Spanish Law: Coming to terms with the Ghosts of Francoism (1936-2017)

Abstract

No process of transitional justice was carried out to address the violation of rights that occurred under the Franco dictatorship. At the same time, and unlike what occurred in other countries, the emerging democratic legal regime, from the Constitution to the norms that implemented it, turned a blind eye to the legacy of the Francoism. This silence created a narrative void regarding the past that was occupied by the discourse over the Civil War and dictatorship that had been propagated by the State during the dictatorship. The normative and narrative silence in the law over the dictatorship was only broken by in 2007 at national level and later in some regions.