Free English Translation
DECREE LAW No. 2,349 OF 1978
RULES REGARDING INTERNATIONAL
CONTRACTS FOR STATE SECTOR
(Published in the Official Gazette of October 28, 1978, as amended)
“…
Article 1.- Stipulations that subject to a foreign governing law the international agreements, the main purpose of which are businesses or transactions of an economic or financial nature, that have been or will be executed between international or foreign entities, institutions or corporations whose main center of operations is located abroad and the Chilean State or its agencies, institutions or enterprises; are hereby declared valid.
Stipulations by which disputes arising out of such contracts have been or are submitted to the jurisdiction of foreign courts of arbitration contemplated in pre-established mechanisms of arbitration or in the respective contract, as well as stipulations by which special domiciles have been or are established and agents abroad have been or are designated for purposes of the contract; are likewise valid.
The above is also applicable to the acts and contracts by which the State of Chile or its organisms, institutions and enterprises have granted or grant, in any manner, its guarantee to the third parties in the contracts referred to in the first paragraph.
By the submission to the jurisdiction of a foreign court, the right to invoke immunity from jurisdiction will cease, unless in case of express stipulation to the contrary.
Article 2.- It is declared that the State of Chile, its organisms, institutions or enterprises, may waive immunity from execution in the contracts referred to in the previous article.
However, such waiver will be limited to the enforcement of judgments obtained in lawsuits arising out of the specific contract in which said waiver has been given. In the case of organisms, institutions and enterprises with a legal personality separate from that of the State, the waiver will only affect assets belonging to them.
Waivers stipulated in the contracts referred to in this article that have been executed prior to this decree law will be valid with the same limitations indicated in the previous paragraph.
Article 3.- For the purposes of this decree law, organisms, institutions and companies of the State shall mean every public service, fiscal or semi-fiscal institution, centralized or decentralized, state-owned company, and in general, every autonomous organism created by law, as every enterprise, society or entity, public or private in which the State, its companies, societies or institutions, centralized or decentralized, have equity contributions, representation or participation exceeding 50% of the outstanding capital, even in those cases in which an explicit norm is required to apply to them public sector regulations.
16