Italian rules which mean children of married couples are automatically given only their father's surname are unlawful, the country's constitutional court has ruled. The judgement was welcomed by campaigners as a milestone in a long legal and political battle to overturn regulations and practice they say are based on outdated patriarchal ideas.

"The court has declared the unlawfulness of rules providing for the automatic attribution of the paternal surname to legitimate children, when the parents wish otherwise," the court said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Source: http://www.thelocal.it/