Decision of the Court of Appeal of Milano 16 October 2015

This decision of the Appeal Court in Rome concerns the case of a woman who had got married with another woman in Spain and adopted there the child of her spouse; following divorce, she applied for the recognition in Italy of these foreign decisions and of  a private agreement on conditions for the exercise of parental authority concluded among the two women at the time of the divorce, and approved by the Spanish court. The Court of Appeal confirmed that the same-sex marriage celebrated abroad and, by consequence, the divorce later pronounced were without legal effects in Italy because the same-sex marriage is not envisaged in our domestic legal order. With regard to the adoption, the Court observed, first, that the case did not fall within the sphere of application of norms on international adoption, because the two women were both Italian, as also was the child, born from an Italian woman. The Court then ruled that the decision of the Spanish court concerning the adoption has legal effects in Italy. Based on national legislation, and also in light of the relevant international principles, the recognition of the legal effects of the adoption of a child by a non-married person (irrespective from the sexual orientation of latter) does not encounter the limit of public order, once ascertained that, in the case, the recognition is in the best interest of the child.