Judiciary of Chile

The law provides for an independent judiciary, and the government generally respected this provision in practice.

Chilean process provides for a very limited judicial review of legislative acts in the Constitutional Court.

On 4 September 2013, a week before the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought General Pinochet to power, the National Association of Magistrates of the Judiciary apologised for abandoning its role in protecting basic rights during Chile's military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.

[3] The head of the Chilean Judiciary System is the Supreme Court of Justice, a body integrated by twenty one members called "Ministers" (Ministros), one of them is elected by its peers as the President for a two-year period.

According to Chilean civil law system, the sentence of one judge only affects the case on which such sentence was dictated, nevertheless, the decisions of the Supreme Court are a strong precedent which is usually replicated by the lower instance courts and judges when deciding about similar cases.

Even though the law has given all of the competence in the first instance to the Judges of Letters, a Minister of Appeal will try should certain exceptional circumstances are fulfilled, regarding the nature of the issue or the quality or state of the individuals involved.

The procedures are totally oral, transparent and immediate, therefore, the judge and all the parts of the trial must be present in all audiences and the actuations must be done without the intervention of intermediaries.

By the end of the audience, the judge will decide about the relief measures and, if it is possible, will offer the parts a chance of mediation of conciliation.

At the end of the audience, the judge will dictate an oral sentence, which can be written immediately or in a period of five days.

The primary goal of this system is to reduce the emotional costs of the conflict and obtain a personal and voluntary compromise of those involved, in order to reach a sustainable and amicable relation for the future.

[1] Three-judge panels form the court of first instance; the process is oral and adversarial, trials are public, and judges rule on guilt and dictate sentences.

[1] In all cases, the law provides for the right to legal counsel and public defender's offices in all fifteen Regions and the Santiago Metropolitan Region, provide free professional legal counsel to anyone seeking such assistance.

[1] When requested by other human rights organizations or family members, the NGO Corporation for the Promotion and Defense of the Rights of the People and other lawyers working pro bono assisted detainees during interrogations and represented some persons charged with terrorist acts in court.