1 CLASS ACTIONS, GROUP LITIGATION AND OTHER AGGREGATIVE PROCEDURES IN LATIN AMERICA: A GENERAL OVERVIEW

This article offers a synopsis on the current status of class actions, and other forms of aggregative and collective litigation that exist in Latin America. In light of the limited scope of this article, my goal is to simply present a general report that highlights the differences and similarities in procedural rules and legal practices regarding the use of remedies against collective harms. Special attention is given to those countries that have developed a legal framework for the protection of individual and collective rights through different forms of aggregative processes, with particular focus on the potential for and the obstacles that affect the various forms of collective litigation in the region. I. The Context: Public Debate and Collective Litigation Class actions and other aggregative mechanisms for the protection of individual and collective rights are scarcely regulated in Latin America. Out of the twenty countries that form the region,1 only Brazil,2 Chile3 and Colombia4 have adopted special legislation pertaining to some form of consumer representative litigation, including class actions. In some other countries like Argentina, aggregative litigation is not expressly regulated by statute,5 but during recent years, courts have increasingly afforded some protection t