156 marinai legislative decree of 25 July 1998, No. 286, Article 14, para. 5-quater) and sentenced to a fine of 10,000 euros. The defendant appealed against the judgment to the Corte di Cassazione, claiming that the trial court had not considered that he was a de facto stateless person. In fact, the defendant had been born in Italy to a Serbian mother and a Kosovar father, but he did not have Italian, Serbian, or Kosovar nationality. The defendant, having no nationality, could not have complied with the expulsion order, as he could not go to any other country. According to the defendant, the Giudice di Pace should have noticed the absence of the subjective element of the crime, given the circumstances of force majeure consisting of the fact that he had no country of origin or of nationality to which to return. 2 The Judgment The Corte di Cassazione, in the brief ruling discussed in this article, allowed the appeal, but incidentally stated that the condition of de facto statelessness is not an obstacle to the expulsion of a foreigner. In fact, the New York Convention only applies to de jure stateless persons. However, according to the Corte di Cassazione the defendant was unable to obtain citizenship from his mother’s country of origin (Serbia) or his father’s country (Kosovo). For this reason, the Giudice di Pace should have made a proper investigation in order to ascertain whether the applicant could be considered a stateless person. In the event that such an assessment had proved positive, the Giudice di Pace 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, applied to the person concerned. 3 The Scope of Application of the New York Convention of 1954 and the Opportunity to Extend its Regime to de facto Stateless Persons The first issue raised by the commented decision concerns the allegedly different regimes applicable to de facto stateless persons and de jure stateless persons. 2 For these terms, see Weissbrodt and Collins, “The Human Rights of Stateless Persons”, Human Rights Quarterly, 2006, p. 245 ff., pp. 251–252. There are many different reasons why a person may not be able to prove her or his nationality. According to Massey, “unhcr and De Facto Statelessness”, Legal And Protection Research Series, lppr/2010/01, April 2010, p. 1 ff, pp. 41–45, difficulties in proving nationality may exist, for example, in the following cases: a) some people may never have been registered in the civil registration system of the country of their nationality; b) civil registries may have been destroyed or have gone The Italian Review of International and Comparative Law 2 (2022) 154–162