THE SITUATION IN ITALY money or property in question must be held by the Huissier after execution until final judgment. In bankruptcy a Déclaration de Faillite (Declaration of Insolvency) may be issued at any time at the request of one or more creditors or upon the court's own motion. In this Declaration a member of the Tri bunal is named as Juge-Commissaire to supervise and facilitate the proceeding. An appeal will lie in a proper case from an order of the Juge-Commissaire to the Tribunal de Commerce. The insolvent must file a bal ance-sheet or schedule showing his assets and liabilities. The law and practice in bankruptcy matters are quite similar to those under the American system. All debts, whether due or not, are discharged by the bankruptcy.
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The Tribunal de Commerce is not exempt from the blame that attaches to the courts of all lands. But it may fairly be said that the dissatisfaction with its workings, in the minds of the members of the Bar, has its foundation chiefly in the fact that its mem bers, not being educated in the science of law, do not always grasp the questions pre sented to them in their legal aspect, and their decisions bear the stamp of the com mercial training of the judges; savoring, perhaps too frequently, of compromise and giving rise to great uncertainty. In point of celerity, promptness and vigor they are exceptionally satisfactory and worthy of the emulation of the courts of a rival sys tem. PARIS, FRANCE, April, 1905.
THE SITUATION IN ITALY BY HENRY BURNHAM BOONE Of the Virginia Bar
THE situation here in legal matters offers perhaps little that can be com pared easily with our own. The construc tion of the judiciary is totally different and the practice of civil law is so widely at variance with the practice of common law that it is not plain to see how one can bor row anything of definite use from the other. The rapidity with which cases are tried in Italy depends in a measure of course upon the wishes of the lawyers who conduct the cases. Under the practice act of 1901, dis tinction is made between suits commercial and suits not commercial. In commercial suits the defendant may be cited to appear in six days. If he does not appear he must be cited again. If at the second citation he does not appear, the case is heard with out him and judgment given. After judg ment he has only one month to appeal. If the defendant appears there are allowed five continuances and no more. After those
have been granted the case must be tried or the judge cancels it. The length of time allowed for a continuance depends upon the judge, but, if one of the parties represents that the affair is urgent or merely the set tlement of a debt, he is bound to make it short. In all such cases judgment can al ways be had in six months, but it is usually had in two. The proportion between the cases and the number of courts open to hear them is such that if the parties are ready they may be heard at the first pres entation of the issue. There is never the long list of cases awaiting trial that we have. In the practice of law in Italy the process is much more summary, but this has been true only since 1901 when the practice act referred to went into effect. Before that a continuance could be had for cause shown and the trial of cases was postponed often fifteen or twenty times. The rapidity with which suits are conducted in Italy is
