Italy sent shockwaves through its global diaspora in March 2025 when the government passed sweeping new legislation that placed strict limits on two-generation citizenship by descent.
Overnight, millions of descendants around the world – many of whom had already spent thousands of dollars on family research and legal fees – saw their path to a European passport completely blocked.
But after an apparent U-turn by the judiciary this week, the high-stakes battle to overturn the controversial law has officially resumed.
Italy’s Constitutional Court initially upheld the strict law, known as L74/2025, leaving applicants in despair as hundreds of lawsuits challenging the ban were rejected.
However, after the revision of the legislation, the court made a U-turn. It has now suspended the latest challenges to the law by regional Italian judges and formally referred the case to the European Court to determine whether Italy has violated European legal standards.
“This is a 180-degree change in direction,” Marco Mellone, one of four lawyers who fought the law at the latest June hearing, told CNN. “It’s an admission that they made a mistake in March.”
“I did not expect this because at the previous hearing we asked for a transfer of the case, but the court refused it,” said Corrado Caruso, a law professor at the University of Bologna who also spoke in court. “So this is a positive step because it means the court has some doubts. I think the view has changed.”
Attorney Monica Restanio, who also argued the case, called it “the best news we could have gotten and much better than I expected… they’re putting everything back in play.”
Although the Italian court says it still believes the law complies with EU rules, Mellone sees the move as a quiet admission of a past mistake. Past European rulings have firmly established that citizenship cannot be withdrawn without warning, disproportionately or outright.
“They had the opportunity to transfer this case three months ago, but they did not. Obviously they have changed their minds,” he said. “They showed courage. The law was completely contrary to 30 years of European Court case law.”
Restanio said European legal precedent generally favors descendants, “establishing the need for proper notice and individual assessment” before limiting citizenship by descent. Instead, Italy pushed through L74/2025 without warning, cutting off thousands of people who were already in the middle of the application process.
Since then, hundreds of Italian descendants have lost legal battles challenging the new law, which bars dual citizens abroad from passing on their citizenship and sets a two-generation limit.
The issue depends on whether the applicants were Italians by birth with an unrecognized nationality, as previous case law had held.
If the European Court rules against the law, it will be completely overturned and the Italian government will have to write new legislation that complies with EU rules.
Caruso could not fully explain the sudden shift in the court’s decision. “Perhaps the court was too quick to reject our request in March – perhaps they thought a little deeper,” he said, adding that recent unrelated decisions were particularly “EU-friendly.”
This is not the only problem the system faces. In April, Italy’s Supreme Court considered the so-called “minor issue” – a 2024 measure limiting citizenship by descent. Restanio said she awaits the final decision “with great calm.”
Meanwhile, Mellone called the Constitutional Court’s appeal a historic moment – the first time an Italian court recognized that something was wrong with the new law.
“That’s a good sign,” he said. “We were almost dead. Now we resume our battle.”