The Court of Cassation's Sezioni Unite rules that children who are Italian at birth keep Italian citizenship even if a parent later naturalizes abroad, overturning the 2024 decision known as the "Minor Issue".The court reaffirms that citizenship by descent, iure sanguinis, is acquired at birth, is inalienable and can be claimed at any time, a finding that reopens claims for hundreds of thousands of descendants across the Americas including the US, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and Venezuela.Lawyers such as
Marco Mellone say the ruling supplies authoritative guidance to judges and
Italian consulates but that implementation depends on
Interior Ministry instructions and on how a 2025 law limiting transmission and dual citizenship is resolved at the
European Court of Justice.