Juan Garcés was born in 1944, graduated as a lawyer in 1967 from the university of Madrid, and obtained doctorates in political science from both the University of Madrid (1967) and the Sorbonne (1970).

When Salvador Allende became President of Chile in 1970, he invited Garcés to be his adviser. He was with the President when troops bombed the presidential palace and found himself the sole survivor among Allende's political advisers when the coup had run its course.

Garcés was forced to leave the country and return to Spain. Later he moved to Paris, where he worked as adviser to the Director General of UNESCO and researcher at the National Foundation of Political Science. In these years he wrote a number of books and articles about the Allende years, most famously "Allende and the Chilean Experience" (1976), which was published in five languages. He went back to Spain after the fall of Franco, became a member of the Madrid Bar Association in 1981 and set up a law firm in the following year.

In 1985 a Spanish law was passed that permitted victims of injustice, whether Spanish nationals or not, and whether the crimes were committed in Spain or not, to seek justice in the Spanish courts. Together with the Union of Progressive Spanish Prosecutors, Dr Garcés filed a criminal complaint against Pinochet and fellow junta leaders for 'crimes against humanity'. Simultaneously a civil suit was filed on behalf of the families of victims of Pinochet's regime, who had been organised by, and whose lawyers had been directed by, Garcés. The Spanish courts accepted both suits. When Pinochet visited London in October 1998, he was arrested pending extradition proceedings instituted by the Spanish authorities. Garcés intensified his collection of evidence, travelling several times to the US to take advantage of President Clinton's January 28, 1999 order to begin declassification of documents related to the Pinochet case, which he had helped to bring about.

Garcés has borne substantial costs in taking forward the Pinochet case, which has implications far beyond the indictment of one old ex-dictator and marks a breakthrough in the struggle against unaccountability and impunity. It confirms that heads of state or government can no more hide behind the shield of immunity from criminal procedures. It illustrates the need for universal jurisdiction with respect to prosecution and punishment of international crimes and constitutes a vital catalyst in support to the establishment of an effective International Criminal Court. Moreover, the Pinochet case serves as a precedent which may deter other prospective perpetrators of gross and massive violations of human rights.