Article 1

‘European criminal judgment’ means any final decision delivered by a criminal court of a Contracting State as a result of criminal proceedings;

‘Offence’ comprises, apart from acts dealt with under the criminal law, those dealt with under the legal provisions listed in Appendix II to the present Convention on condition that where these provisions give competence to an administrative authority there must be opportunity for the person concerned to have the case tried by a court;

‘Sentence’ means the imposition of a sanction;

‘Sanction’ means any punishment or other measure expressly imposed on a person, in respect of an offence, in a European criminal judgment, or in an ‘ordonnance pénale’;

‘Disqualification’ means any loss or suspension of a right or any prohibition or loss of legal capacity;

‘Judgment rendered in absentia’ means any decision considered as such under Article 21, paragraph 2;

‘Ordonnance pénale’ means any of the decisions delivered in another Contracting State and listed in Appendix III to this Convention.