: 
UPDATE: European Union Legal Materials:
An Infrequent User’s Guide
By Duncan E. Alford [[1]]
Duncan E. Alford is Associate Dean and Director of
the Law Library at the University Of South Carolina School Of Law in Columbia,
SC.
With
the admission of ten European nations to the European Union in 2004, and
Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, the EU has become an even more prominent economic
power in the world. Mr. Alford’s guide is intended to aid infrequent users of
EU materials in locating sources of its law and official documents. This article was first published in the Winter
2005 issue of the Law Library Journal [97 Law Library Journal 49 (Winter
2005)].
Published January 2011
See the archive version!
Table of Contents
3. Principal Institutions of the EU
3.1. Executive Branch
3.1.1. European Commission
3.1.2. European Council
3.1.3. European Central Bank
3.2. Legislative Branch
3.2.1. Council of the European Union
3.2.2. European Parliament
3.2.3. Committee of the Regions
3.2.4. Economic and Social Committee
3.2.5. European
Court of Auditors
3.3. Judicial Branch
3.3.1. European Court of Justice
3.3.2. General Court (formerly known as the Court of First Instance)
3.3.3. Specialized Courts
4. Introductory Treatises and Texts
5. Dictionaries and Directories
6. Treaties
6.1. Founding Treaties
6.2. Accession Treaties
6.3. Electronic Databases
6.4. Print Versions
6.5. Convention on the Future of
Europe
6.6. Treaty of Lisbon
7. Legislation
7.1. Legislative Process
7.2. Official Journal of the
European Union
7.3. How to Find a Document with a
Citation (or Partial Citation)
7.4. How to Find EU Legislation by
Subject
7.4.1. Electronic Databases
7.4.2. Print Sources
7.5. Commission (COM) Documents
7.6. Council of Ministers Documents
7.7. Parliamentary Documents and Reports
7.9. Economic and Social Committee
Documents
7.10. Committee of the Regions
Documents
7.11. Status of Legislation
7.12. National Implementing Legislation
8. Case Law
8.2. Electronic Sources
8.3. Print Sources
9. Official
Reports on EU Activities
10.1. Indexes
10.2. Selected Journals
11. Research Guides
12. Recent Articles on EU Legal Research
13. European Union Depository Libraries
14. Conclusion
This guide is intended for the
researcher who infrequently needs to research European Union (EU) law or
related materials or to locate EU official documents. The expert or experienced
researcher should consult the research guides listed at the end of this article
for more detailed information on EU legal materials.
With
the addition of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, the EU has a population of
approximately 493 million people comprising twenty-seven European nations.
The EU gross national product has a value of nearly U.S. $11 trillion, a
bit larger than the U.S. economy. Because the EU is a major trading
partner with the United States, knowledge of EU law will become more widespread
as this organization takes a more prominent role in international trade and
international affairs generally. Even the law library that does not consider
international law a strength of its collection will occasionally have to meet
the needs of patrons seeking to locate information on EU law.
The
European Union is a supranational organization whose twenty-seven members
include most countries of Europe. Each member nation is
referred to as a Member State. The current twenty-seven Member States are
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia,
Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.[[2]]
The EU
began as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1953 with an original
purpose of regulating the capacity of large metal fabricating industries.[[3]] The six original Member States—Belgium, France,
Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands—signed the ECSC Treaty
and began the process of European integration. Since then, the EU has evolved
in stages with the creation of an economic community, development of a single
market, the removal of many trade restrictions and border controls, and the issuance
of a common currency. In recent years, the EU has made efforts to develop a
common foreign affairs policy and to improve cooperation among Member States on
justice and home affairs.
The
Maastricht treaty introduced a three-pillar system on which the EU government
was previously based: the European
Communities policies, common foreign and security policies, and justice and
home affairs policies. However, with the
Lisbon treaty coming into force on December 1, 2009, the pillar system was
collapsed and the EU became one entity with a legal personality. The new community is now based on the two
amended treaties: the Treaty on European
Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The
principal offices of the EU are located in Brussels, Belgium, although other EU
institutions have offices in Luxembourg; Frankfurt, Germany; and Strasbourg,
France. The EU currently recognizes twenty-three official languages.
Europa, the official Web site of the European Union, is the
first place to look for EU information because it provides excellent access to
official EU documents, especially documents published since 1998. A brief guide to the information sources on Europa is available on the
site. Europa contains many databases on various topics, from press releases of
the Council of Ministers to tariff quotas. Researchers should consult Europa’s list of databases to familiarize themselves with the sources on the site.
