ASSOCIATIONS, FOUNDATIONS AD

COMMITTEES
SEPARATE LEGAL PERSONALITY?

It depends:
1) Recognition: perfcect s.l.p.
2) Non-recognition: imperfect s.l.p.
 DIFFERENCES
AMONG «BODIES
GOVERNED BY
PRIVATE LAW»
1) Associations

2) Foundations

3) Committees

CRITERION -> personal or economic

element
 ASSOCIATIONS

■ The PERSONAL element prevails over the

ECONOMIC element

■ «Functional» role of assets

 FOUNDATIONS

■ The ECONOMIC element prevails over the

PERSONAL element

■ «Functional» role of the Founder

 COMMITTEES

■ PERSONAL and ECONOMIC elements are mixed

■ The members aim at raising funds for a specific

purpose
 GENETIC ASPECT
■ Art. 14 Civil code: «Associations and foundations must be established
by public act. The foundation can also be arranged with a will»

■ Art. 16 Civil code: «The deed of incorporation and the statute must
contain the name of the entity, an indication of the purpose, assets
and headquarters, as well as the rules on organization and
administration. Furthermore, they have determine, in the case of
associations, the rights and obligations of the members and the
conditions of their admission; in the case of foundations, the criteria
and methods of disbursement of annuities. The articles of association
may also contain the rules relating to the extinction of the entity and
the devolution of assets, and, for foundations, also those relating to
their transformation.
 STRUCTURE OF THE CIVIL CODE
Book 1: Family law, marriage, adoption.
Book 2: Inheritance law, testament.
Book 3: Property: movable items, real estate, property rights and
limits.
Book 4: Bonds, purchase and sale contracts, mortgages.
Book 5: Business law and labor law.
Book 6: Civil liability, transcription and rules of evidence.
 SECOND PART OF OUR
PROGRAMME
Selecte Natural and legal personality. Associations and
foundations
d civil Property and real rights. Ownership
law
Contracts: physiological and pathological aspects
topics:
Obligations: sources and performance

Family and general principles of succession law

 PERSONALITY
DEFINITION OF PERSON: «WHO MAY
ENJOY RIGHTS AND POWERS AND
MAY BE BOUND BY OBLIGATIONS
AND DUTIES»

PROPERTY
 PROPERTY RIGHTS

They ensure a connection between

PERSON

THINGS
 PROPERTY:
«DEFINITORY»
ASPECTS
Right on:

- «Goods» or «Assets»

- «Real» rights -> res

 PROPERTY AS AN «ABSOLUTE»
RIGHT
■ Absolute rights (like property) -> they can be enforced
against everyone (erga omnes)

■ Relative rights (like obligations) -> they can be

enforced only against the creditor (inter partes)
 RELEVANT CONSTITUTIONAL
PROVISIONS (I)
Art. 42 of the Italian Constitution
■ Property is public or private. Economic assets may belong to the
State, to public bodies or to private persons. Private property is
recognised and guaranteed by the law, which prescribes the ways it is
acquired, enjoyed and its limitations so as to ensure its social function
and make it accessible to all.
■ In the cases provided for by the law and with provisions for
compensation, private property may be expropriated for reasons of
general interest.
The law establishes the regulations and limits of legitimate and
testamentary inheritance and the rights of the State in matters of
inheritance.
 RELEVANT CIVIL CODE
PROVISIONS
■ Book III of the Civil Code

■ Art. 832 Civil Code («Content of the right»). Definition

of property: «The owner has the right to enjoy and
dispose of things fully and exclusively, within the
limits and with the observance of the obligations
established by the legal system».

■ Not time-limited and it is not lost merely because of

non-use
 THE «SOCIAL FUNCTION»
OF PROPERTY IN THE CIVIL CODE
Art. 833 c.c.

Prohibition of the so-called «emulative» acts

«The owner cannot do acts which have no other purpose than to

harm or cause annoyance to others»
 FIRST
(«SUBJECTIVE»)
MACRO-DISTINC
TION
■ PUBLIC
PROPERTY

■ PRIVATE
PROPERTY

■ [COLLECTIVE
PROPERTY]
 SECOND
(«OBJECTIVE»)
MACRO-DISTINCTIO
■ Real (or immovable or real estate) property
Nfloating buidlings and
(beni immobili) -> land, building, springs,
streams, mills, ponds,
everything that is artifically or naturally
incorporated into the land (art. 810 of the
Civil Code)

■ Personal (or moevable) property (beni

mobili) -> all other property.
[So-called «residual» criterion: a painting, a
diamond etc.]

■ Registered chattels -> cars, boats, aircraft

DIFFERENCES IN REGULATION

■ Real property (and registered

chattels) -> contracts in writing
and transcription in the relevant
registry of deeds

■ Personal property -> freedom of

forms and no transcription
 HOW OWNERSHIP CAN BE
ACQUIRED
■ «Derivative» title: from the previous owner (e.g.,
contract, inheritance etc.)

■ «Original» title: so-called «adverse possession»

(usucapione) -> 20 years of non violent and open
possession of the property
 NEW FORMS OF PROPERTY

■ Intellectual property

■ Immovables (softwares,
copyrights, trademarks,
patents etc.)
 «CONNECTION»
BETWEEN THINGS
■ Universality (of moveable property):
connection on an equal basis;

■ Appurtenance: functional nexus between

things.

[Art. 818 Civil Code: «unless otherwise agreed,

transaction related to the «main» thing include the
appurtenance»]