Italy’s Constitutional Court has upheld a controversial law restricting citizenship by descent to those with a parent or grandparent born in Italy.
The court announced it would rule in favour of the government and its 2025 law that restricted citizenship for those born abroad ending a 160-year tradition of ius sanguinis that has defined Italian identity since 1865.
The Italy citizenship by descent ruling March 2026 affects millions of people across Argentina, the United States, Brazil, Australia, and Africa who had been building claims to Italian nationality.
The law, introduced in March 2025 as an emergency decree and later converted to Law 74/2025, restricts citizenship recognition to those whose parent or grandparent was born in Italy and held solely Italian citizenship at the time of their descendant’s birth.
The citizenship by descent ruling March 2026 is retroactive from March 27, 2025.
Claims through great-grandparents or earlier generations are excluded unless specific residency conditions are met.
Only applications filed before the cutoff, about 60,000 cases, will be processed under the old rules.
Consequently, millions of descendants who had already gathered documents and were mid-application have had their cases permanently closed.
Legal Opinion
The Constitutional Court announced:
“The Constitutional Court has declared the questions of constitutional legitimacy raised by the Turin court partially unfounded and partially inadmissible.”
However, citizenship lawyer Marco Mellone told CNN the fight is not over:
“This doesn’t mean the new law is 100% valid and forever. There is still space for argument for cases brought by Italian judges to the constitutional court.”
Mellone is challenging the law at Italy’s Court of Cassation on April 14, a court whose opinion trumps that of the Constitutional Court.
“This is a very sad day for millions of people, but I didn’t study law for 25 years to see this kind of thing happen. Descendants were born Italian citizens.”
How the Italy Citizenship by Descent Ruling Affects Women’s Claims
Women could not transmit Italian citizenship until 1948, meaning descendants of Italian women who gave birth before that date are blocked from recognition. Since 2009 many had successfully sued the state for gender discrimination if they could afford to do so.
The Italy citizenship by descent ruling March 2026 closes off this legal avenue entirely, leaving families divided by what critics describe as arbitrary legal lines.
Moreover, the new law effectively outlaws dual citizenship for the diaspora the parent or grandparent must have held solely Italian citizenship, meaning naturalisation abroad at any point in their lifetime breaks the chain permanently.
Why Italy Introduced the Citizenship by Descent Restriction
Between 2014 and 2024, the number of Italian citizens residing abroad increased from 4.6 million to 6.4 million. Argentina’s Italian consulates alone processed 30,000 applications in 2024, up 10,000 from the previous year. Regional courts became clogged with thousands of citizenship cases while consulates were inundated by applications.
In 2024 a record 155,732 Italians emigrated and over half a million residents left Italy between 2020 and 2024 meaning Italy is simultaneously blocking diaspora claims while losing its own resident population at an accelerating rate.
Therefore, the Italy citizenship by descent ruling March 2026 represents a dramatic and controversial closing of doors at precisely the moment Italy’s own population crisis is deepening.
