UPF CASE: The Repression of Republicans During and After the Spanish Civil War

The purpose of our research project for Eutopia was to examine how Franco used law as a means of legitimising and entrenching repression of the internal enemies during and after the Spanish Civil War. 

In our research, we focused primarily on the role of military trials, and special jurisdictions introduced, such as the one created by the Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas 1939, as we wanted to illustrate and emphasise how arbitrary terror was used to enforce the regime. 

We used Ernst Fraenkel’s concept of a dual state, where terror and normality coexist in the same legal system. We wanted to identify how Franco’s regime fulfilled this concept, and felt the military trials and extraordinary jurisdictions demonstrated this arbitrary terror most explicitly. 

Our research also included an analysis of civil law as a means of repression, which, due to time constraints, didn’t feature in our presentation. However, this report contains a brief section on this area of law, as it complemented the role of military trials and extraordinary jurisdictions, in institutionalising repression and squashing Catalan culture. The retroactive application of law introduced during and after the civil war violated the principle of legality, resulting in the normalisation of arbitrary power.

Military parade chaired by Francisco Franco, January 1942. Perez de Rozas (source: Ajuntament Barcelona). 

Legalisation of repression

The repression of Republicans, and other political opponents of Franco, was legalised and systemically enacted through various areas of law. The laws and practices introduced during the Spanish Civil War and in it’s immediate aftermath relied on terror and control, and embedded Francoism socially and culturally. The use of the legal system to legitimize the repression also allowed Franco’s regime to maintain a semblance of normality and legality.

A. Military Trials

Military trials became a key mechanism for elimination of political opponents, and were introduced at the start of the Civil war in 1936. Convictions of military rebellion carried a death sentence, or prison sentences of up to 30 years. These trials persisted in the post-war period, taking a central role in the institutionalisation of repression in the Franco regime. These tribunals became a basic instrument of repression, where citizens were tried for wartime violence, or for their political or social association with the republic. In the post war period from 1939-1945, Francoist courts and death squads killed over 50,000 republicans, and in some areas, Francoists subjected 15% of the population to military trials. 

Although presented as legal proceedings, these tribunals operated outside of the rule of law, creating an arbitrary and highly politicised system that conflated execution and justice. These superficial “trials” failed to prove whether those on trial had committed any acts of violence, and in practice, exercised the same function as death squads, as tribunals were granted a wide autonomy over sentencing. 

In Catalonia, the majority of executions occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, with the strategy of legitimising Franco’s power, criminalising and eliminating political opponents and perpetuating the nationalist narrative of ‘martyrs and barbarians.’ 

Additionally, in the plight of the courts to institutionalise repression, they relied on grassroots supporters of the regime, to provide witness testimonies against those on trial. Emergency rules for military tribunals were first introduced during the Civil War in November 1936, and identified that witness testimonies couldn’t be contested in court. Although these emergency procedures were abandoned in the post war period, trials continued to rely on uncorroborated witness testimonies, and it was common practice for investigating judges of trials to gather testimonies from ‘upstanding citizens’. 

By devolving the investigation of Republicans to regime supporters, the regime not only eliminated political opponents but also embedded Francoism socially and culturally. This upheld an illusion of legality, and the facade that rule of law was functioning, whilst repression was being systematically enacted.

B. Extraordinary jurisdictions

Extraordinary jurisdiction complemented the powers of military tribunals and extended the means of repressing Republicans and other political opponents.

Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas

Law of February 9th, 1939 on political responsibilities punished families of republicans, or parties, associations and individual opponents of the Francoist regime. This law allowed the state to seize their assets, claiming that these would be used in efforts to rebuild the country after the Civil War. These laws established that families could ‘inherit guilt’, for example, the children of the former Catalan President Francesc Macià were prosecuted on the basis of their father’s position, despite the fact that he had died in 1933, outside the limit of retroactivity (1934) specified in the law itself. This application of this law was a means of political and economic repression, and established a public narrative of republican guilt.

