Editorial : administrative offences in the lights of human rights law

Abstract

A recent area which has emerged in Human Rights Law is the regulation of administrative offences from a human rights perspective. Although human rights have developed considerably in so far as criminal procedure is concerned, the same cannot be said with regard to administrative sanctions. This is because whilst the human rights principles of criminal procedure such as the nulla poena sine lege, the null um crimen sine lege, the ne bis in idem, the principle against retroactive application of the criminal law and others have been with us for several years if not centuries administrative punishments are of very recent origin. An interesting document dealing with the human rights aspect of administrative offences is Recommendation No R (91)1E of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on Administrative Sanctions adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 February 1991. [excerpt]