Ioan-Luca Vlad Law Office

Unusual law has always been a passion for Dr Vlad. He has been privileged to get practical experience with many of these peculiar, but no less relevant, areas of the law. These legal topics are treated with outmost priority, as they reflect the attorney's private interests and focus. Advice on these matters can be provided from a cross-border, international perspective, as well as with a local focus.

 

What we love to work on:

• Law of hereditary privilege (Dynastic law, titles of nobility and peerage, other hereditary privileges specific to local jurisdictions);

• Canon law (particularly of the Eastern Orthodox Church and inter-faith Canon Law, such as mixed-faith marriages);

• Individual complaints procedures at UN Human Rights Bodies;

• Heraldic law (including procedures at the Court of the Lord Lyon King of Arms in Scotland, the College of Arms in London, and other heraldic authorities worldwide);

• Questions of protocol and precedence (including State and Diplomatic protocol, privilege issues of diplomats and consuls, as well as business protocol).

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Law of Hereditary Privilege

Dr Ioan-Luca Vlad has been the legal adviser, then attorney, of the Romanian Royal Family for the past 14 years. He also advises other European Royal Families on specific issues of law. Put together with a personal interest in all that concerns legalized hereditary privilege, Dr Vlad is the perfect specialist for such niche legal issues.

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Are you interested in protecting a hereditary privilege in danger of being "reformed away"? Are you the owner of an ancient legal estate (such as a manor), or member in a traditional form of co-ownership (a "political commune", a composesorat or obste in Romania), or the holder of a national or local hereditary function? Are you interested in checking whether those titles for sale are real? Would you like advice on the present-day functioning of royal and princely dynasties? 

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We can help with all these issues, in particular by:

• advising on the nature, functioning and rules of Dynastic and nobility law;

• researching and producing reports on ancient legal estates and interests in land (such as lordships of the manor);

• finding and explaining the rules of traditional forms of co-ownership in land;

• solving procedural problems that appear in the exercise of national and local hereditary functions;

• checking the validity of claims made online about titles for sale.

These services are valid for any European jurisdiction (as well as those overseas that have European legal roots).

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Contact us now!

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Canon Law

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Dr Vlad has had the opportunity to practice Canon law in Greece, in a complex legal case involving the validity of mixed-faith marriages. Combined with his long-standing interest in Canon law, access to internal legal materials of the Christian churches, and contacts with various specialists in each faith, our office can provide the following legal services in Canon Law:

• analysis and reports on Canon law of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well as the Eastern rites united with Rome ("Greek-Catholic");

• legal analysis of the validity of inter-faith marriages from the point of view of religious law;

• explaining regulations on the inheritance of clerical personnel including priests, bishops, monks and nuns, as well as on church foundations, endowments and other legal structures;

• procedures for establishing and developing a religious organisation inside Romania;

• explanations of legal procedures of church judicial bodies (consistories).

These services refer to Romania alone.

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Contact us now for any questions!

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Individual Complaints Procedures at UN Human Rights Bodies

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Dr Ioan-Luca Vlad can assist and represent you before UN Human Rights Bodies, to make your claim heard, obtain interim measures and a final recommendation against the state that is violating your rights or those of someone you care for.

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What are the UN Human Rights Bodies?

These are committees set up at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, which have the quasi-judicial power to hear claims from individuals against states that have agreed to be bound by Human Rights treaties. The end-result is a finding which usually the states apply. They can also take interim measures, such as ordering the state to protect a person from abuse, or take preventative measures to protect someone's life.

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Which are the UN Human Rights Bodies with an individual complaints procedure?

Currently, eight of the human rights treaty bodies may, under certain conditions, receive and consider individual complaints from individuals. These are:

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1. The Human Rights Committee (CCPR) may consider individual communications against violations of the rights set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (such as right to life, protection against torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, interdiction of slavery and forced labor, of arbitrary detention, protection of the detained, equality before the law and others).

2. The Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) may consider individual communications against violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (such as any exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing the enjoyment or exercise by women, equally, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural civil or any other field).

