The Italian Constitutional Court, in its judgment No. 142/2025 of July 31, 2025, affirmed the principle that, when applying for Italian citizenship recognition by “right of blood” (iure sanguinis), it is irrelevant where or when the applicant was born.
The decision was prompted by motions filed by some Italian Ordinary Court judges who asked the Constitutional Court to confirm whether Italian citizenship can be transmitted by descent even if the applicant has no other direct connection with Italy.
The challenges were based on the argument that, citizenship purely based on descent without a concrete connection with Italy would violate constitutional principles. More specifically, it was contended that “granting citizenship to millions of people with no effective connection to the Italian community” could undermine the functioning of democracy and the concept of the people as set forth in the Constitution. Basically, the “concrete connection” for Italian citizenship refers to the new emphasis on a “genuine connection” (vincolo genuino) with Italy, requiring applicants, especially descendants, to demonstrate cultural, linguistic, or residential ties.
The Constitutional Court, however, dismissed the claim of unconstitutionality and affirmed that the right by descent is a legitimate form of original acquisition of citizenship, provided for in the Italian legal system since 1865. As noted by one of the Constitutional Judge, the role of Ordinary Courts is “to verify, in light of reasonableness and proportionality, whether such rules remain compatible with constitutional principles”.
The Court also stressed that defining the criteria for acquiring citizenship falls within the competence of Parliament, while emphasizing that such competence must respect constitutional limits.
The ruling not only confirms the validity of Italian citizenship by descent (iure sanguinis) for proceedings initiated before the so-called Tajani Decree (the Executive Decree 36/2025 of March 27, 2025), but also sets out solid legal grounds that could positively influence the pending challenge to Law No. 74/2025 through which the Italian Parliament converted – with some modifications – said Decree into a law of the Republic on May 23rd 2025.
Once the Constitutional Court received the challenge above, ordinary Courts put a hold on the Italian citizenship cases that could be affected by the decision. The recent Constituional Court ruling had the immediate effect of allowing those lawsuits that had been put on hold by the Ordinary Courts to resume, particularly numerous in the Courts of Bologna, Rome, Milan and Florence. Therefore, these proceedings are now expected to continue under the legislation in force prior to the new law (74/2025).
This decision, according to reputable scholars and commentators, is going to be helpful in the lawsuits for Italian citizenship recognition that challenge the above-mentioned restrictions. In particular, the Constitutional Court affirmed the principle that citizenship by descent is a legitimate form of original acquisition of citizenship. Lawsuits are being filed to claim that it is not legal to deny Italian citizenship recognition to people who were born prior to the 2025 new rules.
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