes from Romania. Since 2022, Romanian judges have engaged in unprecedented co-ordination to send hundreds of petitions to both European supranational courts to have them declare the interferences in independence of Romanian prosecutors and courts a a violation of international commitments. The majority of these submissions were coordinated by Dragoș Călin, the co-president of Romanian Judges’ Forum Association, who used his reputation and professional capital to build an impressive network.”
KATARÍNA ŠIPULOVÁ, “JUDICIAL RESISTANCE: THE SHIELD AND THE SWORD OF INFORMALITY.” IN INFORMALITY AND COURTS: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES, EDITED BY BJÖRN DRESSEL, RAUL SANCHEZ-URRIBARRI, AND ALEXANDER STROH-STECKELBERG. EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS (2024): 135-152
