ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Carlo Rimini and Rebecca Andrello, Studio dell’avv. prof. Carlo Rimini
court of another member state to assume jurisdiction if it considers that a court of another member state with which the child has a particular connection would be bet - ter placed to assess the best interests of the child in the particular case. Finally, according to Article 11 of EU Regula - tion 1111/2019, where the habitual residence of a child cannot be established and jurisdiction cannot be determined on the basis of a choice of court agreement, Italian courts have jurisdiction if the child is present in Italy. In relation to children not residing in an EU member state, jurisdiction in matters of parental responsibility is ruled by the Hague Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-Oper - ation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children, which Italy ratified in 2015. 3.2 Living/Contact Arrangements and Child Maintenance Child Arrangements Parental responsibility arrangements include: • custody; If the parents are married, parental responsibil - ity issues are decided within legal separation and divorce proceedings. If the parents agree on parental responsibility issues and the judge considers that the parents’ agreement ade - quately takes into account the best interests of the children, the agreement is approved by the judge within the final decision pronouncing legal separation/divorce. If the parents do not agree on parental responsibility issues, the decision • placement; and • visitation rights.
on parental responsibility is up to the judge pro - nouncing the legal separation/divorce decision. If the parents are not married, proceedings start concerning children’s issues only. Before the recent reform of civil proceedings in Italy (con - tained within Law No 206/2021 and Legislative Decree No 149/2022), there were two different procedures for dealing with parental responsibil - ity issues for the case of married parents and non-married parents. Now, only one procedure exists. The recent reform has expressly introduced – in the case of litigation insofar as parental respon - sibility issues are concerned – the duty for both parents to submit the so-called piano genitoriale to the court before the first hearing (Articles 473- bis.12 and 473-bis.16 of the Italian Civil Proce - dure Code). The purpose of this document is to provide the judge with relevant information concerning the children’s daily commitments and activities related to school, as well as their educational pursuits and extracurricular activi - ties, regular relationships and vacations normally enjoyed. This information will enable the judge to better evaluate the best interests of the child and make decisions taking into account the chil - dren’s past living situation and habits and the parents’ proposals for the future. The judge may also suggest a different plan. In the evaluation of the interests of the chil - dren and in taking decisions regarding parental responsibility, the judge can ask for the help of a psychologist appointed in order to make a report on the family and the relationship between its members. Custody Joint custody is the default choice in Italy, whereby both parents continue to exercise
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