The Surname Compass: Charting the “Family” and Its Rights

Abstract

This paper examines the significance of the surname as a “compass” that delineates the legal dimensions of this marker of identity, which is both individual and shared with a family group, whose scope varies across legal systems. Three case studies are analyzed in order to explore the values and rights underlying legal disputes concerning surnames: the role of surnames in the artificial construction of the “Jewish race” under Fascist legislation; the case law of the Italian Constitutional Court on surnames; and the abolition, by the Constitutional Court of South Korea, of the prohibition on marriage between persons sharing the same surname and ancestral origin.