Romanian lawyer Sebastian Rădulețu elected judge at the European Court of Human Rights
Romanian lawyer Sebastian Rădulețu was elected as judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) following the end of the mandate of Iulia Motoc, who is currently a judge at the International Criminal Court.
"Congratulations to my colleague, professor and lawyer Sebastian Rădulețu, who was elected today as a judge at the ECHR at the end of my mandate. […] I am sure he will fulfill his mandate with the professionalism and excellence he has shown so far!" wrote Iulia Motoc on her Facebook page.
Rădulețu received 84 votes in the second round of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, while his opponent, prosecutor Horațiu Radu, received 78 votes.
Sebastian Rădulețu was an advisor to the current Minister of Justice, Cătălin Predoiu, from July to December 2008, and is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences in Craiova, where he studied from 1993 to 1997. He also represents Romania on the Venice Commission as a substitute.
In parallel with his legal studies, Rădulețu also attended the Faculty of Letters and History at the same university from 1994 to 1998. In 1997, he began his doctoral studies in law, and in June 2000, he publicly defended his thesis entitled "The Right to Property as a Fundamental Right." In 2012, he completed a master's degree in "International Human Rights Law" at the University of Oxford in the UK.
Rădulețu was a member of UNPR, a party allied with the governing Social Democrats and led by the controversial general Gabriel Oprea. He was a candidate during the 2012 local elections but did not obtain any public office. He quit the party along with Antonie Solomon, former mayor of Craiova. Rădulețu represented the mayor in the corruption case in which he was sentenced to three years in prison, according to G4Media.
On February 16, 2022, Sebastian Rădulețu and three other candidates for the position of judge at the ECHR received a favorable opinion from the legal and human rights committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The initial list of candidates proposed by the Ministry of Justice was partially rejected by the Advisory Committee of Experts of the European Commission, because gender requirements were not met (no women among the nominees), and one of the proposed candidates did not meet the required level of professional competence. The government was forced to approve a new memorandum with a list of candidates.
(Photo source: Sebastianraduletu.ro)
