No more Spanish war crimes lawsuits?

The Spanish government is trying to change the laws that allow, well, anyone to sue anyone else in the world, for whatever reason.

Spanish legislators voted Thursday to change a law that let judges indict Osama bin Laden and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, narrowing its scope to cases with a clear link to this country and yielding to criticism that Spain should not act like a global cop.

The reform will not be retroactive, so the dozen or so cases now being investigated at the National Court will continue, the Justice Ministry said. These include investigations of alleged Chinese abuses in Tibet, an Israeli air force bombing in Gaza that killed 14 civilians, and alleged torture at the U.S. prison for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I guess Spain is tired of being laughed at. Or perhaps they’ve finally realized that nobody’s going to go to Spain anymore if they can be arrested for any allegation that their political enemies can bring against them. Or perhaps they just woke up to the fact that they have no jurisdiction to try these cases.

Here’s hoping it goes through.