ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Carlo Rimini and Rebecca Andrello, Studio dell’avv. prof. Carlo Rimini
When a judicial document has to be transmitted abroad and an EU member state is involved, EU Regulation 1784/2020 applies; when a judicial document has to be transmitted abroad and a non-member state is involved, the Hague Ser - vice Convention of 1965 applies. When the Hague Service Convention does not apply and there are no bilateral agreements, the Italian Civil Procedure Code states that service is made by registered mail addressed to the recipient, and a copy of the document is also delivered to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Article 142 of the Ital - The matrimonial property regime governs prop - erty acquired by the spouses during the mar - riage. Italian law provides for two different types of matrimonial property regime: • comunione dei beni (community of assets regime); and • separazione dei beni (separation of assets regime). ian Civil Procedure Code). 2.3 Division of Assets Matrimonial Property Regime The matrimonial property regime applicable to the marriage does not interfere with the effects of legal separation/divorce between the spouses in terms of maintenance obligations. • The statutory matrimonial property regime is the community of assets regime (Article 159 of the Italian Civil Code), which applies if the spouses do not make a different choice. According to Article 177 of the Italian Civil Code, all property acquired by the spouses after their marriage, whether individually or together, is part of the community of property, with the exception of some personal property (such as assets received as a gift or inherit - ance, or personal effects or assets that are
used for the exercise of the spouse’s profes - sion). The assets acquired by each spouse before the marriage remain personal prop - erty even if the community of assets regime applies. • The separation of assets regime is entirely dif - ferent from the default regime: if the separa - tion of assets regime is elected, each spouse maintains exclusive ownership and the right to use and manage property acquired before and after the marriage without any exception (Article 215 of the Italian Civil Code). Only chattels whose exclusive ownership is not proved are considered as joint property (Arti - cle 219 of the Italian Civil Code). At the time of the death of one of the spouses or at the time of the legal separation, the commu - nity of assets regime dissolves and the spouses are supposed to divide the common property, if any, equally (50/50). The division of the spouses’ eventual common assets must be dealt with in ordinary proceedings (not within legal separa - tion/divorce proceedings). If the separation of assets regime applies, Ital - ian law does not allow for an equitable distribu- tion of the assets between the spouses upon divorce. This means that, during legal separation or divorce proceedings and if Italian law applies, the judge has no power to split or reallocate assets or resources between the spouses. Choice of Regime In Italy, it is possible to choose the matrimonial property regime at any time. According to Article 162 of the Italian Civil Code, the choice of the separation of property regime may be declared during the celebration of the marriage, or made before the marriage or after the marriage itself, by drawing up a specific deed called c onvenzi- one di separazione dei beni . In order to be valid,
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