Italian trust law

In Italy trust can be used tanks to the adoption of the Hague Convention (1 July 1985), executive from 1st January 1992. The “trust interno” is a domestic trust but refers to a foreign regulation because until now Italy does not have a complete and organic internal regulation on trust. Trust can be used for various aims: administration, transfer of family business assets, transfer of goods for charity purposes, protection of patrimony, etc. The Main advantages are the flexibility of its use and its economic convenience compared to Italian traditional juridical instruments. Nevertheless, Trust did not have a widespread application in Italy mainly because of the scarce knowledge of its functioning and its potentiality. In order to overcome the above mentioned difficulties, Italy will shortly adopt its own regulation on trust (fiducia). The Italian Government has been delegated by the community law 2010 (bill/ legge comunitaria) to adopt a specific regulation on trust (fiducia) inside the Italian juridical system (title II art. 11). Moreover, the “disegno di legge n. 2284/2010” (bill n. 2284/2010) presented by the Ministry of Justice (presented on July 2010 but not yet examined) charges the Government to modify the civil code as concerns “trust” (fiducia) and the particular security contract. The “fiducia” aims to fill a gap in the Italian Juridical system which has not a complete regulation on the discipline of trust. The forthcoming Italian regulation on trust (fiducia) will be inspired by the French “fiducie” which extended (ordinance nº 2009-112 2009) to individuals and corporations excluded from the payment of company taxes, the capacity to constitute a “trust” (fiducie), allowing also attorneys to become trustees. Italy, following the French reform, is trying -vthrough its own regulation on trust (fiducie) - to adopt a modernisation and to give greater juridical attraction to its domestic law .