Information Note on the Court’s case-law 53

May 2003

Montcornet de Caumont v. France (dec.) - 59290/00

Decision 13.5.2003 [Section II]

Article 6

Criminal proceedings

Article 6-1

Criminal charge

Proceedings concerning a request for amnesty: Article 6 inapplicable

The applicant, who had been convicted of speeding and fined, sought to take advantage of a law granting an amnesty. The Court of Appeal dismissed h is application; it observed that the offence of which the applicant had been found guilty was expressly excluded from the scope of the amnesty law. The Court of Cassation dismissed the applicant’s appeal on a point of law.

Inadmissible under Article 6 § 1 : proceedings in respect of the conditions of the application of an amnesty law to a conviction which has already become final do not concern the “determination of … civil rights and obligations”. Nor, as regards the enforcement of penalties, do such proce edings concern a “criminal charge”. Article 6 therefore does not apply to a dispute concerning the existence or the scope of an amnesty law.

Inadmissible under Article 7: The non-application of an amnesty law does not constitute a conviction under the cri minal law and does not concern the conditions in which that conviction was pronounced. Article 7 therefore does not apply.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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