ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Romualdo Richichi, Studio Zanetti Vitali
juvenile court ( pubblico ministero presso il tribu- nale per i minorenni ) in the place where the child has been abducted (in Italy, there are 26 court-of- appeal districts, each of which is also the seat of a juvenile court). • The public prosecutor will immediately submit to the juvenile court an urgent request ( ricorso urgente ) for an order of return of the child, opening proceedings to this effect, and the president of the court will issue an order setting the day of the hear - ing and the deadlines for the filing of the written defence of the parent who has the child. • While the “essential” parties in the proceedings are the public prosecutor and the parent oppos - ing the application, who must be heard regardless (as must the child if aged at least 12 or considered mature enough to express an opinion if younger), the applicant parent will be informed about the hearing by the Central Authority and has the right to appear in court and take a position in the pro - ceedings at their own expense. • The proceedings should be carried out as expedi - tiously as possible, without any formalities, and will usually end with a final order after a single exchange of written defences and one hearing. While the court can examine any proof submitted by the parties and order any fact-finding as it sees fit (including hearing witnesses and appointing court experts), such related activities will be limited only to what appears to be strictly necessary, or may be rejected altogether in favour of speed (for example, while uncommon, the imposed deadline for written statement of a few days, or even 24 hours, is not unheard of).
• The final order by the juvenile court is subject to a limited type of appeal ( ricorso per cassazione ) before the Corte di Cassazione (the Italian Supreme Court), which can only revoke or modify the order if it has been issued without complying to specific law provisions, being barred from any new assess - ment of the facts. Furthermore, the order or first degree will usually not be stayed if appealed. • The deadline set by law requiring the final order to be issued by the juvenile court within 30 days of the date upon which the application for the return of the child was submitted to the Central Authority is not realistic, and the actual average timescale of the first degree of proceedings for return can vary between a few months and a year. Second-degree proceedings before Corte di Cassazione will take much longer but, as stated, with no stay of the first order (which is highly unlikely), this will have a limited impact on the outcome of the return appli - cation if it has been successful in the first degree of the judgment. 3.4 Non-Hague Convention Countries Italy is a signatory of the Hague Convention.
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