La decadenza dei decreti-legge nella prassi. Dalla provvisorietà dell’atto alla transitorietà delle norme

di Caterina Domenicali

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa: oggetto e metodo della ricerca. – 2. La decadenza sulla Carta: «la migliore garanzia» contro l’abuso del decreto-legge. – 3. La decadenza in azione: le tendenze nella prassi fino all’emergenza pandemica. – 4. Il governo degli effetti temporali della decadenza al tempo del Covid-19. – 5. Considerazioni conclusive: corsi e ricorsi nell’aggiramento della decadenza.

The essay examines the decree-laws’ loss of effects, whose apparently precise characteristics only partially correspond to those it has assumed in practice. Supposed to be the intrinsic limit of Government’s provisional decisions in cases of necessity and urgency, the void from the outset of the decree-law, in case of absence of bill of conversion, in practice seems to be a consequence to be avoided. After a brief theoretical description of the institution, the essay moves to the empirical perspective, with particular regard to the pandemic, and proposes a critical analysis of the trends. The idea is that the decree-law as an act has lost contact with its provisionality, while the rules it contains are generally produced in the sign of temporariness. That represents a typical and contemporary way of law making through a first provisional regulation to be replaced with a more thoughtful one.