The following websites are available in Spanish only, but Google translating will apply to the website if the user chooses.
The Public Defender's website offers information about the office's functions and objectives, as well as access to videos and photographs.
The Public Prosecutor's website provides information about the office's functions, as well as links to statistics and publications.
The Chilean Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' site provides access to the full texts of relevant laws and regulations, as well as information on judicial reform.
This is the central website for the Chilean judiciary. The site includes links to opinions from the Chilean Supreme Court and appellate courts.
Created by law in 2012, the Chilean Environmental Courts hear claims of violations of environmental laws and regulations.
The Chilean Constitutional Court's website provides accesss to information about the Court, as well as opinions.
Includes links to antitrust-related decisions, orders, and resolutions.
Chile's specialized courts for tax and customs litigation. The website includes access to norms and jurisprudence.
A small sample of websites related to the regime and prosecution of Augusto Pinochet is listed below.
SSRN is an electronic repository for international social sciences scholarship that includes the Legal Scholarship Network (LSN). Thousands of downloadable abstracts, working papers, and published papers are available without charge. Users need to go through a free registration process in order to create an account.
For a description of the various types of Chilean legal instruments, see the article, "Essentials of the Chilean Legal System" (2019), posted on GlobaLex. Texts of bills, laws, and regulations, are easily searchable on the Library of the Chilean National Congress' website (see below). Many subject-specific laws and regulations are also posted on the related government department or ministry's website.
This is the website of the Library of the Chilean National Congress. The site provides access to bills, individual laws, and legislative history. The full texts of the Chilean codes (Civil, Criminal, Criminal Procedure, Tax, etc.) are also provided.
This is the Chilean government's daily gazette, similar in function to the U.S.' Federal Register.
The purpose of this website, jointly administered by several international organizations (FAO, IUCN, and UNEP) is to provide the "most comprehensive possible global source of information on environmental law." The site includes a database of national environmental legislation, which includes Chile.
Enacted on June 16, 2015, published in the Gaceta Oficial on June 25, 2015. Effective January 1, 2016. Available on the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional website.
Passed in November 2018, the law allows transgender people over the age of 14 to update their names on legal documents.
Law no. 21,030, passed in September 2017, allows abortions under three specific circumstances: there is risk to the life of the mother; the fetus is unviable; or the pregnancy resulted from rape and no more than 12 weeks of gestation have passed (14 weeks in the case of a girl under 14 years of age).
Enacted in November 2018, the law increases sanctions for various corruption offenses.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) maintains NATLEX--a database of national labor, social security, and human rights legislation. The database currently contains over 65,000 records, covering more than 190 countries. Chilean laws are included in the database.
This is a database of national cultural heritage laws that may be searched by country, heritage category, theme, type of instrument, and also by language. Chile is included in the database.
WIPO Lex is an international database of Intellectual Property laws and treaties, maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The database is searchable by country and subject, and there is also keyword search capability.
Links to a number of Chilean business laws such as those on bankruptcy, securities, and tax. Select "Chile" under "Choose Economies."
Some Chilean government and NGO/IGO websites post Englis-language translations of Chilean legal materials. Note that the translations may not be official or reflect the most current versions.
Translation is for informational purposes only. Source: InvestChile website.
Source: Website of the Chilean Superintendancy of Banks and Financial Institutions.
Source: Tobaccocontrollaws.org. The legislation database is a project of the International Legal Consortium of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C.
Source: Website of UNODC (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime).
Source: Website of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
Periodic English-language legal alerts prepared by attorneys at Carey, the largest law firm in Chile.
This page provides access to the current "Doing Business" English-language guide for Chile, based on annual World Bank surveys. The guide provides detailed information on starting a business, dealing with permits, hiring workers, etc.
Electoral.cl is a website that is guided and maintained by a private group of Chilean professionals with expertise in political analysis, communication, and consulting. The site offers a variety of information on Chilean elections, electoral laws, and political parties.
Edited by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress, the Handbook is an interdisciplinary bibliography of published works pertaining to the general topic of Latin American Studies. The Handbook is updated annually.
This site, administered by the Fundación Imagen de Chile, provides current information on Chile, including a section on "Doing Business." Spanish and English.
