Italian jus sanguinis after the crackdown: why the courts still matter

Italian citizenship by descent has taken a serious hit over the past year, as I mentioned in several recent blog posts, but a new ruling from Italy’s Supreme Court suggests it may be too early to write off jus sanguinis entirely.

In 2025, the so-called Tajani Decree, later converted into Law 74/2025, tightened the rules on citizenship by descent, and the Constitutional Court later confirmed that more restrictive approach. For many observers, that looked like the end of the old understanding of jus sanguinis as an open-ended right passed down indefinitely through Italian ancestry.

A new decision from the Corte di Cassazione, however, points in a different direction. In judgment no. 13818/2026, the Court reaffirmed that citizenship by descent exists from birth and is “permanent and imprescriptible.” Just as important, it held that when consulates make it effectively impossible to file an application — through endless queues, blocked booking systems, or suspended appointments — that obstacle can justify going directly to court.

In practical terms, this does not undo the recent legal restrictions. It does, however, strengthen the judicial route for people who were shut out by administrative dysfunction rather than by any lack of entitlement. In other words, the door may have narrowed, but the window is still open.

For background, see Rui Badaró’s comments in Italianismo, and also Desiderio Peron’s reporting in Insieme.