EurLex, the “portal to European law,” is a free legal database
maintained by the European Commission that contains the full-text of treaties,
legislation, court decisions, and other official documents of the European
Union. It is the best free source of official EU legal information. Researchers
should use EurLex to locate the most current EU legal information.
3. Principal Institutions of
the EU
The following descriptions of the
principal institutions of the EU focus on the legal activities and structure of
each. The necessarily brief treatment makes this section so simplistic that the
descriptions border on being misleading. Subsequent
sections of this article contain more detailed instructions on legal research
related to each institution.
To legal researchers familiar with
the United States legal system, Table 1 compares the governmental institutions
of the European Union and the United States. This analogy is flawed at the
outset because the two legal systems are very different in their age, their
legal traditions, and their history, among many other factors. Nevertheless,
the table may help the reader to begin to understand the relationships among
these EU institutions.
Table 1
Comparison of EU and U.S. Governmental Institutions
|
European Union |
United States |
|
|
|
|
Executive Branch |
|
|
European
Commission and its Directorates General |
U.S.
President and the Cabinet |
|
European
Council |
|
|
European
Central Bank |
Federal
Reserve System |
|
|
|
|
Legislative Branch |
|
|
Council
of the European Union (Council of Ministers) |
U.S.
Senate |
|
European
Parliament |
U.S.
House of Representatives |
|
Committee
of the Regions |
Congressional
committee system |
|
Economic
and Social Committee |
Congressional
committee system |
|
Court
of Auditors |
General Accountability Office, inspectors
general |
|
|
|
|
Judicial Branch |
|
|
European
Court of Justice |
Supreme
Court of the United States |
|
Court
of First Instance (General Court) |
U.S.
Circuit Courts of Appeal |
|
Specialized Courts |
|
The European Commission is the primary generator of new legislation in the EU.
The Commission proposes new legislation and launches new policy initiatives.
The Commission also serves as the executive branch of the EU and enters into
international agreements on behalf of the EU. As the guardian of EU policy, the
Commission can initiate legal proceedings to ensure compliance with EU policy
and legislation.
The
Commission currently consists of twenty-seven commissioners who are selected by
the Member States. Each Member State may have a national on the commission.
Each commissioner has a separate portfolio—an area of policy
concern. The staff of the commission is organized into more than thirty
directorates-general (DG) or departments, which have distinct areas of policy
responsibility. [[4]] DG’s are roughly equivalent to the executive branch
departments in the United States government, such as the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. For instance, the Competition DG deals with the approval of
mergers and acquisitions of business enterprises. The European Commission is
roughly equivalent to the executive branch of the U.S. government, particularly
the Office of the President of the United States and the cabinet-level
agencies.
Each directorate-general maintains an
individual Web site that contains information on the policy area for which it
is responsible. Frequently, working papers and preliminary reports prepared by
the DG are available on its Web site. Europa provides links to the Web pages of
the various commission DG’s.
Under
the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon, as of November 1, 2014, the number of
commissioners will decrease to two-thirds of the number of Member States and
will be elected on a rotational basis to ensure that a national from each
Member State serves as a Commissioner two out of every three Commission
periods.
The
position of High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy was
recently created under the Lisbon treaty.
The position essentially combines the Council of Minister’s High
Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European
Commissioner for External Affairs. Thus,
the High Representative will be responsible to both institutions, being both a
vice-president of the Commission and an agent of the Council. The position will
also supervise the European Union’s diplomatic corps, the European External
Action Service (EEAS), made up of staff from the Commission and Council as well
as diplomats from Member States.
Though
the European Council gained a formal status in 1992 with the Maastricht treaty,
the Lisbon treaty designated it formally as an institution within the European
Union. Consisting of the heads of state
(presidents and prime ministers) of EU members, its President, and the
President of the Commission, the European Council meets twice a year, usually
in January and June. This body is
distinct and separate from the Council of the European Union described
below.
The
Lisbon treaty introduced another new position: President of the European
Council. The President will be
responsible for convening the council every six months and helping achieve
consensus and cohesion in the European Council’s summits and decisions. The Council of Ministers, using qualified
majority voting, elects the President to a term of two and ½ years, renewable
once. The President is restricted to
persons not currently holding political office.
The European Central Bank makes and implements monetary policy and is responsible
for the issuance of the EU’s common currency—the Euro. Great Britain,
Sweden, Denmark, and eight Member States in Central and Eastern Europe have not
adopted the Euro as their national currency. The European Central Bank is
roughly analogous to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in
the United States.
3.2.1. Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union, also known as the Council of Ministers, is a separate
and distinct body from the European Council described above. Composed of
selected ministers from each Member State, the council exercises legislative
power along with the European Parliament. The council operates through
committees such as the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER). The
Council of Ministers is roughly analogous to the United States Senate.
The
president is a minister of a Member State chosen on a pre-determined rotational
basis every six months. Every eighteen
months, the three presidents who will be presiding during that term convene and
prepare a common program.
The European Parliament originally had little political power or authority. As
the EU developed, the Parliament gained more power in the legislative process,
but it still does not yet have the legislative power typically associated with
a national parliament or legislative body. The Lisbon treaty recently
broadened the areas on which Parliament can vote via the ordinary legislative
procedure, formerly called the co-decision procedure. The expanded agendas include areas in border
controls, judicial and criminal matters, agriculture, and trade.
The
Parliament has no authority to propose legislation directly, but may request
the European Commission to propose legislation. The Parliament must approve
most legislation, in particular the annual EU budget, and in the past has
withheld its approval in order to influence legislation proposed by the
European Commission.
During the 2009-2014 terms the
Parliament is composed of 736 members and is directly elected by the citizens
of the EU Member States. Representation is roughly proportional to the
population of the EU Member States.
Beginning with the next Parliamentary term, the European Parliament’s
number will increase from the current 736 members to 750 plus its
president. The make-up of the parliament
will be roughly proportional with each state receiving a minimum of six seats
and a maximum of ninety-six. Members of
the European Parliament are sometimes referred to as MEPs.
The
European Parliament is roughly analogous to the United States House of
Representatives. However, in the U.S., the House of Representatives and the
Senate have equivalent power in enacting most legislation. In the EU, the
Council of Ministers generally has greater legislative power than the European
Parliament.
3.2.3. Committee of the Regions
Created
by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the Committee of the Regions (COR) is a consultative body composed of 344 members with 344
alternates who serve four-year terms. Membership is roughly proportional to the
populations of the Member States. The Council of Ministers appoints
members proposed by member states who are generally local, municipal, or
regional officials. The COR must be consulted during the legislative process
regarding laws affecting trans-European infrastructure, education, culture,
environment, or employment, or those having a particular local or regional
effect. The COR issues opinions on legislation at the request of other EU
institutions or can issue opinions on its own initiative.
3.2.4. Economic and Social Committee
The Economic and Social Committee a consultative body
created by the Treaty of Rome, issues opinions on legislation
dealing with labor, transport, consumer protection, public health, and
education. Its 344 members are appointed by the Council and the membership is
roughly proportional to the populations of the member states. The membership is
divided into three equal groups that represent labor unions, professional
bodies (accountants, physicians, attorneys, etc.), and consumer groups among
others.
3.2.5. European Court of
Auditors
Though named a court, the European Court of Auditors more
appropriately belongs in the legislative branch as a functional institution
rather than being named a “true” court.
Consisting of twenty-seven representatives of the Member States, the European Court of Auditors audits the accounts and implements the budget of the EU.
It issues an annual report, special reports, and opinions.
The European Union’s judicial branch is the Court of Justice
of the European Union. It is composed of
the Court of Justice, the General Court, and specialized courts.
The Court of Justice, consisting of twenty-seven judges and eight advocates-general,
interprets and adjudicates disputes over EU law, a separate body of law
distinct from and supreme over the law of the Member States.[[5]]
The judges are elected by common
accord among the Member States and serve staggered terms of six years. The Treaty
of Lisbon introduces a new panel of seven persons whose task is to assess each
candidate for the Court of Justice, the General Court, and Advocates-General
before the Member States are allowed to appoint them. Under the terms of the Treaty of Nice, each
Member State will have a national serve on the court. The eight
advocates-general are appointed by common accord and serve six-year terms. The
Court of Justice is roughly analogous to the Supreme Court of the United
States.
3.3.2. General Court (formerly known as the Court of First
Instance)
Consisting
of twenty-seven judges, this intermediate court also decides disputes regarding
EU law. This court was created in 1989 to alleviate delays in deciding cases by
the Court of Justice because of its increased caseload. The court’s
jurisdiction was originally focused on competition cases and staff cases and it
did not hear actions brought by Member States. The Treaty of Nice expanded the
jurisdiction of the Court of First Instance and provided that the
Court shall have at least one judge from each Member State. The Court of First
Instance is roughly analogous to the United States Courts of Appeal although
the Court of First Instance does serve as a trial court on occasion.
