Facts
[D.] has been enrolled at the University of Zurich since the summer semester of 1981. In December 1983, he submitted an application for a study grant from the scholarship fund, which was rejected by the cantonal commission for study grants. Thereupon, [D.] submitted a study plan that he had forged with the signatures of the responsible professors, and filed this as an appeal against the decision. The advisor to the scholarship recipients discovered the fraud, and the desired study grant was not paid out.
The High Court of the Canton of Zurich sentenced [D.] to a conditional prison sentence of 20 days for forgery of documents and attempted fraud. [D.] then filed a nullity appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court states that the appellant claims that the attempt attributed to him to obtain a study grant from the Canton of Zurich by means of forged documents does not fall under the criminal provisions of the Criminal Code (Art. 148 and 251 SCC) according to the Federal Supreme Court's previous decisions, but rather under the cantonal administrative criminal law. However, since there are no corresponding criminal provisions in cantonal law, his conduct is not punishable.
The Federal Supreme Court, however, rejects this objection. It states that in the area of cantonal administrative criminal law (in contrast to tax criminal law), the primacy of federal law applies. This means that the…