Introduction:
The case concerns a direct descendant of an Italian woman who emigrated from Southern Italy in the early 20th century and never renounced her Italian citizenship. Faced with consular paralysis and the absence of any effective administrative response, the applicant turned to the judiciary to obtain formal recognition of Italian citizenship jure sanguinis.
Outcome:
The Court upheld the petition in full and declared the applicant an Italian citizen from birth, confirming the continuous possession of the status civitatis through the maternal line. It ordered the Ministry of the Interior and the competent civil status office to proceed with all registrations, transcriptions and annotations in the registers, as well as to inform the relevant consular authorities. The Court also condemned the Ministry to pay legal costs, rejecting any possibility of cost offsetting and underlining that administrative inefficiencies cannot be shifted onto individuals who are forced to litigate to see their rights recognized.
Challenge:
The applicant faced a double obstacle: on the one hand, the structural backlog of the consulate in the country of residence, where applications for citizenship are processed with delays of 5–10 years; on the other, the procedural uncertainty over whether prior administrative steps were a necessary precondition to bringing the claim. The Court resolved this by affirming that excessive and unjustified delays are equivalent to a denial of recognition and in themselves justify recourse to judicial protection, even where concrete proof of a fully activated consular procedure is lacking. In this case, the Ministry did not even enter an appearance, remaining entirely absent from the proceedings.
Action:
The legal team documented the entire family line through certified, translated and apostilled records, demonstrating direct descent from an Italian-born ancestor who had never expressly renounced Italian citizenship. Building on the Supreme Court’s 2022 “twin” rulings, counsel argued that citizenship acquired iure sanguinis is permanent and imprescriptible, and that loss of citizenship can occur only through a voluntary and explicit renunciation, not through tacit acceptance of foreign naturalization or mere stabilization of life abroad. With the Ministry in default, the Court focused on the formal regularity of the documentation and, finding no normative obstacles ratione temporis, accepted the petition and imposed on the administration all consequential measures.
For the privacy of our clients, all names are fictional, and any identifying details in the judgements have been obscured.