Il baratro della necessità e la chimera della costituzionalizzazione: una lettura della crisi delle fonti del sistema di protezione civile contro le battaglie di retroguardia

In the context of the COVID crisis, Italy has witnessed a spate of extraordinary legal measures pressed by executive discretion, with a multitude of problems related to proper limitation of constitutional freedoms, relations among State, regions and municipalities, as well as difficult adaptation of the Parliament to this new reality. Against this background, this article tries to shed light on two problems: on one hand, the configurability of “necessity” as a source of law and, on the other, the necessity/opportunity of incorporating an “emergency clause” into the Italian Constitution. After having recalled the constitutional framework and analyzed the numerous decree-laws, ordinances and decrees issued during these months, the article argues that the major problem in the current crisis is the departure from the constitutional principles, rules and procedures created by legislature and administrative case-law in more than twenty-five years since the creation of the National Civil Protection System, which has efficiently and proportionally governed cases of emergency so far.