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Free Movement and the Right of Establishment of EU Lawyers: The Special Case of Italian Abogados

A common feature of the leading cases on EU lawyers’ right of establishment is the fact that the lawyers seeking to practise in their host Member States were all nationals of other Member States. Conversely, the peculiarity of the Torresi cases lies in the fact that they involved two Italians seeking to register and practise in Italy as lawyers with the Spanish professional qualification of ‘abogado’. In other words, the case under discussion deals with the conduct of those nationals who, after obtaining a law degree in their own country, move to another Member State to qualify as lawyers before finally returning to their home country and seeking to establish and practise as lawyers with their ‘foreign’ title. Before the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) reached its decision, this conduct was already the subject of rigorous analysis at the national level by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation and by the Italian Antitrust Authority. In both cases, the facts concerned the denial of registration as established lawyers to Italians possessing the title of abogado. Thus far, the local bar councils have not succeeded in their opposition to Italian abogados, although the dispute remains ongoing. The ECJ decision at stake represents the last act in a crusade launched by the Italian bar councils against Italian abogados. This situation raises the question why, in the bar councils’ view, an Italian gaining the title of abogado in Spain should be treated differently from a Spaniard acquiring the same title and thus be refused registration. Moreover, it is to be ascertained whether refusals to grant registration are legitimate under the EU law principles guaranteeing mutual recognition of professional titles and protecting the freedom of establishment of lawyers across the Member States. This commentary analyses the ECJ decision in relation to the climate of suspicion within the local Italian bar councils regarding the establishment of Italian abogados. In