Case law is produced by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the General Court (GC) (formerly the Court of First Instance, abbreviated to CFI). Courts in Member States also apply EU law.
Please read the Additional Information before accessing this eResource.
Westlaw provides full-text access to a variety of legal information, including many UK cases, UK and Scottish legislation, a number of UK legal journals and EU materials. Westlaw's Journals search provides abstracts from articles from UK-published journals, including articles not available in full-text on Westlaw. Non-UK material is available by following the link to ‘Westlaw International’ from the homepage.
Lexis+ UK Legal Research provides full-text access to legal, tax and accountancy information. This includes many U.K. reported and unreported cases, legislation, and a number of U.K. legal journals. Commentary includes the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia and Halsbury’s Laws of England. In force legislation relating to England and Wales as well as that from the Scottish Parliament is included, but some pre-devolution U.K. legislation applying solely to Scotland is excluded. Material from non-U.K. jurisdictions is available under the ‘International’ tab. The service includes Tax and Accountancy content - sign in to Lexis+ UK and choose the 'Practice Area' tab, then select the Tax or Accounting options.
Law reports form part of the law collection on level 5 of the Library. A number of series of law reports contain reports of cases from the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and the General Court of the EU (formerly Court of First Instance).
European Court Reports
Common Market Law Reports
All England Law Reports: European Cases
A case citation referring to the European Court Reports is usually in the form:
Case C-157/03 Commission v Spain [2005] ECR I-2911
| Case C-157/03 | Commission v Spain | [2005] | ECR | I- | 2911 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case Number | Parties | Year |
Abbreviation (European Court Reports) |
Part | Page |
Citation to cases from other series of reports may follow the standard citation form:
Commission v Spain (case C-157/03) [2005] 2 CMLR 27
These are examples of citations you may see. For guidance on how to reference in your own work, refer to a referencing guide:
e.g. Rewe-Zentral AG v Bundesmonopolverwaltung für Branntwein.
From the Welcome page, select 'EU'.
Search for cases using party names by entering these in the 'Parties or Title' box.
Select the 'Search' button.
A list of results matching your search will be displayed.
e.g. 120/78 or C-157/03.
From the Welcome page, select 'EU'.
Search for a case using its case number by entering this in the 'Case or Document No.' box.
Select the 'Search' button.
A list of results matching your search will be displayed.
e.g. cassis de dijon or minimum alcohol content.
You can search for EU cases using words occurring anywhere in the document's text by entering these in the 'Free Text' box.
Select the 'Search' button.
A list of results matching your search will be displayed.
You can access EU case law from the 'Cases' search. From the home page:
This search provides various boxes where you can enter your search terms, including:
'Case-law' search form provides 'Case number', 'Name of the parties', and 'Text' fields.
The 'Advanced Search' provides the option to search by Text (including limiting to title), Document reference, Court, European Case-Law Identifier, and 'Published in Court Reports' reference.