According to the publisher, LatAm-Studies is "is a database service dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of research on Latin America and the Caribbean." Although this is a subscription service, some content is available without charge via the website. Most sources are in Spanish.
LANIC is a comprehensive website dedicated to a variety of Latin American topics, including law and justice, political science, and human rights. According to LANIC's editors at the University of Texas at Austin, the site contains over 12,000 urls and is one of the largest sources of Latin American content on the WWW. Note that LANIC is no longer being updated as of July 2015.
This is the website of the print publication, Latin Lawyer, which focuses on business law developments in Latin America. Some content is available on the website without a subscription. See under the "Reference" tab for access to information on specific areas ot Chilean law, including IP and Labor.
This guide is part of a large collection of English-language overviews of conducting business in various foreign jurisdictions. The authors of the guides are members of Lex Mundi, a global organization of attorneys representing over 100 countries. Authors of this guide on Chile are members of the Claro y Cia. law firm.
This research guide, created by Ellen Schaffer and posted on the Pence Law Library's (American University) site, includes information on the history, the institutions, and the principal instruments of the Inter-American System. Separate tabs are included for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the Organization of American States (OAS).
Located in The Hague, the Peace Palace Library serves the International Court of Justice and has been collecting international legal materials since 1913. The Library's website provides access to its online catalogue as well as various research guides.
This is a large source of political information on Latin America. Links to primary law are included, along with extensive information on national political parties and electoral data and systems. According to the site, it is a "non-governmental project of the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Georgetown University in collaboration with institutions like the Secretariat for Political Affairs of the Organization of American States and FLACSO-Chile, and also with the support of other organizations and entities in the region."
Refword is an international database, organized by country, and maintained by the United Nations High Commmission on Human Rights (UNHCR). The database contains a collection of reports and policy documents relating to refugee status and human rights issues. There are over 800 documents pertaining to Chile, some of which are available in English.
SICE is a centralized website for trade information on the Americas, maintained by the OAS. SICE's entry on Chile includes Spanish language texts of trade policy documents and the 2009 "Trade Policy Review" in English.
This is a current overview of privacy laws in Chile, including descriptions of the legal infrastructures for communication surveillance and data protection.
Pan-Latin American news service, sponsored by the Bolivian, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Nicaraguan, and Uruguayan governments. Bilingual.
Includes information on various procedural topics, including service of process, depositions, and obtaining evidence.
This is an extensive online collection of 60,000+ human rights treaties and other human rights documents. Numerous links are also provided to human rights websites. Additionally, there is a site-specific search engine available, and a section on "Resources for Researching Country Conditions."
Several non-profit regional legal information initiatives created and now maintain World LII. The site offers legal subject-based links for individual countries.
The following versions of the 1980 Chilean constitution are available on the WWW. Note that the subscription database "World Constitutions Illustrated" in HeinOnline, contains an English-language translation of the constitution as codified by Supreme Decree No. 100 of September 17, 2005, as amended to Law no. 21,096 of June 5, 2018.
On October 25, 2020, Chileans overwhelmingly voted in favor of drafting a new constitution. On May 15 and 16, 2021, Chileans again went to the polls to elect 155 representatives to the Constitutional Convention.
This is the text of the Chilean Constitution of 1980, current through the date indicated in the text. The text is posted on the website of the Library of the Chilean National Congress (BCN) and amendments are incorporated as approved. Click on "Imprimir PDF" to open the document in PDF format.
The Constitute Project includes an English translation of the Chilean constitution through the 2015 amendments and also offers the ability to search for constitutional clauses by topic and make cross-constitutional comparisons.
Sites listed in English are in English or have an English-language site option.
PAC-Rim Legal Values: Chile (July 16, 2013)
This PowerPoint accompanied a talk on Chilean legal research given at the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting in Seattle on July 16, 2013. The speaker was Sergio Stone, Robert Crown Law Library, Stanford University. (Posted with permission.)
Researching Chilean Legal Topics (January 2017)
This PowerPoint presentation was prepared for the LUC Law School course, "Comparative Law Seminar: Legal Systems in the Americas."
