Waking the Dead of the Spanish Civil War - Judge Baltasar Garzon and the Spanish Law of Historical Memory

Abstract

This article considers the controversial proceedings against Baltasar Garzon, Spain’s best-known judge. These proceedings and Garzon's own investigations of the crimes of the Franco era have thrown up a large number of issues about the retrospective application of transitional justice to conflicts, such as the Spanish Civil War, apparently consigned to history. To what extent can an amnesty passed in 1977 cover serious international crimes such as crimes against humanity, when these were perhaps not clearly defined at the time they were committed? Is Spain's amnesty for its own past crimes consistent with the assumption of universal jurisdiction for equivalent crimes committed abroad? Is it enough to deal with historical memory by administrative means under the 2007 Law of historical Memory or are victims entitled to justice as well as truth and reparation? Above all the article tries to answer the question whether a conflict can really be resolved without a transitional justice system in which the victims feel they have participated.