Our Legal Position Following Recent 2026 Constitutional Court Developments

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

Bersani Law Firm & Partners

*Updated March 12th,2026*

Italian Citizenship by Descent/Iure Sanguinis — Our Legal Position Following Recent 2026 Constitutional Court Developments

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Bersani Law Firm & Partners issues this statement to provide clarity to all current and prospective clients in light of recent media coverage concerning the Tajani Decree (Law 74/2025) and the Italian Constitutional Court.

We wish to be unequivocal: we are proceeding with all active cases. There is no legal basis for alarm at this stage.

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1. Italian Citizenship Constitutional Court Process: It’s Not Over Yet

The Constitutional Court has issued a preliminary press release only. The legal framework established by Law 74/2025 (the new law) and the Tajani Decree is currently under review by the Italian Constitutional Court, which is examining the constitutional legitimacy of these provisions. The full written judgment has not yet been published.

A constitutional court hearing (public hearing) was held on March 11, 2026, where central arguments and constitutional legitimacy were raised in a legal debate regarding the Tajani Decree. The constitutional challenge filed by lower courts led to the court’s decision on March 12, 2026, which upheld the generational cap on citizenship by descent. The court found some constitutional claims partly unfounded and partly inadmissible. The Constitutional Court’s decision does not restore the previous understanding of citizenship by descent, confirming the new framework remains in force. The ruling was influenced by arguments regarding the retroactive application of the law.

Further hearings specifically targeting the Tajani Decree are scheduled for June 2026. No final, definitive rulings has been reached. We urge all clients and applicants to disregard unfounded media/social media reporting, which does not accurately reflect the legal situation at the current date (March 12th 2026). The proceedings remain open, and the outcome remains undetermined.

2. CONSULATE “LACK OF APPOINTMENT” CASES — WE ARE PROCEEDING

Italian law requires that citizenship applications be processed through the Consulate. Where the Consulate systematically failed to make appointments available — through wait-lists, backlogs, or the outright absence of available slots — the applicant was prevented from exercising a right they were legally entitled to exercise. That failure belongs to the Consulate, not to the applicant.

The legal consequence is clear and direct:

→ An applicant who attempted to file before 2025 but was denied the opportunity due to the Consulate’s failure to provide an appointment cannot have their case evaluated under rules that did not exist at the time they sought to file.
→ The governing law for such a case is the pre-2025 legislation — the law that was in force when the applicant had the right to proceed.
→ This principle holds regardless of what the Constitutional Court ultimately decides about Law 74/2025. It is an independent legal argument, grounded in the basic rule that a party cannot be penalized for failing to comply with a procedure that the responsible authority made impossible.
→ Even in the worst-case scenario — that is, even if the Constitutional Court were to uphold the Tajani Decree in its entirety with no modifications — this argument remains fully intact and constitutes a robust, autonomous ground for proceeding under prior law.

What clients in this category must be prepared to demonstrate:

→ That they actively attempted to obtain a Consulate appointment before the 2025 law came into force.
→ That no appointment was made available to them — whether due to the absence of available slots, an indefinitely suspended wait-list, or any other Consulate-side impediment.

Documentation of these attempts — emails, wait-list registrations, online system records, or any other evidence of outreach to the Consulate — is important and should be preserved. We are available to advise each client individually on what evidence is relevant to their specific situation.

We are actively pursuing these cases and will continue to do so.The legal landscape for citizenship applications now requires a focus on specific legal strategies and documentary evidence.

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3. 1948 CASES — CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED, UNAFFECTED BY LAW 74/2025

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Clients with a 1948 case — that is, cases where Italian lineage passes through a female ancestor at any point prior to January 1, 1948 — occupy a legally distinct and protected position.

→ The right recognized in 1948 cases does not derive from any statute. It derives directly from the Italian Constitution, as declared by the Constitutional Court itself in Judgment No. 87/1975 (loss of citizenship for women upon marriage held unconstitutional under Articles 3 and 29 of the Constitution) and Judgment No. 30/1983 (exclusion of Italian mothers from transmitting citizenship to their children held unconstitutional).

→ Law 74/2025 is ordinary legislation. It can modify statutory rights. It cannot override constitutionally grounded rights recognized through binding constitutional jurisprudence.

