Facts
The appellant [X.] was found guilty by the District Court of Zurzach on October 24, 2018, of violating the Ordinance on the Admission of Persons and Vehicles to Road Traffic and was fined CHF 200.--, because on May 30, 2018, he drove a passenger car with a foreign driver's license, although he had been living in Switzerland since December 28, 2013, and should have obtained a Swiss driver's license. The High Court of the Canton of Aargau confirmed the judgment of the District Court on February 12, 2019. The appellant filed a criminal complaint and requested that the judgment of the High Court be overturned and that he be acquitted.
The complaint was directed against the conviction for violating RTAO by not obtaining a Swiss driver's license. The appellant complained that both the obligation to obtain a Swiss driver's license and the associated criminal sanctions were regulated only at the ordinance level, which violated the principle of legality.
Considerations
The Federal Court dismissed the complaint. It stated that the obligation to obtain a Swiss driver's license in order to drive motor vehicles in Switzerland was already regulated at the legislative level. Art. 42 RTAO only provides an exception to this obligation for drivers from abroad. The complaint that Art. 42 para. 3bis lit. a RTAO obliged the appellant to obtain a Swiss driver's license and that this violated the principle of legality was therefore unfounded.
The Federal Court further stated that the appellant could not invoke a valid delegation norm for the penalty provision of Art. 147 no. 1 RTAO. However, the behavior sanctioned by Art. 147 no. 1 RTAO also fulfilled the elements of Art. 95 para. 1 lit. a RTA, according to which anyone who drives a motor vehicle without the required driver's license is liable to a custodial sentence of up to three years or a fine. Even if no valid delegation norm existed for Art. 147 no. 1 RTAO, the…