"1948 Cases"
Under the 1912 Italian Citizenship law, only men were able to transfer Italian citizenship to their children (born in Italy or abroad) on the condition that at the time of their children’s birth they were Italian citizens. However, Italian-born women and women born abroad who held Italian citizenship were discriminated against, and under the 1912 Italian law they were NOT able to transfer Italian citizenship to their children. Only after the promulgation of the Italian constitution, which stated that men and women have equal rights, Italian women were able to transmit Italian citizenship to their sons and daughters, but only to those children born after January 1, 1948. Consequently, Italian consulates deny all citizenship applications in which the applicant is using an Italian-born female ancestor or female ancestor born abroad, whose child was born prior to 1948. Similarly, Italian women married to non-Italian men before 1948 were also discriminated against, and the Italian law sanctioned them with the automatic loss of their Italian citizenship because of the marriage to a non-Italian man.
In more recent times, a trial case challenged the above situations as discriminatory and unjust. As a result, those applicants who have a case falling in one of the above categories now have very good chances of succeeding in obtaining Italian citizenship due to the precedent established in 2009 in Italian courts and the many cases that were won afterwards. Legal precedents state that the principles set forth in the 1948 Italian constitution (including gender equality) should be applied retroactively, including to events that occurred prior to the issuance of the Italian Constitution. This is how courts are able to declare that female ancestors can pass Italian citizenship to their children – provided that they did not autonomously naturalize before the child’s birth – even if the Italian Constitution had not been created at that time, and the principle of gender equality had not been yet codified. Similarly, they decreed that women did not lose Italian citizenship by marrying a non-Italian citizen in spite of the law at the time. The counterpart in this type of lawsuit is the office of the Ministry of Interior.
*** Please note that the Italian Government approved a law on November 26, 2021, which became effective on December 24, 2021 and implemented on June 22, 2022. The law established that when the petitioner resides abroad, the lawsuit can be filed at the court that covers the jurisdiction of the Italian father, mother or ancestor’s municipality. These provisions allow other courts – aside from the Court of Rome – the ability to litigate 1948 cases. All cases presented before June 22, 2022 must be filed at the Court of Rome. For more information please click here.
The probability of attaining citizenship via the courts in Italy is extremely high for the following reasons:
– Courts almost always granted Italian citizenship in all the lawsuits that were filed since 2009.
– The Italian government is not representing itself in court anymore (no counter claims are filed and the office of the Italian Ministry of Interior is generally no longer represented by the State Attorneys).
– In nearly all the new trials started recently, the judges assigned to the cases were the same ones that granted citizenship in the previous cases.
With that said, despite the high number of cases won in this field, there is no guarantee to win the lawsuit, as the Italian legal system allows courts to decide differently from the jurisprudence set in a certain time (though this scenario is extremely unlikely as courts tend to adhere to consolidated previous jurisprudence). The timeline from the beginning of the legal proceeding in Italy is normally 1-1.5 years. Additional family members can join the trial at the same time. The Petitioner’s presence in Italy is not required at any time.
OTHER COURT CASES (“SILENCE” OF THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION and DENIAL OF THE CITIZENSHIP APPLICATION)
It is possible to hire an attorney for legal representation in court in Italy even if your case is a “regular jure sanguinis case” not involving a female ancestor. In fact, if you have applied for Italian citizenship through your local Italian consulate and have not received information as to whether your application was approved or denied in the last 730 days, you are entitled to address the Civil Court to enforce your rights and be granted citizenship by the court directly.
Similarly, it is possible to start a legal proceeding in Italy, before the Italian Civil Court, and use all your “citizenship documents” in court for the first time (rather than at the consulate) if your local consulate has scheduled your appointment for more than 2 years in the future. In this case the judge will have jurisdiction over your case and your case can be heard by the judge rather than the consulate.
For the above cases the Civil Court is the entity that must be addressed and not the Administrative Court (also known as TAR). There are several judgments ruling on the above in favor of the petitioners.
The Administrative Courts in Italy should be addressed only in case of unjustified denial of your citizenship application by the consulate.