Italy despatched shockwaves by means of its global diaspora in March 2025 when the federal government launched a sweeping new law which positioned a strict two-generation cap on citizenship by descent.
Overnight, hundreds of thousands of descendants all over the world — a lot of whom had already spent 1000’s of {dollars} on household analysis and authorized charges — noticed their path to a European passport fully blocked.
But following an obvious judicial U-turn this week, the high-stakes battle to overturn the controversial laws has formally restarted.
Initially, Italy’s Constitutional Court upheld the strict legislation, generally known as L74/2025, leaving candidates devastated as a whole bunch of lawsuits difficult the ban had been dismissed.
However, after re-scrutinizing the laws, the courtroom carried out an about-face. It has now suspended the newest challenges to the legislation from regional Italian judges and formally referred the case to the European Court of Justice to find out if Italy broke European authorized guidelines.
“It’s a 180-degree change of direction,” Marco Mellone, considered one of 4 attorneys who fought the legislation within the newest June listening to, informed NCS. “It’s a confession that they made a mistake in March.”
“I didn’t expect it because we’d requested a referral in the previous hearing but the court denied it,” mentioned Corrado Caruso, a legislation professor at Bologna University, who additionally argued in courtroom. “So it’s a positive step because it means the court has some doubts. I think there was a change of mind.”
Attorney Monica Restanio, who additionally argued the case, referred to as it “the best news that we could have got, and much better than what I was expecting… they are putting everything back in play.”
Even although the Italian courtroom claims it nonetheless believes the legislation complies with EU guidelines, Mellone views the transfer as a quiet admission of a previous mistake. Past European rulings have firmly established that citizenship can’t be stripped away with out warning, disproportionately, or unexpectedly.
“They had the chance to refer it three months ago and didn’t, it’s clear they changed their opinion,” he mentioned. “They’ve been brave. The law was completely against 30 years of case law at the ECJ.”
Restanio mentioned that European authorized precedent normally favors descendants, “establishing the need for adequate notice and individual assessment” earlier than proscribing citizenship by descent. Instead, Italy pushed L74/2025 by means of with out warning, slicing off 1000’s of people that had been already mid-application.
Since then, a whole bunch of Italian descendants have misplaced their authorized battles difficult the brand new legislation, which bans twin residents overseas from passing down their nationality and enforces the two-generation cap.
The problem hinges on whether or not claimants had been born Italians with unrecognized citizenship, as earlier case legislation had dominated.
If the ECJ guidelines towards the legislation, it will likely be fully worn out, leaving the Italian authorities to jot down new laws that complies with EU guidelines.
Caruso couldn’t totally clarify the courtroom’s sudden shift. “Maybe the court was too quick dismissing our request in March — maybe they reflected a little deeper,” he mentioned, including that latest unrelated rulings have been notably “EU-friendly.”
This isn’t the one problem working its method by means of the system. In April, Italy’s supreme courtroom examined the so-called “minor issue,” a 2024 measure that restricts citizenship by descent. Restanio mentioned she is awaiting that remaining ruling “with great serenity.”
Meanwhile, Mellone referred to as the constitutional courtroom’s referral a historic second — the primary time an Italian courtroom has conceded that one thing could also be unsuitable with the brand new legislation.
“This is a good sign,” he mentioned. “We were almost dead. Now we restart our battle.”