UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION: AN ESSENTIAL AIM IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INMPUNITY, ALSO FROM SPAIN

Abstract

This paper seeks to justify the importance of exercising universal jurisdiction to combat impunity in cases of serious human rights violations. More specifically, it seeks to defend the need to recover the exercise of universal jurisdiction in Spain. To this end, different aspects are tackled: the scope of consensus on the most serious crimes of international importance; the dimension of the space of impunity for such crimes with special reference to the factors limiting the action of the International Criminal Court; the fundamental role played by universal jurisdiction as a palliative to impunity, and the necessary revitalization of universal jurisdiction in Spain, after the legislative process of disarticulation that this principle has suffered in recent years