Communicated on 11 September 2018
FOURTH SECTION
Application no. 21864/14
Joao Miguel FERNANDES MARTINS
against Portugal
lodged on 5 March 2014
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the applicant’s criminal conviction for drug consumption based on the Supreme Court judgment no. 8/2008 of 25 June 2008 harmonising the contradictory case-law (Acórdão de Fixação de Jurisprudência) following the decriminalisation of drug consumption brought by Article 28 of Law no. 30/2000, of 29 November 2000.
It also concerns the inadmissibility of the applicant’s appeal before the Constitutional Court due to its noncompliance with the procedural formalities stipulated in Article 75-A of Law no. 28/82 of 15 November 1982.
QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES
1. Did the act for which the applicant was convicted constitute a criminal offence under national law at the time it was committed, as envisaged by Article 7 of the Convention? In particular:
Was the Supreme Court judgment no. 8/2008 of 25 June 2008, harmonising the contradictory case-law, compatible with Article 7 of the Convention? More specifically, was its interpretation consistent with the essence of the offence at issue and reasonably foreseeable; and was it in line with the wording of the relevant provisions of the criminal legislation in question as read in its context (see Vasiliauskas v. Lithuania [GC], no. 35343/05, §§ 155-56, 161-62 and 184, 20 October 2015)?
2. Did the Constitutional Court’s interpretation of the formalities provided for in Article 75-A of Law no. 28/82 of 15 November 1982 violate the applicant’s right of access to court (see Zubac v. Croatia [GC], no. 40160/12, §§ 97-99, 5 April 2018)?
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