Italy's Constitutional Court Upholds Citizenship by Descent

On July 31, 2025, Italy's Constitutional Court issued Ruling No. 142, rejecting a set of challenges to the country's historical citizenship-by-descent system. Lower courts in Bologna, Rome, Milan, and Florence had questioned whether automatically recognizing Italian citizenship for foreign-born descendants of Italian citizens was constitutional. The Court said it was, affirming a principle that has shaped Italian law for more than a century.

What the Court Decided

The referring courts argued that unlimited transmission of citizenship to people born and living abroad, with little tangible connection to Italy, clashed with constitutional principles of sovereignty, equality, and compliance with EU and international law. The Constitutional Court disagreed. It held that the legislature has a particularly wide margin of discretion in setting the conditions for citizenship, and that the Court's role is only to ensure those conditions are not entirely foreign to constitutional principles.

• Blood-based descent was reaffirmed as a constitutionally sound basis for citizenship
• Setting citizenship rules was confirmed as the legislature's prerogative, not the courts'
• The Court noted Italy's inclusive tradition toward emigrant descendants dating back to 1865
• Claims that the system violated EU or international law were dismissed as inadmissible

What It Does Not Cover

The decision's scope is deliberately narrow. It concerns the framework under Law No. 91 of 1992 and does not address the sweeping new restrictions introduced by Law 74/2025, often called the Tajani Decree, which tightened ancestry rules and remains under separate constitutional review. The Court declined requests to rule on the new law, treating the two questions as unrelated.

Why It Matters for U.S. Applicants

For Americans pursuing recognition under the older rules, the ruling is reassuring: it strengthens the legitimacy of historical jure sanguinis claims and may help where consular authorities scrutinize lineage or continuity. But it does not roll back the 2025 restrictions, so anyone whose claim falls under the new law still faces those limits until the pending challenges are resolved. This is general information, not legal advice. Run the free eligibility check to see your path.