Abstract
This article aims to present the evolution of Italian citizenship from political unification to the end of the Second World War, which in Italy corresponds with the end of the monarchy and the advent of the Republic. In this long period, the central definition of Italian citizenship was given by the Civil Code (1865), the basis of which was Ius sanguinis and the patrilineal system. The 1912 Law on Citizenship changed some aspects of the previous legislation, but did not alter the general legal scenario, despite great pressure from some organised movements such as those formed by Italian expatriates in the Americas. With the advent of fascism (1922), the discourse on the Italian nation became radicalised, but Mussolini’s regime did not pass any organic laws on citizenship. The innovations introduced under fascism were relatively modest; many were directed towards limiting the rights of particular categories of citizens, such as political opponents and Jewish people. Italy reached the beginning of the republican period with a legal apparatus on citizenship that was very similar to the one established for the first time in the Civil Code of 1865. This shows how Italian political classes have given more attention to the orthodoxy of the law than to the need to adapt it to the numerous transformations in Italian society.
Highlights
This work does not have philosophical objectives: in particular, it does not want to consider the ancient and complex debate on the concept of citizenship, maybe one of the most important of Western thought since the Greeks onwards
Their key principles were the adoption of Ius sanguinis for the determination of citizenship by birth, the uniqueness of Italian citizenship, the patrilineal system of transmission, linking wives’ citizenship to their husbands’ citizenship, and the freedom of decision regarding which citizenship could be chosen in the event of conflict between two citizenships
This article aimed to show how Italian citizenship law changed during the monarchic era, a long and intense period in the country’s history as in all of the other European states
Summary
This work does not have philosophical objectives: in particular, it does not want to consider the ancient and complex debate on the concept of citizenship, maybe one of the most important of Western thought since the Greeks onwards. The Statute which had been conceived decayed in 1852 All these experiences, together with other very similar which was occurring in Europe, left, as their legacy, the idea that the popular classes (especially the bourgeois) had the right to actively participate to the political life, promoting a new conception of citizenship. It is here that Italian legislator tries to define the essence of the new Italian citizen: who is he, how can he acquire or lose his citizenship, which laws regulate the relationships between husband and wife inside family in terms of citizenship and so on (Donati, 2013) Their key principles were the adoption of Ius sanguinis for the determination of citizenship by birth, the uniqueness of Italian citizenship (excluding dual citizenship), the patrilineal system of transmission, linking wives’ citizenship to their husbands’ citizenship, and the freedom of decision regarding which citizenship could be chosen in the event of conflict between two citizenships. No philosophical or sociological references are made to the concept of “citizenship” as formulated, for instance, by Marshall and his commentators
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