ROME (AP) — Italy’s highest court has ruled that children born with Italian citizenship do not automatically lose it when a parent later becomes a citizen of another country, a decision expected to bolster citizenship-by-descent claims by descendants of Italian emigrants worldwide.
The ruling resolves a long-running legal dispute known as the “Minor Issue,” which has affected thousands of ancestry-based citizenship cases involving families who left Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, experts say.
The ruling — dated Sunday but published Wednesday — was made by the Court of Cassation’s highest-level panel for resolving conflicting legal interpretations.
At the center of the dispute was whether children automatically lost Italian citizenship when an Italian parent later acquired a foreign nationality while the children were still minors.
Under a restrictive interpretation adopted in a series of court decisions beginning in 2023, many applications by later generations were rejected because authorities considered the line of citizenship transmission to have been interrupted.
What the court decided
In its new ruling, the court said that under Italy’s historical citizenship laws, children who were already Italian citizens by birth under the principle of “iure sanguinis,” or citizenship by bloodline, did not automatically lose their Italian citizenship when a parent became a citizen of another country.
The court clarified that children born in countries that automatically grant citizenship at birth — including the United States — retained their Italian citizenship even if their parents later naturalized there. Because they remained Italian citizens, they could pass that citizenship on to subsequent generations.
The ruling represents a reversal of recent practice
Lawyer Marco Mellone, who represented applicants in the case, explained that the ruling reversed a restrictive interpretation that had blocked citizenship claims in recent years, many by U.S. citizens.
“The Supreme Court of Cassation has completely changed its position and gone back, confirming that all these Italian-American families — and, more generally, families in all countries where this situation existed — regain the right to Italian citizenship by descent,” Mellone told The Associated Press.
What the decision means for people of Italian ancestry
The decision could have broad implications for descendants of Italian emigrants, particularly in North and South America, where large Italian diaspora communities have ancestral ties to Italy. Mellone estimated that several hundred thousand families may have been affected by the restrictive interpretation adopted in recent years.
Legal experts say the judgment is likely to strengthen the position of applicants whose claims were rejected solely because of the Minor Issue and provide authoritative guidance to judges handling pending cases. The ruling could also influence how Italian administrative authorities and consulates assess future citizenship applications.
Whether the Interior Ministry and Italian consulates formally adjust their practices to reflect the court’s interpretation remains unclear. However, decisions issued by the panel — known as the “Sezioni Unite” or United Sections — carry particular weight because they are intended to resolve conflicting interpretations of the law.
Mellone noted that “there’s no one above” the panel, which has only very rarely reversed decisions.
The ruling comes as Italy faces growing demand for citizenship by descent and legal disputes over the scope of ancestry-based citizenship rights.
Separately, a law championed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani that restricts citizenship transmission through more distant generations has been referred to the European Union’s Court of Justice, with proceedings expected next year.
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