In Italy children will take the surname of both parents, in the order agreed by them, unless both decide, by mutual agreement, to attribute only one, the mother or the father.
After decades of waiting, this is a historic step for women to finally give their children the last name.
The Constitutional Court, chaired by Giuliano Amato, has declared the complete constitutional illegality of all the rules that provide for the automatic assignment of the father's surname, in relation to children born in wedlock, out of wedlock and adopted children.
The court considered "discriminatory and damaging to the identity of the child the rule that automatically affirms the father's surname".
This decision puts an end to a backward and anti-historical rule, ultimately putting fathers and mothers on the same plane, with no binding hierarchy.