The
Treaty of Nice introduced the concept of specialized tribunals for specific
areas within the court system. Under the
Lisbon treaty, the European Parliament and the Council have power to create the
specialized courts by the ordinary legislative procedure. The Civil Service Tribunal is one such
specialized court.
4. Introductory Treatises and Texts
While
there are numerous books on European Union law, the following is a very
selective list of the better introductions to the topic.
Ralph H. Folsom. European Union Law
in a Nutshell. 6th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West, 2008. This concise
treatment, which is part of the West Nutshell series, provides an overview of
EU law and institutions.
Trevor C. Hartley. The Foundations of
European Community Law. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2010. This book is a good introduction to the law of the European Union.
Chapter 1 describes the legal basis for and the function of the European
Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament.
Chapter 2 describes the structure and function of the EU’s judicial
system—the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance.
P.S.R.F. Mathijsen. A Guide to
European Union Law. 10th ed. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2010. A
good introduction to EU institutions and EU law.
European Union Law Reporter. Chicago:
CCH Editions. Formerly known as the Common Market Law Reporter, this
multi-volume loose-leaf service provides commentary on EU law by topic and
includes the texts of treaties and digests of relevant EU laws. It is updated
on a monthly basis.
Klaus-Dieter Borchardt. The ABC of
Community Law. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European
Communities, 2010. A brief, readable summary of EU institutions and the sources
of European Union law incorporates changes resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon.
Also available on
5. Dictionaries and
Directories
The EU is noted for its heavy use of
jargon, sometimes called Eurospeak. The following books will help in
deciphering unfamiliar terms.
Anne Ramsay. Eurojargon: A Dictionary
of the European Union. 6th ed. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000. This
book provides an exhaustive list of acronyms used by EU agencies and officials.
Glossary: Institutions, Policies and
Enlargement of the European Union. Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities, 2000. This source offers a selective list of terms and
concepts related to the EU. An updated version is available on the Web.
Delegation of the European Union to
the United States, A to Z Index of European Union
Websites While technically not a
dictionary, this excellent Web-based alphabetical index of EU organizations,
agencies, and topics is maintained by the Washington Delegation of the European
Commission.
IDEA, the Electronic Directory of the European Institutions.
Maintained by the European Commission, this database provides contact
information for senior personnel of the European Union. Searchable by name,
agency, or hierarchical structure.
The European Union has developed over
the past five decades from the six-member European Coal and Steel Community to
the current twenty-seven member supranational organization through the adoption
and ratification of treaties.
The texts of the treaties are
published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the official
gazette of the EU. Other treaty series and commercial publications described
below are also sources for the text of the EU treaties.
The founding treaties are frequently
referred to as “primary legislation.” In contrast, “secondary legislation” refers
to directives, regulations and other forms of law described later in the
section on Legislation.
Following is a list of the founding
treaties that provide the legal basis for the EU:
Treaty Establishing the European Coal
and Steel Community, Apr. 18, 1951, 261 U.N.T.S. 140 (ECSC Treaty or Treaty of
Paris). This treaty expired by its own terms on July 23, 2002.
Treaty Establishing the European
Economic Community, Mar. 25, 1957, 298 U.N.T.S. 3, 4 Eur. Y.B. 412 (EEC
Treaty or Treaty of Rome).
Treaty Establishing the European
Atomic Energy Community, Mar. 25, 1957, 298 U.N.T.S. 259, 5 Eur. Y.B. 454
(Euratom Treaty).
Treaty Establishing a Single Council
and a Single Commission of the European Communities, Apr. 8, 1965, 1967 J.O.
152/1 (Merger Treaty).
Single European Act, Feb. 17, 1986,
1987 O.J. (L 169) 1, 25 I.L.M. 506.
Treaty on European Union, Feb. 7,
1992, 1992 O.J. (C 191) 1, 31 I.L.M. 253 (Union Treaty or Maastricht Treaty).
Treaty of Amsterdam Amending the
Treaty on European Union, the Treaties Establishing the European Communities
and Certain Related Acts, Oct. 2, 1997, 1997 O.J. (C 340) 1, 37 I.L.M. 56
(Treaty of Amsterdam).
Treaty of Nice Amending the Treaty on
European Union, the Treaties Establishing the European Communities and Certain
Related Acts, Feb. 26, 2001, 2001 O.J. (C 80) 1 (Treaty of Nice).
Treaty
of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the
European Community, Dec. 13, 2007, 2007 O.J. (C 306) 1 (Lisbon Treaty).
