During the International seminar “The non bis in idem principle. Conflicts of Jurisdiction”, that took place in Madrid this July, the restriction to punish for the same infringement twice was discussed (the non bis in idem principle) in context of European Union/
Senator of Supreme Court Jautrīte Briede, that took part in this seminar, explains, that there was discussed how to act in cases when the infringement was committed, the consequences of which took place in several member countries, or violator starts the infringement in one country and finishes it in another, in which cases both countries can inflict a penalty on violator for the infringement committed on their territory, in which cases and proceeding they shall come to conclusion on inflicting a penalty in one of member countries. Problematic issues were discussed as well, e.g. if there are victims in each country, how to provide their rights during proceeding, including possibility to get to know the case material and take part in court proceeding, taking the language barrier into consideration.
As well as positive and negative conflicts of jurisdiction were discussed during the seminar. Positive conflict of jurisdiction takes place when the infringement has a different regulation in different countries. In its own part the negative conflict takes place when the infringement is criminalized in one country (including the administrative fine), and is not in another. The following issue was discussed – if the infringement is punishable in one country but is not in another, can the one country ask the allowance to take investigative action in another country. In most countries this is impossible till the present moment, therefore it is to think about European Union normative regulation, that would extenuate such consequences of conflicts of jurisdiction.
Separate sentences of European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights, which relate to non bis in idem principle. Seminar relates mostly to criminal procedure, though it applied as well as to issues of administrative and economic type of sanctions, e.g. tax penalties.

 

 

Informāciju sagatavoja Augstākās tiesas Komunikācijas nodaļa

Autors: Rasma Zvejniece, Augstākās tiesas Komunikācijas nodaļas vadītāja

E-pasts: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, tālrunis: 7020396, 28652211