The Italian Response to COVID-19: Between the Civil Protection Code and Prime Ministerial Decrees

Abstract

Almost three years after the outbreak of the pandemic, it seems to be possible to identify some trends and draw some concluding remarks concerning the legal response to the pandemic crisis in Italy. While the constitutional system was probably successful in safeguarding the core content of the rule of law, the question to be asked might well be another one. Namely, did the legal framework, based on the combination of the use of decree-laws and prime ministerial decrees, and greatly diverged from the Civil Protection Code, really prove to be the most suitable response, or, on deeper analysis, did it end up generating more problems than it solved?

Keywords: COVID-19; Italy; regulatory policy; governance capacity