Italian Citizenship Minor Issue: Italy’s Supreme Court Ends the Historical Dispute | Coppolaw
Judgment No. 24045/2026 confirms that a child who was Italian by descent and acquired another nationality at birth did not lose Italian citizenship merely because a parent later naturalised abroad.
Italy’s Supreme Court resolves the minor issue and protects citizenship held from birth by children of Italians who later naturalised abroad.
On 26 July 2026, the Italian Supreme Court published Judgment No. 24045/2026, a landmark ruling on the Italian citizenship minor issue.
The Court confirmed that a child born abroad who acquired Italian citizenship by descent and, simultaneously, the citizenship of the country of birth under ius soli did not automatically lose Italian citizenship when the Italian parent later naturalised during the child’s minority.
What was the Italian citizenship minor issue?
For years, courts, consulates and applicants disagreed over the interaction between Articles 7 and 12 of Italian Law No. 555 of 1912. Some authorities treated a parent’s naturalisation as having a derivative effect on minor children. Under that interpretation, a child could be regarded as having lost Italian citizenship together with the parent, even though the child already held the foreign nationality from birth.
As a result, a naturalisation occurring while the next person in the family line was still a minor could be treated as breaking the chain, despite that person having been born both Italian by blood and foreign by place of birth.
The Supreme Court clarified that Article 7 contains a special rule for a person who is Italian by ius sanguinis and simultaneously a citizen of another country by ius soli.
Such a child is a dual citizen from birth and retains Italian citizenship even if the Italian parent subsequently naturalises or otherwise loses Italian citizenship.
Article 12 applies differently. Its derivative-loss mechanism may affect only a non-emancipated minor who originally possessed Italian citizenship alone and who, because of the parent’s loss of citizenship and under the foreign country’s law, could acquire the foreign nationality on a non-original basis. It does not apply to a child who was already a foreign citizen from birth.
The Court also confirmed that the same principles apply whether citizenship was transmitted through the father or the mother.
Why the Italian citizenship minor issue matters
The ruling removes one of the most controversial obstacles faced by descendants born in countries where citizenship is acquired at birth under ius soli. Where an ancestor’s child was born before the ancestor’s naturalisation and obtained the foreign nationality automatically at birth, that later naturalisation should not, by itself, interrupt the Italian line.
This is the central practical effect of the Italian citizenship minor issue ruling. Applicants must still prove the line of descent, the relevant civil-status events, the Italian ancestor’s citizenship, the exact date and legal effect of any naturalisation, and the absence of a valid renunciation. The law of the country of birth may also need to be examined to prove that foreign citizenship was acquired at birth.
Scope of the Italian citizenship minor issue ruling
Judgment No. 24045/2026 also states that the restrictive provisions introduced in 2025 do not apply to judicial claims filed before 27 March 2025. Those proceedings remain governed by the previous legislation. The judgment therefore settles the historical minor question at the highest interpretative level, but it does not remove every separate restriction introduced by the 2025 citizenship reform.
What applicants should do now
Anyone whose administrative or judicial application was refused, challenged or considered weak because of a parent’s naturalisation during the child’s minority should have the family history reassessed.
Key evidence will normally include the ancestor’s Italian records, the descendant’s foreign birth certificate, and official naturalisation or non-naturalisation records establishing the precise chronology.
For pending cases governed by the earlier legislation, lawyers can now rely directly on the principles stated by the Court Order. For previously rejected matters, the possibility of an appeal or another legal remedy will depend on the procedural history, the reasons for the decision and the applicable time limits.
The Italian citizenship minor issue has therefore been resolved in a manner that protects citizenship acquired at birth and rejects automatic loss based solely on a parent’s later naturalisation.
Judgment No. 24045/2026 represents a decisive legal development, although every claim still requires an individual legal and documentary assessment.
Read Judgment No. 24045/2026 on the official website of the Italian Supreme Court
Coppolaw advises clients in the United Kingdom and abroad on Italian citizenship by descent, including complex naturalisation histories, citizenship litigation and court proceedings in Italy.
Avv.Giuseppe Coppola | Avvocato a Londra | Coppolaw
