Decision of the Court of Cassation, IV Criminal Section, No. 23171 of 18 March 2017

The Court of Cassation rejected the appeal against the decision through which the Court of Milan imposed upon the accused in a criminal proceeding an administrative penalty (revocation of the driving license) in addition to the criminal one. The Court reasoned, in primis, on the criminal nature of the administrative penalty in the light of the relevant case-law of the ECHR (Grande Stevens v. Italy, 2014). According to the Court, the notion of “criminal matters” as interpreted by the ECHR Court extends the scope of the ne bis in idem principle in conformity with Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 to the ECHR. The Court of Cassation found, however, that the question was not relevant in the case because the accused was not subjected to two distinct proceedings for the same conduct. Moreover, the Court of Cassation stated that the ECHR Court’s interpretation of ne bis in idem cannot be the subject of conceptual generalization as to apply beyond the limits of an individual judgment.