Determining
whether a criminal offence is continuous is not only a topic of interest to the
doctrine. It is also of great
importance to case-law. Whether such
a criminal offence is completed is a critical question in relation to a
continuous criminal offence. Only the latter distinguishes between two types of completion: formal and substantive. The precise definition of the moment
of completion has several
significant practical implications and it is also especially important to delimitate between
an attempt and a completed criminal
offence; it is important
for estimating the possibility of voluntary resignation; it dictates the moment until when it is possible for participants to join the perpetrator; it also
answers the question
until when a defence against
such a criminal offence is
possible and when the period of the limitation of criminal prosecution starts. Misclassifying a continuous crime as an instantaneous criminal
offence (and vice versa) can have very absurd consequences, such as not
recognising a kidnapped victim as being entitled to a defence. Despite the fact
that much has been written about a continuous criminal offence, both in
domestic and foreign professional literature, the use of this institute poses difficulties in case-
law, and partly in doctrine, too.
Keywords:
substantivecriminallaw, continuouscriminaloffence, instantaneous criminal offence,
substantive and formal completion of a criminal offence.