CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE

PART I
ON THE GENERAL PART

TITLE I
PRELIMINARY AND GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 2
Principle of legality

The legal and criminal consequences arising out of the commission of a criminal offence may only be applied in accordance with the provisions of this Code.

BOOK I
GENERAL PART

TITLE I
APPLICATION OF CRIMINAL LAW

SINGLE CHAPTER
GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Article 1. Principle of legality

1. No act or omission may be qualified as crime unless it was defined as such by law before it was committed, with the respective punishment described.

2. Security measures may only be applied to cases of danger to self and others, with the conditions thereof previously determined by law.

Article 2. Prohibition of analogy

No act or omission may be qualified as a crime, in defining danger to self and others or in determining the corresponding legal consequences, through the use of analogy.

Article 3. Applicability of criminal law over time

1. No person may be punished for an act defined as a crime at the time of its commission if a subsequent law no longer considers it as such.

2. In such a case, if a decision convicting the person has already been rendered, execution of said decision and its penal effects shall cease, even when the decision rendered is final.

3. The law subsequent to the commission of the crime shall apply to previous conduct whenever the same proves to be more lenient to the perpetrator and, in the case of a final decision, if any benefit may still be obtained.

PART II
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS, DUTIES, LIBERTIES AND GUARANTEES

TITLE II
PERSONAL RIGHTS, FREEDOMS AND GUARANTEES

Section 31 (Application of criminal law)

2. No one shall be tried and convicted for an act that does not qualify in the law as a criminal offence at the moment it was committed, nor endure security measures the provisions of which are not clearly established in previous law.