Special but not excessive: on the proxy requirements for legal assistance in cassation

The purpose of this contribution is to offer as exhaustive a description as possible of the discussion, mainly in law, that has involved the Supreme Court, for at least a quarter of a century, on the requirement of the special nature of the power of attorney necessary to plead in cassation proceedings with the connected - and consequential - profiles of the validity (or otherwise) of the special power of attorney conferred and, in the final analysis, the admissibility or rejection of the appeal in lawfulness. The occasion for a reconstruction that takes into account the current panorama on the subject is provided by a recent decision of the United Sections, which, taking advantage of the occasion also to provide clarifications on the "telematic" power of attorney, reaffirms the applicability of what is traditionally known as the "topographic criterion".