Tajani Decree: a new question of constitutionality raised by the Avellino Court
The Avellino Court has submitted a new question to the Italian Constitutional Court regarding the citizenship reform approved in 2025.
The case involves a minor born abroad and the refusal of a municipality in the province of Avellino to transcribe her birth certificate.
In the decree suspending the proceedings and referring the case back to the Constitutional Court on 15 September 2026, the Judge considers the question of the constitutionality of Article 3-bis of Law 91/1992 , introduced by Legislative Decree 36/2025 and converted into Law 74/2025, to be relevant and "not manifestly unfounded".
According to the court's order, the minor's parents appealed the registrar's refusal to transcribe her birth certificate.
The child was born abroad, and one of her parents subsequently obtained Italian citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) through a final ruling by the Court of Naples.
The Judge expressly states that, according to the rules in force before the 2025 reform, the request would have been accepted.
The problem arises because Article 3-bis now treats as if some people born abroad and holding another citizenship had never acquired Italian citizenship, even when born before the new law came into force, except for the exceptions provided for by law.
In the case of Avellino, according to the judge, these exceptions do not apply.
The Court of Avellino emphasizes that citizenship exists from birth and is a permanent, imprescriptible, and enforceable right at any time.
One of the central points of the decision concerns the jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation regarding the nature of citizenship iure sanguinis .
The suspension decree recalls that the United Sections of the Court of Cassation have consolidated the principle according to which citizenship by descent is originally acquired at birth and that any subsequent administrative or judicial decision has a declaratory nature.
In other words, recognition would not create citizenship, but would merely formally confirm an already existing status.
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