DOI: 10.4399/979122182605014
Pages: 255-271
Publication date: June 2026
Publisher: Aracne
SSD:
IUS/09 IUS/14 IUS/21
The system of protection of fundamental rights has been enriched with a new procedural tool: the optional preliminary ruling to the ECHR, provided for by Protocol no. 16 to the ECHR and entered into force on 1 August 2018. Protocol 16 establishes a new tool for dialogue between the Court of Strasbourg and the Superior Courts designated by the member States. In particular, the Protocol allows national courts to forward requests to the ECHR for advisory opinions on questions of principle concerning the interpretation or application of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Convention. Italy has not yet ratified Protocol 16 and the bill is stalled in 2020. The changes that the Protocol may bring will begin to define a new §§§§European nomophilachy,§§§§ a new jurisdictional system composed of many vertices that could give a significant boost to the multi-level human rights system.