Italian Citizenship: what to expect from the Constitutional Court hearing on June 24th?

Jun 11, 2025

After the constitutional legitimacy question raised by the Court of Bologna, also the Courts of Florence, Milan and Rome has raised questions on whether Italian citizenship should have a generational limit.

With the enactment of Law 74/2025, effective as of 24^th May 2025, Italian citizenship by descent can be recognized only to individuals whose parents or grandparents held (if deceased) or held (at the time of the applicants’ birth) solely Italian citizenship. This law has thus changed the eligibility criteria for acquiring Italian citizenship as originally outlined in Law 91/1992.

Constitutional Legitimacy Question

The question concerning the provision of a generational limit on the transmission of Italian citizenship has been brought before the Constitutional Court. The Court was tasked with determining the legitimacy of such limit, particularly since citizenship by descent was previously granted to individuals who, despite being descendants of Italian citizens, had never lived in Italy, had no intention of moving there, and in many cases, had never even visited the country.

Hearing date and timings for the ruling

The Constitutional Court has scheduled a hearing for June 24^th, 2025. The ruling is expected to be announced and published by the end of the year.

Potential implications for pending cases and possible scenario

If the Constitutional Court agrees with the local judges and declares the constitutional illegitimacy of article 1 of Law 91/1992 due to the lack of generational limits, the article will not be apply anymore starting from the day after the publication of the ruling.

At that point, the Court:

• can recognize an exception for those who filed their claims before its ruling;
• alternatively, it can “modulate” the effects of the ruling, allowing the current legislation (art. 1) to remain in force until a specified date.

In the event of a declaration of unconstitutionality, a legislative intervention may be requested, according to the characters of the judicial pronunciation, in order to fix specific generational limits.

Meanwhile, the large amount of requests presented for the recognition of the Italian citizenship in Court continues to generate a significant number of legal cases, further clogging the judicial system.

Contact our Citizenship team for further information.

This article was written by Giuditta De Ricco and Greis Muca.

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