Article 76.2 of the Criminal Code: Lacking Progress in Case Law

Abstract

Since the Criminal Code of 1870 the Spanish legislature has been following the joinder approach for the overlapping of offenses, thereby establishing limits of effective enforcement for the strictly material accumulation of sentences. The application of case law has been developing a progressive interpretation in favor of the purely temporal linking of events. The 2015 reform of the Criminal Code has opened new channels in this line of case law, but further progress is required in order to avoid life custodial sentences.