A consolidated version of the treaty
incorporating the changes through the Treaty of Lisbon is available in the Official
Journal of the European Union:
Treaty on the European Union, March
30, 2010, 2010 O.J. (C 83) 13.
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, formerly
known as Treaty Establishing the European Community, March 30, 2010, 2010 O.J.
(C 83) 47.
The Treaty of Amsterdam renumbered
the articles of the founding treaties. Citations to specific articles of the
founding treaties prior to the ratification of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997
will be to the old numbering scheme of the treaty articles. For example, the
article on the creation of the internal market is cited as Article 14 (ex
Art. 7a). The ex number refers to the numerical sequence of the treaty
articles prior to the Treaty of Amsterdam. A table of equivalences showing the
correspondence between the old and new numbering scheme was published in the Official
Journal on October 11, 1997.
The Treaty of Lisbon also extensively
renumbered the articles in the treaties it amended: The Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht
Treaty) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Rome
Treaty). A table of equivalences for
both treaties is annexed to the Lisbon treaty and is available here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:306:0202:0229:EN:PDF
The EU has grown since its founding
by admitting additional nations. New members of the EU must sign and ratify an
accession treaty in order to join the EU. The six accession treaties (thus far)
and their citations are listed below:
Accession to the European Communities
of the Kingdom of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, Jan. 22, 1972, 1972 O.J. (L 73) 5 (First Accession Treaty).
Accession to the European Communities
of the Hellenic Republic, May 28, 1979, 1973 O.J. (L 291) 9 (Second Accession
Treaty).
Accession to the European Economic
Communities of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic, June 12, 1985,
1985 O.J. (L 302) 9 (Third Accession Treaty).
Accession to the European Union of
the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland, and the Kingdom of Sweden,
June 24, 1994, 1994 O.J. (C 241) 9 (Fourth Accession Treaty).
Treaty concerning the Accession of
the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland,
Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic to the European Union, April 16, 2003, 2003
O.J. (L 236) 33, available online
Treaty concerning the Accession of
the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania, April 25, 2005, 2005 O.J. (L 157) 11,
available online.
Both the founding and accession EU
treaties are available in the following electronic databases:
Westlaw — EU-TREATIES database contains founding treaties
since 1951. Some documents are available in PDF format showing an image from
the Official Journal.
LexisNexis — EURCOM; TREATY database contains founding
treaties since 1951, derived from the CELEX database.
CELEX — Legislation File (Sectors 1-4). The official
legal database of the EU was previously available by subscription only. The
search functionality of CELEX is now available through the Advanced Search
Service in EurLex. Much of the content of CELEX is available through
other databases for a fee, such as Westlaw or LexisNexis, or in various print
publications.
The Office for Official Publications
of the European Communities publishes several versions of treaties, which are
periodically updated:
European Union: Consolidated Versions
of the Treaty on European Union and of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union. Luxembourg: Office for the Official Publications of the
European Communities, 2010.
European Union: Selected Instruments
Taken From the Treaties. Luxembourg: Office for the Official Publications of
the European Communities, 1999.
Copies of the treaties are also
available in several commercial publications:
European Union Law Reporter. London:
Sweet & Maxwell, 1962–. The texts of the treaties are contained in
the last volume of this four-volume loose-leaf service.
Neville March Hunnings, ed.
Encyclopedia of European Union Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1996–.
This seven-volume loose-leaf service contains the following types of EU
materials: Founding Treaties; Accession Treaties; Other International
Agreements; EU Institutions; and the Three Pillars. It is updated on a
quarterly basis.
Philip Raworth, ed. European Union
Law Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994–. This loose-leaf
service contains the text of the treaties and the text of principal legislation
organized by subject.
Hans Smit, Peter Herzog, Dennis
Campbell, and Susan Cotter, eds. Law of the European Economic Community. New
York: LexisNexis Matthew Bender, 1976–. This annually updated loose-leaf
service, updated twice a year, analyzes the treaties article by article. It
includes tables relating to the renumbering of treaty articles. Also available
on Lexis, File: EURCOM; SHOLEU.
6.5.
Convention on the Future of Europe
The European Constitutional
Convention met in Brussels beginning in 2002 and in June 2003 completed its
task of drafting a constitutional treaty that was presented to an
intergovernmental conference held in fall 2003. The heads of state of the EU
signed this treaty on October 29, 2004 in Rome. The signed version of the
treaty is available in full-text on Europa. This treaty was never ratified but portions of the text
were incorporated into the Treaty of Lisbon.
