Italian children will no longer automatically have their father’s surname. The Constitutional Court declared this practice “illegitimate” on Wednesday. The children will now have the names of both parents or only one of the two in case of agreement.
“The Court declares the constitutional illegitimacy of all the norms providing for the automatic attribution of the father’s surname to children born in wedlock, out of wedlock and adopted. It will be the duty of lawmakers to settle all aspects related to this decision,” Italy’s highest court said in a statement.
Alessandra Mussolini welcomes this new rule
The new rule is that “the child takes the surname of both in the order they agree on, unless they decide by mutual agreement to assign only the surname of the other.” ‘one of the two’, specifies the Court. In case of disagreement between the parents, it will be up to a judge to rule.
In Italy children have until now automatically had the father’s surname, while the mother traditionally keeps her maiden surname. Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of dictator Benito Mussolini, welcomed the new rule in an interview with the Roman daily Il Messaggeroexplaining how complicated it was to give his two daughters his own surname and his son both surnames.