Originally from Arbitration Law and Practice in Latin America

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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.