After the failure to ratify the
Convention on the Future of Europe, the Member States signed on December 13,
2007, a revised treaty – the Treaty of Lisbon -- that further amended the
two founding treaties. The full-text of the Treaty of Lisbon is available
here
It was ratified and entered into
force on December 1, 2009. The Treaty of
Lisbon amends both the Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht Treaty) and the
Treaty establishing the European Community (Treaty of Rome), the latter
becoming the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Some of the more important changes
resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon are creating the office of President of the
European Council with a two and a half year renewable term, creating a High
Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, setting the maximum
number of members of the European Parliament at seven hundred fifty, changing
the qualified majority voting procedure of the Council of the European Union,
and introducing a negotiated procedure by which a Member State may leave the
European Union. The intent of all of these changes is to improve
the functioning of the European Union.
The treaty also makes important
changes in the way Europeans can interact with the Union. Namely, it introduces citizens’ initiatives,
increases national parliamentary powers, and bolsters individual rights by
incorporating the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on
Human Rights into EU law. The European
Citizens' Initiative allows for a petition signed by one million citizens' of a
significant number of Member States to propose to the European Commission
legislation on any matter that is within the competency of the European Union.
National parliaments now can review
European legislative acts to evaluate the legislation for breaches of the
subsidiarity principle. They can also
require review of legislation and delay
implementation of proposals.
The Lisbon treaty incorporates the
Charter of Fundamental Rights into the European Union law. The treaty legally binds all European Union
Member States to the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights, with the exception of
Poland, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom, (all of whom negotiated an
exempting protocol to the Treaty of Lisbon).
The Lisbon treaty also incorporates the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the “ECHR”) into EU
law. As such, the provisions of the ECHR are binding on EU institutions and
EU law will be interpreted in light of the ECHR.
Consolidated versions of the Treaty
on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
are available here. Because of the addition of new articles into the
treaties, the Table of Equivalences at the end of the Consolidated Treaty will
be particularly helpful to researchers.
Five institutions are involved in the
EU legislative process: the European Commission, the Council of the European
Union, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, and the Economic
and Social Committee. The Commission, the Council, and the Parliament are
primarily involved in enacting legislation. The Economic and Social Committee
and the Committee of the Regions serve in a consultative role.
There are currently four methods for
enacting legislation in the EU, listed here in order of importance and in
reverse chronological order of their development:
1.
Ordinary Legislative Procedure (formerly called codecision)
2.
Cooperation
3.
Assent
4.
Consultation
The procedure used depends on the
substance of the proposed legislation. The ordinary legislative procedure is by
far the most important of the four processes because a wide range of policy
areas fall under its scope. The ordinary legislative procedure is also the most
recently created legislative process (created under the Maastricht Treaty and
later amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty of Lisbon), and of the
four methods, provides the most power to the European Parliament, reflecting
its growing influence in EU law-making.
Ordinary legislative procedure has
become the principal manner by which legislation is adopted in the EU. Under
the ordinary legislative procedure, the European Commission, after consulting
with national experts, submits a legislative proposal (frequently in the form
of a COM document discussed below) to the Council of Ministers, which in turn
forwards the proposal to the European Parliament. The Parliament then considers
the legislation by first referring it to a committee that will issue a report.
If the Parliament agrees to the proposed text, the legislation is enacted. If
the Council and the Parliament cannot agree on the legislation, the legislation
potentially can go through three separate readings in Parliament prior to
enactment.
A unique feature of the EU
legislative process is the methods of voting in the Council of Ministers:
unanimity, simple majority, and qualified majority. Under qualified majority
voting (QMV), each Member State is assigned votes based roughly on its
population. France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom each receive
twenty-nine votes. Malta receives the least number with three votes.
Legislation is enacted by qualified majority if a majority of the Member States
approve the legislation and a minimum of 255 votes are cast in favor of
the legislation (out of a total of 345 votes). In addition, a Member State may
ask for confirmation that the votes in favor of the legislation represent at
least 62% of the EU’s population. The result of qualified majority voting is
that a Member State may vote against legislation but must nevertheless abide by
its provision— a true cession of sovereign power to the EU.
However, the Lisbon treaty changes
the voting procedure of the QMV from a weighted system to a double majority
voting system. Starting on November 1,
2014, at least 55% of members comprising at least fifteen states and 65% of the
population of the EU is necessary to pass a vote. A transitional period will be in effect
between 2014 and 2017 where Member States will be allowed to use the current
rules if the subject being voted on is of particular sensitivity to that
state.
The
other three methods of enacting legislation are used much less frequently.
