Introduction:
In this case, the Court of Bari examined an application filed by foreign descendants seeking recognition of Italian citizenship through an Italian-born female ancestor who emigrated to the United States. The applicants reconstructed the genealogical line through official civil-status documentation, demonstrating uninterrupted descent from the Italian ancestress. The Ministry of the Interior appeared in the proceedings and expressly stated that it had no objection to the recognition of Italian citizenship. The matter was therefore decided on the basis of the documentary evidence submitted.
Outcome:
The Court granted the application and declared the petitioners Italian citizens jure sanguinis from birth. It ordered the Ministry of the Interior, through the competent Civil Status Registrar, to complete all registrations, transcriptions, and annotations required by law and to notify the competent Italian consular authorities. Legal costs were fully offset between the parties.
Challenge:
The central issue concerned citizenship transmission through a female ancestor whose child had been born before the entry into force of the Italian Constitution, at a time when Law No. 555 of 1912 prevented Italian women from transmitting citizenship on equal terms with men. The Court recalled the landmark decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Joint Chambers of the Italian Supreme Court, which established that these discriminatory provisions are incompatible with constitutional principles of equality. It reaffirmed that the effects of those provisions cannot continue after 1 January 1948 and that descendants remain entitled to seek judicial recognition of citizenship at any time because citizenship constitutes a permanent and imprescriptible personal status.
Action:
After examining the documentary evidence, the Court found that the applicants had fully established their line of descent and that the Italian ancestress had never lost Italian citizenship before transmitting it to the next generation. The Court also noted that no evidence existed of any subsequent renunciation capable of interrupting the chain of citizenship transmission. Applying the settled constitutional and Supreme Court case law, the Court concluded that the discriminatory rules formerly applicable to married Italian women could no longer produce legal effects. It therefore declared that the applicants had been Italian citizens jure sanguinis since birth and ordered the competent authorities to complete the necessary civil-status registrations.
For the privacy of our clients, all names are fictional, and any identifying details in the judgements have been obscured.