La legislazione emergenziale per contrastare la pandemia da Covid-19 tra scienza e diritto: il ruolo del Comitato tecnico-scientifico

The paper aims to analyse the relationship between the opinions of the technical-scientific committee and the legislative measures adopted during the health emergency. In particular, it will be a question of understanding whether the opinions issued by the Technical-Scientific Committee on the epidemiological situation in Italy are to be considered recommendations which the Government and Parliament can comply with or whether, by reason of the body from which they emanate and its importance in the emergency management system, must be considered binding opinions to which the emergency legislator must adapt. Against the background of these questions, the question of the relationship between science and law arises: it is necessary to ask who, in general, is the ultimate decision-maker in political choices that have scientific parameters as their object. If it is true that the final acts of the decision-making processes concerning measures to combat Covid-19 are taken by Parliament, by the Government (by decree-laws or legislative decrees) or by the President of the Council of Ministers with his decrees, the fact that their content is (to a certain extent) strongly constrained, if not bound tout court, by scientific evidence can nevertheless be overlooked. Therefore, the role of the Technical-Scientific Committee must be understood in order to understand its role and its impact on emergency legislation.