Abstract

The first Law on the Bar, dating back to 1934, does not explicitly regulate the issue of professional privileges and their existence is inferred from the provision of Art. 622 of the Italian Penal Code of 1930. However, many discussions are aroused by the regulation of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure which leaves it to the person concerned to decide whether the information they possess is covered by the privilege or not. The same person decides whether the privilege is to be utilized or not, and therefore whether the information received is confidential. Only in a situation of justified doubts the court may verify the legitimacy of such invocation. With reference to the issue of professional privilege also the provisions of the 1997 Code of Professional Conduct which describes the situations which relieve an advocate from the duty to keep information secret and concern e.g. judicial requirements, namely disclosure of information needed for the defence or in order to prevent a crime. The article analyses also the provisions of the new Act on the Bar of 2012 which included associates and paralegals working in a law office into the catalogue of persons entitled to claim the privilege in case they are called as witnesses.