The international commercial arbitration in Chile is governed by Law

N° 19,971; the International Commercial Arbitration Law (ICA Law),

which adopted the United Nations Commission on International Trade

Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law. Indeed, Chilean law makers drafted the

bill of the ICA Law entirely around said Model Law. The ICA Law was

published on the Official Gazette of Chile on September 29th, 2004.

 

Domestic arbitration, on the other hand, is governed by the Civil

Procedure Code (Código de Procedimiento Civil—CPC) and the Code of

Organization of the Courts (Código Orgánico de Tribunales—COT).

The CPC provides for three types of arbitrators:

 

• An arbitrator bound by law (“arbitrator at law”), who is obliged

to conduct the proceedings and to render his/her award as he/she

were a judge of a national court.

• An arbitrator in equity (“ex aequo et bono”) conducts the

proceedings and renders the award applying its own prudence

and principles of equity. The arbitrator is bound throughout the

hearing to the procedural rules agreed by the parties in the

arbitral agreement. In the absence of such rules, the arbitrator

must apply certain supplemental procedural rules of the CPC.

• A mixed arbitrator is an individual who, during the hearing, is

bound to the rules established by the parties, but renders his/her

arbitral award under the rules of the CPC as if he/she were a

judge of a national court.1

 

Finally, it must be mentioned that Chilean’s leading arbitral

institution for both domestic and international arbitration is the

Arbitration and Mediation Centre of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce

(CAM Santiago).