Il dialogo continua: note minime sul secondo Parere ex Protocollo n. 16 alla CEDU

The second advisory opinion ex Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights, the first in criminal matters provided by the European Court of Human Rights on 29 May 2020 at the Armenian Constitutional Court’s request, presents profiles of interest on a procedural and substantive level. Under the first profile, it pronounces on the admissibility requirements and further clarifies the functioning of the advisory mechanism, introducing novelties concerning the conformation of the opinion itself. From a substantive point of view, it first establishes the conditions of conventional compatibility for the use of the "legislation by reference" technique and, secondly, adds elements to compare two different versions of law according to the principle of non-retroactivity of the criminal law established by art. 7 ECHR.