Frank Rondel
Italy’s Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld the 2025 reform restricting citizenship by descent, dismissing constitutional challenges and maintaining the narrower interpretation of the jus sanguinis principle, reports customreceipt.com with reference to courthousenews. The court’s decision followed a constitutional challenge submitted last year by a Turin court, which argued that the law should not be applied retroactively to descendants of Italians born before the legislation was enacted. In its statement, the Constitutional Court deemed the questions “partly unfounded and partly inadmissible,” effectively confirming the law as approved by the Italian Parliament in March 2025.
Renata Bueno, an Italo-Brazilian attorney and former member of the Italian Parliament, noted that while the full ruling has yet to be published, the statement indicates that constitutional challenges concerning citizenship claims beyond the third generation are unlikely to succeed. Bueno explained that the debate may continue on other constitutional grounds, particularly whether the new law violates the equality principle under Article 3 of the Italian Constitution by limiting recognition for descendants born abroad.
Fabio Gioppo, a lawyer specializing in Italian citizenship cases, emphasized that the court’s statement provides the first insight into specific arguments but does not resolve every constitutional question. Italy’s system of constitutional review is incidental, meaning the court evaluates only the questions submitted by lower courts in concrete cases. Gioppo suggested that future proceedings may eventually reach European courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, if litigants claim the reform contravenes international human rights treaties. Bueno added that such cases are unlikely to succeed due to Italy’s national sovereignty over citizenship matters.
The ruling has generated significant attention among Brazilian descendants of Italians, who form the largest Italian diaspora globally, estimated at around 30 million people. For decades, Brazil’s community relied on a broad interpretation of jus sanguinis, allowing descendants several generations removed to claim Italian citizenship through administrative procedures or litigation. Members of the Facebook group “Cidadania Italiana Judicial,” which counts nearly 22,000 participants, cautioned that the full implications of the court’s statement remain unclear until the complete ruling is released.
João Paulo Perim Zago, a member of the group, remarked that other related cases continue to progress through Italian courts. Some are scheduled for hearings at the Constitutional Court on June 9, an event regarded by many as a pivotal point in the ongoing legal debate surrounding the 2025 citizenship reform.
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