Abstract: When the COVID-19 epidemic suddenly broke out, China’s financial system responded quickly, providing active financial support and financial guarantee for the anti-epidemic action. However, under a comprehensive inspection against the epidemic, it has also been exposed that many links of the existing fiscal emergency mechanism are still faced with operational difficulties. The fiscal emergency mechanism dominated by government administration still has certain path dependence in terms of emergency concept, emergency rules and emergency methods; the fiscal emergency mechanism that is out of the rule of law and guarantees cannot play its due role. Fundamentally speaking, the relief of China’s fiscal emergency mechanism should be to seek a response to the rule of law. This requires comprehensive efforts from both macro and micro levels. In terms of the relief at the logical level, the basic positioning of the fiscal emergency mechanism reform should be clarified, including clear concepts, rule determination, method selection, etc.. In terms of the relief at the level of system, it is necessary to improve the legal path of fiscal emergency mechanism reform, including building an emergency fiscal fund guarantee system, improving the emergency fiscal relationship system between central and local governments, and improving the emergency fiscal fund supervision system, so as to finally realize the rule of law of the fiscal emergency mechanism.

Key words: emergencies, financial emergency response mechanism, reality dilemma, rule of law path