Constitution

Chile 1980 Constitution (reviewed 2021)

Table of Contents

CHAPTER VI. JUDICIARY

ARTICLE 76

The power to hear civil and criminal cases, to resolve them and to enforce judgments, is vested exclusively to the courts established by law. Neither the President of the Republic nor the Congress may, in any case, exercise judicial functions, take over pending cases, review the grounds or contents of their decisions or revive closed cases.

Courts may not excuse themselves from exercising their authority if their intervention is requested in a legal manner and in connection with affairs of their jurisdiction, not even in the absence of a law to resolve the dispute or issue submitted to their decision.

To enforce their resolutions, and to practice or have practiced the acts of instruction established by law, the ordinary and special courts of justice that make up the Judiciary, may issue direct orders to the public force or exercise the conductive means of action of which they dispose. Other courts will do so in the manner established by law.

The requested authority shall comply without further delay the judicial mandate and will not qualify the grounds or opportunity, nor the justice or legality of the resolution that is trying to be executed.

ARTICLE 77

A constitutional organic law will determine the organization and powers of the courts that may be necessary for the prompt and complete administration of justice throughout the territory of the Republic. The same law shall establish the qualities that the judges must respectively have and the number of years that the persons appointed as Court Justices or career judges must have practiced the profession of lawyer.

The constitutional organic law on the organization and powers of the courts may be amended after hearing the Supreme Court, in accordance with the provisions of the respective constitutional organic law.

The Supreme Court must deliver this opinion within thirty days from the reception of the official letter in which the relevant opinion is requested.

However, if the President of the Republic would have made present the urgency of the consulted bill, this fact shall be communicated to the Court.

In that case, the Court must deliver its opinion within the period of time which the respective urgency specifies.

If the Supreme Court does not deliver its opinion within the aforementioned deadlines, the procedure will be concluded.

The constitutional organic law on the organization and powers of the courts, as well as the procedural laws that regulate a system of prosecution, may set different dates for their entry into force in various regions of the country. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the period for entry into force of these laws across the country may not exceed four years.

ARTICLE 78

As for the appointment of judges, the law shall meet the following general precepts.

The Supreme Court shall consist of twenty-one justices.

Justices and judicial prosecutors of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President of the Republic -choosing from a list of five people that, in each case, will be proposed by the same Court- with the agreement of the Senate. The latter will adopt the respective agreements by two-thirds of its members in office, at a session called for that purpose. If the Senate does not approve the proposal of the President of the Republic, the Supreme Court must complete the list proposing a new person in substitution of the rejected one, repeating the process until a proposal is approved.

Five of the members of the Supreme Court shall be lawyers that are strangers to the administration of justice, they must have had the law degree for at least fifteen years, must have excelled in professional or academic activity and must fulfill the other requirements that the respective constitutional organic law stipulates.

The Supreme Court, in the case of filling a position that corresponds to a member that comes from the Judiciary, will form the list exclusively with members of the latter, and the most senior Justice of the Court of Appeals that appears in the merits list shall occupy a place in it. The other four places will be filled in reason to the merits of the candidates. In the case of filling a position corresponding to lawyers that are strangers to the administration of justice, the list will be formed exclusively, with a previous public contest of antecedents, with lawyers who meet the qualifications set out in paragraph four.

The Justices and judicial prosecutors of the Courts of Appeals shall be designated by the President of the Republic, from a list of three candidates proposed by the Supreme Court.

Career judges shall be designated by the President of the Republic, from a list of three candidates proposed by the Court of Appeals of the respective jurisdiction.

The most senior career judge, in civil or criminal law, with a seat of Court or the most senior career judge, in civil or criminal law, of the position which is immediately inferior to that which is to be filled and that figures in the merits list and expresses his interest in the position, will occupy a place in the corresponding three-candidate list. The other two places will be filled in accordance with the merits of the candidates.

The Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals, when appropriate, will form lists of five or three candidates in a plenum specially convened for that purpose, in a single vote, in which each of its members will have the right to vote for three or two people respectively. The ones that obtain the five or three first majorities, correspondingly, will result elected. A tie will be decided by drawing lots.

However, in the case of the appointment of substitute Court Justices, the designation can be made by the Supreme Court and, in the case of judges, by the respective Court of Appeals. These designations may not last more than sixty days and will not be extendible. Should the aforementioned superior courts not exercise this power, or in the case that the substitution period has expired, the filling of the vacant positions will be done in the ordinary manner indicated above.

ARTICLE 79

Judges are personally liable for crimes of bribery, failure to observe substantial matters of the laws that govern the procedure, denial and distorted administration of justice and, generally, any prevarication incurred in the performance of their duties.

In the case of members of the Supreme Court, the law shall determine the cases and how to enforce this liability.

ARTICLE 80

Judges shall hold office during their good behavior; but the inferior judges will perform their respective judicature for the time determined by the law.

Nevertheless, the judges cease to hold office once they reach 75 years of age; or by resignation or legal supervening incapacity or in the case they are deposed from their positions by a legally sentenced cause. The norm regarding age does not apply in respect to the President of the Supreme Court, who will remain in office until the end of his term.

In any case, the Supreme Court upon request of the President of the Republic, at the request of an interested party, or ex officio, may declare that the judges have not had good behavior and, after a report of the accused and of the respective Court of Appeals, if necessary, may agree to their removal by the majority of the total of its components. These agreements shall be communicated to the President of the Republic for their compliance.

The Supreme Court, in plenum specially convened for that purpose, and by the absolute majority of its active members, may authorize or order, rightly, the transfer of judges and other officials and employees of the Judiciary to another position of the same category.

ARTICLE 81

The magistrates of the superior courts of justice, the judicial prosecutors and the career judges that make up the Judiciary, shall not be arrested whiteout an order of the competent court, except in the cases of a flagrant crime or a simple offense, and only to be put immediately under the disposition of the court that must hear the case in accordance with the law.

ARTICLE 82

The Supreme Court holds the directive, correctional and economic supervision of all courts of this nation. The Constitutional Court, the Election Qualifying Court and regional electoral courts are excepted from this rule.

The superior courts of justice, in exercise of their disciplinary powers, can only invalidate jurisdictional decisions in the cases and manner prescribed by the respective constitutional organic law.

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