→ The Tajani Decree operates on a different legal plane from the one your case rests upon. It has no jurisdiction over 1948 cases.

We are proceeding with all 1948 cases without interruption.

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4. DUAL NATIONALITY AND ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP CASES — WE ARE CHALLENGING THE RESTRICTION AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

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One of the most significant provisions introduced by Law 74/2025 concerns applicants who are children or grandchildren of Italian citizens but who already hold another nationality. The Decree seeks to restrict or limit citizenship recognition for this category of applicants.

Our position is that this restriction is unconstitutional, and we are acting accordingly.

→ Italian citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) is a right grounded in the principle of continuity of citizenship across generations, a principle that has been consistently upheld in Italian constitutional and civil jurisprudence.

→ Penalizing applicants solely on the basis of holding a foreign nationality introduces a discriminatory criterion that conflicts with constitutional principles of equality (Article 3 of the Constitution) and with the fundamental nature of jure sanguinis recognition.

→ We are filing cases on behalf of affected clients and will formally petition the Courts to refer this constitutional question to the Corte Costituzionale for a definitive ruling.

We consider this one of the most important fronts in the post-2025 citizenship landscape, and we are fully committed to advancing it.

Our constitutional challenge rests on the following grounds:

→ Article 22 of the Italian Constitution expressly prohibits the deprivation of citizenship for political reasons and establishes citizenship as a fundamental legal status. Conditioning the recognition of a birthright citizenship claim on the absence of a foreign nationality introduces an arbitrary and constitutionally impermissible barrier.

→ Article 3 of the Constitution guarantees equal treatment before the law. Applicants who qualify under the same jure sanguinis lineage cannot be treated differently solely on the basis of whether they happen to hold another passport. Such differentiation lacks a constitutionally legitimate justification and introduces an inequality directly inconsistent with the equal dignity of all citizens.

→ The nature of jure sanguinis recognition is declaratory, not constitutive. This principle, firmly established in Italian civil and constitutional jurisprudence — including by the Corte di Cassazione in its consistent interpretation of the citizenship transmission chain — means that Italian citizenship by descent is not a benefit granted by the State at its discretion: it is the judicial acknowledgment of a status that already exists by operation of law. A provision that conditions this recognition on renouncing or not holding a foreign nationality fundamentally mischaracterizes the nature of the right itself and conflicts with the declaratory framework that Italian courts have consistently applied.

→ Furthermore, the restriction may conflict with Article 117 of the Constitution, which requires Italian law to conform to international treaty obligations — including those that protect the right to nationality and guard against statelessness or the arbitrary denial of nationality claims.

This is an evolving area of litigation. As the constitutional question has not yet received a definitive ruling, our strategy is to build the jurisprudential record through active filings and to seek a referral to the Corte Costituzionale at the earliest opportunity. We regard this as one of the most consequential legal battles in the post-2025 citizenship landscape.

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CONCLUSION

Bersani Law Firm & Partners continues to represent its clients across all three of the above categories with full confidence in the legal grounds available. The Constitutional Court proceedings are ongoing, and its ruling has significant implications for the estimated 80 million people worldwide who claim Italian descent. The legal landscape for Italian citizenship applications has narrowed significantly due to the new laws, requiring detailed case-by-case analysis. The legal arguments in favor of our clients remain strong and, in the case of 1948 cases, constitutionally entrenched.

The Supreme Court will address the issue of the retroactivity of the Tajani Decree on April 11, 2026, a decision that could alter or affirm the rulings of lower courts regarding constitutional and legal issues. Notably, the Mantova Court and Campobasso Court have filed independent constitutional challenges against the Tajani Decree, and lower courts continue to play a crucial role in shaping the ongoing legal debate surrounding Italian citizenship law reform.

Additionally, a special provision in Law 74/2025 allows for the reacquisition of citizenship without residency requirements for those who lost citizenship before 1992, open until December 31, 2027. Pending applications filed before March 28, 2025, remain protected and will be processed under the previous, less-restrictive rules.

We will issue further updates as the June 2026 hearings approach.

For inquiries, please contact our office directly: mbersanilaw.com/contatti

Bersani Law Firm & Partners