Italy’s Constitutional Court upholds limits on citizenship by descent

On 11 March 2026, Italy’s Constitutional Court confirmed the validity of the 2025 reform that narrowed citizenship by descent (ius sanguinis) to applicants with at least one Italian parent or grandparent, as reported by Claudio Del Frate in Corriere della Sera (article in Italian here: La corte costituzionale conferma la legge che limita lo ius sanguinis e le cittadinanze facili). The judges rejected the objections raised by the Turin court, which claimed that the new generational cap violated Article 3 of the Constitution and amounted to an implicit retroactive loss of citizenship, and they declared inadmissible the complaint based on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The decision consolidates the shift introduced by Decree‑Law 36/2025 (converted into Law 74/2025), replacing the previous “infinite” bloodline approach with a two‑generation limit that focuses on closer family ties or, in some cases, a demonstrated territorial connection to Italy. This marks a clear departure from earlier practice, which had enabled many descendants of distant Italian emigrants, especially in Latin America and other large diaspora communities, to seek recognition and had generated very high volumes of applications before municipalities, consulates, and courts.

In practical terms, the pool of people who are now eligible – and therefore the number of individuals needing document translations and similar preparatory work for new applications – is likely to decrease, particularly for those relying on more remote ancestors. At the same time, people with more complex situations, or who have already started the citizenship process under the previous understanding of ius sanguinis, would be well advised to consult an Italian lawyer who specializes in this field in order to assess their position under the new framework and identify any remaining viable routes.