With funding from the US Department of Justice, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) implemented a program (pre-2007) that aimed to enhance the capacity of Romania's judiciary to apply criminal justice legislation and increase the effectiveness of implementation of new procedures dealing with arrest and search warrants. Over a six-month period, ABA ROLI convened a multi-disciplinary working group of judges, prosecutors, attorneys, and police to document existing practices related to the approval of warrants and to identify desirable methods under existing laws. This analysis was then tested through three interactive judicial seminars on "Arrest and Search Warrants – Issues of Practice," based around hypothetical cases, the goals of which were to:
- Familiarize Romanian judges assigned to criminal divisions with legal and practical issues related to arrest and search warrants and
- Obtain further input, comments and perspectives from practitioners on the front lines, toward finalizing the materials into a report, "Arrest and Search Warrants" - Issues of Practice (available in Romanian only), that was distributed to courts and prosecutors' offices nation-wide, and submitted to the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), and the National Institute of Magistracy (NIM). The report was also submitted to the Commission in charge of revising the Code of Criminal Procedures (CCP).
The curriculum materials for these seminars were transferred to the NIM for incorporation into its continuing education seminars. A bench book was developed in fall 2007.