El sistema de graduación de la pena del homicidio en el derecho chileno

The article presents an interpretation of murder in Chilean law. It proceeds by identifying the institutional purpose of murder as a rule to distinguish homicides in which capital punishment (or life imprisonment) is applicable from those that it is not, as well as different comparative structural models in the fulfillment of this goal. The article shows that Chilean law follows the dominating comparative trend in establishing a mixed model, which recognizes both a general (premeditation) and special criteria to distinguish between both kinds of homicides (capital and non capital homicides). As the general criterion is only well understood if premeditated homicide is not constructed as special homicide but rather manslaughter is seen as a privileged intentional homicide, the article departs from the traditional systematic interpretation of murder in Chile.