LibGuides: European Union Legal Information: How to find and use EU legal sources: EU case law

Court of Justice of the EU

Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)
Information about the CJEU and its work (on the Europa site).

Where to find EU case law

Online

Westlaw
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Lexis+ UK Legal Research
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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.
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Curia
Transcripts of case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union and General Court of the European Union.
EUR-Lex
EUR-Lex provides access to the consolidated text of founding treaties and in force secondary legislation. The unrevised text of the OJ from 1998 is also available. Eur-Lex contains full-text Opinions and Judgments (1992 - ) and summaries of judgments (1954 - ).

BAILII: British and Irish Legal Information Institute
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BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) covers publicly available legal information from the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
It provides coverage of British and Irish case law and legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related British and Irish material.
Dates of coverage: 13th century onwards (substantial coverage begins in the late 1990s/2000s).
Subject coverage includes: law.
Open access/publicly accessible content. No login required.

In the Library

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).

European Court Reports
Call Number: Law Reports
Publication Date: (ceased publication 2011)
Part I – ECJ cases; Part II – GC/CFI cases.
Common Market Law Reports
Call Number: Law Reports
Publication Date: 1962-2016
(also available on Westlaw using a “Cases” search).
All England Law Reports: European Cases
Call Number: Law Reports
Publication Date: 1995-2015
(also available on Lexis®Library via a “Cases” search).

Citation of ECJ/GC Case Law

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:

Referencing
by Lorna McNally Last Updated Nov 16, 2023 43181 views this year

Searching for EU Case Law on Westlaw

By Party Names (case name)

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.

By Case Number

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.

By Free Text Term

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.

Searching for EU case law on Lexis+

You can access EU case law from the 'Cases' search. From the home page:

select 'Cases' (under 'Content'), then
under 'Topics' select 'European Union Law'

This search provides various boxes where you can enter your search terms, including:

'Case name' e.g. Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Spain or C-157/03
'Terms' e.g. cassis de dijon or minimum alcohol content

Finding EU case law on 'Curia' and EUR-Lex

'Curia'

“Case-law” search provides “Case no”, “Names of the parties”, and “Words in the text” fields.

EUR-Lex

Among other options, the “Advanced Search” provides the option to search by European Court Reports publication reference.