Important decision
The Constitutional Court has overturned the conviction in the incident at the Prague cannabis shop and reiterated that criminal law should be a last resort. In borderline cases, courts must carefully assess the social harmfulness of the offence and explain why non-criminal remedies are not sufficient.
In its ruling No. IV ÚS 455/26 , the Constitutional Court reminded that the formal fulfilment of the elements of a criminal offence is not sufficient for criminal liability. If the circumstances of the case indicate low social harm, the general courts are obliged to examine whether it is actually necessary to apply criminal law or whether another legal regime, such as misdemeanour liability, is sufficient. According to the Constitutional Court, this requirement is part of the constitutional principle of subsidiarity of criminal repression and the principle of ultima ratio.
The Court did not say that the complainant’s conduct was in order or that it was a necessary defence. On the contrary, it expressly stated that his conduct was unlawful and excessive. However, it quashed the decisions of the ordinary courts because, in its view, they had not dealt sufficiently with the wider context of the incident, in particular the victim’s provocative behaviour, the absence of serious harm and the question of why a lesser legal response than a conviction for the crime of extortion with a weapon would not have sufficed in the present case. The decision may thus be relevant to other criminal cases on the borderline between misdemeanor and felony.
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