Law of Chile
The legal system of
Public law
Constitution
The current Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile, approved by Chilean voters in a tightly controlled
In 2005 over 50 reforms were approved, which eliminated some of the remaining undemocratic areas of the text, such as the existence of non-elected Senators (appointed senators, or
There is a constitutional court (Tribunal Constitucional) with the competence to declare a singular law "not applicable" to an individual case (inaplicabilidad por inconstitucionalidad) and, having declared that at least once, the unconstitutionality of that law in general.
Administrative law
The
All Ministries and public services have a body of workers or administrative personnel (funcionarios públicos).
Public property is subject to privileges and burdens, because it serves public purposes. The sea, rivers and lakes, mines and natural reservations belong to the state and may be used by "anyone", but when individual exploitation is possible then it is in the hands of privates. On the other hand, buildings, cars and other supplies that are necessary for the work of public agencies are also property of the state.
Public entities act through administrative procedures, that is, processes with formal stages where opportunities to deliver evidence and exercise appeals are granted to the citizens. The recent basic law of administrative procedures deals with most of the general matters pertaining the administrative procedures of all public entities.
There is not a singular administrative court to deal with actions against the administrative entities, but several specialized courts and procedures of review. However, civil courts have jurisdiction over all matters that are not in the scope of other tribunal, such as public liability and the overturn of single administrative acts.
Regulation
Since the privatization of most economic activities in the 1980s, the President and the independent agencies became the main policy makers regarding the regulation of the economy, subordinated to legislation.
The exploitation of mines and water resources is given in concession to private entrepreneurs.
All activities that can have a significant impact on the
There are agencies (Superintendencias) dealing with:
- Electricity and Fuels (Superintendencia de Electricidad y Combustibles, SEC),
- Water Supply and Treatment (Superintendencia de Servicios Sanitarios, SISS),
- Banking and Finance, Stock Exchange and Insurances (Comisión para el Mercado Financiero, CMF)
- CMF was created by merging of former agencies: Superintendencia de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras, SBIF and Superintendencia de Valores y Seguros, SVS.
- Casinos (Superintendencia de Casinos de Juegos, SCJ)
- Bankruptcy (Superintendencia de Insolvencia y Reemprendimiento, SIR),
- Environmental Protection (Superintendencia de Medio Ambiente, SMA),
- Pensions and Retirement Funds (Superintendencia de Pensiones, SP),
- Social Security (Superintendencia de Seguridad Social, SUSESO),
- Health (Superintendencia de Salud),
- Education (Superintendenica de Educación), etc.
Private law
Civil Code
The Civil Code of the Republic of Chile is the work of the Chilean-Venezuelan jurist and legislator Andrés Bello. After several years of individual work (though officially presented as the work of multiple Congress commissions), Congress passed the Civil Code into law on 14 December 1855, and came into force on 1 January 1857. The Code has kept in force since then though it has been the object of numerous alterations.
The main modernisations the code has undergone have affected family law and the law of successions. On one hand, these reforms have introduced more equal relations between men and women and, on the other, they have eliminated discriminations between children born from married couples and those born extramaritally.
Being part of the civil law tradition, there is no obedience to precedent in Chilean law. Nevertheless, sentences of a higher court can be appealed to the Supreme Court based in the erroneous application of the law, thus being able to deliver uniform decisions in controversial matters of law. See Judiciary of Chile.
Commerce
Though the Commerce Code of 1868 was the main source of business law, nowadays the legislation is widely spread in many legislative bodies.
For instance, both the Civil Code and the Commerce Code deal with the basic matters of enterprises, but
Recently the law of bankruptcy has been incorporated in the Commerce Code, in a process of re-codification.
Matters such as
Family
Originally, Family law in Chile was created according to the conservative spirit of the society of 19th century. Their principles was: high protection of matrimonial family (and discrimination ni non-matrimonial filiation), authority of husband over wife, and a great parental power over the children. Also, in the beginnings the Catholic Church has the control in many familiar actions, but with the Laicist Acts (Leyes Laicas) were transferred their powers to state agencies, like the Civil Registration, and created the Civil Marriage in 1884.
However, there were several reforms across the 20th century, for the purpose of ending legal discrimination and make family relationships more equal, in addition to protecting the most vulnerable members. Therefore, in 1967 is created the Childs Act (Ley de Menores), in 1993 the Domestic Violence Act (Ley de Violencia Intrafamiliar) and in 2004 a new Civil Marriage Law (Ley de Matrimonio Civil) that introduces divorce. Likewise, Civil Code was reformated many times for doing better conditions for married women, and in 1989 the husband authority was repealed; on the other hand, in 1998 it introduces a new filiative system that gives equal rights to children born inside or outside a marriage.
In recent years, new reforms allows to same-sex couples obtain many rights. Thus, in 2014 is created the Civil Union Agreement (Acuerdo de Unión Civil), and in 2021 is established the same-sex marriage.
Since 2005, a separate familiar procedure is established by the Family Courts (Juzgados de Familia) with a verbal trial.
Criminal law
Since the year 2000, Chilean
The Chilean
See also
Notes
- ^ "El Clarín de Chile - Ejecutivos usan información privilegiada en fusión Falabella-D&S". 2011-07-18. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
- ^ ANTEPROYECTO DE NUEVO CÓDIGO PENAL (in Spanish)
References
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (September 2008) |
- Brief review of Chile's constitutional history – Chile's Library of Congress (in Spanish)
- Vergara Blanco, Alejandro, "Panorama General del Derecho Administrativo Chileno", in Santiago González-Varas (dir.) El Derecho Administrativo Iberoamericano", pp. 137 ss.
- Tapia Rodríguez, Mauricio, "Código Civil 1855–2005. Evolución y Perspectivas", Ed. Jurídica de Chile, 2005, p. 45.
- Somarriva Undurraga, Manuel, "Evolución del Código Civil chileno", Ed. Nascimento, 1955.
- Edwin Montefiore Borchard. Guide to the law and legal literature of Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Law Library of Congress. Government Printing Office. Washington. 1917. Internet Archive
- Helen Lord Clagett. A guide to the law and legal literature of Chile, 1917–1946. Library of Congress. Washington. 1947. HathiTrust
- Daniela Horvitz. Family law in Chile: overview. Thomson-Reuters Practical Law. 2020.