Introduction:
In this case, the Court of L’Aquila examined an application filed by foreign descendants seeking recognition of Italian citizenship by descent from an Italian female ancestor born in the Province of L’Aquila who later emigrated to the United States. The applicants reconstructed the entire genealogical line through civil-status documentation and demonstrated uninterrupted descent from the Italian ancestor. The Ministry of the Interior did not appear in the proceedings. The Court also noted that the application had been filed before the entry into force of Decree-Law No. 36/2025, making the previous legal framework applicable to the case.
Outcome:
The Court granted the application and recognized the applicants’ right to Italian citizenship jure sanguinis. It ordered the Ministry of the Interior, through the competent Civil Status Registrar, to carry out all registrations, transcriptions, and annotations required by law and directed that the judgment be transmitted to the competent authorities for implementation. Litigation costs were declared non-recoverable.
Challenge:
The Court first examined whether the applicants had satisfied the two essential requirements for recognition of citizenship by descent: proof of direct descent from an Italian citizen and continuity in the transmission of citizenship across generations. The documentary evidence established both the genealogical link and the absence of any interruption in the transmission of citizenship. The Court noted that the Italian ancestor never became a foreign citizen and that no evidence existed of any renunciation of Italian citizenship by the descendants. The key issue, however, concerned the fact that citizenship had been transmitted through a female ancestor during a period in which Italian law prevented women from transmitting citizenship and automatically deprived them of citizenship upon marriage to a foreign citizen. The Court therefore analyzed the Constitutional Court decisions that declared those provisions unconstitutional and the subsequent Supreme Court jurisprudence recognizing the rights of descendants affected by such historical discrimination.
Action:
Relying on consolidated Constitutional Court and Supreme Court case law, the Court reaffirmed that citizenship may be transmitted through the maternal line and that the effects of the discriminatory provisions contained in Law No. 555 of 1912 cannot continue to prevent recognition of citizenship rights. The Court further emphasized that citizenship is a permanent and imprescriptible status that may be asserted judicially at any time and that the burden of proving any interruption in the transmission of citizenship rests with the State. Since no interruptive event was established and the applicants successfully proved their line of descent, the Court concluded that all legal requirements for recognition had been satisfied.
For the privacy of our clients, all names are fictional, and any identifying details in the judgements have been obscured.