Fundamental Rights Implications of Covid-19. Religious Freedom and Resilience During the Pandemic

Abstract

The article aims to highlight some institutional and constitutional problems that have arisen during the COVID-19 health emergency. The issues concern the functioning of the State, the relations between the powers of the State, the compliance with the principle of legality, and the protection of fundamental rights. A relevant part of the doctrine has already addressed this particular strand of legal literature so, without any claim to exhaustiveness, we will try to make the point on some guidelines emerged, clarifying a series of doubts related to the constitutional compatibility, and compliance with the principles and rules of constitutionalism, regarding a set of measures adopted by the government. In particular, we focus on the restrictive measures and the pandemic effects on religious freedom in Italy, as a case study, and to related solutions that the Italian institutions have provided to legitimate the freedom restrictions. Finally, the study has the purpose to assess whether the adopted solutions come within the “reasonable accommodation” although we are aware that “post-Covid-19” phase, will be the real test bench of the resilient institutional capacity to relaunch and give new life to the protection of the fundamental rights currently in “standby”.