The Economist Comments on Garzon’s Moves
There is not much that hasn’t already been said by someone else in this recent Economist article, but it’s worth a quick read. One of the highlights is this brief and simple response to some of the questions I raise in an earlier post: “The judge has produced a fresh interpretation of [The 1977 Amnesty] laws. Where a victim’s body has never been found, he asserts, a crime of kidnapping continues to this day. So it is not covered by the amnesty. To those who argue that international laws on crimes against humanity did not exist when the civil war ended in 1939, he points to the precedent of the Nuremberg trials of top Nazis. ”
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12470581
And for those of you who want to delve into source materials, I found a copy of the opinion here:
http://estaticos.elmundo.es/documentos/2008/10/16/auto_memoria_historica.pdf
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Welcome
When Spanish-American filmmaker James Mercé Edwards sets out to discover the “truth” about the Spanish Civil War, a period in his family’s history filled with secrets and hyperbole, he discovers a global movement struggling to come to terms with the same history. Remember Spain is a multimedia chronicle of James’ journey and the people, movements and events that he discovers as he joins a process some call ”la recuperacion de la memoria historica” or the recovery of historical memory. Work-in-Progress episodes from Remember Spain will appear as a series of online multimedia presentations. Read more…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Mercé Edwards is an award-winning, Spanish-American filmmaker with over fourteen years of professional history shooting, writing, producing and directing media of all kinds on history, culture and society. His creations include immersive environments for The Smithsonian Museums, The National Park Service, The Oklahoma City Memorial and The Library of Congress and others; multi-lingual, current affairs programming for Public Television; investigative documentaries for international broadcasters; behind-the-scenes webisodes for National Public Radio, and much more. Prior to his career in media, James co-founded and served as a Director of the non-profit Empower Program, an organization dedicated to combating the culture of violence in our society.
James has a degree in Diplomacy and World Affairs with a minor in Art from Occidental College, and has post-graduate studies in media at American University and George Washington University.
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The jurisprudence on the question of the “disappeared” has been clearly established in international law and some national jurisdictions: until the body is found, the violation is considered to be ongoing and thus not covered by an amnesty.
True. And yet it bears reminding the reader that international law is unenforceable and that there are many examples of countries and courts disregarding international law when convenient. There is a strong potential for that being the outcome in this case.