The legal system of Bolivia
A civil-law system reconstituted by the 2009 Constitution as a plurinational state. Its defining feature is legal pluralism: indigenous, peasant and campesino jurisdiction holds equal hierarchy with ordinary jurisdiction (Article 179), a stronger formulation than the coordination models used in Colombia, Ecuador or Peru. Sucre is the constitutional capital and seat of the courts, while La Paz holds the executive and legislature.
Legal tradition
Bolivia belongs to the civil law with indigenous jurisdiction tradition. A civil-law system reconstituted by the 2009 Constitution as a plurinational state. Its defining feature is legal pluralism: indigenous, peasant and campesino jurisdiction holds equal hierarchy with ordinary jurisdiction (Article 179), a stronger formulation than the coordination models used in Colombia, Ecuador or Peru. Sucre is the constitutional capital and seat of the courts, while La Paz holds the executive and legislature.
How power is divided
Unitary with autonomies. Nine departments, municipalities, regions and indigenous territories each have elected assemblies and defined legislative competence under the Framework Law of Autonomies, which makes Bolivia substantially more decentralised than its unitary label suggests.
Where law comes from
- Constitution and the bloque de constitucionalidad
- Ratified human-rights treaties are read into the constitutional block.
- Statutes of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly
- Plus autonomous departmental and indigenous legislation within competence.
- Codes
- Civil Code (1976), Penal Code, Código Procesal Civil (2014), General Labour Act.
- Indigenous norms and procedures
- Applied by indigenous jurisdiction with equal hierarchy, bounded by the Jurisdictional Demarcation Act.
The legal profession
A law degree plus a national registration with the Ministry of Justice and membership of a departmental colegio de abogados. Practitioners in indigenous jurisdiction are not lawyers: those proceedings are conducted by the community's own authorities under its own norms, and a state lawyer has no right of audience there.
Law by topic in Bolivia
- Family LawCódigo de las Familias with free unions equal to marriageLey 603, the Código de las Familias y del Proceso Familiar of 2014, replaced the older family code and gives unión libre the same effects as marriage once cohabitation is stable and monogamous. Divorce is available on the ground of irreparable breakdown without proof of fault. Same-sex marriage is not recognised, though free unions between same-sex couples have been registered following constitutional litigation.
- Constitutional Law2009 plurinational Constitution with parallel indigenous jurisdictionThe 2009 Constitution refounded Bolivia as a Plurinational State, recognising 36 indigenous nations and establishing jurisdicción indígena originaria campesina as equal in hierarchy to the ordinary courts. The Tribunal Constitucional Plurinacional resolves conflicts of jurisdiction between them, and its magistrates are elected by popular vote.
- Business & CorporateCódigo de Comercio companies registered through SEPRECCompanies are formed under the 1977 Código de Comercio, commonly as a sociedad de responsabilidad limitada or sociedad anónima. Registration moved in 2022 from the concessionaire FUNDEMPRESA to the state Servicio Plurinacional de Registro de Comercio (SEPREC), which operates an electronic registry. A NIT is obtained from the Servicio de Impuestos Nacionales.
- Immigration & NationalityLey 370 de Migración with Mercosur residenceLey 370 of 2013 governs migration, administered by the Dirección General de Migración. It provides temporary and permanent residence and expressly recognises migrants' rights to family unity and access to services. Mercosur nationals may obtain residence on the basis of nationality. Foreign residents hold a carnet de extranjería.
- Property & LandDerechos Reales registration with INRA agrarian titlingUrban property transfers are executed by notarial deed and registered in Derechos Reales, the real-rights registry under the judiciary. Rural land is separately administered by the Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria (INRA), which conducted a nationwide saneamiento process to clear and retitle agrarian holdings, subject to the constitutional función económica social requirement.
- Tax LawIUE at 25 percent and IVA at 13 percent administered by SINThe Servicio de Impuestos Nacionales administers taxation. The impuesto sobre las utilidades de las empresas (IUE) is 25 percent, and IVA is 13 percent calculated on a tax-inclusive base. There is also a 3 percent transactions tax (IT) on gross receipts, and financial-sector surcharges. Individuals pay the RC-IVA complementary regime rather than a conventional income tax.
- Criminal LawCódigo Penal with oral procedure and high pre-trial detentionThe Código Penal and the Código de Procedimiento Penal (Ley 1970) provide an accusatorial oral process led by the Ministerio Público. Bolivia has one of the region's highest proportions of pre-trial detainees, and successive reforms including Ley 1173 sought to speed hearings and limit detención preventiva. Indigenous jurisdiction handles defined community matters.
- Employment & Labour1939 Ley General del Trabajo with strong reinstatement rightsThe Ley General del Trabajo of 1939 remains the core statute, supplemented by decrees. Dismissal is permitted only on listed grounds, and a worker dismissed without cause may obtain administrative reinstatement through the Ministerio de Trabajo. Employers owe an aguinaldo (13th salary) and, in years when GDP growth exceeds 4.5 percent, a second aguinaldo by decree.
- Civil ProcedureCódigo Procesal Civil of 2013 moved to oral hearingsLey 439, the Código Procesal Civil, replaced the 1976 code and introduced oral, concentrated procedure with preliminary and trial hearings. Conciliation is a compulsory stage. Constitutional actions — amparo, acción de libertad, acción popular and acción de cumplimiento — are governed by the Constitution and the Constitutional Tribunal's procedural code.
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