Italy · Foreign law before the notaio · Information, not legal advice — as at 26 August 2026
Why the Italian notaio needs English law proven — and who can do it
Italian practice has no single name for it — a certificate of foreign law, a legal opinion, an affidavit di legge — but the substance is always the same: a formal written statement of what English law provides, given by a lawyer qualified in England, so the Italian notaio can act on it — that the English will is valid, what its English drafting means in Italian terms, who takes on intestacy, or that a Brussels IV election of English law is effective. Without it, the deed of succession cannot safely be drawn, and the twelve-month clock for the Italian tax filing keeps running regardless. We produce the attestation in-house, in Italian, as the regulated English- and Irish-qualified lawyer also registered at an Italian bar — one author, no translation round-trip, and credentials the notaio can verify on a public register.
Every Anglo-Italian estate reaches the same moment: the notaio — before whom the Italian succession paperwork must pass — has to apply English law to something. Perhaps the will is English and its validity and meaning must be established. Perhaps there is no will, and English intestacy decides who takes. Perhaps the will elects the law of England and Wales under Brussels IV, and the notaio must know what that law actually provides before drawing the deed. An Italian notaio is not required to know English law — and a careful one will not act on a family’s say-so. The foreign law must be formally proven.
What Italy asks for
Italian practice is less standardised than the French certificat de coutume or the Spanish certificado de ley — the request arrives under different names: a certificate of foreign law, a legal opinion (parere), an affidavit on English law. The substance the notaio needs is always the same: a formal written statement of the English rules, applied to this estate’s facts, signed by a lawyer qualified in English law, in Italian or with a certified translation. A good one reads like a short opinion — the question, the rules, the application: this will is formally valid; these are the persons entitled, in these shares; this election is effective. A generic paragraph unmoored from the file is what gets rejected — and a rejected attestation stalls the succession while the twelve-month clock for the dichiarazione di successione keeps running.
What it typically must cover, for a British estate
The recurring questions: the formal validity of the English or Irish will; its meaning — English drafting (executors, trusts, residuary estate) does not map neatly onto Italian concepts, and the attestation must translate it in substance, not just language; who takes on intestacy where there is no will; the effect of a Brussels IV election; and how the English answer feeds the Italian machinery — because whichever law decides who inherits, the Italian assets still transfer through the Italian process: the succession filing, the acceptance decision each heir must make, the land-registry volture. Since Brexit, no European Certificate of Succession can carry any of this for a UK estate — the UK never joined that system — so the attestation of English law carries more weight on Anglo-Italian files, not less.
Who can give it — and why in-house matters
The notaio needs an author whose qualification can be relied on: a lawyer admitted in the jurisdiction whose law is being attested. The usual chain — notaio asks the family, the family finds an English firm, an English-language opinion arrives, a certified translation follows — is three parties, two languages, months. We compress it to one step: as an English- and Irish-qualified solicitor who is also the registered European lawyer at an Italian bar, we produce the attestation in-house, in Italian, addressed to the notaio’s exact questions — and, as Italian practice likes it, the exchange with the notaio’s studio runs by certified email, lawyer to lawyer, with credentials verifiable on a public register in a minute. It is the same document our practice produces for all four countries — our certificates of foreign law, each at a published fixed fee (free where we administer the estate).
If a notaio has asked your family — or your firm — for proof of English law, that request is usually the only thing between the file and its completion. Send us the notaio’s note and the will, and we will tell you exactly what the attestation must say, what it costs, and how quickly it can be at the studio. If you are the English solicitor on the estate, the professional walkthrough is the English solicitor’s guide to the Italian estate; and where the family’s first question is simply “who inherits, and in what shares?”, that is a fixed-fee written opinion, signed by a lawyer.