Italy’s Supreme Court Refers the Minor Issue to the Sezioni Unite: The Entire System Needs a Definitive Answer

The Court of Cassation has referred the minor issue to its highest formation, the Sezioni Unite, acknowledging that the conflicting interpretations of Articles 7 and 12 of Law 555/1912 require a definitive, binding resolution. The interlocutory orders issued in July 2025 recognized the “maximum importance” of the question and its impact on the legal regime of Italian citizenship. A Sezioni Unite ruling will bind every court in Italy.

Why the Referral Happened

Since Orders 17161/2023 and 454/2024, the Court of Cassation’s First Civil Section has adopted a strict reading of Article 12: when an Italian citizen naturalized abroad while their child was a minor, the child lost Italian citizenship. But this interpretation was not universally followed by lower courts. Some tribunals continued to apply the more favorable Article 7 reading, creating a patchwork where identical cases produced opposite results depending on which court heard them.

The interlocutory orders refer two specific cases (nn. 18354/2024 and 18357/2024) to the Sezioni Unite, involving Italian-American families represented by Avv. Marco Mellone. The orders explicitly recognize the “massima importanza” (maximum importance) of the question and its direct impact on the citizenship regime.

What the Sezioni Unite Will Decide

The core question is whether Article 7 or Article 12 of Law 555/1912 controls when an Italian citizen born in a jus soli country had a parent who naturalized during the child’s minority. But the Sezioni Unite may also address a second, potentially even more consequential question: the retroactivity of D.L. 36/2025 (now Law 74/2025).

The Cassazione has its own well-developed jurisprudence on retroactivity, grounded in Article 11 of the Preleggi: “The law provides only for the future; it has no retroactive effect.” The Sezioni Unite’s treatment of this principle in the citizenship context could independently shape the application of the Tajani Decree, regardless of what the Constitutional Court decides.

Timeline and Implications

The hearing was initially scheduled for January 13, 2026, but was postponed after the President of the Supreme Court granted additional time for the judges to study the materials. A new date is expected in spring 2026. When the ruling comes, it will carry binding authority (efficacia vincolante) across every tribunal in Italy. Any court wishing to depart from a Sezioni Unite precedent must refer the question back to the Sezioni Unite with a reasoned explanation, a procedural barrier that makes departures extremely rare.

For the day-to-day adjudication of individual citizenship cases, a Sezioni Unite ruling is in many ways more consequential than a Constitutional Court decision. It directly controls outcomes.

This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.