The best interests of the child as the helmsman for state legislation and regulatory measures with an impact on children. The case of covid-19 emergency response

The outbreak of COVID-19 has produced grave consequences on children. The pandemic response has been characterized by a plethora of legal and administrative acts which did not fully consider the interests of children. Within situations like this, the guiding light for the adoption of regulatory measures with an impact on minors should be the principle of the best interests of the child. The paper, through a reconstruction of the legal value of the best interest of the child in international law as well as its substantial and procedural implementation at the domestic level, argues for the importance to fully consider the correct implementation of the principle within the first emergency health responses, taking advantage of the lessons learned in the case of pandemics.