Tokens: 8
.
In
spite
of
Article
7
of
the
ECHR
being
silent
on
the
matter
,
the
European
Court
of
Human
Rights
(
“
the
Court
”
)
acknowledged
this
principle
as
one
of
the
guarantees
of
the
principle
of
legality
in
European
human
rights
law
in
Scoppola
v.
Italy
(
no
.
2
)
.
The
Court
has
adopted
a
clear
position
on
the
definition
of
lex
mitior
for
the
purpose
of
the
application
of
successive
penal
laws
:
lex
mitior
is
the
one
which
is
more
favourable
to
the
defendant
,
taking
into
account
his
or
her
characteristics
,
the
nature
of
the
offence
and
the
circumstances
in
which
the
offence
was
committed[51
]
.
This
means
that
Article
7
§
1
of
the
ECHR
presupposes
a
comparison
in
concreto
of
the
penal
laws
applicable
to
the
offender
’s
case
,
including
the
law
in
force
at
the
material
time
(
the
old
law
)
and
the
law
in
force
at
the
time
of
the
judgment
(
the
new
law)[52
]
.
Hence
,
the
ECHR
does
not
take
into
account
the
maximum
limit
of
the
penalty
in
abstracto
.
Nor
does
it
take
into
consideration
in
abstracto
the
minimum
limit
of
the
penalty[53
]
.
Equally
,
it
does
not
consider
the
maximum
or
minimum
limits
of
the
penalty
on
the
basis
of
the
domestic
court
’s
intention
to
impose
a
sentence
closer
to
the
maximum
or
the
minimum[54
]
.
Instead
,
in
the
light
of
Scoppola
,
the
lex
mitior
must
be
found
in
concreto
,
in
other
words
the
judge
must
test
each
of
the
applicable
penal
laws
(
the
old
and
new
laws
)
against
the
specific
facts
of
the
case
in
order
to
identify
what
would
be
the
presumed
penalty
in
the
light
of
the
new
and
the
old
law
.
After
establishing
the
presumed
penalties
resulting
from
the
applicable
laws
,
and
in
view
of
all
the
circumstances
of
the
case
,
the
judge
must
effectively
apply
the
one
more
favourable
to
the
defendant[55
]
.
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