Child custody in Italy

Both parents hold parental responsibility automatically.

The parent who acknowledges the child holds it. If both acknowledge the child together, both hold it. If the second acknowledgement does not come at the same time, it needs the first parent's consent; without that consent a court must establish parentage.

The unmarried father, in one line: Both parents have it, married or not, once the father's paternity is established.

Joint custody is the usual arrangement after separation or divorce, with major decisions (education, upbringing, health, habitual residence) made by mutual agreement. A judge can give sole custody by reasoned decision if joint custody is not in the child's interest. The order names the parent the child lives with. Equal time is possible if the parents live close together and have similar lifestyles, but it is an option, not a presumption.

The judge hears the child if they are twelve or over, or capable of discernment in any event.

Habitual residence must be set by common agreement. Under the 1996 Hague Convention, the law of the child's habitual residence governs parental responsibility.

Italy is a party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, which lets a parent ask for a child wrongly taken to another country to be returned. It works only with countries that have accepted its accession, so check the other country on the treaty status table.

Within the EU, Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 (called Brussels IIb) decides which country's courts handle parental responsibility: in principle the courts of the country where the child habitually lives, and it speeds up the return of a child wrongly taken to another member state. Denmark does not take part in it.

Italy belongs to the Civil law family. Family law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Italy legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Italy? →
Divorce rate and trend in Italy →

• European e-Justice Portal: parental responsibility, child custody and contact rights in Italy