Part Two: The Chilean fideicomiso and trusts in Latin America

By León Carmona Fontaine, Assistant Professor of Private Law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

In a previous entry published on this blog, I showed that there are compelling reasons to think that the fideicomiso provided for in the Chilean Civil Code of 1855 was influenced by English legal ideas. This second entry examines how the Chilean fideicomiso went on to play an important role in the introduction of trust instruments in Latin America, even though it never evolved into a fully fledged trust instrument capable of widespread use within Chile.

This entry argues that this development happened in two stages: First the Chilean fideicomiso was taken up by the Panamanian jurist Ricardo J. Alfaro, who relied on it when drafting the first trust legislation in Latin America in 1925. Subsequently, during the 20th century the Panamanian trust served as a model for trust legislation in several other jurisdictions in the region including Puerto Rico, Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Colombia.