One month after the ruling of the Constitutional Court which establishes the illegitimacy of the paternal surname alone for the children, the motivations of the judges arrive. The attribution of the paternal surname alone “translates into the invisibility of the mother” and, as a sign of the inequality between the parents, “reverberates and impresses itself on the identity of the child”, simultaneously violating articles 2, 3 and 117, first paragraph, of the Constitution (the last in relation to articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights). The surname “connects the individual to the social formation that welcomes him through the status filiationis”, “is rooted in his family identity” and it must “reflect and respect the equality and equal dignity of parents“.
However, the intervention of the legislator is required, for two reasons. The first, to “prevent the attribution of the surname of both parents to involve, in the succession of generations, a multiplier mechanism that would be detrimental to the identity function of the surname “. The second, to defend “the child’s interest in not being attributed – with the sacrifice of a profile that also pertains to his family identity – a different surname than that of siblings and sisters “. A possible solution to this problem is reported in the same sentence: the choice of the surname attributed to the first child could become binding in deciding that of the subsequent children of the same couple.
For the application of the sentence, the agreement between the parents is essential and, if there is none, the surnames of both parents must be attributed to the child, in the order they themselves decide. In the event of a conflict on the order of attribution of surnames, the intervention of the judge becomes necessary, which is already provided for by the legal system to resolve the disagreement on choices regarding children.
From the day following its publication in the Official Gazette, the sentence applies to cases in which the attribution of the surname has not yet taken place. And “any requests to change the surname will follow the rules provided for this purpose, except for specific interventions by the legislator”.
“I want my mother’s surname. And now I can finally have it “
Identity card: via “mother” and “father” back to “parent”
Source: Vanity Fair
