Very much related to my post yesterday morning about the trial of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, my Flavia Dzodan passes along this fascinating piece of news:

An Argentine judge has opened a criminal investigation into human-rights violations committed in Spain during the 1936-1975 Franco dictatorship.

Maria Servini de Cubria, a federal judge in Buenos Aires province, has launched the case based on a complaint lodged by lawyers from both countries representing several Spanish human-rights groups including the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH by its Spanish initials).

The case marks a novel reverse of fortunes. Spanish prosecutors have in recent years pursued human-rights abusers from several of Latin America’s military regimes of the 1970s and 1980s, including Argentina.

All of this testing out of the principle of universal jurisdiction is fascinating and, I think, bodes well for a general lessening of impunity for human rights violators.

More here.