[JURIST] The Spanish government on Saturday began to accept [MOJ materials, PDF, in Spanish] applications for citizenship from descendants of those who fled the country during its civil war [BBC backgrounder] of the 1930s. The law [text] which provides for return of an estimated 500,000 expatriates and their children was passed by the Spanish Parliament [JURIST report] in 2007 and approved by the country's cabinet [official website] on Friday. Under the law, those that return will not be required to renounce their foreign citizenship. It also requires the controversial renaming of streets and public places that had commemorated dictator Francisco Franco [BBC backgrounder], and provides compensation for victims of his regime. AP has more.

Earlier this month, judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC backgrounder] ordered [JURIST report] the exhumation of 19 mass graves attributed to Franco's forces and argued [PDF text, in Spanish] that mass disappearances during Franco's rule constituted crimes against humanity. Garzon, widely known for his high-profile investigations of terror and human rights cases, had previously called for the creation of a "truth commission" [JURIST report] to uncover Franco-era abuses. In September, Garzon began an investigation [JURIST report] to assemble a definitive registry of the tens of thousands of victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime. Garzon ordered government agencies, the Spanish Episcopal Conference [church website], the University of Granada [academic website] and the mayors of four cities to produce the names of people buried in mass graves, as well as the circumstances and dates of their burial.

[JURIST] Judge Henry Kennedy of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Friday ordered [order, PDF] the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] to release legal memoranda relating to the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. The issue came before the court in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the National Security Archive [advocacy websites], which sought the release of the documents under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text; DOJ materials] request. The DOJ had originally denied the request, arguing that the memoranda, authored by the White House Office of Legal Counsel [official website], were exempt from FOIA requests because they contained privileged information. Kennedy found that DOJ summaries of the information included in the memos were insufficient for him to determine whether they were exempt from disclosure:

Simply because the documents contain legal advice does not necessarily mean that the attorney-client privilege applies to the documents, however. In short, the declarations provided by DOJ are too vague to enable this court to determine whether the attorney-client privilege applies.

The court has no doubt that, to the extent DOJ became privy to classified information, there was an expectation that DOJ was to keep this information confidential. The attorney-client privilege is not necessarily the means for protecting this information. Without more information, the court cannot conclude that the attorney-client privilege applies.

[JURIST] Officials from the German Foreign Ministry [official website] on Saturday said that Germany will seek a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] to block new claims for personal damages resulting from Nazi actions in World War II. Germany is seeking the ruling after a recent decision [JURIST report] by Italy's high court, the Court of Cassation [official website, in Italian], which ordered Germany to pay 1 million euros (USD $1.3 million) in damages to relatives of 203 civilians killed in the town of Civitella during the war. AP has more. DPA has local coverage.

The Court of Cassation awarded the damages [Corriere della Sera report, in Italian] in a case against Max Josef Milde, a German sergeant present at the Civitella attack, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. Under Italian law, crime victims may seek civil damages as part of a criminal proceeding. Germany had argued that the 1961 Bonn Treaty, where Germany agreed to pay 40 billion marks to Italy for war crimes committed, closed all further financial compensation claims, but the Italian court held the treaty only applied to treatment of the Jews. Germany had also argued that the award is unenforceable under the principle of state immunity. International agreements that govern situations in which a nation may claim immunity include the European Convention on State Immunity [text], ratified by members of the Council of Europe in 1972, and the UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property [text], adopted in 2004.

[JURIST] Mexico's federal police commissioner Gerardo Garay has resigned in the face of recent allegations that Mexican law enforcement offices have been infiltrated by drug cartels. Garay said in a statement Saturday that he was resigning in cooperation with authorities so that he could resolve the allegations against him. Garay took control of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) [official website, in Spanish], the uniformed branch of the federal police force, when the previous commissioner, Edgar Millan Gomez, was killed in May. Garay's resignation comes as one of his lieutenants and five military members face charges [AP report] for their connections with the Sinaloa drug cartel. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Last week, Mexican Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibanez, head of Mexico's Assistant Prosecutors Office Specializing in Organized Crime (SIEDO) [official website, in Spanish], reported that a branch of a Mexican drug cartel had infiltrated her office [JURIST report]. Following SIEDO's 'Operation Cleaning,' Miguel Colorado Gonzales, Fernado Rivera Hernadez, Jorge Alberto Zavala, Antonio Mejia Robles, and at least one other SIEDO investigator were accused of receiving between $150,000 and $450,000 (USD) a month from the Sinaloa syndicate in exchange for confidential information. The investigation also revealed that the cartel had at least one insider at the US Embassy in Mexico.