The Court for Trusts and Fiduciary Relationships is established within the ordinary jurisdiction. The Court has jurisdiction over all cases and disputes regarding legal relationships arising from entrustment or trust, such as trusts, fiduciary entrustment, fideicommissum, institutions of fiduciary heirs and similar institutions, regulated by any legal system.
The Court does not have jurisdiction over disputes regarding mandates, except when the agent is a person authorised pursuant to Law 17 November 2005 no. 165 or carrying out fiduciary activities in legal systems other than that of San Marino.
It is composed of a President and six effective members, elected by the Great and General Council, with a two-thirds majority, among those who are or have been full university professors in legal subjects, those who are or have been judges, those who have graduated in law with at least twenty years of professional experience in the specific subjects pertaining to the role.
The President and the members of the Court are appointed for five years and are renewable. After the expiration of their mandate, they continue to exercise their functions until the appointment of new members or renewal.
The Court is not subject to the provisions on the Judicial System. The election and appointment of the members of the Court, as well as the regime of incompatibilities, abstentions and recusals, are specifically established by a specific qualified law in derogation from the qualified law of 30 October 2003 n.145.
The Guarantor Board of the Constitutionality of the Rules is competent to resolve conflicts of jurisdiction between the Ordinary Judicial Authority and the Court, according to the procedures, insofar as compatible, provided for in Chapter I (Conflicts of Jurisdiction) of Law 25 April 2003 n. 55.
Definitions
- “Fiduciary Relationships” means the legal relationships referred to in Article 2, paragraph 9, of the Constitutional Law of 30 October 2003 n. 144, introduced by Constitutional Law 26 January 2012 n.1 establishing the Court for Trusts and Fiduciary Relationships;
- “Court” means the Court for Trusts and Fiduciary Relationships referred to in Constitutional Law 30 October 2003 n. 144, introduced by Constitutional Law 26 January 2012 n.1 establishing the Court for Trust and Fiduciary Relationships;
- “President” means the President of the Court.
Functions
The Court exercises the functions indicated in Article 2 of Constitutional Law 30 October 2003 n. 144.
Election and nomination
The President and the members of the Court are elected, by a two-thirds majority, by the Great and General Council. The Regency submits the names of the candidates designated within the Presidency Office to the vote of the Council.
At least three months before the expiry of the mandate of the President and the members of the Court, the Captains Regent convene the Presidency Office of the Great and General Council to formulate the nominations.
The candidates may be of Sammarinese or foreign citizenship and are nominated for five years.
The President and the members of the Court, unless they resign voluntarily or forfeit their office, may compete for the renewal of the mandate.
The President and the members of the Court assume office by taking the oath in the hands of the Most Excellent Regency.
The President and the members, after the expiry of their mandate, continue to exercise their functions until the appointment of new ones or until renewal.
The President and the members of the Court are not members of the Judicial Council.
Incompatibility
The President and the members of the Court cannot holdand positions or in any case carry out activities within associations of a political or trade union nature, cannot be candidates in political or administrative elections, nor carry out commercial or industrial activities, cannot hold the position of director or auditor of companies, whether in the territory of the Republic or abroad.
The President and the members of the Court cannot practice the liberal profession in the territory of the Republic.
Resignation and forfeiture
The resignation from office occurs through resignation presented to the Regency. The resignation takes effect immediately.
The President and the members of the Court shall cease to hold office if the causes of incompatibility indicated arise.
Abstention and recusal
The causes of abstention and recusal provided for by Article 10 of the Qualified Law of 30 October 2003 n. 145.
The decision is up to the Guarantor Board pursuant to the procedural provisions in force, including those of Law 25 April 2003 n. 55 where compatible.
Composition of the Court; functions of the President
The Court is composed of a President and six effective members.
The President:
- organizes the judicial work of the Court and is not subject to the supervision of the Head Magistrate;
- presents an annual report to the Head Magistrate of the Single Court on the activity carried out by the Court.
With a regulation issued by the Court, published in the Official Bulletin, the additional powers of the President are established and regulated, including that of regulating the recourse to the consilium sapientis, appointed from among experts of the highest reputation for trust and fiduciary relationships and those attributed by the delegated decree issued pursuant to Article 8.
In order to identify the experts referred to in the previous paragraph 3), the Office of the Presidency of the Great and General Council, within sixty days of the establishment of the Court, shall draw up a special register that will be submitted to the Great and General Council for acknowledgement.
Procedure
The procedure before the Court will be regulated by a delegated decree in order to ensure a speedy conduct of the trials in compliance with the fundamental principles of the procedural system and in particular the right to defence and adversarial proceedings.
The delegated decree:
- will establish that it is up to the President to determine the language or languages of the proceedings, based on the closest connection that has the language with the facts of the case and the parties, and the ability to determine whether the case must be decided by the Court in a single-judge composition, in a collegiate composition or by a full Court, based on the complexity of the case and its connection with different legal systems that may make the combination of skills and assessments of different judges more appropriate;
- will dictate rules and methods to simplify the mechanisms of the procedure and speed up the notification of judicial documents by providing, among other things, notifications also by registered mail, telegram or similar means;
- will attribute to the President the power to establish, from time to time, with what methods and by whom the case file can be consulted;
- will regulate the granting of precautionary and provisional measures, including atypical ones;
- will provide for the immediate enforceability of the Court’s judgments;
- will provide for the simplification and reduction of procedural termsual, compared to those of civil procedures before the Single Court, in order to speed up the time to reach a decision;
- will regulate the representation before the Court of forensic lawyers, in compliance with the rules that govern the profession of Lawyer and Notary in the Republic;
- will regulate the formal and substantial aspects of the decision of the case and the possibility of each judge to issue dissenting opinions, with respect to the decision of the majority;
- will regulate the appeal phase, limiting the appeal to questions of law only, without prejudice to the findings of fact made by the first instance judge and introducing mechanisms that avoid the filing of appeals for the sole purpose of delaying the final judgment of the appealed sentence;
- will regulate that the duration of the appeal phase cannot exceed 180 days from the filing of the same. Failing this, the appealed sentence becomes final;
- will regulate the mandatory appeal to the consilium sapientis by the Appellate Judge;
- will establish that no appeals are permitted against the sentence rendered by the Appellate Judge before the third instance judge;
- will establish the economic treatment of the judges of the court, tying it to the number of cases decided by each;
- will establish procedures and methods for covering the operating costs of the Court by the parties;
- will provide for everything else appropriate to ensure a streamlined and rapid process before the Court and its smooth functioning, also by delegating powers, in this sense, to the Court itself.
The procedural rules of this document may be modified by ordinary law.
