El interés superior del niño en el marco de la convención internacional sobre los derechos del niño y su configuración en el derecho civil chileno

Abstract

The main objective of this study focuses on telling how the reception of the best interests of the child has operated in the Chilean civil law. Initially, this abstract clause is set in Chile (as has occurred mainly in continental European legal systems) as a general term or an indeterminate legal concept, difficult to define and implement. Subsequently, and in response to the legal uncertainty caused by the need to proceed to the realization of a casuistic character, the legislator seems to have opted, in particular following the reform introduced in the Civil Code by Law 20.680, of June 21, 2013, towards a higher level of positive realization of the term, thereby tending to approach more typical models of common law. The way, in which this principle breaks, evolves and consolidates in the international framework, to be more concrete, in the text of the Convention on the Right of the Child and its further development in the General Comment no. 14 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, stands a clear precedent that must be taken into consideration by the Chilean interpreter when configuring and providing real significance to this general principle.