Covid-19 and the man-nature relationship: The balance violated. reflections on managing the complexity of pandemics: From ecosystem protection to the precautionary principle

The current pandemic crisis necessarily leads us to reflect on the interrelation of man and nature. The law today faces an epochal challenge: to face and manage a global complexity that affects fundamental interests and rights such as health and the environment, in a situation characterized by a high level of scientific uncertainty. This paper aims to offer a reflection on the need to look at the environment and its protection by opting for an ecosystemic approach capable of adequately capturing and considering the balance between the biotic and abiotic components and the role they can have for human life and well-being, including at the level of sustainable development. On this basis, we proceed to ask ourselves which is the correct operational dimension to attribute to the fundamental precautionary principle in this scenario, rediscovering its ecologically oriented origins and emphasizing the profile of man's responsibility towards the environment, from which the principle in question derives.