Criminal Chamber is located in the temporary headquarters in Octavian Goga Blvd no. 2, Section II, District 3, Bucharest.
According to Article 24 of Law No 304/2022 on judicial organisation, the Criminal Chamber of the High Court of Cassation and Justice settles:
- in the first instance, the processes and applications given by law in the jurisdiction of the first instance of the High Court of Cassation and Justice;
- appeals against the criminal decisions rendered in the first instance by the courts of appeal and by the Military Court of Appeal;
- appeals against the criminal decisions handed down in the first instance by the courts of appeal, by the Military Court of Appeal and by the Criminal Chamber of the High Court of Cassation and Justice;
- appeals declared against non-final judgments or court documents, of any nature, which cannot be appealed on any other way, and the course of judgment has been interrupted before the courts of appeal;
- appeals in cassation against final decisions, under the conditions provided by law; appeals against decisions rejecting the application for referral to the Constitutional Court with a view to ruling on the exception of unconstitutionality pronounced by the courts of appeal;
- referrals for the delivery of a preliminary ruling on questions of law.
- appeals lodged against the judgments delivered by that Chamber rejecting the application for referral to the Constitutional Court of the question of unconstitutionality.
At the same time, according to Article 25 of the same law, it settles applications for transfer from the competent court of appeal to another court of appeal, conflicts of competence in cases where it is the higher court common to the conflicting courts and other cases specifically provided for by law.
The jurisdiction as a court of first instance of the High Court of Cassation and Justice is limited to the prosecution of crimes of high treason, crimes committed by Romanian senators, deputies and members of the European Parliament, members of the Government, judges of the Constitutional Court, members of the Superior Council of the Magistracy, judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and prosecutors of the Public Prosecutor's Office next to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, judges of the Courts of Appeal and the Military Court of Appeal, as well as prosecutors of the Public Prosecutor's Offices next to these courts, in accordance with Art. 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Also, the supreme court had, until 1 April 2023, the jurisdiction to try at first instance terrorist offences, according to the provisions of Article 40 of Law No 535/2004 on preventing and combating terrorism, the form prior to the entry into force of Law No 68/2023 amending and supplementing Law No 535/2004 on preventing and combating terrorism.
As of 1 July 2023, Article I, paragraph 17 of Law No 201/2023 amending and supplementing Law No 135/2010 on the Code of Criminal Procedure and amending other legislation, brought within the jurisdiction of the Criminal Chamber of the High Court of Cassation and Justice the verification of the legality of the decision authorising specific information-gathering activities involving the restriction of the exercise of fundamental human rights or freedoms, under the terms of the newly introduced Articles 1391 and 1392 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.