Linked contracts and fraus legis in Chilean Private Law. An analysis in light of Italian Law

Abstract

Linked contracts are a law avoidance control instrument. They allow us to interpret jointly the several contracts through which an economic transaction has been fractioned. This, in turn, allows us to determine whether a legal rule has been avoided. Following Italian Law authors, this paper proposes a reconstruction of linked contracts theory in Chilean Law, emphasizing crossed contractual interpretation as one of its effects. Then, it analyses how can a fraud be committed by fractioning a transaction in multiple contracts, each one legal by itself, and how can linked contracts theory allow the interpreter to determine the fraudulent scheme and to sanction it, by enforcing the avoided legal rule.