I. INTRODUCTION: ARBITRATION IN CHILE

HISTORY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

A. History and Current Legislation on Arbitration

1. Historical evolution of law relating to arbitration

Although there has been a favorable attitude towards arbitration

in Chile since its independence in 1810, there was no formal

recognition of arbitral tribunals in the first decades thereafter. It was

in Title XI of the Law for the Organization and Attribution of the

Judiciary of 1875 that arbitral tribunals were first recognized in

Chilean law. Later the Code of Civil Procedures of 1902 (CCP), in

force still today, included rules that governed the arbitral

proceedings under the title “Arbitral Proceedings” in Book III, Title

IX. Thereafter, in Law 7.421 of 1943 entitled Code of Judicial

Organization (CJO), provisions of the Law for the Organization and

Attribution of the Judiciary and other provisions governing

arbitration were merged into a unique text.

This is as far as special legislation on domestic arbitration goes

at present in Chile. Articles 222 to 243 of the CJO and Articles 628 to

644 of the CCP contain provisions dedicated specifically to

arbitration. In all matters not regulated by these provisions, the

ordinary rules of civil procedure apply.

Until 2004, the regime of the CJO and the CCP applied also to

international arbitrations. In September of 2004, Law 19.971 on

International Commercial Arbitration (ICAL) was enacted and came

to fill in several gaps left by the then existing regime, which was

conceived for domestic arbitration and was therefore inappropriate

for international cases. The major shift came in what concerns the

concept of arbitration, which went from a jurisdictional temporary

function to a procedure born out of the parties’ consent. As will be

shown throughout this country chapter, this difference permeates

many aspects of the proceedings between international and

domestic arbitration.