The pandemic curvature of democratic space/time. A legal perspective.

The paper outlines if and how the pandemic contributed to the curvature of the democratic space/time. The entire legal toolbox was deployed and shaped to counter the pandemic's many impacts: not only regulatory strategies and decision-making processes, but also governance and even the legal lexicon. The short distance travelled in the journey towards recovery and resilience - which per se is a pandemic output - has already revealed the goal-oriented and performative face of the new NRRP/dedicated governance and regulatory framework, which seems able to temper the future and the risks it brings. It also paves the way to longer journeys, including the big transitions of our time - environmental and digital transitions, but also cultural and social ones - together with their transformative potential. Democracy is at a crossroad: it has the opportunity to be fit for the future (future-proof), or simply lost in transition(s). In this respect a few lessons emerge from the pandemic.