3. The Committee against Torture (CAT) may consider individual complaints against violations of rights set out in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (such as return or extradition to a state where there is a risk of such treatment, or being subject to any severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, being intentionally inflicted on a person by an official of the state in an unlawful way);

4. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) may consider individual complaints against violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (such as any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the effect of impairing the exercise, equally, of human rights and freedoms);

5. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD) may consider individual complaints against violations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (such as equality and non-discrimination, accessibility, equal recognition before the law, personal mobility, respect for privacy and others);

6. The Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) may consider individual complaints against violations of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (which means the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or other persons who act with the acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge this or conceal the fate of whereabouts of the disappeared person);

7. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) may consider individual complaints against violations of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (such as the right to work in decent conditions, to form trade unions, to social security, protection of the family, to an adequate standard of living and others);

8. The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) may consider individual complaints against violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols (such as the protection of children from sale and involvement in armed conflict, from violence and right to education, right to a family upbringing and others).

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Very important information:

• The Human Rights Bodies are open during the time of coronavirus, particularly for interim (protective) measures (making sure the abuse is stopped before the claim is judged on the merits!

• Anyone can submit a claim, but only states which have allowed the Bodies to consider such claims may be drawn before them. There is a different list for each treaty, so it's best to consult us;

• It is essential that before appealing to a UN Human Rights Body the applicant must have exhausted local remedies (i.e. local courts), insofar as they are accessible (i.e. no direct claims, generally speaking);

• The UN Human Rights Bodies are in addition to regional human rights bodies (such as the European and the Inter-American Courts of Human Rights). It is your option which one to appeal to.

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What we can do for you:

- analyse your situation;

- submit a claim on your behalf;

- represent you at the relevant Human Rights Body.

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Contact us now!

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Heraldic Law

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Dr Ioan-Luca Vlad is a member of the "Sever Zotta" National Institute of Heraldry and Genealogy in Romania. He has experience with court cases involving questions of heraldry (significance and validity of coats of arms), as well as interactions with heraldic authorities around the world.

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Of particular interest are claims and procedures (both contentious and administrative) before the Court of the Lord Lyon King of Arms (which is a state official in Scotland dealing with heraldry and clans), the College of Arms (which is a state institution in England, Wales and Northern Ireland dealing with coats of arms but also with other niche subjects such as administrative leave for a change of name), and other heraldic authorities around the world (examples include South Africa, Ireland, Romania and others).

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What we can do for you:

• find and engage specialists to design your coat of arms;

• register your coat of arms with one of the heraldic authorities;

• make a claim against the misuse of your coat of arms where these are specially protected;

• transform your coat of arms into a protected trademark;

• prepare genealogical research in Romania for applications such as for a coat of arms, for recognition of entitlement to one, for admission into an order or fraternal organization or other such purposes.

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Contact us now for any questions!

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Questions of Protocol or Precedence

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Dr Ioan-Luca Vlad has been advising the Romanian Royal Family, as well a private clients, on questions of protocol and precedence. As a voluntary activity, he is the Chancellor of the Royal Decorations in Romania, and as such, gathers the submissions for the annual honors, prepares backgrounds and biographies, and organizes the decoration ceremonies. Among his experiences are the logistics and organization of three State Funerals, Royal Jubilees, diplomatic and trade promotion evenings and other matters.

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He can also advise you, in one of the following areas:

• Questions of legal privileges of foreign embassies, consulates and missions;

• Acting as Honorary Consul of another state (note we do NOT facilitate obtaining the position of Honorary Consul, just advise on the way to exercise it and properly and effectively);

• Import-export in the European Union of unusual items of a honorific nature (orders, medals, decorations, items for parade, diplomatic and consular materials);

• Precedence at international events, and within European countries.

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Dr Vlad has taught on issues of diplomatic and royal protocol and his pupils have reached significant life goals, such as becoming Head of Protocol in a ministry of foreign affairs, assistant to foreign royal families, working on protocol matters for the European Commission and others.

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This expertise can be used for your projects. Contact us now!