Milan, July 31 (LaPresse) – The Constitutional Court has ruled that it is not admissible for the Court to intervene to limit the acquisition of citizenship by descent through a manipulative ruling that would involve choosing among multiple possible options, all of which entail a high degree of discretion and have significant systemic implications.
This is stated in ruling No. 142, filed today, in which the Constitutional Court declared inadmissible and unfounded various constitutional legitimacy questions raised by the Courts of Bologna, Rome, Milan, and Florence regarding Article 1 of Law No. 91 of 1992 — specifically the provision that grants citizenship at birth to “the child of a father or mother who is a citizen,” without placing any limits on the acquisition of citizenship iure sanguinis (by bloodline).
The cases brought to the Court stemmed from legal proceedings initiated by claimants who are descendants of Italian citizens, but were born and reside abroad and are citizens of another country. The referring courts challenged the law for failing to establish any criteria to ensure the actual existence of a connection to the Italian legal system — a connection they argued was lacking in such cases.
The Constitutional Court clarified that the legislature has “a particularly broad margin of discretion” in determining the conditions for acquiring citizenship, while the Court’s role is to ensure that the relevant laws do not rely on criteria that are completely unrelated to or in conflict with constitutional principles.
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