Introduction:
The applicants sought judicial recognition of Italian citizenship as descendants of an Italian-born ancestor from Molise who emigrated to the United States in the late 19th century. The Ministry entered an appearance, arguing that the 2025 amendments to Law No. 91/1992 barred recognition for several applicants. The Court first addressed the temporal applicability of the reform
Outcome:
The Court upheld the application in full and declared all applicants Italian citizens, ordering the Ministry of the Interior and the competent Civil Status Officer to complete all statutory registrations, transcriptions, and annotations, and to notify the relevant consular authorities. Legal costs were fully offset, given the essentially non-contentious nature of the proceedings.
Challenge:
The central issue concerned the newly introduced Article 3-bis of Law No. 91/1992, as amended by Decree-Law No. 36/2025, which imposes a temporal cut-off for recognition claims. The Court clarified that, under procedural law, the relevant filing date is the date of deposit of the judicial application. Since the claim had been filed before the statutory deadline, the reform was deemed inapplicable. Additionally, the lineage included maternal transmission prior to 1948, requiring application of Constitutional Court and Supreme Court jurisprudence overcoming historical gender discrimination.
Action:
The legal team reconstructed the entire genealogical line through certified and apostilled documentation, demonstrating uninterrupted descent from the Italian ancestor. Relying on Supreme Court Joint Sections rulings (2009 and 2022) and Constitutional Court decisions (1975 and 1983), counsel established that citizenship by descent is a permanent and imprescriptible status, transmissible through the maternal line even for births prior to 1948. The Court rejected the Ministry’s objections and ordered full recognition.
For the privacy of our clients, all names are fictional, and any identifying details in the judgements have been obscured.