The Duality of the Exclusive General Jurisdiction of Courts and other Jurisdictional Bodies in the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

The exclusive general jurisdiction of the courts delimits the powers of this public authority from other jurisdictional bodies to examine legal cases by expressly determining that these disputes will be resolved only by the courts. In this article, this kind of competence is studied starting from the legislation of the Republic of Moldova. Studying the regulations of this kind of competence is necessary because it is regulated in several legislative acts, both by procedural law and by substantive law. But in some cases it is not clear whether a phrase in the law, which stipulates the exclusive jurisdiction of the court, refers only to its competence or to arbitration by expressing the will of the parties to legal relations. It is worth noting that the legislation of the Republic of Moldova admits the duality of the exclusive general jurisdiction of the court in the sense that the reference to a court is also a reference to an arbitration or another body of jurisdiction. This work is useful to determine the jurisdictional body competent to solve a certain civil case when there are different interpretations which body can solve the civil case.

In particular, the given article comes to comment on art. 15 para. (4) of the modernized Civil Code, which entered into force on 01.03.2019. Until this date there was no clarity whether the reference in the law to a court of law also constitutes a reference to other jurisdictional bodies such as arbitration. Different interpretations could be made by those who had to apply the law. But with the introduction of art. 15 para. (4) of the Civil Code, these interpretations can be excluded because these provisions admit that the referral to the court also constitutes the referral to other jurisdictional bodies.