ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the use of cultural expertise in form of cultural defence in criminal proceedings in Chile. It describes how cultural expertise is used by defence lawyers and how it is received by judges in judicial decision-making. Cultural expertise is understood as a formal opinion from an expert on a particular culture, concerning aspects of that culture that are relevant to legal proceedings involving one or more individuals who are members of a given social group. In Latin America, the use of cultural expertise as evidence in criminal courts dates back to 1975 in Colombia, the 1990s in Mexico, Peru and Argentina, and the beginning of the 21st century in Chile and Costa Rica. Cultural expertise has an important role to play in conflict resolution involving Indigenous peoples, although it requires the parties involved to accept that cultural diversity is prevalent in global world and that understanding diversity requires a fair balance between expert knowledge and legal knowledge.
