PROFESSIONAL ORDERS AND COLLEGES. - Professional orders and colleges (the former for the professions whose practice requires a doctoral degree and the latter for those for which a diploma suffices) are public legal entities established mandatorily by law. Registration in them, under the prescribed conditions, while constituting a subjective right, is at the same time a condition for the lawful practice of the profession.
The first such system in time in the Italian State dates back to 1874, for lawyers and procurators; several others followed, until at a certain point they were abolished by the Fascist corporative regime, only to be reconstituted after its collapse: for lawyers and procurators, notaries, physicians-surgeons, veterinarians, chemists, pharmacists, midwives, engineers, architects, professionals in economics and commerce, actuaries, agronomists, accountants, surveyors, agricultural experts, industrial experts.
These bodies, with autonomous organization, oversee the dignity and freedom of professional practice and have as their characteristic functions: a) the custody of the registers, that is, the formation and preservation of the lists of those qualified for the aforesaid practice; b) the "disciplinary" power over them, a power partly akin to that of the public administration over its own employees, although it cannot be identified with the latter, because those registered in the registers are free professionals, not bound, as such, by any employment or subordinate labor relationship. The sanctions may range from a simple warning to striking off. Another power is the fiscal one, with the authorized imposition of fees within their own sphere. They may also carry out consultative functions, certification, designation of category representatives, conciliation between professionals and between these and their clients, cultural activities, etc.
Their internal structure and their functioning are largely common, with some differentiation for certain of them, e.g., for those of notaries with regard to disciplinary proceedings, given the public nature of their profession; of lawyers and procurators (now unified), constituted by tribunal districts, rather than as usual by provinces; for the health professions, distinguished among themselves with federal linkage. At the Ministry of Grace and Justice a central commission is constituted (for lawyers and procurators), the High Council of the Bar, and for health professionals a Commission at the High Commissariat for Hygiene and Health. A representation of orders and colleges is provided for, among other things, in the committees for the registers of the judges' "technical consultants."
A special system, likely to be revised soon, is in force for the registers and discipline of journalists (ordinarily bound by an employment contract). See also INTELLECTUAL PROFESSIONS.
Bibliography
Ferruccio Pergolesi