The alternative dispute resolution system in Italy: between harmonization with the requirements of European markets and de-juridicalization

Abstract

The topic of Alternative Dispute Resolution is comprehensively presented in Italy because of two different demands. The first is a demand presented at the European level to adopt measures that are meant to align the legal and regulatory provisions of different member States, even through the development of alternative methods for dispute resolution, in order to guarantee better access to justice at large, and this can be done through the use of supplemental and alternative dispute resolution methods which are of equal dignity to court proceedings. The second demand is presented at the national level and aims respond to the slowness of local court proceedings through so-called de-juridicalization, where legislations pertaining to A.D.R were supplemented with emergency measures that now include alternative tools among them. This complex tableau led to the creation of very detailed tools for dispute resolution on the civil front, tools that were often borrowed from foreign experiences. This paper wishes to offer a general framework of the principal players, without necessarily being exhaustive. In fact, in addition to Arbitration, which finds its origins in the Civil Code, Italian regulators have added over time procedures for civil and commercial mediation, assisted negotiation, settlement procedures for overindebtedness crisis and mediation on matters of energy and telecommunications and, more in general, on consumer matters. Some of these tools take on a principally deflationary function on matters of civil disputes where these same tools are considered necessary and constitute a condition of admissibility to be able to start legal proceedings. Faced with this complex tableau, in 2016 the Italian Ministry of Justice established a research committee, composed of professors, judges, lawyers and notaries who were entrusted with the task reassessing organically the matter with the aim of developing “de-juridicalization” tools using mediation, assisted negotiations and arbitration. In January 2017, this Commission, at the end of its tenure, presented a series of proposal to modify the legislation that was then in force. These proposals are to this day still under consideration by the Ministry of Justice. The establishment of the aforementioned Commission seemed justified because of the imminent termination of the implementation period for the compulsory mediation required by law for some disputes on civil and commercial matters, pursuant to Article 5, para. 1-bis, of Legal Decree 28/20106 that, instead, found a solution after changes made to convert Legislative Decree No. 50, April 24, 2017,7 through the so-called corrective action of 2017, into Law No. 96 of June 21, 2017.