The Italian Constitutional Court published this Thursday, July 31, as the Italianism advanced, the judgment no. 142/2025, recognizing as legitimate the right of blood (jure sanguinis) for children of Italians born abroad. The decision responds to lawsuits filed by the courts of Bologna, Rome, Milan and Florence and confirms that Italian citizenship is transmitted through descent, without the need for a direct territorial link to Italy.
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The questions arose from the thesis that the current model violates constitutional principles, such as popular sovereignty (Article 1) and the reasonableness of norms (Article 3). For the courts, "granting citizenship to millions of people with no effective connection to the Italian community" could compromise the functioning of democracy and the concept of the people enshrined in the Constitution.
The Court, however, rejected the thesis of unconstitutionality and reinforced that the right by descent is a legitimate form of original acquisition of citizenship, provided for in the Italian legal system since 1865. According to the reporting judge, Emanuela Navarretta, the role of the Court is “to verify, in light of reasonableness and proportionality, whether such norms remain compatible with constitutional principles.”
Court upholds Parliament's role and reaffirms legal certainty
The Court warned that the definition of criteria for acquiring citizenship is up to Parliament, but reaffirmed that this competence must respect constitutional limits. In refusing any judicial intervention to change the current model, the court was direct:
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“What is required of this Court is an extremely complex manipulative intervention, which would involve fundamental and largely discretionary choices, with strong systemic repercussions.”
New law does not affect processes prior to March 2025
The ruling also clarified that Law No. 36/2025, which imposed stricter criteria for the recognition of citizenship by blood, does not apply to processes initiated before March 27, 2025.
In these cases, the previous rules remain valid, according to which the simple link of filiation with an Italian citizen is sufficient to guarantee recognition of citizenship.
“The previous rules remain valid for those who had already filed their requests by that date,” the Court stated.
Suspended processes must be resumed
The decision has an immediate effect on suspended cases in several Italian courts. In particular, it will benefit the thousands of applicants who were awaiting a decision in Bologna, Rome, Milan, and Florence, and whose cases were under constitutional review.
With the ruling, these actions must be resumed based on the legislation prior to the new rule.
The ruling represents a historic victory for people of Italian descent, especially in South America.
Read the decision here: Download sentence (in Italian)
About the new Italian citizenship law
The Court rejected requests to rule on the legislation passed during the course of the proceedings. This refers to Decree-Law No. 36 of 2025, which became Law No. 74 of 2025, and which imposed restrictions on the recognition of Italian citizenship by descent.
According to the ministers, the new rule does not apply to the processes that originated the analyzed actions, since they were all filed before the deadline set by legislation.
The issue, however, should return to the Constitutional Court's agenda between the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026. The Turin Court accepted a new request to analyze the constitutionality of Law No. 74, a successor to the so-called Tajani Decree.
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If the Court accepts the arguments of unconstitutionality, the new law could be suspended in whole or in part, reopening the debate on the criteria for the recognition of Italian citizenship. jure sanguinis.
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