Il riconoscimento delle situazioni giuridiche costituite all’estero nella prospettiva di una riforma del sistema italiano di diritto internazionale privato

This paper deals with the problems relating to the recognition of legal situations created abroad, particularly in the field of personal and family status, with a view to comparing the results that may be obtained by having recourse to the different methods of private international law. It shows the inability of the classical conflict-of-laws methods to ensure the transnational continuity of such legal situations to the extent required by the current needs of international legal life. In fact, such methods may make it impossible to recognize in the forum State situations created abroad on the basis of a law different from that or those designated by its conflict-of-laws rules. The paper analyses the new method of recognition, or méthode de la reconnaissance, both from a technical and from a political point of view. Particular attention is devoted to the influence exerted in Europe by the case-law, of the EU Court of Justice and of the European Court of Human Rights respectively, on the expansion of the said method, which can presently be implemented by courts in many European countries by the direct application of the relevant rules of the European Treaties and of the ECHR. Lastly, the paper examines, from the standpoint of a proposed future reform of the Italian system of private international law, the limits of the current legislation and the solutions that could be adopted, in particular in the fields of surnames and forenames, marriage, registered partnerships and the creation of relationships of kinship.