BOOK I
GENERAL PART

TITLE II
ON CRIME

CHAPTER IV
JOINDER AND CONTINUOUS CRIMES

Article 36. Penalty in case of joinder of crimes

1. A single penalty shall be imposed in the case of joinder of crimes, the minimum limit corresponding to the highest penalty concretely imposed for those crimes, the maximum limit corresponding to the total sum of the different separate penalties.

2. Whenever the material sum of the separate penalties exceeds 600 days of fine or 30 years imprisonment, the maximum limit of the scope of joinder shall not exceed this legal limit.

3. In determining a single penalty, the court jointly considers the acts and personality of the perpetrator.

Article 37. Accumulation of penalties

1. Whenever the penalties imposed consist in both fines and imprisonment, the separate nature of these is retained.

2. Accessory penalties and security measures are retained, even when provided in only one of the applicable laws or in only one of the previous decisions.

Article 38. Prison sentence with suspended execution in accumulation of penalties

A prison sentence with suspended execution can only be cumulated with other prison sentences when :

a) The other prison sentences are equally so suspended in their execution and said accumulation does not hinder continued suspension of the individual penalty ;
b) Accumulation is with effective prison sentences, and circumstances exist that determine revocation of suspended execution of the penalty, regardless of said accumulation ;
c) The cumulated suspended penalties have different suspension periods or, being equal, are at different stages of being served, the court shall establish a single suspension period pursuant to general prevention requirements and circumstances of the case.

Article 39. Subsequent disclosure of joinder of crimes

Whenever, after a final decision has been rendered, but before the corresponding sentence is served, statute of limitations expires or is extinguished, it becomes known that the perpetrator fulfilled any of the circumstances described in the previous articles; the rules set out therein shall apply.

Article 40. Crime and other offences

Whenever the same act simultaneously constitutes a crime and a lesser offense, the perpetrator shall be punished for having committed the crime, without prejudice to any applicable accessory penalties for the other offenses.

Article 41 Continuous crime

1. Except in the event of crimes committed to protect eminently personal interests, the repeated commission of the same defined crime or various defined crimes to basically protect the same legal interests, executed in an essential homogeneous manner and prompted by the external situation that considerably diminishes the guilt of the perpetrator, constitutes one continuous crime.

2. Continuous crime is punishable by the penalty applicable to the most serious conduct that comprises the continuum.

Article 42. Concurrence of provisions

Except in the situations described above, whenever more than one legal provision may wholly or partially apply to an act that can be described as a crime, only one legal provision may be applied to the same, pursuant to the following rules :

a) The specific provision shall apply with prejudice to the general provision ;
b) The main provision takes precedence over the subsidiary provision ;
c) The broadest and most complex provision supersedes that which provides for acts that can be subsumed thereunto.