(Español) Judicial Independence in Chile, 1973-2023

This chapter, published in the book “Judicial Independence in Transitional Democracies”, examines the political and legal complexities of the evolution in Chile from a condescending judiciary during the 17 years of military dictatorship (1973–1990) to the increasing levels of judicial independence achieved during the democratic transition that began in 1990. Citizen support was essential to the processes of reforming the judiciary and strengthening democracy and the rule of law. Since 2015, three constituent processes have taken place in Chile (2015, 2021–2022 and 2023), which have discussed, among other issues, what the organisation of the judiciary should be and how it should function. Given that this is an extremely important issue for the rule of law, the way in which judicial independence is regulated should not be improvised. It is therefore proposed to respect the standards and guiding criteria of international law on the administration of justice, paying special attention to the Inter-American human rights system on judicial independence. Reflections on the Chilean case may be useful for the path towards the rule of law in other countries in transition from authoritarian governments to increasingly democratic regimes.