La autonomía de la voluntad en la legislación chilena de derecho internacional privado

Party autonomy in international contracts, understood as the right of the parties to choose the governing law of a contract, is widely accepted worldwide and said to belong to the "common core of the legal systems". This paper shows, however, that autonomy is not clearly statutorily accepted in Chile, though being widely practiced in the country. In fact, national courts vacillate as to upholding choice of foreign law clauses in international contracts performed in Chile due to the strong territorialism of Chilean law. Thus, the amendment of this law in order to consolidate autonomy is needed to secure the validity of these clauses and to eradicate juridical uncertainty about their efficacy. Further, it will help to update, perfect and harmonize Chilean conflict rules with those of most countries.