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BGE 16 I 82 ΓÇó Public-order conviction upheld under Aargau law
BGE 16 I 82Raccolta ufficiale del Tribunale federale (DTF) / Volume I6 giu 1889Dismissed
Werder and co-appellants challenged their conviction by the Bezirksgericht Lenzburg, upheld by the Obergericht of Aargau, for public-order misconduct under § 1 of the Aargau Zuchtpolizeigesetz. They argued that no statutory duty existed to give their names to police and that punishment would violate nulla poena sine lege. The Federal Court held that Art. 19 of the Aargau Constitution permits punishment only on a legal basis, but that the broad public-order clause was not unconstitutional. It further held that the cantonal courts’ characterization of the appellants’ mocking and defiant behavior as resistance to authority remained within a permissible range of statutory application. The constitutional complaint was dismissed.
Art. 19 K.V.; § 1 aarg. Zuchtpolizeigesetz; Art. 59 O.G.; nulla poena sine lege and review of cantonal criminal-law application. The Federal Court reiterates that punishment in Aargau requires a basis in written law, but a statute may formulate offenses in general categories. Federal review is limited to whether the cantonal judgment subsumes conduct that cannot, under general criminal-law concepts, fall within the statutory category at all. If the cantonal interpretation remains within the possible scope of the norm, even if debatable as a matter of cantonal law, no constitutional violation exists. Mocking or defiant conduct toward police can therefore, in principle, be treated as resistance to public authority under a public-order clause.
sei. Harmlose Witze, wie sie den Rekurrenten vorgeworfen werden, seien weder geeignet, die öffentliche Ordnung zu stören, noch dar auf berechnet. Wenn die Rekurrenten schlechte Witze sollten ge macht haben, so könnte nur entweder eine Injurie gegenüber den Polizeisoldaten vorliegen, wegen welcher diese hätten klagen müssen oder aber bloßes ungebührliches Benehmen der Rekurrenten, welches der Gemeinderath bei Bemessung der Strafe wegen des Ueber sitzens habe berücksichtigen können, niemals aber ein selbständiges Vergehen gegen die öffentliche Ordnung. C. Das Obergericht des Kantons Aargau hat auf Beantwor tung der Beschwerde verzichtet. Das Bundesgericht zieht in Erwägung: