Making the State Do Justice: Transnational Prosecutions and International Support for Criminal Investigations in Post-Armed Conflict Guatemala

This Article will first briefly describe the background of the Guatemalan conflict and the evolution of the transnational cases against the military high command. It will then focus on some of the legal strategy issues involved and on the gains and losses of this transnational networking approach to combating impunity. In particular, it will look at how the multinational legal team, working simultaneously in the Spanish and Guatemalan courts on different aspects of the case, has allowed for learning and training opportunities for the lawyers involved, has forced local courts to engage with international law, and has tried to use the power of foreign courts to leverage domestic processes. It will consider the content and impact of the Guatemalan and Spanish jurisprudence generated by the case and its current prospects.

It will then describe the mandate and goals of CICIG and conclude with some initial thoughts on how these initiatives might complement each other and serve as an example elsewhere.