ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the international legal innovations of the Hague conventions, the League of Nations Pact and the Kellogg–Briand Pact impacted the Spanish legal system. It focuses on the 1931 Spanish Constitution and suggests it was the best-prepared legal pacifist product of the interwar period, offering an extraordinary mandate for the Spanish state to promote the value of international peace. Spain's commitment to peace and pacifist principles was well established by 1931. The Spanish government turned to a position of long-term neutrality after its defeat in the Spanish–American war of 1898–1899. Spain's neutrality was maintained throughout the war, although not without enduring its own political and economic crises. The 1978 Spanish Constitution was the result of consensus between the various political groups and social agents supporting democracy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms in the aftermath of Franco's dictatorship.
