ITALIAN PROCURA

What are the implications and what does it involve?

For people who lack a thorough knowledge of Italian law it is difficult to understand what the  ‘Procura‘ is and what it involves.  The Italian Civil Code states that it is a unilateral legal operation that confers representative power to a subject, named the ‘procuratore’, who will carry out a series of actions on behalf of the subject who has nominated her/him. Thus, the operation involves a true transfer of the power to act from one subject to another. Being a unilateral act, the prior consent of the person who will act on behalf of the power of attorney is not necessary.

The Power Of Aattorney (POA) can be conferred in open, written or verbal form, or else it can be tacit and in this case, the existence of a POA will be deducible at the conclusion of the subsequent actions.

It is important to remember that for contracts that must by law be drawn up in a particular form, for the POA to be effective it must be conferred in the form required by the contract/act.

The procura may be general, when the representative power is conferred for the conduction of all the subject’s ‘ordinary administration’ business/interests, or special, when conferred for the conduction of one or more specified business transactions explicitly indicated by the subject to be represented.

The ‘procura’ can be defined as a preparatory act, and after conferment, the ‘procuratore’ will conduct subsequent actions that will affect the legal position of the represented subject.

A ‘procura’ can be extinguished for various reasons, such as conclusion of the act it was set up for, or of the final specified date, or if the ‘procuratore’ or represented subject terminates the agreement, or in cases of death or incapacitation of the ‘procuratore’ or the represented subject.

If not explicitly excluded in the POA the ‘procuratore’ may nominate by ‘sub-procura’ a sub-representative, in turn conferred the power to act in the name, and on behalf, of the represented subject. In this case, the powers may be the same or more limited, but never more extensive than those conferred in the original ‘procura’.

 If you are seeking a consultation about representation in Italy, or have doubts about  ‘procura‘ already conferred or to be conferred, contact one of our lawyers by filling out the form below