SCOPE OF THE ACTIOS OF INQUIRY COMMIITTEES AND PROTECTION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THOSE APPEARING

This paper analyzes the scope of parliamentary committees of inquiry and the protection of the fundamental rights of those appearing and persons under investigation. Specifically, this issue will be analyzed in the light of the Constitutional Court's judgment 133/2018, in which the Court resolved an appeal filed by a person appearing before an inquiry committee against several parliamentary agreements, among others, the conclusions adopted by the inquiry committee, which states him politically responsible for the facts investigated. The Constitutional Court recognizes that the Chamber has violated the appellant's right to honor. The article focuses on the three most remarkable issues raised in this constitutional judgment: the role of the specific appeal of the art.42 LOTC as an effective remedy to protect the fundamental rights of the persons outside the Parliament; the problem regarding the delimitation of the object of the appeal, due to the interpretation of the notion of firmness of the parliamentary act, held by the Court; and the extension of the external dimension of the presumption of innocence doctrine to parliamentary investigation commissions.