Economic freedom during the COVID-19 in Italy – conditioning and limitations

La libertà economica durante il COVID-19 in Italia – i condizionamenti e le limitazioni

Abstract

Italian society, like other liberal-minded societies, has been faced with the health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has led to drastic limitations on some fundamental constitutionally protected freedoms, including personal freedom, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, as well as freedom of economic initiative, compressing them to the point of almost nullifying them. For this reason, the problem has arisen of establishing the boundaries within which the limitation, if not the deprivation, of those freedoms can be said to be compatible with the higher principles of the legal system, provided for by the constitutions and international charters on human rights. What is perplexing from a constitutional point of view are not so much the restrictive measures in themselves, but rather the ways in which they have been adopted in the Italian legal system, and which are very evident in the example of economic freedom.