Applying a similar legal provision or resorting to the principles of law, in the matter of private law, the judge has the duty to resolve any case when there is a lacunar legislation. Unlike in private law, in criminal law this is impossible, as there are two principles that prevent the court from establishing new facts as crimes and applying punishments that are not expressly provided by criminal law, namely the principle of legality of incrimination (nullum crime sine lege) and the principle of legality of punishment (nulla poena sine lege). In the present study we aimed to analyze the extent to which these principles of criminal law find their expression in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.