Information Note on the Court’s case-law No.
July 1998
Oliveira v. Switzerland - 25711/94
Judgment 30.7.1998
Article 4 of Protocol No. 7
Right not to be tried or punished twice
Successive convictions of applicant for failing to control her vehicle and for negligently causing physical injury in respect of a road-traffic accident: no violation
[This summary is extracted from the Court’s official reports (Series A or Reports of Judgments and Decisions). Its formatting and structure may therefore differ from the Case-Law Information Note summaries.]
Typical example of single act constituting various offences (concours idéal d’infractions); characterised by fact that single criminal act was split up into two separate offences, in case before Court: failure to control vehicle and negligent causing of physical injury. Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 not infringed since it prohibited people being tried twice for same offence, whereas in cases concerning single act constituting various offences one criminal act constituted two separate offences.
Would have been more consistent with principles governing proper administration of justice for sentence in respect of both offences, which resulted from same criminal act, to have been passed by same court in single set of proceedings. Irrelevant as regards compliance with Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 that that procedure had not been followed in instant case.
Case before Court therefore distinguishable from case of Gradinger in which two different courts had come to inconsistent findings on applicant’s blood alcohol level.
Conclusion: no violation (eight votes to one).
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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