October 02, 2026
A decree-law can be in force before Parliament has voted on it. That is the point of the instrument — and the source of most of the confusion around it. A rule published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on Monday can apply on Tuesday, even though the conversion process has barely begun. What follows is a 60-day race involving amendments, committee votes, a second chamber and a hard constitutional deadline. The sequence is not a formality. It determines whether the decree survives, whether its text changes, and how much of the government’s original agenda Parliament can rewrite. Here is how the process works, where the text can still change, and what happens if the clock runs out.
The clock starts at publication, not at approval
Under Article 77 of the Constitution, the government can adopt a decree-law only in cases of extraordinary necessity and urgency. The Council of Ministers approves it, the President of the Republic signs it, and it is published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale. It enters into force on the day of publication or on the date the text specifies. From that moment it has the force of law, even though it is provisional.
The same article sets the deadline: the decree must be converted into law within 60 days of publication. If the chambers are not already sitting, they must be convened and meet within five days. That detail matters. The 60-day clock is not a parliamentary target; it is a constitutional limit. A decree that is still waiting for a committee vote in week seven is already in trouble.
This is why a decree-law is best understood as a temporary legal instrument with an immediate effect. It is not a draft bill. It is not a regulation. It is a law that exists on borrowed time.
The conversion bill lands in one chamber
The government then presents a conversion bill — usually within days of publication — to one of the two chambers. The bill is numbered, assigned to the competent committee, and scheduled. Its starting text is the decree itself, but that is only the starting point. Parliament can amend it, and often does.
The committee stage is where much of the real work happens. The committee can hold hearings with ministers, officials and affected groups; request opinions from other committees, especially the Budget Committee on financial coverage; and vote on amendments. It may proceed in sede referente, reporting the text to the full chamber, or in sede redigente, approving articles and sending a final text to the chamber for a final vote. The difference affects how much detailed rewriting happens in committee and how much happens on the floor.
Once the first chamber approves the bill, it goes to the other chamber. If the second chamber approves it without changes, conversion is done. If it amends the text, the bill returns to the first chamber. This back-and-forth is the navette. Every return costs time, and the 60-day deadline does not pause. A single Senate amendment can send the text back to the Chamber of Deputies with days to spare.
The government can try to compress the process. It can present a maxi-amendment that replaces the text under discussion, and then attach a question of confidence. If the confidence motion passes, the maxi-amendment is approved and the other amendments fall. This is a blunt instrument, but it is common when the deadline is tight or the majority is divided. It also turns the conversion vote into a yes-or-no test of the government, not a line-by-line debate.
Where the text can still change
The conversion law is not a rubber stamp. Amendments can delete provisions, add new ones, rewrite definitions, extend or shorten deadlines, change who benefits, and insert transitional rules. A decree on energy support may be amended to widen the pool of eligible firms. A decree on migration may be changed to add or tighten procedural deadlines. A decree on justice may be adjusted to postpone entry into force. During the pandemic, COVID-19 decree-laws were frequently amended to add funding for schools, businesses and local authorities, and to extend or adjust deadlines.
Amendments can come from the government, the majority or the opposition. Most are filtered in committee. Some are technical: corrections to cross-references, budget figures or the date a provision takes effect. Others are substantive. The Budget Committee’s opinion matters because any amendment with a financial cost needs coverage under Article 81 of the Constitution. An amendment that sounds politically attractive but has no funding is vulnerable.
There are limits. The Constitutional Court has repeatedly warned that the conversion law must remain homogeneous with the decree’s subject matter; it cannot become a vehicle for unrelated measures. In practice, maxi-amendments and late-night packages often stretch that principle. The result is a text that can look quite different from the decree published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, even though the original decree remains the legal base.
What happens if the deadline is missed
If the decree is not converted within 60 days of publication, it loses effect from the day it entered into force. The loss is retroactive: the decree is treated as having lost effect from the start. That does not mean every act done under it is automatically void in a chaotic scramble; Parliament can pass a legge di sanatoria to regulate the legal relationships that arose while the decree was in force. But the default is that the decree disappears.
This is rare because governments usually control the calendar or use confidence. But it can happen if the conversion bill is rejected, if the chambers cannot agree, or if the deadline expires during a crisis. The political cost is high: the government has used an instrument that promised immediate effect, and the effect is retrospectively withdrawn.
The deadline is not extendable. There is no “technical extension” in the Constitution. Parliament can convert the decree with amendments, but it cannot give itself more than 60 days. That is why the week-by-week calendar matters.Photo: Pexels / Pixabay
