Italian Citizenship 1948 Case
A “1948 case” is a claim to Italian citizenship by descent in which the family line passes through an Italian woman before 1 January 1948 — a woman who had her child before that date, or who married a foreigner before it. The law of 1912 said she could not transmit citizenship and lost it on marriage. The Constitutional Court removed both rules; the administration applies the correction only from 1948. That is why these cases are decided by a judge, and why they are won.
Verified against the primary sources on 12 September 2026 · Law 555/1912 · Constitutional Court 87/1975, 30/1983, 63/2026 · Cassation SS.UU. 4466/2009 and 24045/2026 · Legislative Decree 150/2011, art. 19-bis
Recorded on 7 September 2026: are 1948 cases still possible after the Tajani law? Our reading, and why.
What the 1912 law did to Italian women, and what the Constitution undid
Law no. 555 of 13 June 1912 governed Italian citizenship until 1992. It was written for a country of emigrants, and it treated men and women differently in two ways that still decide cases today.
She could not transmit. Under the 1912 law citizenship passed from the father. A child born to an Italian mother and a foreign father took the father’s citizenship, not hers. The Constitutional Court declared this unconstitutional in judgment no. 30/1983, in light of the equality of the sexes guaranteed by the Constitution of 1948.
She lost it on marriage. Article 10(3) provided that an Italian woman who married a foreigner lost Italian citizenship if she acquired her husband’s. The Constitutional Court struck that down in judgment no. 87/1975.
Both judgments removed the rules with effect from the Constitution — but the Ministry of the Interior and the consulates apply them only to events from 1 January 1948, the day the Constitution entered into force. A woman who married a foreigner in 1935, or had her child in 1940, is treated administratively as if the 1912 law still applied to her. The courts do not accept that reading.
The Constitution of the Italian Republic entered into force on 1 January 1948. Constitutional Court judgments remove a rule from the legal order, but the administration reads them as operating only from the day the Constitution existed. A judge, asked to declare a status, applies the Constitution to the facts as they were. That difference of a date is the entire reason a “1948 case” exists as a category.
Is yours a 1948 case?
Four patterns cover almost every family we see. In all of them the rest of the line — before the woman and after her — is examined exactly as in any descent case: no one may have lost citizenship before the next person in the line was born.
Your Italian great-grandmother married a foreigner before 1948
Under article 10(3) of Law 555/1912 an Italian woman who married a foreign citizen automatically lost her Italian citizenship if she acquired her husband’s. The Constitutional Court declared that rule unconstitutional in judgment no. 87/1975. The courts recognise that she never validly lost it, and that the line continues through her.
Your Italian mother or grandmother had her child before 1 January 1948
Law 555/1912 transmitted citizenship through the father only. The Constitutional Court, in judgment no. 30/1983, extended transmission to the mother — but the administration applies that judgment only to children born from 1 January 1948, the date the Constitution entered into force. For a child born earlier, recognition must come from a court.
Both: she married a foreigner and had the child before 1948
The most common pattern in American, Argentine and Brazilian families. Both obstacles fall for the same constitutional reason, in the same proceeding.
The woman is further up the line
The pre-1948 woman may be the great-great-grandmother; what matters is that at some point before 1948 the line passed through a woman, and that no one after her lost citizenship before the next birth. The rest of the chain is examined exactly as in any descent case.
Why only a court can recognise it
A consular officer or a municipal registrar applies the Ministry’s instructions. Those instructions do not allow recognition of a line that passes through a woman before 1948. Filing there produces, at best, a refusal to be appealed; at worst, years lost waiting for one.
A tribunal applies the Constitution and the judgments of the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation. It is asked to declare a status — that you have been an Italian citizen since birth — not to grant one. That is why the proceeding is called an action for the ascertainment of citizenship, and why the judgment, once final, is transcribed in the civil-status registers like a birth record.
Since 2017 these actions belong to the specialised immigration sections of the tribunals (Decree-Law 13/2017), and since 2023 they follow the simplified procedure (Legislative Decree 150/2011, article 19-bis). The 2025 amendments added that witnesses and oaths are not admitted and that the applicant bears the burden of proving that no cause of loss occurred: a 1948 case is prepared on paper before it is filed, and won on the file.
