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Article 7: No punishment without law
1. No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence under national or international law at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the criminal offence was committed.
2. This Article shall not prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act or omission which, at the time it was committed, was criminal according to the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations.
This article makes it clear that no one can be found guilty of a criminal offence if what they did was not a criminal offence at the time that they did it. It prevents Parliament passing laws which make criminal offences of things done in the past.
Article 7 also provides that you cannot be given a heavier penalty than the one that was applicable at the time you committed the offence. So if at the time the offence was committed the maximum penalty was one year imprisonment, but by the time you are tried and sentenced this has increased to two years, the court should impose no more than one year.
A number of cases considered what constituted a penalty for the purposes of Article 7. In Welsh v UK, the ECHR held that a confiscation order was a penalty, because as well as being designed to require the offender to repay the money he had made through his crime, it was also intended to punish him. On the other hand, a notification requirement under the Sex Offenders Act is designed to prevent crime, rather than to punish the offender, and so is not a penalty for the purposes of Article 7. This means that sex offenders may be required to comply with stricter notification requirements that those that were applicable at the time they committed the offence.
Article 7 requires that the law must be clear so that people know whether or not what they are doing is against the law.
Relevant sections:
2. This Article shall not prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act or omission which, at the time it was committed, was criminal according to the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations.
This article makes it clear that no one can be found guilty of a criminal offence if what they did was not a criminal offence at the time that they did it. It prevents Parliament passing laws which make criminal offences of things done in the past.
Article 7 also provides that you cannot be given a heavier penalty than the one that was applicable at the time you committed the offence. So if at the time the offence was committed the maximum penalty was one year imprisonment, but by the time you are tried and sentenced this has increased to two years, the court should impose no more than one year.
A number of cases considered what constituted a penalty for the purposes of Article 7. In Welsh v UK, the ECHR held that a confiscation order was a penalty, because as well as being designed to require the offender to repay the money he had made through his crime, it was also intended to punish him. On the other hand, a notification requirement under the Sex Offenders Act is designed to prevent crime, rather than to punish the offender, and so is not a penalty for the purposes of Article 7. This means that sex offenders may be required to comply with stricter notification requirements that those that were applicable at the time they committed the offence.
Article 7 requires that the law must be clear so that people know whether or not what they are doing is against the law.
Relevant sections:
