Criminal
Fully adversarial procedure since the 2000-2005 reform
Chile completed one of the region's most thorough criminal-procedure reforms, replacing written inquisitorial process with oral adversarial trials through the Código Procesal Penal, rolled out regionally between 2000 and 2005. The Ministerio Público investigates, guarantee judges supervise pre-trial rights, and oral trial courts decide. A public defender service was created alongside.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National criminal code and procedure
- Deadline — Detainee before a guarantee judge within 24 hours
- Deadline — Investigation: maximum two years from formalisation
- Deadline — Appeal (recurso de nulidad): 10 days from the judgment
Governing law
- Código Penal de Chile
- Ley 19.696 - Código Procesal Penal
- Ley 20.084adolescent criminal responsibility
In practice
The separation of functions is the defining feature: the juez de garantía protects rights during investigation but does not try the case, and a different tribunal de juicio oral en lo penal hears the evidence afresh at trial. The reform is often cited as a regional model precisely because it was accompanied by new institutions — prosecution service, public defence and reorganised courts — rather than a code change alone.