ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Romualdo Richichi, Studio Zanetti Vitali
name, custody, visiting rights and financial support of the child. In all cases, acknowledgment of a child who is at least 14years old cannot be made without that child’s con - sent. 1.4 Requirements for Non-Genetic Parents Italian law provides that adoption is the only way to be granted parental responsibility for a non-biological child (see 1.7 Adoption ). However, people other than a child’s parents can be granted custody ( affidamento ) without acquiring parental responsibility when the child’s biological par - ents are deemed unfit to exercise parental responsibil - ity but the situation is not serious enough to justify a full adoption. In this case, the court will put in place measures targeted at monitoring the situation, pos - sibly by the appointment of social workers. 1.5 Relevance of Marriage at Point of Conception or Birth Since 2014, all residual differences between the chil - dren of married or non-married couples have been removed (with one of these being, for example, that children of married couples were referred to as “legit - imate” children, and those of non-married children were referred to as “natural” children). However, according to the presumption of paternity ( presunzione di paternità ) set out by Article 231 of the Italian Civil Code, parental responsibility for the child of a married couple belongs, automatically, to the husband of the child’s mother, without any need for acknowledgement of the child being conceived or born during the marriage. According to Article 232 of the Civil Code, presump - tion of paternity applies when a child is born between the date of the parents’ wedding and 300 days after the annulment of their marriage or their divorce, or the first appearance of the parties before the judge in legal separation proceedings. 1.6 Same-Sex Relationships While Italian Law No 76 of 20 May 2016 on same- sex unions does not specifically allow for any kind
of adoption, and, in Italy, any kind of heterologous medically assisted procreation is forbidden, according to a June 2016 decision (Cass., 22 giugno 2016, No 12962), the Italian Supreme Court ( Corte Suprema di Cassazione ) confirmed that, at least in principle, and if this is deemed to be in the best interests of the child, a step-child adoption ( adozione in casi particolari – see 1.7 Adoption ) can take place within the context of a same-sex relationship ( unione civile fra coppie dello In Italy, there are two main types of adoption: legiti - mating adoption ( adozione legittimante ), where a child assumes the same position in a family as a biological child, such as in national and international adoption; and non-legitimating adoption ( adozione non legitti- mante ), which has more limited effects. All facets of adoption are subject to the provisions of Law No 184 of 4 May 1983. stesso sesso ). 1.7 Adoption While for both legitimating and non-legitimating adoption the adoptive parents are granted full paren - tal responsibility for the child, the main difference between these two types of adoption is that the latter does not remove the existing filial ties with the mem - bers of the child’s biological family. National adoption (Articles 6–28 of Law No 184 of 4 May 1983) is only open to married couples living together continually for at least three years and thus able to guarantee that the adoptee can rely on the sta - bility of their relationship. The age of the adoptive par - ents must usually be between 18 and 45 years more than that of the child. It is possible to adopt several children, preferably siblings. To be subject to adoption, a child must be declared adoptable by the Tribunale per i Minorenni based on a declaration of adoptability ( dichiarazione di adottabil- ità ) issued by a juvenile court in a specific order – such as at the end of court proceedings to establish a state of enduring abandonment (eg, if the child is already in foster care, provided that this situation has not been forced on the parents by exceptional circumstances). A second procedure then takes place, again before the juvenile court, upon the request of the would-be
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