Co-operation is generally used only for legislation dealing with the economic
and monetary union. Consultation and assent are used to enact legislation
dealing with agriculture, trade agreements, and taxation. Because these three
methods are infrequently used, I do not include a detailed discussion of the
steps in these legislative procedures.
This complicated legislative process
yields one of the four principal types of EU legislation. Regulations
are directly applicable to Member States and require no further action to have
legal effect. Directives are addressed to and are binding on Member
States, but the Member State may choose the method by which to implement the
directive. Generally, a Member State must enact national legislation to comply
with a directive. Decisions are binding on those parties to whom they
are addressed. Recommendations and opinions have no binding
force. In the eyes of the U.S. legal researcher, regulations are the closest
equivalent to federal statutes. These four types of legislation are referred to
as “secondary legislation” as opposed to the treaties, which are referred to as
“primary legislation.”
7.2.
Official Journal of the European Union
The Official Journal of the
European Union,[[6]] is published daily in Luxembourg by the Office for the
Official Publications of the European Communities. It is the EU’s official
gazette and publishes the text of legislation and other official acts of the
European Union. It contains treaties, all four of the principal types of
legislation, working papers, judgments of the European Court of Justice,
proposals for legislation, and other official communications between EU
institutions. Prior to 1973 when the United Kingdom and Ireland joined the EU,
the Official Journal (or the O.J.) was not published in English.
It is now published daily in each of the twenty-three official languages of the
EU. To the U.S. researcher, the O.J. is a combination of the United
States Statutes at Large, the U.S. Treaties and Other International
Agreements (U.S.T.), the Federal Register, and the Congressional
Record.
There are six components to the Official
Journal:
Legislation—L Series contains regulations and directives
adopted by the Commission or the Council alone or jointly with the European
Parliament. Prior to 1968, the Official Journal was not divided into the L and
C series.
Communications—C Series contains nonbinding decisions of the EU institutions such
as communications of the Commission on various topics, court judgments, and
opinions of the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee.
Communications—CE Series contains Commission proposals and is only published
electronically, with versions available on EurLex, Westlaw, and LexisNexis. A
table of contents of the electronic CE series is published in the print C
Series. This electronic-only part of the O.J. began in July 1999.
Communications—CA Series principally contains employment notices for EU
institutions.
Annex-Debates contains verbatim reports of the plenary sessions of the
European Parliament. The Annex-Debates ceased publication in print after the
May 1999 parliamentary session.
Supplement—S Series contains notices of invitations to bid on EU funded
contracts. This series is available electronically through the TED (tenders) database.
Many EU legislative documents are
available in an electronic version, but the EU considers only the print version
to be official. The Official Journal is also available in the following
electronic databases:
Europa / EurLex contains journals from January 1, 1998 to present. Recent
documents are in PDF.
LexisNexis—EURCOM; LEGIS database includes coverage from
January 1980 to present.
Westlaw—EU-LEG database includes coverage from 1952 to
present. EU-OJCSERIES provides coverage from 1992 to present. Documents
published after 1997 are available in PDF.
7.3.
How to Find a Document with a Citation (or a Partial Citation)
A regulation is generally cited by
its number, followed by its year. In contrast, a directive is cited by its year
first, then its number.
Example: Council Regulation No. 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on
Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and
Commercial Matters, 2001 O.J. (L 12) 1. — This regulation is in the
L Series of the Official Journal in the 2001 volume containing issue 12
for that year at page 1.
Example: First Council Directive 77/780 on the Coordination of the
Laws, Regulations and Administrative Provisions Relating to the Taking up and
Pursuit of the Business of Credit Institutions, 1977 O.J. (L 322) 30. —
This directive was enacted in 1977 as Directive Number 780. If you did not have
a citation to the Official Journal, but only the year and number, you
could locate its text by searching:
•
In LexisNexis, the document segment Title with “77/780”
(The document will be the last one in the search results.)
•
In Westlaw, the field Title with “77/780”
(The document will be the last one in the search results.)
•
In EurLex, use the “Simple search” screen in the “Legislation” database, search
by Document number, then by Natural Number and then select the year 1977, the type of legislation “Directive” and then insert the document number 780.
Example: Commission Directive 2010/43/EU of 1 July 2010
implementing Directive 2009/65/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council as regards organisational requirements,
conflicts of interest, conduct of
business, risk management and content of the agreement between a depositary and
a management company, 2010 O.J. (L
176) 42 – This directive was enacted in 2010 as Directive number 43. If you did not have a citation to the Official
Journal, but only the year and number you could locate its text by searching:
n In LexisNexis, the document segment Title with “2010/43”
(The
document will be the last one in the search results.)
n In Westlaw, the filed Title with “2010/43”
(The
document will be the last one in the search results.)
n In EurLex, use the simple search option to search
by first the document number, then the natural number in “Legislation” or
“Directive,” and insert the year 2010
and the document number 43.
