Sequestro, pignoramento and the vocabulary of seizure

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Seizure has its own false friends. The Swiss sequestro (German Arrest) under Art. 271 LEF is a protective attachment of assets of the debtor, available on the grounds listed in the statute, among them the debtor's lack of residence in Switzerland where the claim has a sufficient connection with Switzerland or rests on an acknowledgement of debt and, since 1 January 2011, the creditor's possession of a definitive title for setting aside the objection (titolo definitivo di rigetto dell'opposizione), typically an enforceable judgment.¹ The Italian sequestro conservativo under Art. 671 c.p.c. fulfils a similar function but requires a well-founded fear of losing the guarantee of the claim (fondato timore di perdere la garanzia del proprio credito), a test that does not exist in the Swiss list of grounds. The Italian sequestro giudiziario concerns disputed property. The Italian criminal sequestro preventivo and sequestro probatorio correspond to the Swiss criminal sequestro under Art. 263 of the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code. The Swiss pignoramento (seizure in the enforcement procedure) and the Italian pignoramento (the first act of enforcement under Art. 491 c.p.c.) are closer, but the Swiss version is carried out by the debt enforcement office and the Italian by the court bailiff (ufficiale giudiziario).² Chapter H.IV has described the use of the Swiss attachment against Italian debtors and the enforcement of Italian titles in Switzerland.

Pretore, tribunale and the language of the courts

Ticino's judicial organization uses terms that Italy has abolished or uses differently. The Canton has ten preture, one for each judicial district (Bellinzona, Blenio, Leventina, Locarno Campagna, Locarno Città, Lugano, Mendrisio Nord, Mendrisio Sud, Riviera and Vallemaggia), in which a pretore or pretore aggiunto sits as single judge. The pretore hears all civil cases not reserved to the giudici di pace, who decide claims up to CHF 5,000, or to the Third Civil Chamber of the Tribunale d'appello.³ In Italy the pretore was a single judge with limited civil and criminal jurisdiction until Legislative Decree No. 51 of 19 February 1998 abolished the office and transferred its functions to the tribunale, with effect from 2 June 1999 for civil proceedings and from 2 January 2000 for criminal proceedings.⁴ Younger Italian lawyers may never have appeared before a pretore, and in Italian usage the word now has a historical ring. In Ticino it is the title of the judge before whom most commercial litigation begins. The appellate vocabulary also requires care. Under the Swiss Civil Procedure Code the appello is the full appeal against final first-instance decisions in pecuniary matters above CHF 10,000, while the reclamo is the limited remedy for lower amounts and for certain procedural decisions. In Ticino both are heard by chambers of the Tribunale d'appello, including the Camera civile dei reclami.⁵ Against cantonal decisions of last instance lies the ricorso to the Federal Supreme Court, which for civil matters is the ricorso in materia civile under Art. 72 of the Federal Supreme Court Act.⁶ In Italy the appello is the second-instance appeal to the Corte d'appello or the tribunale, while the ricorso per cassazione lies to the Corte di cassazione on points of law. The Swiss ricorso in its general sense corresponds in function to the Italian ricorso per cassazione, but a Swiss ricorso can also be a cantonal administrative appeal or a complaint in criminal proceedings. In Italian civil procedure ricorso also designates a form of originating application, as opposed to the atto di citazione (writ of summons), which adds another layer of possible confusion.

Notes

1. Federal Act of 11 April 1889 on Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy (DEBA), SR 281.1, Art. 271(1) no. 4 ("quando il debitore non dimori in Svizzera, se non vi è altra causa di sequestro, ma il credito abbia un legame sufficiente con la Svizzera o si fondi su un riconoscimento di debito ai sensi dell'articolo 82 capoverso 1") and no. 6 ("quando il creditore possieda nei confronti del debitore un titolo definitivo di rigetto dell'opposizione"), the latter inserted by Art. 3 no. 2 of the Federal Decree of 11 December 2009 approving and implementing the Lugano Convention, in force since 1 January 2011, German and Italian texts at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/2/28/281.1-271-306.html. See Chapter H.IV. ↩
2. Codice di procedura civile, Art. 491 ("l'espropriazione forzata si inizia col pignoramento"), Brocardi.it, https://www.brocardi.it/codice-di-procedura-civile/libro-terzo/titolo-ii/capo-i/sezione-ii/ art491.html; Art. 670 (sequestro giudiziario), https://www.brocardi.it/codice-di-procedura-civile/libro-quarto/titolo-i/capo-iii/sezione-ii/ art670.html; Art. 671 (sequestro conservativo), https://www.brocardi.it/codice-di-procedura-civile/libro-quarto/titolo-i/capo-iii/sezione-ii/art671.html. Swiss Criminal Procedure Code of 5 October 2007 (CrimPC), SR 312.0, Art. 263(1), Italian heading "Principio", https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/3/31/312.0-263-267.html. Codice di procedura penale, Art. 253 (sequestro of the corpo del reato), https://www.brocardi.it/codice-di-procedura-penale/libro-terzo/titolo-iii/capo-iii/art253.html, and Art. 321 (sequestro preventivo), https://www.brocardi.it/codice-di-procedura-penale/libro-quarto/titolo-ii/capo-ii/art321.html. ↩
3. Canton of Ticino, "Preture" (above); Canton of Ticino, Potere giudiziario, https://www4.ti.ch/poteri/giudiziario/ (38 circoli, each with a giudice di pace and a deputy). The page cites Art. 37 of the Legge sull'organizzazione giudiziaria (LOG). ↩
4. Wikipedia (Italian), "Pretore (ordinamento italiano)", https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretore_(ordinamento_italiano), consulted as a last resort: "il decreto legislativo 19 febbraio 1998 n. 51 ha disposto la soppressione di tale organo sostituendolo con il giudice di Tribunale". ↩
5. Canton of Ticino, "Preture" (above) (appello for proceedings with a value above CHF 10,000); Canton of Ticino, "Tribunale d'appello" (above) (Camera civile dei reclami). Swiss Civil Procedure Code of 19 December 2008 (CPC), SR 272, Art. 308 and 319. ↩
6. Federal Act of 17 June 2005 on the Federal Supreme Court (Federal Supreme Court Act, FSCA), SR 173.110, Art. 72(1), Italian text (Legge sul Tribunale federale, LTF), https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/2006/218/20250101/it/html/ fedlex-data-admin-ch-eli-cc-2006-218-20250101-it-html-3.html. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.