The end of the Spanish model of universal jurisdiction

Abstract

Adopted in March 2014 through an express legislative procedure under the pressure of the Chinese government and with the intention of displaying immediate effects, the Ley Orgánica 1/2014 introduces a resounding and conclusive reform of the Spanish model of universal jurisdiction. Concerning serious violations of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, the reform implies that, in practice, the Spanish courts shall have jurisdiction on the basis of the principle of universality only when the suspect is in Spain and, besides, extradition is refused, a solution hardly compatible with the ICJ ruling in the Habré case. The obsession to restrict universal jurisdiction to cases where it is mandatory under international law, recognized in the preamble and based on an implicit maxim according to which "everything that is not mandatory is forbidden", probably may be interpreted as a response to the discomfort created among certain Spanish conservatives sectors in front of the opening of a trial on the crimes of Francoism in Argentina. However, in the background of the reform lies a reality marked by a clear withdrawal of the pure forms of universal jurisdiction in the neighboring countries, which had placed the former Spanish model at a difficult crossroads.