Abstract: The Romanian criminal legislator manifested a constant concern for the institution of the continued offense, regulating it in the former Criminal Code (Law no. 15/1968) as well as in the current Criminal Code (Law no. 286/2009) - however, according to a somewhat partially different initial vision. Starting from the original legal definition (according to the current Criminal Code), passing through the subsequent interpretative rules with reference to it (provided by the law for implementing the Criminal Code), then through the mandatory case-law of the Constitutional Court of Romania, and arriving to a long (and so far: missed) legislative process for the modification of the text of art. 35 paragraph 1 from the Romanian Criminal Code, the regulation of the continued offense tends to describe a (vicious?) circle – as many other innovative directions outlined by the legislator of the new Criminal Code of Romania. This material follows (forward) the steps of this cyclic transformation of the continued offense in the contemporary Romanian criminal law.
Keywords: continued offense (article 35 par. 1 of the Romanian Criminal Code); the unity of the passive subject / offense committed against the same passive subject; decision no. 368/2017 of the Romanian Constitutional Court; article 238 from the Law no. 187/2012 (the law for implementing the Criminal Code); decision no. 650/2018 of the Romanian Constitutional Court; decision no. 466/2019 of the Romanian Constitutional Court; legislative project to amend the Criminal Code with the indicative L.238/2018 (Senate) and the indicative PL-x nr. 406/2018 (Chamber of Deputies).