Public instruments in chilean law. sources and historical background of articles 1699, 1700 and 1706 of the civil code [los instrumentos públicos en el derecho chileno. fuentes y antecedentes históricos de los artículos 1699, 1700 y 1706 del código civil]

This article contains an analysis and explanation of the sources and historical background of a sort of document -public instrument- regulated in articles 1699, 1700 and 1706 of the Civil Code. The document defined by the 1st subparagraph of article 1699 corresponds with Roman-Canon Law's instrumentum publicum: a notarial document on civil legal transactions. For its part, article 1700 embodies a thorough technique to appraise probative value, conceived by the French doctrine before the codification, summarized in the "makes full proof" formula. Moreover, article 1706 complements the foregoing rule using the "makes proof" technique, also of French origin. The validity of these legal tradition is confirmed by the direct sources of all the mentioned precepts, which must be considered to determine their correct meaning and scope, and thus avoid extending their application to other document categories that do not conform to the abovementioned criteria.