Administrative sanctions in the European Court of Human Rights case-law

Abstract

The European Convention on Human Rights does not contain any mention of administrative sanctions, but the European Court of Human Rights has developed a number of criteria applicable to this modality of ius puniendi, very close to those that apply in the field of criminal sanctions. The present study analyzes the fundamental aspects of this jurisprudence, formed from the interpretation of the autonomous notion of “criminal charge” in the context of the criminal limb of article 6 of the Convention), and, especially, those related to full jurisdiction control and the right to a fair trial (article 6 of the Convention), the principle “no punishment withouw law” (article 7 of the Convention) and the non bis in idem principle (article 4 of Protocol number 7).