CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Pablo Méndez, Christian Rojas, Pablo Neupert and Vicente Huidobro, TM Abogados
TM Abogados Av. Manquehue Norte 141 Of. 406 Las Condes Santiago Chile Tel: +569 8156 0547 Email: tm@tmabogados.cl Web: www.tmabogados.cl
1. Regulatory Framework and Law 1.1 Environmental Protection Policies, Principles and Laws The constitutional foundation of Chilean environmen- tal law is established in Article 19 No 8 of the Consti- tution (CPR), which recognises the right to live in an environment free from pollution and imposes on the state a duty to protect nature and to regulate activities that may harm it. Environmental Laws This framework is developed mainly in the following pieces of legislation: • Law No 19,300 on the General Bases of the Envi- ronment; • Law No 20,417, Organic Law of the Superintend- ency of the Environment; and • Law No 20,600 on Environmental Courts. Other relevant statutes are: • Law No 20,920 (2016) on Extended Producer Responsibility (the “REP Law”); • Law No 21,202 (2020) on Urban Wetlands; • Law No 21,368 (2021) on Single-Use Plastics; • Law No 21,455 (2022), Framework Law on Climate Change; • Law No 21,595 (2023) on Economic Crimes, estab- lishing a catalogue of criminal offences against the environment; and • Law No 21,600 (2023) on the National System of Protected Areas (the “SBAP Law”).
Principles The key principles governing environmental protection are provided by international law instruments, Chilean practice and environmental statutes. Typical principles include: • sustainable development; • the precautionary and preventative action principle; • the principle of non-regression; and • the “polluter pays” principle. In addition, some of the laws mentioned above also contain express catalogues of principles applicable to their respective implementations. Chile’s environmental institutional framework is com- posed of a set of specialised authorities that operate under the principles of co-ordination, technical com- petence and transparency. The following are the key authorities. Administrative Authorities • Ministry of the Environment – the central adminis- trative authority responsible for defining environ- mental policy, developing the legislative agenda and issuing secondary regulations. It establishes both primary environmental quality standards, which protect human health, and emission stand- ards, which regulate pollutants by source or recep- tor. 2. Enforcement Authorities and Mechanisms 2.1 Regulatory Authorities
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