Ley de Represión de la Masonería y el Comunismo

Enacted on March 1, 1940, the law on the repression of freemasonry and communism functioned similarly to Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas as it targeted political opponents to the regime. Whilst this law was the pinnacle of the regime's anti-Masonic law, with penalties ranging from confiscation of property to life imprisonment, Franco’s regime had already enacted mechanisms to repress Masons prior to its enactment. For example, under the Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas, Masonry membership was identified as punishable political responsibility, and was punishable by a fine or confiscation of property.

 The 1940 law was enacted in a context in which freemasons were already persecuted, as the first decree against Freemasonry was published on September 15th, 1936, and identified that “Freemasonry and other clandestine associations are declared contrary to the law”. Subsequently, on December 21st, 1938, another decree demanded that all inscriptions or symbols of a Masonic nature were to be removed from cemeteries in the Nationalist zone. 

Under the Ley de Represión de la Masonería y el Comunismo, a Special Tribunal was created, consisting of 5 members, with the president reporting directly to Franco's personal Cabinet Office as opposed to the Justice Ministry. In practice, this meant that the enforcement of this law operated outside of the scope of the judiciary, demonstrating the extraordinary nature of this legal mechanism. In addition, in September 1941 a press campaign was established to tailor the communication of the sentences issued by the Special Tribunal. The Vicesecretaría de Educación Popular, ordered Spanish newspapers to publish sentences issued by the tribunal alongside commentaries that identified the ‘prejudice that members of the [Masonic] sect have inflicted on Spain'. This demonstrated how legal repression encroached on cultural life within Spain, and how extraordinary measures of repression were normalised.

C. Labor and Civil Law

Aspects of private law also assisted in institutionalising repression, by normalising terror and control.

Fuero del Trabajo and worker repression

Labour policy acted as a tool of repression and exercised control over the working class. Before the end of the civil war the Fuero del Trabajo (Labour Law) (1938) was introduced, which created rules for the functioning of the labour market that remained in force throughout the entirety of Franco’s regime. 

This designated the state as the supreme supervisory body responsible for establishing labour relations. The legal framework excluded married women from the labour market, and grouped employees and workers in a single vertical trade union at the service of the state. 

In addition, the 1940 Law of Trade Union Unity (Ley de Unidad Sindical) established La Falange as the only organization authorized to channel labor conflicts. This destroyed the capacity of workers to protest or negotiate and meant they were effectively controlled by their employers. The effect of these labour laws was to normalise terror and control.

Other means of repression through civil law

Further mechanisms for institutionalising repression were through aspects of civil law. A law derogating civil marriage (1938) reinstated the importance of the Catholic Church, which was also given absolute control over primary and secondary education. This law was applied retroactively, considering divorces and subsequent civil marriages to be nullified. In 1942, the crime of adultery was reestablished, and in 1945, Fuero de los Españoles established Permiso marital (marital permission), which prohibited married women from employment, owning property and even travelling without the written consent of her husband. In practice, the combination of these laws entrenched gender roles and particularly discriminated against married women, tying them to their husbands. This extended Franco’s repression beyond the political sphere, embedding subordination and control into domestic life. 

Additionally, the Order of 18 May 1938, prohibited the registration of ‘abstract’ names, or any not included in the Roman Martyrology for Catholics, stating that names must be registered in Castillian. This too functioned as a tool of repression, targeting minority identities such as Catalan and Basque, suppressing separatist sentiment, and enforcing the nationalist vision of a unified, homogeneous Spain.

Aftermath

Following Franco's death in 1975, Spain's transition to democracy was initially built on deliberate silence. The Amnesty Law (1977), also known as the pact of forgetting, was passed with the intention to free political opponents still in prison. However, it provided almost no sort of reparations for those who suffered. The 1977 Spanish Amnesty Law was officially meant to free political prisoners and promote reconciliation after Franco’s dictatorship. Following almost four generations of Franco, it was hard to have a completely neutral judiciary. The 1977 Spanish Amnesty Law, while officially meant to free political prisoners and promote reconciliation, was interpreted by judges and prosecutors as a “Ley de Punto Final,” effectively blocking any investigation or prosecution of crimes committed under the regime.

