One of the most discussed bills deposited in the first months of the 18th-century aims to radically reform various Italian family law institutions. From the first reading of the bill, it is clear the attempt to overcome the results obtained from legislative and jurisprudential evolution concerning the protection of the “best interest of the child".
The bill concentrates on the importance of Family Mediation, proposing to establish a professional register for mediators.
Article. 3 proposes a relevant deminutio of minors’ rights, with specifi reference to their right to be heard within the proceedings which concern them, therefore also separation and divorce. The first paragraph states that “Minors’ participation in the process of mediation, only in case they are over the age of twelve, can be admitted with the consent of all parties and, in any case, of both parents". On one hand, this means the total exclusion of the possibility of the “capable of discerning" minor to be able to express himself, while the right to listen to the adult child becomes the available material of the parents, who both must agree on the point. In this way it is denied to the younger teenager to benefit from a right constantly recognized by the jurisprudence and by the law itself in art. 315 bis c.c.
According to the proposed bill, the parties will attend the mediation proceeding together with their lawyers, whose presence is required under penalty of invalidity and inapplicability, to the stipulation of any agreement, if reached.