Gregorio Peces-Barba Legacy-Archive: The Voice of Democracy and Human Rights

The political figure of Gregorio Peces-Barba and his career as a jurist and professor make his legacy of great interest for research into the recent history of Spain. Since 2016, the Multidisciplinary Library at the Colmenarejo Campus of the Carlos III University of Madrid has housed the personal archive of Professor Gregorio Peces-Barba for its preservation and study.  

This exhibition presents a selection of documents from this Archive that reflects the life and professional trajectory of a person whose work in defense of human rights has been a transversal and permanent element throughout his life. 

The exhibition showcases some of the most important milestones in the life of this key figure in the transition to democracy: his defense of human rights and democratic values ​​in his legal practice, his socialist representation in the constitutional drafting committee as one of the fathers of the Constitution, his time as president of the Congress of Deputies, the creation of the Bartolomé de las Casas Institute of Human Rights, his academic career and research activity, and his role as founder and rector of the Carlos III University of Madrid.    

The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections, corresponding to three facets of Gregorio Peces-Barba's public life: lawyer, politician, and academic. Each section is illustrated and documented in a series of information panels, along with original documents and objects related to each aspect.  

 The exhibition follows a chronological script that begins with the beginnings of academic life, continues with the beginnings in politics along with the activity of lawyer, continues with the periods of deputy, constitutional rapporteur and president of the Congress of Deputies, to end again with academic life at the Carlos III University of Madrid.