Chapter 7 • The Right to a Fair Trial: Part II – From Trial to Final Judgement “there is nothing in that situation which infringes article 4 of Protocol No. 7 since that provision prohibits people being tried twice for the same offence whereas in cases concerning a single act constituting various offences (concours idéal d’infractions) one criminal act constitutes two separate offences”.210 The Court added, however, that it “would admittedly have been more consistent with the principles governing the proper administration of justice for sentence in respect of both offences, which resulted from the same criminal act, to have been passed by the same court in a single set of proceedings”; however, the fact that this was not done in this case was “irrelevant as regards compliance with” article 4 of Protocol No. 7, “since that provision does not preclude separate offences, even if they are part of a single act, being tried by different courts, especially where, as in the present case, the penalties were not cumulative, the lesser being absorbed by the greater”.211 The Oliveira case was “therefore distinguishable from the case of Gradinger, ... in which two different courts came to inconsistent findings on the applicant’s blood alcohol level”.212 There had not, consequently, been a violation of article 4 of protocol No. 7 in this case. Everyone has the right not to be convicted for conduct that did not constitute a criminal offence at the time it was committed. This right applies at all times and can never be derogated from. The prohibition of ex post facto laws is essential in order to ensure legal predictability, which means that laws must be clear enough to guide the conduct of the individual, who must be able to know, possibly with some legal help, what conduct is criminal and what is not. The right not to be tried twice for the same criminal offence is guaranteed by international law, as a minimum within one and the same State. In Europe, the principle of ne bis in idem does not rule out a person’s being tried for separate offences originating in a single criminal act. 210 Ibid., loc. cit. 211 Ibid., para. 27. 212 Ibid., para. 28. For other cases concerning the principle of ne bis in idem see e.g. Eur. Court HR, Case of Franz Fischer v. Austria, judgment of 29 May 2001; for the text see http://hudoc.echr.coe.int; and Eur. Court HR, Ponsetti and Chesnel v. France, decision of 14 September 1999, Reports 1999-VI. 300 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers