Admissibility of preliminary ruling on whether a brother-in-law qualifies as a family member under Article 177 of the Penal Code

The High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected as inadmissible the request for a preliminary ruling submitted by the Court of Appeal of Suceava, leaving the procedural status of the underlying criminal case unchanged pending further proceedings. The dispute concerned a preliminary legal question submitted under Article 477 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, specifically whether a nephew by marriage (nephew of the uncle’s spouse) falls within the statutory definition of "family member" when acting as an accused in criminal proceedings. The decisive legal basis for the rejection was the inadmissibility of the reference question itself, as the High Court determined that the specific inquiry did not meet the requirements for a binding preliminary decision on a question of law under the Romanian Code of Criminal Procedure, thereby preventing a substantive clarification on the scope of Article 177 of the Penal Code in this context.