Resumen de Free movement of lawyers and the Torresi judgment: : a bridge too far?: European Court of Justice, Grand Chamber Judgment of 17 July 2014, Joined Cases C-58/13 and C-59/13Angelo Alberto Torresi and Pierfrancesco Torresi v Consiglio dell'Ordine degli Avvocati di Macerata
Roberto Mastroianni, Amedeo Arena
Access to the legal profession in Italy is reserved to holders of a five-year university degree in law who have participated in an apprenticeship of at least 18 months and have passed a state examination, held once a year, consisting of three written tests and an oral interview on five areas of law. On average, over 61% of the applicants fail the written tests every year. +Superscript 1 -Superscript This has prompted a significant number of Italian law graduates to seek recognition of their university degree in other member states where access to the bar is subject to less onerous requirements. Angelo Alberto Torresi and Pierfrancesco Torresi, two Italian brothers, obtained university law degrees from the University of Macerata (Italy) and subsequently had those degrees recognised in Spain via the procedure of +Italic homologación -Italic . In accordance with the Spanish legislation in force at the time, +Superscript 5 -Superscript on the basis of their homologation certificate, the Torresi brothers were able to enrol as ' abogados ejercientes ' in the register of the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Bar of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) without sitting any exam or providing any proof of professional experience. Three months later, they lodged applications with the Bar Council of Macerata in Italy to be registered in the special section of the lawyers' register devoted to established lawyers. Having received no reply within 30 days, the applicants instituted proceedings before the Consiglio Nazionale Forense (CNF; the Italian National Bar Council) claiming that, as the ECJ held in Wilson, registration in the special section was solely conditional upon the presentation of a certificate attesting to registration with the competent authority in the 'home' member state, 6 which they had obtained from the relevant Spanish authorities and attached to their applications to the Macerata Bar Council
