Decision of the Court of Rome, I Civil Section, of 23 September 2013

Following the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 28 August 2012, the spouses Costa and Pavan asked the Court of Rome to declare and make enforceable in Italy their right to resort to medically-assisted procreation and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, notwithstanding the contrary provisions of law No. 40 of 2004 (Article 4), which the European Court found inconsistent with Article 8 of the ECHR. To this end, it was unnecessary, for the Court of Rome, to raise the question of constitutional legitimacy of Article 4, because the national norms that the European Court of Human Rights has declared in breach of the ECHR become inapplicable by the Italian courts, provided that this does not infringe the fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution.