Introduction:
In this case, the Court of Ancona examined a petition filed by a U.S. applicant seeking recognition of Italian citizenship by descent from an Italian ancestor born in the Marche region who emigrated to the United States without ever naturalizing as an American citizen. The applicant reconstructed the genealogical line through official documentation, duly translated and apostilled, demonstrating uninterrupted descent from the Italian ancestor. The Ministry of the Interior challenged the claim, invoking Decree-Law no. 36/2025 and raising procedural objections regarding the admissibility of documentary evidence.
Outcome:
The Court upheld the application and declared that the applicant is an Italian citizen from birth. It ordered the Ministry of the Interior, through the competent Civil Status Registrar, to proceed with the required registrations and transcriptions. Legal costs were fully offset between the parties.
Challenge:
The case required the Court to interpret the impact of the 2025 reform on a newly filed citizenship claim. The Ministry argued that the new legislation rendered the application inadmissible and that documents not filed with the initial petition should be excluded. The Court rejected both objections. On admissibility, it clarified that DL 36/2025 may affect the merits of a claim but does not automatically preclude judicial recognition of citizenship.
Action:
The applicant demonstrated descent from an Italian ancestor who never naturalized abroad and therefore transmitted citizenship to subsequent generations. The Court confirmed that, even under the new legal framework, the relevant exception applies where a first- or second-degree ancestor possessed exclusively Italian citizenship. It further reaffirmed that the burden of proving any interruption in the transmission of citizenship lies with the State and clarified that citizenship, as a fundamental right, can only be lost through voluntary and explicit renunciation. Finally, the Court confirmed the full applicability of principles allowing transmission through the maternal line, including in pre-1948 contexts, and granted recognition of Italian citizenship jure sanguinis. Critically, under DL 36/2025 the burden of proving the absence of causes of loss or non-acquisition of citizenship now falls on the applicant , a departure from the prior regime. The Court found that this burden was met: the applicant produced a certificate of non-naturalization for the Italian ancestor following a judicial order, satisfying the evidentiary standard under art. 1 comma 2 of the Decree. The Court reaffirmed that citizenship, as a fundamental right, can only be lost through a voluntary and explicit act of renunciation, and that causes of loss apply solely to the ancestor who held Italian citizenship , not to descendants who never exercised it.
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