Global Litigation Guide 2019 - Chilean Chapter

1. GENERAL

1.1 General Characteristics of Legal System

Chile follows a civil law system strongly influenced by the Spanish and French legal systems, specifically by the Napoleonic Code model.

Generally, judicial proceedings are adversarial and have been evolving from a system based on written submissions to one centered on oral arguments. Currently, criminal, labour, tax, and family procedures are based on oral arguments, whereas civil litigation remains essentially as a written system, except for oral arguments before the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.

1.2 Structure of Country's Court System

All courts and judicial agencies branch out from a single Judicial Power, forming a hierarchical system led by the Supreme Court, organised by territorial divisions and subject matter jurisdictions. The Supreme Court, located in Santiago and divided into four specialised courtrooms on a subject matter basis, has the directive, correctional and economical