The paper aims to conduct a study regarding the manner in which corporate governance principles are applied in Romania, in both public and private sector. In the first part of the paper, the corporate governance principles are presented as they are defined in Romania, in comparison with the main international sources of interest in the domain (OECD corporate governance principles, UE legal framework). The corporate governance (CG) principles refer to issues regarding board composition, transparency of scope, objectives and policies; they define the relations between directors and managers, shareholders and stakeholders. The research methodology is based on both fundamental research and empirical study on the implementation of corporate governance principles in companies from Romania. The main instrument of research is a corporate governance index, calculated based on a framework proposed by the author. The corporate governance principles are transposed in criteria that compose the framework for the CG index. The results of the study consist of scores for each CG principles and calculation of CG index for seven companies selected from the public and private sector in Romania. The results are analyzed and discussed in order to formulate general and particular recommendations. The main conclusion of this study is that that a legal framework in the area of corporate governance regulation is needed in Romania. I consider that the main CG principles should be enforced by developing a mandatory legal framework.