Case law is produced by the European Court of Justice (or the ECJ) and the General Court (GC) (formerly the Court of First Instance, abbreviated to CFI). Courts in Member States also apply EU law.
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 (ECJ) and the General Court of the EU (formerly Court of First Instance).
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.
After selecting 'More' and 'European Union' from the Welcome page, select 'European Union Cases'.
Under 'Document Fields' search for cases using party names by entering these in the 'Parties' box.
Your search appears in the main search box. Beside the main search box, select the search (orange 'magnifying glass') button.
A list of results matching your search will be displayed.
e.g. 120/78 or C-157/03.
After selecting 'More' and 'European Union' from the Welcome page, select 'European Union Cases'.
Under 'Document Fields' search for a case using its case number by entering this in the 'Citation' box.
Your search appears in the main search box. Beside the main search box, select the search (orange 'magnifying glass') 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 under 'Find documents that have' in the appropriate box(es): 'All of these terms', 'Any of these terms', or 'This exact phrase'.
Your search appears in the main search box. Beside the main search box, select the search (orange 'magnifying glass') 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: