Although the newly minted state was nominally still a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, it only acknowledged the suzerainty of the Sublime Porte in a formal way.

Parliament is "the supreme representative organ of the Romanian people and the sole lawmaking authority"; it is bicameral (Chamber of Deputies and Senate) and elected for four years.

After the prime minister is named by the president, Parliament validates the composition and programme of the Government and can dismiss it following a motion of censure.

The constitution provides for fundamental civic rights and freedoms, and creates the office of Romanian Ombudsman to ensure these are respected.

The revised constitution grants minorities the right to use their native language when dealing with local administration and the courts, improves the functioning of the legislative chambers (better specifying their attributes) and restricts the privilege of parliamentary immunity to political declarations, extends the president's term to five years, explicitly "guarantees" rather than "protects" the right to private property and removes the constitutional obligation for conscription (which ended in 2006).

[4] The revised document was adopted by referendum on 18–19 October 2003; turnout was slightly above the 50%+1 threshold needed for it to be valid, with 55.7% of 17,842,103 eligible voters showing up.

The ruling coalition at the time, the Social Liberal Union, claimed that insufficient constitutional constraints led then-incumbent President Traian Băsescu to abuse his presidential powers, thus justifying new amendments.

However, the reform project stalled as the Social Liberal Union dissolved in early 2014 and Băsescu ended his term later that year.