Baltasar Garzón was Examining Magistrate from 1981 to 2012. Since 3 April 2012 he has been a lawyer for the Bar Association of Seville (Spain) and practices in Madrid.

In February 1988, he was appointed as judge of the Central Court of Criminal Proceedings Number 5. The competences of this court were set forth in article 65 of Organic Law on the Judiciary, in addition to its jurisdiction over acts of terrorism. In this position he was one of six judges responsible for instructing cases on terrorism, drug trafficking, organised economic and financial crime, organised crime, laundering of assets, extraditions and crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, as well as crimes regarding corruption and those committed by Spanish nationals abroad.

• On 23 May 2010, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague appointed him as external consultant.
• On 20 May 2011, he was appointed as the external consultant of the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia.
• On 7 July 2011, he joined the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.
• From November 2011 to January 2013 he was coordinator of the International Oversight Committee for the judicial reform of Ecuador.
• Garzón chairs the FIBGAR Foundation, a non profit pro-Human Rights and Universal Jurisdiction organisation with offices in Madrid, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.
• He is the President of the UNESCO International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights (CIPDH) in Argentina between 2012 and 2016.
• Baltasar Garzón lectured on Human Rights at the University of Washington in Seattle (USA) until 2014.

He is the author of ten books:

• Book - Narco: El tráfico de drogas como instrumento del crimen organizado. Publisher: Germania 1997
• Book - Cuento de Navidad. Es posible un mundo diferente. Publisher: Ediciones de la Tierra. 2002
• Book Un mundo sin miedo. Publisher: Plaza & Janés. 2005
• Book - La lucha contra el terrorismo y sus límites. Publisher: Adhara. 2006
• Book -  El alma de los verdugos. Co-author, Vicente Romero. Publisher: RBA 2007
• La Línea del Horizonte. Publisher: Debate 2008
• La Fuerza de la Razón. Publisher: Debate, 2010
• El Fango. Publisher: Random Mouse, 2015. Crónica sobre 40 años de corrupción en España.
• Lección de Justicia, Book within the collection El elogio de la Educación-Consejo de mentes brillantes, Published by FINEO Mexico, 2015.
• En el Punto de Mira, la Forja de un Juez a contracorriente. Publisher: Planeta. Repaso en primera persona de los 25 años al frente del Juzgado Central de Instrucción de la Audiencia Nacional de España. October 2016.

He has also written many articles and papers on a wide range of legal matters. He has been awarded an honorary degree by 29 universities around the world and is a member of various humanitarian organisations, as well as conflict resolution centres, both in and outside of Spain.