The regulation of the crimes under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in Act Nº 20.357

Abstract

The text is focused on Act Nº 20.357, which regulates crimes against humanity and genocide, and war crimes in Chilean legal system. It looks through its regulations, both of the general as well as the special part, with the objective of clarifying if the statute is coherent with its declared purpose, which is to guarantee that Chilean courts, in the application of national legislation, are able to exercise their jurisdiction over the same crimes against international law that are assigned to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. It is concluded that albeit its implementation is a very relevant step forward in this field, the declared objective is not upheld in its entirety, due to the fact that in certain aspects the Chilean Act tend to innovate, making the scope of its application more limited than the jurisdiction of the International Penal Court, even though there is no justification for this restrictions in the Act’s history.