The Advisory Competence of Regional Human Rights Courts: A “Systemic” Assessment of the Recent Practice

The present article is aimed at examining the recent advisory practice of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“IACtHR”). In particular, that practice will be examined from a systemic perspective, that is within the broader context of their respective regional human rights systems. This approach will be valuable in order to both re-appraise the inconsistencies that prima facie characterise the ECtHR’s shaping of its advisory competence and to examine the recent trends in the IACtHR’s exercise of its advisory jurisdiction, inter alia assessing the possible limits to the “alternative use” of the latter as a substitute for the inter-State communication mechanism.