Law 74/2025 and the 1948 case: what is settled and what is not
The new article 3-bis of the citizenship law limits recognition, for people born abroad with another citizenship, to those with a parent or grandparent who holds only Italian citizenship — unless the procedure was started before 27 March 2025. It says nothing specific about maternal lines. How it interacts with them is the live question in these cases, and we answer it in three parts.
Settled: cases filed before 27 March 2025 are decided under the old rules. Article 3-bis(b) protects judicial applications filed by 23:59 Rome time on that day, and the Sezioni Unite confirmed in judgment 24045/2026 that the new article does not reach them. If your family’s case was on file by then, the generational limit is not in play.
Settled, so far, in the tribunals: for cases filed after that date, the limit is applied applicant by applicant. In the six post-reform 1948 decisions in our register, the tribunals recognised the applicants within two generations of an exclusively-Italian ascendant and refused the others — in the same family, in the same judgment. That is the state of the first-instance case law today, and we would be misleading you to describe it otherwise.
Not settled: whether a maternal line stands outside the limit at all. Our position, argued in the appeals we have pending, is that a line the Constitutional Court itself restored in 1975 and 1983 — by declaring the discrimination against women unconstitutional — cannot be cut by an ordinary law of 2025 without reopening that discrimination, and that article 136 of the Constitution, on the effects of constitutional judgments, protects it. No court of appeal or the Court of Cassation has yet ruled on the point. We say so on this page, and we will update it when they do.
The six 1948 decisions handed down after the new law
These are every maternal-line decision in our register filed or decided under Law 74/2025, newest first, with what the court actually held. They are the evidence for the paragraph above, and the reason we describe the position as we do.
Child born 1932 to a mother who naturalised in 1939: Article 7 keeps the dual citizen from birth Italian. Ministry conceded consulates cannot apply maternal-line case law.
One applicant in five. An attempt to book is not an appointment obtained; 'possiede' read at the moment of the application; the minor issue 'irrelevant' under the new regime.
One applicant in four; three third-degree descendants refused 'for want of the requirements of Law 74/2025'.
Granddaughter born 1943 within the degrees; her son born 1972 outside them. Costs left with the applicants.
Two applicants excluded, relying on the Constitutional Court's operative order of 12 March 2026 before its reasons were filed.
Two applicants in six; the pre-1948 maternal question never reached.
Two things the six have in common. Where the judge reached the maternal-line question, it was decided in the applicant’s favour every time. Where an applicant was refused, the reason was the two-generation limit or its transitional conditions — never the 1948 doctrine itself.
How the proceeding works
Reconstruction of the line
Birth, marriage and death records for every generation from the Italian-born ancestor to you, with particular care for the woman’s marriage record and her husband’s citizenship at the time.
Proof of no interruption
Naturalisation records or certificates of non-existence for every person who could have naturalised before the next birth. Since March 2025 the law makes this expressly your burden (art. 19-bis, para. 2-ter).
Power of attorney
Signed abroad, apostilled and translated. You do not travel to Italy for any step of the proceeding.
Filing before the competent tribunal
The tribunal with the specialised immigration section for the district where your Italian ancestor was born (Decree-Law 13/2017, art. 4(5)). The case follows the simplified procedure (art. 19-bis, para. 1); witnesses and oaths are not admitted (para. 2-bis).
Decision
A judgment declaring that you are, and have always been, an Italian citizen. Once final it is transcribed in the civil-status registers of the Italian municipality, and the consulate issues the passport.
The Ministry of the Interior is the defendant. It may appear and contest the file, or not appear at all; both happen. Costs are allocated by the judge at the end — sometimes against the Ministry, often set off, sometimes left with the applicants — and our register records the outcome for every decision, because it is part of the honest picture of what a case costs.
Thirty 1948 decisions, read in full
We keep a public register of the citizenship decisions we have read, court by court, with what each judge actually held. These are the maternal-line decisions in it as of 12 September 2026.
None of the thirty was dismissed on the maternal-line question itself. The refusals in the partial decisions all concern the generational limit introduced in 2025, not the 1948 doctrine. Read them, with the court, number and date of each, in the register of court rulings.
The 1948 case, explained on video
The most recent one was recorded after Law 74/2025 and answers the question every family asks now: are 1948 cases still possible?
