Decretazione d’urgenza e perimetro costituzionale nello stato di “emergenza epidemiologica”

The latest COVID-19 pandemic has brought the Italian Government to the adoption of a series of measures concerning constitutional rights and freedoms, necessary to contain the spreading of the virus and to safeguard the health of people. Most of these measures, however, seem not to have been fully adopted within the constitutional framework for reasons of urgency, although the Constitution provides Government with all the appropriate tools to tackle the emergency. With this in view, the case of COVID-19 may represent the opportunity to reform the Constitution introducing a special declaration of “epidemiological emergency” that can make the approach to such calamities more respectful of the constitutional framework, at the same time preventing the approach followed might constitute a dangerous precedent