The Ordinary Court of Campobasso raised this Tuesday (5) a new question of unconstitutionality against the legislation that restricts the recognition of Italian citizenship by descent. The decision suspends the trial of a case involving two Brazilian citizens and forwards the case to the Constitutional Court.
The rule in question is Article 3-bis of Law 91/1992, included by Law 74/2025, which requires that applications for citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) be submitted by March 27, 2025. Judge Claudia Carissimi considers that the rule retroactively limits citizenship for individuals already born., which goes against constitutional and European principles.
"Substantial revocation of an already acquired right"
According to the decision, the new rule not only prevents new recognitions, but also removes a status already acquired by birth. Although the legislator defines the measure as a "preclusion to automatic acquisition," the Court states that it constitutes a substantial revocation, inconsistent with the principles of reasonableness, the protection of legitimate expectations, and the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of citizenship.
The judge cites, in the ruling to which Italianismo had access, jurisprudence from the United Sections of the Court of Cassation (SSUU 25318/2022), which reaffirms: citizenship by birth is a permanent and imprescriptible status, which is only lost by voluntary renunciation. The new article, however, establishes an automatic loss. former tunc for those who had not yet obtained formal recognition.
Arbitrary criteria and their effects on European citizenship.
The Court also challenges the use of the application filing date as an exclusion criterion. According to the court, this creates unequal treatment between people in identical situations, based on factors beyond the control of those involved, such as bureaucratic or economic limitations.
Furthermore, the decision warns that the automatic loss of Italian citizenship also implies the loss of European Union citizenship, without any individual proportionality analysis, violating Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
Impact on national judgment
The constitutional question reaches the Court on the eve of the hearing already scheduled for March 11, 2026, in Rome. In this session, two actions that also challenge Article 3-bis will be judged. originating from the courts of Turin and Mantua.
With the new elevation, there is now the possibility that the Court will postpone the hearing in order to combine the three cases into a single trial. This would allow for a decision with uniform effect throughout the Italian territory, avoiding divergent interpretations among the courts of origin.
The case
The lawsuit in Campobasso was filed by FCSC and her daughter RCSN, Brazilian women who are direct descendants of an Italian citizen born in Bojano (CB) in 1881. The plaintiffs are represented by lawyer Licia Celi. The genealogical line has been documented, and the right to citizenship, according to previous legislation, would be recognized without dispute.
The judge considered that the new rule unduly interferes with already established situations and pointed to a possible violation of articles 2, 3, 22, 72, 77 and 117 of the Italian Constitution, as well as incompatibility with European law.
The Constitutional Court will decide whether to include Campobasso's case in the March hearing or to set a new date for the joint review of the three cases.
