23,198,000), 91,699 sq mi (237,500 sq km), SE Europe. It borders on Hungary in the northwest, on Yugoslavia in the southwest, on Bulgaria in the south, on the Black Sea in the southeast, on Moldova in the northeast, and on Ukraine in the north. Bucharest is the capital and largest city.
Romania is a parliamentary republic governed under the constitution of 1991. The president is elected by popular vote for a four-year term. The prime minister is appointed by the president and the cabinet is appointed by the prime minister. The bicameral parliament consists of a senate and a chamber of deputies. The country is divided into 40 administrative districts and one municipality.
Roman law in the earliest period known is typically expressed in the Twelve Tables with their marked formalism. The usual early procedure was also stereotyped; it was the legis actio, a form of charge and denial the words of which had to be followed exactly by the parties at the risk of losing the suit. Exact knowledge of the words constituting the legis actiones was limited to a body of patrician priests, the College of Pontiffs. The reduction of these forms to writing (c.250 B.C.) was a victory for the plebeians and a step in reducing the religious and formal element in the law. Soon the primary source of law became the lex (plural leges), a statutory enactment that was proposed by a magistrate and accepted by a popular assembly. Among the assemblies empowered to enact leges was that of the plebeians.
VI. Government .
Between 1948 and 1989 the Communists controlled all levels of government in Romania, and the head of the Communist Party was the country's most powerful leader. In 1989 the Romanian army joined in a popular uprising against the Communist regime. President Nicolae Ceausescu was deposed and executed, and a provisional government was established with Ion Iliescu, a former Communist, as president. In May 1990 multiparty elections were held to elect a president and national legislature.