Luxembourg Court to Rule on Denied Italian Citizenship

TITLE: Retroactivity of the Decreto Tajani on Italian Citizenship May Reach the Sezioni Unite of the Cassazione

What's at stake

Since the Decreto Tajani (DL 36/2025, converted into Lei 74/2025) took effect, introducing article 3-bis into Lei 91/1992, disagreement has been growing among Italian judges over a central question: can Italy declare that people born abroad before the reform, who don't meet the new criteria (children and grandchildren of Italians), never had a right to Italian citizenship?

This isn't just about whether the new law applies going forward. What's really at stake is whether Italy can retroactively rewrite these people's legal status, declaring that a right which, under the old rules, existed from birth simply never existed. According to reports from Italian citizenship specialists, this is the point that may reach the Sezioni Unite of the Corte di Cassazione—the body whose rulings are binding on all Italian judges and whose role is to standardize the interpretation of the law in these situations.

Divergence among Italian courts

There are reports of conflicting rulings among lower Italian courts regarding the effects of article 3-bis: some hold that the rule amounts to a retroactive revocation of an already-acquired right—since, before the decree, the right to citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) had no generational limit and was automatically transmitted by blood. Other rulings tend toward a more restrictive reading, aligned with the text of the decree itself, which treats the change as a clarification of criteria that were always required.

This difference in interpretation matters for determining the practical effects of the reform on those who already had cases underway or intended to begin the citizenship recognition process. It's worth noting that cases filed before the Decreto Tajani took effect are protected by the transition rules set out in the law itself—which is different from the debate over the retroactivity of the substantive right itself, applicable to those who had not yet filed a case.

Why this matters for descendants in Brazil

How the Sezioni Unite (or other competent courts) ultimately handle this retroactivity issue has the potential to directly affect thousands of Brazilians of Italian descent who are currently seeking citizenship recognition through the courts—since, following the Decreto Tajani, consular recognition has been restricted to children and grandchildren of Italians, and the administrative route through the comuni has also, in practice, become unavailable to more distant descendants seeking recognition on their own.

While the issue remains unsettled in the Italian courts, specialists recommend that interested descendants keep their documentation organized and follow updates on the matter through Raízes Italianas' Italy News. For those already gathering documents or planning to begin tracing their line of descent, searching for records in Italy remains a necessary step, regardless of how these legal debates are ultimately resolved.

This is a rapidly evolving topic, and the information presented here should be confirmed with official sources and specialized advisors before making any decisions based on it.

Want to know if you're entitled to Italian citizenship? Talk to a specialized advisory service.