ABSTRACT
This contribution traces the steps that led to the affirmation of the power of civil protection ordinance. It is a path characterized by tension with principles proper to a modern rule of law, such as those of legality and typicality of administrative action. This power is linked to the exceptional emergencies, and is characterized, in fact, by a double derogation from the legal system. On the one hand, the normal conditions for the exercise of every single power of au-thority are dispensed with. From another point of view, the content is also de-rogatory, since it can consist in the adoption of any administrative power, between those provided by the law and therefore produce the most diverse ef-fects. In order to bring this power back to the respect of constitutional param-eters, jurisprudence and doctrine have engaged in the reconstruction of their respective limits. This typing process culminated with the adoption of Legislative Decree No. 1 of 2018, which reorganized the Civil Protection System, laying down specific legislation for ordinances. The study deals diachronically with the maintenance of this complex system of limits and procedural constraints imposed by the legislator for the adoption of the aforementioned orders, compared to the practice of the executive. In this sense the sad contingency linked to the emergency Covid-19, provides a useful test. The analysis of the practice will reveal a complementary role of the civil protection ordinances in the management of the current viral epidemic, a role largely eclipsed by the more agile instrument of the decree of the President of the Council of Ministers. The study concludes with an analysis of the jurisdictional safeguards that are recognized to the individual against such instruments. As emerges in the final course of the discussion, this protection varies significantly depending to the regulatory or administrative nature of such acts. © 2020, University of Urbino. All rights reserved.