Judicial declarations of presumed death and forensic reliability in high-risk human identification: A risk-stratified...

The identification of human remains is a central component of medico-legal practice, underpinning both judicial proceedings and the rights of families of missing persons. International protocols recognize three primary identification modalities - fingerprint comparison, DNA analysis, and dental comparison - yet the involvement of forensic odontologists remains discretionary in most jurisdictions. This paper examines the intersection between recent legislative reforms accelerating judicial declarations of presumed death and the reliability of forensic identification systems. Taking Italy's 2025 reduction of the general presumed-death threshold from ten to five years as a focal case, the paper argues that compressed legal timelines increase systemic reliance on forensic identification while simultaneously narrowing the margin for procedural insufficiency. The analysis situates presumed-death legislation within broader international human rights and humanitarian forensic frameworks, emphasizing that accelerated legal closure must be matched by adequate forensic capacity. Drawing on empirical evidence from mass fatality events and a recent systematic review demonstrating substantial pooled dental identification contribution in disaster contexts, the paper identifies specific scenarios in which single-modality identification approaches carry elevated failure risk, including advanced decomposition, carbonization, fragmentation, and DNA degradation. To address this gap, a risk-stratified model is proposed comprising seven trigger criteria under which forensic odontology consultation should be mandatory rather than discretionary. The model is operationally proportionate and adaptable across civil law and common law jurisdictions.