30 Sep register of lawyers of Naples
The Naples Bar Association is the oldest in the world. It was established in 1780 by Ferdinand IV of Bourbon.
The register was compiled as an implementation of the On establishing the Neapolitan College of Advocates, a pragmatic of the King who established and regulated the Bar Association of Naples. It was an event of epochal significance: for the first time, indeed, the bar was recognized as an independent order, guaranteeing freedom and independence in professional activity, especially by keeping away from the influence of the Church, but also of the government itself.
The Neapolitan legal profession still boasts one of the richest and oldest Italian legal traditions. Over the centuries it has produced excellent men and innovators of law who have written pages of history of the entire world: by Giuseppe Tesauro, recently died, to Enrico De Nicola, without forgetting the thousands of plaques dedicated to the jurists of the University of Naples posted along the streets throughout Italy: from Michele De Jorio to Raffaele Conforti. And if we don't want to look at the notable number of presidents of special courts, as established by the United Sections, State leaders, ministers and legislators, if we look at the past we find jurists from Campania even in the first modern constitutional project: the Assizes of Ariano of 1140.
This tradition, so rich in culture and so advanced in thought, could not fail to have an exceptional promoter: lo stupor mundi, Frederick II, who was not only the father of the Neapolitan legal school with the foundation of the first state university in the world.
He was also the first to establish a fundamental principle of the modern legal world in his Constitutions of Melfi (which were largely written by Taddeo di Sessa, an exponent of the Capua school). Right here, indeed, the separation between State and Church and the legal profession was sanctioned, in line with the ancient teachings of the Romans, it was identified as an organ independent of any influence.
Neapolitan lawyers will also demonstrate this proud attachment to their professional freedom 400 years after the times of the Kingdom of Sicily, in the full viceregal era, when the viceroy Antonio Alvarez de Toledo tried to force lawyers to swear before the Holy Office as a necessary condition for practicing the profession.
Magistrates, lawyers and notaries, In the 1628, they gathered in the monastery of Saints Severino and Sossio to sign a document in which they stated that they would not carry out their profession if they took an oath before the Church. It probably was the first forensic strike in history and it bore fruit: the viceroy was forced to retrace his steps.
The legal profession in Naples was considered a truly rich and privileged caste and it is no coincidence that the profession of lawyer was highly coveted by the provinces, especially from nearby Calabria: the young Calabrian law students even became a mask in the Neapolitan carnival, together with the lawyers nicknamed "boater" for their hat that characterized them.
The problem, But, it's that not all lawyers were good people: Professor Aurelio Cernigliaro says that a very common practice among Neapolitan lawyers in the past was to sow discord among neighbors to induce them to sue each other, just as the quarrelsomeness of the Neapolitans was notorious, that crowded the very complex Neapolitan bureaucratic machine.
Ferdinand IV nicknamed these lawyers traffickers "cavilling and immoral men who deface a noble Profession” e, with the aim of regulating the profession through a council of the Order, followed the Secretary of State's advice, the very powerful Carlo De Marco, and left the creation of the first regulation of the Bar Association in his hands.
The bar was divided into three classes: “lawyers“, “Law professors and lawyers” e “Prosecutors“. Within the Order, Furthermore, "the Censors" would have been identified by the same lawyers, which was nothing more than a disciplinary council to evaluate one's colleagues.
The law professors then have a separate chapter: in fact, they did not have to take any exams to become lawyers, but they were subjected to very strict control: if they were caught "defend causes that are notoriously unjust“, to behave improperly among colleagues (for example by gossiping about other lawyers) or mistreating court staff, they would even lose not only the toga, but also the chair at the University.
Graduates were forced to do three years of internship and eventually take an exam before the Bar Council before being enrolled in the Naples Bar, in a way not very different from the present one. Once registered in the register, the young lawyers in the first two years could only "advocate for the causes of the poor“.
The two best students of the academic year, selected by the Censors, they also had the opportunity to show off on three dates of the year by writing opinions and interpretations of the law to be declaimed before the Royal Chamber of Santa Chiara: it was a privilege for very few people that gave great prestige to future lawyers.
Another interesting innovation of Ferdinand IV's regulation is the fact that, at least in theory, everyone could become lawyers. At first it was expected that you must be "of civilian birth", then the possibility of entering the legal profession is also extended to people of modest social background but who, for "rarity in talent" or for particular skill in studies, they stand out over others. Studies were very expensive and only possible for noble families or for people who were quite rich, therefore the advocacy still remained a caste for a few. The poorest could try their luck by entering monasteries or by studying in ecclesiastical circles, but it was not a frequent choice in practice.