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Italian Constitutional Court (Corte costituzionale), No. 5/2018, 24 January 2018

Date
18/01/2018
Type Judgment
Case number 5/2018

Abstract

Mandatory vaccination and interference with private life. Right to health as a collective public interest. 

Normative references

Art. 2 It. Const.
Art. 32 It. Const.
Law-Decree No. 73 of 7 June 2017, "Urgent provisions on vaccine prevention" 

Ruling

1. With reference to compulsory vaccinations, Article 32 of the Italian Constitution requires the balancing of the individual's right to health and freedom to self-determination with the co-existing and reciprocal right of others and with the interest of the community. In the case of compulsory vaccinations, the interest of the child arises as well, requiring protection even against parents who do not fulfil their duty to adopt appropriate conduct to protect the health of their children.

2. The legislature enjoys discretion in choosing the means by which to ensure effective prevention of infectious diseases. The legislature is free to adopt mere recommendations, obligations or to calibrate various measures, including sanctions. This discretion shall be exercised in light of both the epidemiological conditions and the findings of medical research.
(These questions of constitutional legitimacy are declared unfounded, with reference to the compulsory vaccination for minors up to the age of 16, provided for by Decree-Law No 73 of 7 June 2017, "Urgent provisions on vaccine prevention") 

Notes

Some key passages of the judgment: 
"First of all, the finding that the 95 per cent threshold [of vaccination coverage] should be considered optimal and not critical is questionable: such a distinction does not seem to be reflected in any of the acts of address of the competent national and international institutions; indeed, on at least one occasion and with reference to the "vaccination coverage for measles-mumps-rubella", the PNPV [National Plan for Vaccine Prevention] 2017-2019 defines 95 per cent as the "critical threshold necessary to stop the circulation of the virus and, therefore, to achieve the elimination target set for 2015 in the WHO European region."  [...] Faced with unsatisfactory vaccination coverage in the present and prone to critical in the future, this Court believes that it is within the discretion - and the political responsibility - of the governing bodies to appreciate the urgency to intervene, in the light of new data and epidemiological phenomena emerged in the meantime, even in the name of the precautionary principle that must guard an area so sensitive to the health of every citizen as it is that of prevention". Considerato in Diritto, point 6.4