The Italian “No Jab, No Job” Law Passes Constitutional Muster

The Italian legal system has known some unprecedented measures during the pandemic, including the lockdown regime, “green pass” system etc. Such measures have been probed by ordinary and administrative judges and by the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC). Notwithstanding some outlying rulings, mostly by first instance courts, and some limited corrections by the ICC itself, these measures stood up to scrutiny overall. This is also true for COVID-19 vaccine mandates. I have already commented on the relevant legislation in this blog. Now, with three judgments (no. 14, 15 and 16 of 2023), the ICC dismissed all the challenges against it. A few days later, a fourth judgment (no. 25 of 2023) came back to the issue from a different normative perspective, highlighting the need of a clear legal basis for vaccine mandates. Especially in the first two judgments, the ICC displayed the same restrained attitude which it has taken consistently IC towards pandemic legislation. Such restraint seems entirely appropriate to the pandemic emergency, also in light of the case that can be made more generally in favour of judicial self-restraint whenever legislative measures impinge in highly technical fields, and in open or divisive questions on the fair balancing of several constitutional rights and principles