A Review of Italian Family Law on Same-Sex Parenting

Abstract

The Italian family law system, which is based on a child-centred, constitutional-based approach to the relationship between adults and children, allows for a critical analysis of the recent Italian case law on same-sex parenting. The analysis focuses on whether courts have tended to keep the child's interest as a primary and preventive criterion, acting to limit the wishes of adults and their choices within a very narrow perimeter of rules, in harmony with current regulatory provisions, or whether, on the contrary, courts have adopted an adult-centric trajectory with regard to the freedom of self-determination of adults, consequently applying the child-best interests in a secondary and remedial way.