stateless status and expulsion from italian territory 159 prohibition on expulsion cannot apply to de facto stateless persons. In fact, a closer reading of Judgment No. 7458/2020 reveals that the case covered by that decision did not relate to a real situation of de facto statelessness. This latter judgment affirms that the condition of de facto statelessness is comparable to de jure statelessness (“condizione di apolidia di fatto, parificabile a quella formale”), but in the specific case the Court decided that proof of the relevant situation had not been given. Moreover, the Corte di Cassazione, in Judgment No. 16489/201912 – in a case which, like the one at issue here, concerned an appeal against an order for expulsion from Italian territory – had already stated that the regime imposed by Article 31 of the New York Convention must also apply to de facto stateless persons. Hence, the reference made by the judgment at issue here to the impossibility of extending the prohibition on expulsion to de facto stateless persons because the New York Convention does not apply to them seems to be something which, although not decisive for the resolution of this case, may mark a step backwards in relation to the protection provided by the Corte di Cassazione in its previous case law. 4 The Proof of Statelessness The reference made by the defendant to his situation as a de facto stateless person was not, however, considered to be relevant by the Corte di Cassazione. In fact, the Corte di Cassazione held that in the present case it had been proven that the defendant was unable to obtain citizenship of his mother’s country of origin (Serbia) or his father’s country of citizenship (Kosovo). The trial court (the Giudice di Pace di Brescia) should have verified whether, since the applicant was born and raised in Italy, a country with which he actually had a significant connection, he should be considered stateless. If so, it should have held that the protection under Article 31 of the New York Convention, according to which a stateless person may not be expelled except on documented grounds of national security and public order, extended to the person concerned. The reasoning followed by the Corte di Cassazione recalls, albeit implicitly, the case law that the Court itself has developed on the burden of proof necessary for the purposes of demonstrating the status of a stateless person.13 In 12 13 Corte di Cassazione (Sez. I civile), T. v. P., 19 June 2019, No. 16489. With reference to the need to alleviate the burden of proof in order to establish stateless status, see e.g. Marinai, “La protezione internazionale degli apolidi”, Working Papers The Italian Review of International and Comparative Law 2 (2022) 154–162