The following essay deals with Protocol no° 16 to the ECHR, which enables highest courts and tribunals of the Contracting Parties to request the Court to give advisory opinions on questions of principle relating to the interpretation or application of the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention or the protocols. Despite the fact that advisory opinions shall not be binding (art. 5), this new instrument could strengthen the role of the Court in the shaping of a system of protection of human rights which is essentially case law based, in view of a more intense dialogue between national judges and the Court. In this perspective, the Author makes also some critical remarks about the recent decision of the EU Court of Justice according to which the project of adhesion of the EU to the ECHR is contrary to the Union Law.