Analysis of Legal References in an Emergency Legislative Setting

Abstract

The earthquake struck in Emilia-Romagna Region on 2012 and it created a disaster area with 33 municipalities involved and extended over 3,173 square meters across the region. The Commissioner for Emergencies issued 350 ordinances deliberated over a three-year period (2012–2015), so as to support the rebuilding, aid for the population, organization of the territory. The main goal of this paper is to present the outcome of a research that investigated the corpus of legislative ordinances in the first 18 months in order to discover if they were an effective legislative instrument in emergency settings. Analyzing the legal citations and the correspondent references we have discovered some dysfunctional behaviour in the lawmaking system, too much concentrated on some topics. We have detected weaknesses in normative area that could orient a more coordinated legislative action at the national level. The final findings help the lawmaker act better in future disasters, extract information concerning the number and the types of modifications produced, and support the debate on a national law on emergency in the wake of natural disasters.