Article 7 - No punishment without law
All Updates
Cases selected for updating the Case-Law Guide.
Cesarano v. Italy, no. 71250/16
Domestic courts’ refusal of the applicant’s request for a reduction of his life sentence to thirty years’ imprisonment after he had chosen to be tried under summary procedure when such procedure no longer entitled him to a sentence of thirty years’ imprisonment.
Judgment
Longo v. Italy (dec.), no. 35780/18
Order for the demolition of a warehouse following unauthorised construction.
Decision
Yasak v. Türkiye, no. 17389/20
Conviction for membership of an armed terrorist organisation on account of activities carried out in secret by a senior officer of the organisation.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Saakashvili v. Georgia, nos. 6232/20 and 22394/20
Conviction of former president of Georgia for abuse of official authority for granting a pardon during his presidency to high-ranking officials convicted of murder.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Sacharuk v. Lithuania, no. 39300/18
Conviction of Parliamentarian after the end of his term of office for voting for another parliamentarian who was absent with the latter’s identity card.
Judgment
Chelleri and Others v. Croatia (dec.), nos. 49358/22 and 2 others
Convictions of Slovenian fishermen for minor offences in respect of activities in maritime waters in the area of the Piran Bay claimed by both Croatia and Slovenia.
Decision | Legal Summary
Jasuitis and Šimaitis v. Lithuania, nos. 28186/19 and 29092/19
Foreseeability of the applicants’ conviction of trafficking in human beings for recruiting young women to work as “web models” on a pornographic website.
Judgment
Yüksel Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye [GC], no. 15669/20
Conviction for membership of an armed terrorist organisation based decisively on the use of an encrypted messaging application.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Kupinskyy v. Ukraine, no. 5084/18
Conversion, upon prisoner’s transfer, of a foreign reducible life sentence into an irreducible one due to unavailability of parole for life prisoners in his home State. Applicability and merits.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Mørck Jensen v. Denmark, no. 60785/19
Conviction for breach of ban on entry and stay in a specific conflict zone, which was lifted at the time of the adjudication of the case following a change in the situation in that zone.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Kotlyar v. Russia, nos. 38825/16 and 2 others
Retroactive application of criminal law for deliberate false registration of immigrants at applicant’s property.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Advisory opinion on the applicability of statutes of limitation to prosecution, conviction and punishment in respect of an offence constituting, in substance, an act of torture [GC], no. P16-2021-001
Applicability of a statute of limitations to the prosecution, conviction and punishment for an offence constituting, in substance, an act of torture.
Advisory opinion | Legal Summary
Milanković v. Croatia, no. 33351/20
Conviction for war crimes on the basis of command responsibility in an internal armed conflict.
Judgment
Artsruni v. Armenia (dec.), no. 41126/13
Applicability: complaint concerning the classification of the offences of which the applicant had been convicted following a legislative change.
Decision
W.A. v. Switzerland, no. 38958/16
Subsequent order for preventive detention amounting to retrospective imposition of a "heavier penalty".
Judgment | Legal Summary
Norman v. the United Kingdom, no. 41387/17
Foreseeable prosecution of prison officer for providing information about prison to journalist in exchange for money.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Miniscalco v. Italy, no. 55093/13
Applicability: disqualification of a candidate in regional elections on account of final criminal conviction.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Galan v. Italy (dec.), no. 63772/16
Applicability: disqualification from standing for election and removal from elected office (Parliament) on account of criminal convictions for corruption and abuse of power.
Decision | Legal Summary
Timofeyev and Postupkin v. Russia, nos. 45431/14 and 22769/15
Applicability: administrative surveillance for preventive purposes, after convicted persons have served their sentences.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Gestur Jónsson and Ragnar Halldór Hall v. Iceland [GC], nos. 68273/14 and 68271/14
Applicability: fine imposed on lawyers for the non-attendance of lawyers at a hearing.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Advisory opinion concerning the use of the "blanket reference" or "legislation by reference" technique in the definition of an offence and the standards of comparison between the criminal law in force at the time of the commission of the offence and the amended criminal law [GC], no. P16-2019-001
Advisory opinion concerning the requirements of legal certainty and foreseeability and the principle of non-retroactivity of criminal law.
Advisory opinion | Legal Summary
Georgouleas and Nestoras v. Greece, nos. 44612/13 and 45831/13
Administrative fines imposed for market manipulation contrary to the stock exchange law. Applicability and merits.
Judgment
Jidic v. Romania, no. 45776/16
New law opening possibility of a more lenient sentence under certain conditions that sentencing court did not find to have been met.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Platini v. Switzerland (dec.), no. 526/18
Applicability: disciplinary suspension in professional sports context.
Decision | Legal Summary
Khodorkovskiy and Lebedev v. Russia (no. 2), nos. 51111/07 and 42757/07
Extensive and unforeseeable application of criminal law to valid civil-law transactions.
Judgment