PRICE CONTROL AND EXTERNAL INTERVENTION OF CONTRACTS IN CHILEAN LAW

Abstract

This paper offers a general explanation of the mechanics of price control and the cases in which external intervention of the contracts is admitted in Chilean law. The shift of the paradigm from a “closed” to an “open” notion of contract represented the replacement of commutative justice by procedural justice. This meant that the legal system reacted through different proceedings to introduce equity corrections. Thus, the “directed contract” was created and, later, various public policies were implemented for the protection of certain groups of contractual parties. As the Chilean law does not contain a general rule on judicial control of the contractual content, and neither does it contemplate the supervening change of circumstances, the matter must be dealt with in a fractional fashion, starting with the treatment of the laesio enormis in the Civil Code, continuing with the criminal repression of usury, the institutional order to supervise the operation of the trade and the means of protection existing in an insolvency scenario. Consumer law deserves special mention, although the said sectorial discipline is not too explicit about the depth of the judge’s intervention in the face of an abusive clause. Finally, there is no general recognition of the general contracting conditions in Chile.