Memory Legislation

The Ley 52/2007 (Historical Memory Act) was the first major legislative response. Its official title — 'Law recognising rights and establishing measures for those who suffered persecution or violence during the civil war and the dictatorship' — reflects its focus on victims' rights rather than historical narrative. Key provisions included subjecting Francoist court rulings to annulment, financial support for victims and relatives, and banning political events at the Valle de los Caídos. However, the law declared Francoist tribunal decisions illegitimate rather than void and invalid. Since they were not declared null, these rulings technically remained part of the legal system. Implementation was also inconsistent: the conservative PP, in government from 2011, largely ignored the Act, stalling progress on exhumations and the removal of Francoist symbols. In 2015, the PP condemned Madrid city council's decision to rename Francoist streets, accusing the left of reopening Civil War wounds.

The right-wing PP accused the PSOE of 'breaking the spirit of the Transition'. It repeatedly referred to 'the wounds of the Civil War' that it accused the left-wing parties of reopening.

Positive change in addressing the legacy of Francoist Spain began with the exhumation of Francisco Franco from the Valle de los Caídos in 2019, which marked a symbolic break from decades of official silence and impunity. The Ley 20/2002, or Democratic Memory Law, went further by declaring null and void the convictions issued by illegal Francoist tribunals between 1936 and 1978, making the state responsible for locating and exhuming victims from unmarked mass graves, establishing a national DNA bank and victims’ registry, redefining the Valle de los Caídos as a civil cemetery, and offering Spanish citizenship to descendants of exiles. This law aligned national legislation with Catalonia’s earlier Act 11/2017 and represented a significant step toward historical justice and reconciliation.

Mass Graves

The scale of Francoist repression is starkly reflected in the hundreds of mass graves that remain across Spain, a physical reminder of the regime’s systematic targeting of civilians and political opponents, even far from the front lines - for example, 47 mass graves have been identified in Mallorca despite no significant combat occurring there. Excavations began sporadically in the 1970s, with 1999 marking the first systematic exhumations and a cultural turning point in Spain’s engagement with Civil War memory. A key element of the Ley 20/2002, or Democratic Memory Law, is that it places responsibility for locating, exhuming, and identifying these remains squarely on the state, rather than families or associations. Sites such as the Fossar de la Pedrera in Barcelona’s Montjuïc cemetery, which holds around 1,700 victims of Francoist repression, highlight both the importance and the complexity of this work: excavations in regions like Extremadura have provided vital insights into the profiles of victims, yet communities often face tension, as some survivors and relatives prefer remains to remain undisturbed for religious reasons or to avoid re-traumatization. The law’s provisions, by acknowledging and systematizing state responsibility, represent a crucial step toward historical justice and the memorialization of those who suffered under Franco’s regime.

State map of graves. By Ministerio de Política Territorial y Memoria Democrática (source: gob.es).

Culture and Education

Spain's memory politics is also visible in what is absent. In 2014, a new education act introduced the Jewish Holocaust into the school curriculum, yet made no reference to the thousands of Spanish Republicans deported to Nazi camps, or to the broader victims of Francoism. This selective approach has allowed Francoism to become naturalised in Spanish contemporary history without critical institutional scrutiny. Significant monuments remain standing: the gigantic commemorative structure at Tortosa, Catalonia, marking the Battle of the Ebro — the longest and bloodiest battle of the Civil War — continues to enjoy legal protection. Spanish courts have characterised the democratic transition as a 'perfect model', treating the crimes of Francoism as having scholarly but no legal consequences.

Lauren Ferrie, Annika Cross and Guillem Marcer

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