Important decision
The Constitutional Court overturned the conviction in the case involving an incident at a Prague cannabis products store and reiterated that criminal law should be used only as a last resort. In borderline cases, courts must carefully assess the social harmfulness of the act and explain why non-criminal measures are insufficient. This may lead to a situation where a formally criminal act does not result in criminal liability because the application of criminal law would not be proportionate given the circumstances of the case.
In its ruling , Case No. IV. ÚS 455/26, the Constitutional Court noted that merely meeting the formal elements of a criminal offense is not sufficient for criminal liability. If the circumstances of the case indicate a low level of social harm, the general courts are required to examine whether it is truly necessary to apply criminal law, or whether another legal regime—such as liability for an administrative offense—would suffice. According to the Constitutional Court, the principle of subsidiarity in criminal prosecution applies here, under which criminal law should be a last resort—that is, the ultima ratio.
The court did not, however, state that the complainant’s conduct was appropriate or that it constituted necessary self-defense. On the contrary, it explicitly stated that his actions were unlawful and excessive. However, it overturned the decisions of the lower courts because, in its view, they had not sufficiently addressed the broader context of the incident—in particular , the victim’s provocative behavior, the absence of serious harm, and the question of why a milder legal response —rather than a conviction for the crime of extortion with a weapon— would not have sufficed in this case. The decision may therefore be significant for other criminal cases straddling the line between a misdemeanor and a felony, as it illustrates when an act may formally constitute a criminal offense but may not necessarily result in criminal liability.
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