With its recent ruling no. 33 of 21 March 2025, the Italian Constitutional Court marks a new groundbreaking milestone in the Italian legal landscape devoted to filiation, parenthood and, more generally, new family configurations. The Constitutional Court has declared the illegitimacy of Article 29-bis, paragraph 1, of Law No. 184 of 1983, which precluded the possibility for singles to adopt foreign children through the international adoption procedure. This decision marks a significant step towards the recognition of a plurality of family and parenting projections, in line with constitutional principles and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Constitutional Court intervenes on a regulation that has been in force for over forty years and restores the relationship of compatibility between the fundamental Charter and national law.

The arguments on which this ruling is based can be summarised as follows:

(a) single people are able to offer a stable and harmonious environment for the upbringing of a child, whereas married couples of different gender people are not necessarily the ones to be considered suitable per se, and there is no scientific data to prove that singles cannot offer a suitable environment;

(b) self-determination, i.e. the freedom to make choices, is not an absolute right but has limits, especially when it is oriented towards the determination of parenthood; however, even these limits may not be absolute, in the manner of automatisms, unless they are placed to safeguard interests of constitutional rank;

(c) the optimal solution must be considered in concrete terms, so the family network of reference, i.e. the extended family surrounding the adoptive parent and not just the nuclear family, is also relevant;

(d) the discipline is not bound by the principle of imitation of nature (imitatio naturae).

The limit, however, for domestic adoptions of Italian children remains unchanged.

 

(Comment by Stefania Pia Perrino)