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

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 Gov- ernment’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 contem- porary way of law making through a first provisional regulation to be replaced with a more thought- ful one.