La libertà di riunione in tempi di emergenza sanitaria e distanziamento sociale

Among the measures adopted to tackle the spread of Sars-Cov-2 in Italy, many have been oriented towards the promotion of social distancing, long considered the most effective strategy to slow down a highly contagious virus. These measures, often contained in Prime Ministerial Decrees, have severely affected the freedom of assembly guaranteed under Article 17 of the Constitution, in all its forms: the freedom of assembly in private, public, and public places has been restricted. In the same way, many other constitutional freedoms, and prerogatives, to which freedom of assembly is in-strumental, have been curbed: the right to profess and exercise one's faith in an associated manner, the right to express one's thoughts collectively, and so on. This contribution will first recall the limits traditionally considered admissible to freedom of assembly. It will then attempt to analyse whether and to what extent the limitations placed on citizens’ freedom of assembly during the epidemiological emergency can be justified and grounded in the clauses and principles contained in the Constitution. It will also be considered that, according to part of the doctrine, the pandemic represents a “constitutionally relevant fact” which opens the possibility of new balances and new forms of limitation to the rights enshrined in the Charter. Whether one adheres to the approach according to which the Italian Constitution is provided with all the nec-essary instruments to cope with the emergency, or one holds that the peculiarities of the pandemic crisis are such as to impede reasoning with the parameters of the ordinary regime, the restriction of constitutional pre-rogatives of the caliber of the freedom of assembly - as indicated by a consolidated constitutional jurisprudence - must respect the principles of temporariness and proportionality. With reference to this second criterion, the essay aims to highlight the role of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the Civil Protection which, pursuant to art. 2 of Law Decree no. 19/2020, is heard on the technical-scientific profiles of the containment measures adopted by the Government and for the assessment of the adequacy and proportionality of the same. The opin-ions offered by the CTS in relation to the need to limit meetings, with reference to large meetings, will therefore be considered. This will provide an opportunity to make some concluding remarks on the relationship between policymakers and experts