Information Note on the Court’s case-law 52

April 2003

Victor-Emmanuel de Savoie v. Italy - 53360/99

Judgment 24.4.2003 [Section IV]

Article 3 of Protocol No. 4

Article 3 para. 2 of Protocol No. 4

Enter own country

Constitutional provision prohibiting male descendants of the last king of Italy from entering and staying in the country: struck out

Article 3 of Protocol No. 1

Vote

Constitutional provision excluding male descendants of the last king of Italy from exercise of electoral rights: struck out

The applicant is a descendant of the last King of Italy and the head of the House of Savoy. When he introduced his application, he complained, in particular, that unde r paragraphs 1 and 2 of the XIIIth transitional and final provision of the Italian Constitution, which entered into force in 1948, he was prohibited from exercising his active and passive electoral rights and from entering and staying within Italian territ ory. The Court declared the application partially admissible under Article 3(2) of Protocol No. 4  and  Article 3 of the Convention and under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1, taken on their own or in conjunction with Article 14 of the Convention. When depositi ng the instrument ratifying Protocol No. 4 to the Convention, the Italian Government had expressed a reservation, specifying that Article 3 § 2 of Protocol No. 4 could not prevent the application of the constitutional prohibition on entry and stay in respe ct of the members of the House of Savoy. Since a Constitutional Law entered into force on 10 November 2002, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the XIIIth constitutional provision no longer have effect.

Since paragraphs 1 and 2 of the XIIIth provision no longer have an y effect in domestic law, since the respondent Government have withdrawn their reservation and since the applicant can now enter Italy – which, moreover, he has already done –, the Court considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention).

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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