On finiteness of chains of intermediate rings

An extension of integral domains is said to have the “finite length of intermediate chains of domains” property (for short FICP) if each chain of intermediate rings between R and S is finite. The main purpose of this paper is to characterize when has FICP in case R ^* (the integral closure of R in S) is a finite dimensional semilocal domain. This generalizes a theorem due to Gilmer, in which S is the quotient field of R. Examples illustrating the sharpness and the limits of our results are settled.