A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE INSTITUTION OF TORT LIABILITY IN THE CURRENT CIVIL CODE

The profound transformation of the Romanian society and the contemporary European realities imposed the adaptation of the rule of civil law to meet the new cultural, economic, scientific and socio-moral values. Expected with great enthusiasm, or on the contrary with skepticism, the emergence of the current Civil Code and its enforcement on 1 October 2011 sparked lively debates in the legal world. Regarded as a modern tool to regulate fundamental aspects of the individual and social existence, adapted to modern terminology, the current Civil Code is, after the Romanian Constitution, the most important normative act, both in extent and in terms of content, regulating the human relations even before the birth of the person, as owner of rights and obligations, and until after death. Our research has set an objective: the study of the current liability regulations regarding the institution of civil liability in general and tort liability, in particular. In our assessment, the institution of tort liability finds itself in a thorough transformation to meet the needs of the modern society. On these coordinates, the current Civil Code reaffirms the idea of subjective liability conditioned by proving the fault of the responsible person. However, countless law assumptions of objective liability, independent of any guilt, were regulated in the positive law. In doctrine we discuss the possibility of interpreting the “guilt” from an objective position: the abnormality of the offender’s behavior and, in a lesser extent, the imputability of his deed. We appreciate that the main objective of tort liability must be to support the interests of innocent victims. In this way, we consider the possible transfer of the legal, ethical and moral debates, from the subjective level to the objective level, respectively regarding the act causing the harm, as the defining element of tort liabilitytort liability, Romanian Civil Code, guilt, imputability

Role of Glypican-6 and NG2 as metastasis promoting factors

Cell surface proteoglycans (PGs) are key molecules in the regulation of tumour progression and metastasis formation. Eleven primary surface PGs, including syndecans-1-4, glypicans-1-6 and NG2, are currently known to act as mediators of the cancer cell’s interaction with the host microenvironment, with the potential to function synergically or antagonistically in the promotion of tumour growth and spreading. Using soft-tissue sarcomas as a model system we have observed that a given tumour cell may constitutively and coincidently express on average 3-5 of the 11 surface PGs, suggesting that diverse combinations of surface PGs may dictate the behaviour of cancer cells in different manners. To start to investigate the PG surface profiles as pro- and anti-tumorigenic we delineated strategies to modify the PG expression of 143B osteosarcoma cells by stable gene transduction and by examining how these modifications affected the cells adhesive and migratory capabilities in response to selected ECM substrates, and endothelial monolayers. To date there are no notice about GPC6 implications either in cell-ECM interactions or in the behaviour motility of cells. For these reasons 143B cells were stable transfected for overexpressing GPC6 showed a modulation of relative expression of all surface PGs respect to vector control cells. GPC6 overexpression induces morphological modification in 143B cells which are seen as changes in the organization of actin filaments containing protrusions similar to fillopodia/lamellipodia and an increase of motility cells in monodimensional assay which could be in relationship with cytoskelatal reorganization. Moreover these cells showed a spreading ability and the lower invasion ability on different ECM molecules that could be correlated by surface PG profile modulation. Since NG2 as a cell surface ligand for collagen type VI has been postulated to be involved in tumor progression, we have also examinated the interaction of the NG2+ and NG2- sarcoma cells with collagen type VI and other ECM molecules. Sarcoma cells were NG2 abrogated by RNAi or cells immunosorted for NG2 expression were found to exhibit a rather elective, impaired ability to adhere and migrate on purified collagen type VI. These findings confirmed that the NG2 was capable of mediating tumour cell adhesion and migration through interaction with this specific collagen. The outcome of these investigations provide a first evidence that NG2 may represent a unique, malignancy promoting factor in several types of soft-tissue sarcomas and that defined surface PGs pattern differentially control tumour progression, with some profiles being specifically associated with an aggressive behaviour, whereas others with a more benign phenotype

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE BASICS OF CIVIL TORT LIABILITY IN THE CURRENT CIVIL CODE

The institution of Tort Criminal Responsibility faced this millennial beginning with a real "crisis" by affirming reformist ideas placed between tradition and modernity, present and future, subjective and objective. The increase and diversification of the damage, on the one hand, but also the real difficulties in identifying the responsible person and proving his culpability, on the other hand, call into question the need to harmonize the legal norm with the realities of social life, providing the legal framework for reparation of all injustice caused. In the evolution of this legal institution three phases have emerged: sanctioning, based on fault, aimed at punishing the guilty of producing damage, reparation, based on warranty, risk and equity, aiming mainly to ensure the legal framework to cover the indemnity independent of the fault to the responsible person for the restoration of the destroyed and preventive social balance, consisting in anticipating and avoiding serious, immeasurable, environmentally damaging, human existence, not yet produced but possible. Our study aims at presenting the main issues regarding the foundation of tort law in the current Civil Code, taking into account the realities of contemporary society, to highlight the innovative, progressive aspects, capable of providing more effective protection to the victims of the illicit deeds