Italian citizenship by marriage: some remarks on the Constitutional Court’s Ruling no 195 of 2022

In July 2022, the Italian Constitutional Court handed down Judgment no 195 on the issue of citizenship by marriage. The Court held that foreign or stateless persons married to an Italian citizen cannot be denied Italian citizenship due to the death of their spouse pending the proceedings, provided that they fulfil the conditions to obtain Italian citizenship at the time of the application. Thus, the Court declared that Art 5 of the Italian Citizenship Act violated Art 3 of the Italian Constitution in so far as it included the death of the Italian spouse during the proceedings among the circumstances precluding the acquisition of citizenship. Against this backdrop, the present contribution investigates whether the pertinent rule violated international human rights law as well, an issue that the Constitutional Court left unaddressed. To this end, particular attention will be paid to the principle of non-discrimination under Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights.