GUZZARDI v. ITALY JUDGMENT DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE BINDSCHEDLER-ROBERT 53 2. As regards the merits of the case, I am not convinced that, as the judgment has it, "the difference between deprivation of and restriction upon liberty is ... merely one of degree or intensity, and not one of nature or substance". Of course, I have no difficulty in accepting that the restrictions on liberty of movement to which Mr. Guzzardi was subjected were particularly severe. However, I do not detect in those restrictions the features which would make it possible to speak of "deprivation" of liberty. Mr. Guzzardi was not confined within the perimeter of a prison and his living conditions - albeit far from agreeable - were in striking contrast with those that obtain in prison: thus, he could spend his time as he chose, he was not obliged to work, and, for the greater part of his stay on Asinara, he was able to live together with his wife and his son - and even for a while with his parents-in-law. One could add to this list. I am therefore inclined to the view that the compulsory residence order imposed on Mr. Guzzardi did not constitute deprivation of liberty. 3. However, even if I assumed for the sake of argument that there had been deprivation of liberty, I would not hold that there had been a violation of Article 5 (art. 5) of the Convention, since this measure would have been justified under sub-paragraph (c) of paragraph 1 of that Article (art. 5-1-c). It is particularly in this connection that I find it imperative to take account of the "general context of the case"; the judgment refers to this aspect of the matter without, however, drawing there from any real consequences, whereas its importance is rightly emphasised by Judge Matscher in his dissenting opinion. In making provision for compulsory residence the Italian Acts of 1956 and 1965 are designed to separate from their habitual milieu certain individuals, such as members of the mafia, who, although this cannot actually be proved, obviously live off criminal activities, the object being to prevent them from continuing such activities. There can be no doubt that these purposes are consonant with the aims recognised as legitimate by Article 5 § 1 (c) (art. 5-1-c); this is especially true of the second reason mentioned in that provision: "when it is reasonably considered necessary to prevent his committing an offence". The judgment rejects this possibility on the ground that the sub-paragraph (art. 5-1-c), which speaks of "an" offence, is not adapted to a "policy of general prevention directed against an individual or a category of individuals who, like mafiosi, present a danger on account of their continuing propensity to crime" (§ 102). This narrow interpretation is not without paradoxical results: it means that one is entitled to imprison persons presumed to have committed the occasional crime but that one is forbidden to imprison persons belonging to criminal associations, whose particularly dangerous character resides precisely in the fact that it is extremely difficult to obtain evidence of their criminal activities which is sufficient in law and who can be prevented only by certain restrictive measures from pursuing those activities. The wording of Article 5 § 1 (c)