How to organise a national committee – the Italian experience

Members of the UIA Italian Committee during the anual Congress in Florence

By Stefano Dindo

The Italian National Committee re-organised itself on a regional basis as from 2011.

Eight regional committees were set up in Lazio, Campania, Veneto, Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, with the appointment, for each committee, of a regional chairperson assisted by a secretary.

Each regional committee has as its reference point the national committee of which it is a part, as well as the chairmen of the regional committees, the members of the CDD and the CDP, the representatives of the group and individual members appointed by the Italian members of the UIA.

Each regional chairman has the power to set up his own regional committee in which the UIA members in the region will participate. Each regional chairman in any case undertakes to organise at least one seminar a year, if possible in partnership with one of the Bar Associations of the region and to keep in touch with the Bar association in the region as well as with other legal associations. Each regional chairperson is appointed by the national committee, which can also revoke his office in the case of his inactivity.

The underlying philosophy behind choosing to organise on a regional basis is to involve the largest possible number of people and to foster, by establishing a specific office and its accompanying duties, a situation in which more people feel accountable and wish to become active in furthering the activities and values of the UIA. 

In the specific case of Italy, the organisation of seminars on international law matters, in Italian, on a complimentary basis, thanks to cooperation from the Bar association and other local associations, has become a major means for the dissemination of ideas and spreading awareness of the UIA itself. Through such regional organisation every year eight seminars are, or should be, organised in the regions where it has been possible to appoint a regional chairman and set up a committee.

The experiment has up to now succeeded only in part because it not always easy in practice to ensure that the commitment to organise at least one seminar per year in each region is in fact fulfilled by the chairmen of the regional committees. The overall result has however been positive. Anyone interested in having a copy of the articles of association of the Italian Committee is available at the UIA Centre.

By Stefano Dindo

UIA Co-director of National and Regional Activities

Dindo, Zorzi e Avvocati

Verona, Italy