1948 Cases VS Tajani Law of Italian Citizenship by Descent
Are 1948 cases still possible after Law 74/2025? The constitutional reasons why, and what has changed in practice.
Italian Citizenship 1948 Cases: Are the New Courts still Approving?
What happens to a 1948 case filed before the new specialised immigration courts.
Italian Citizenship 1948 Case: Apply Without Coming to Italy!
A 1948 case is filed through a power of attorney: you do not have to travel to Italy.
More on our YouTube channel.
Frequently asked questions
What is a “1948 case” in Italian citizenship?
A citizenship by descent claim in which the line passes through an Italian woman before 1 January 1948 — either because she had her child before that date, or because she married a foreigner before it. Under the 1912 law she could not transmit citizenship and lost it on marriage; the Constitutional Court removed both rules, but consulates apply the correction only from 1948. So the recognition has to be obtained from a court.
Why can’t I just apply at the consulate?
Because the administration applies the Constitutional Court’s judgments of 1975 and 1983 only to events from 1 January 1948, the date the Constitution entered into force. The Court of Cassation, Sezioni Unite, held in judgment no. 4466/2009 that citizenship “must be recognised judicially” to a woman who lost it under article 10 of Law 555/1912 by marrying a foreigner before 1 January 1948 — and to her descendants. A judge applies the Constitution to the whole line; a consular officer does not.
Did Law 74/2025 close the 1948 cases?
No, but it changed them. Article 3-bis applies to every court case filed after 27 March 2025, including those on a maternal line: the two-generation limit is applied by the tribunals applicant by applicant, so that in the same family one person can be recognised and another not. Our position — argued in the cases we have on appeal — is that a line the Constitutional Court itself restored in 1975 and 1983 stands outside the limit written in 2025. That question has not yet been decided by the higher courts, and we say so.
Do I have to come to Italy?
No. The case is filed and argued by your lawyer under a power of attorney. Hearings in these proceedings are documentary; your presence is not required.
Which court?
For applicants living abroad, the tribunal of the district where the Italian father, mother or ancestor was born, for cases started from 22 June 2022 (Decree-Law 13/2017, art. 4(5), as amended by Law 206/2021). Not the Tribunal of Rome by default, as older guides still say.
Does the Ministry oppose these cases?
The Ministry of the Interior is the defendant and may appear. In the thirty 1948 decisions in our public register, obtained between 2025 and September 2026, twenty-four recognised every applicant and six recognised some; in a number of them the Ministry did not appear at all. How costs were allocated varies by court, and the register records it decision by decision.
What if the woman later reacquired Italian citizenship, or never lost it?
Then the case may be simpler, not harder. Whether she in fact acquired her husband’s citizenship on marriage depends on the law of his country at the time. We check the foreign law of the period before deciding how to plead the case.
What does it cost?
The court filing fee, the lawyer’s fee, and the cost of records, apostilles and translations. Our published fees are on the cost page.
What this page is based on
Checked against the following on 12 September 2026. No waiting times or success rates beyond our own register are stated, because none is published by any authority.
- Law no. 555 of 13 June 1912, articles 1, 7, 10 and 12.
- Constitutional Court, judgments no. 87/1975 and no. 30/1983; judgment no. 63/2026 and order no. 147/2026.
- Court of Cassation, Sezioni Unite, judgment no. 4466 of 25 February 2009; judgment no. 24045/2026 (published 26 July 2026); judgments no. 25317 and 25318/2022.
- Law no. 91 of 5 February 1992, article 3-bis, as inserted by Decree-Law 36/2025 and Law 74/2025.
- Legislative Decree no. 150 of 1 September 2011, article 19-bis; Decree-Law no. 13 of 17 February 2017, article 4(5), as amended by Law no. 206 of 26 November 2021.
- The thirty maternal-line decisions listed in our register of court rulings, each read in full.
Tell us about the woman in your line
Her name, when and where she was born, whom she married and when, and when her child was born. With that, and the rest of the line, we can tell you whether it is a 1948 case, which tribunal would hear it, and — since the 2025 law — who in your family is within the two generations and who would be arguing the constitutional point.
- No cost, no obligation
- Read by an Italian lawyer
- Every message is answered
Not a maternal-line case? Start from citizenship by descent. Refused on the “minor issue”? That refusal can now be reopened.
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