Legislation is the primary source of law as opposed to case law or jurisprudence.
The Civil Code of Chile establishes that the force of a court decision is limited to that particular case. The Constitution must be respected above all laws, rules and regulations. According to the Civil Code, contracts are the equivalent of a law to the parties. The Chilean Constitution provides that international treaties must be approved by Congress. Once the treaty is approved, a decree with its text is published in the Official Gazette of Chile , and the treaty becomes law of the Republic, and its validity is equivalent to an ordinary law passed by Congress, with the exception of treaties on essential human rights that are considered superior to ordinary law and equivalent to the constitutional principles.