Consolidated versions of legislation,
while not official, are available on EurLex in the Directory of Legislation in
Force. After locating the
relevant law, look for “consolidated text” in the history of the
document. Consolidated versions of legislation reflect any amendments to
the original text. Researchers should update the status of the consolidated
legislation or any other EU legislation by checking the latest Directory of
Community Legislation in Force or an electronic database to ensure no
further amendments have been enacted.
7.4.
How to Find EU Legislation by Subject
Frequently, you will want to find EU
legislation on a particular legal topic. Unlike the federal statutes in the
United States, there is no official codification of EU legislation.
The Directory of Legislation in
Force, described more fully below, can be a helpful source when looking for
European Union legislation by subject.
It is organized by twenty broad policy subjects. The Directory can be difficult to
search because the content is based on the structure of the treaties. It was last updated January 2010.
Similar to legal research in the
U.S., legal research in European Union law can be done effectively with Westlaw
and LexisNexis. In Westlaw, search the database EU-ALL to ensure you search all
types of EU documents (directives, orders, treaties, etc.). In LexisNexis,
search EURCOM; ECLAW, which is equivalent to EU-ALL in Westlaw. In EurLex,
search multiple databases such as the Official Journal, Preparatory Acts,
Legislation, Treaties, and Case Law. The search engine in EurLex is not as
sophisticated as the software in Westlaw and Lexis.
Summaries of EU Legislation (a successor to the SCADPlus database) is a
useful web site produced by the EU. It is organized by subject area and
provides summaries of EU activity in those areas. There is also an A–Z
index of the contents. Another useful EU database is Topics of the European Union, which provides
“mini-portals” to information from all EU institutions on thirty-two policy
areas, such as economic and monetary affairs.
EU legislation may be found by
subject using the following print sources.
European Union Law Reporter. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1962–.Provides a
useful topical index to an analysis of EU law which contains citations to the
Official Journal.
Directory of Community Legislation in
Force and other Acts of the Community Institutions. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities, 1984–. The first volume of this two-volume set
organizes legislation within the analytical structure of EU law used by the
European Commission. The table of contents sets out the various subject areas.
Within each subject area is listed EU legislation related to that subject area.
This source is difficult to use because the researcher must be familiar with
the analytical structure based on the text and divisions of the EU treaties in
order to search the source efficiently. The second volume contains a subject
index and chronological index with cross-references to the relevant page in the
analytical structure set forth in volume 1. This set is updated twice each year
on January 1 and July 1 and is also available on EurLex. The electronic version contains hypertext links to EU
documents, some of which are available in PDF. The print version ceased
with the January 1, 2004 issue and it is currently only available
electronically.
Commission Documents, also known as
COM documents, include legislative proposals, communications, and reports such
as “green papers” or “white papers” issued by the staff of the European
Commission. COM documents are numbered sequentially each year and are
referenced by number and date. COM documents are available in microfiche in
some law libraries and in EU depository libraries.
Example: COM (2002) 0018, Communication from the Commission to the
Council and the European Parliament towards an Integrated European Railway
Area. — This report is Commission Document No. 18 published in the year
2002.
COM documents are available in the
following electronic databases: EurLex, in Preparatory Acts; Westlaw contains
EU Preparatory Acts in EU-ACTS database; LexisNexis contains EU Preparatory
Acts in EURCOM; PREP database; and EurLex Advanced Search, in Preparatory Acts
file (Sector 5).
Most of these documents (without the
useful explanatory memoranda) were published in the Official Journal C
series until June 1999. After June 1999 selected COM documents are available in
the electronic Official Journal CE Series on EurLex. Beginning in 2003, the EU
ceased publication of COM documents in microfiche format, while providing them
on CD-ROM. EurLex is the most readily available (but possibly incomplete)
source for recent COM documents.
7.6.
Council of Ministers Documents
Prior to 1999, Council of Ministers
documents typically were kept confidential.[[7]] Due to provisions in the Treaty of Amsterdam and a
general policy of improved transparency in EU decision-making, more Council
documents are now being made public. One of the most frequently sought types
issued by the Council is the Common Position, a statement of the Council’s
position regarding an amendment to legislation by the European Parliament.
Council documents are available
through its Public Register searchable
database. Coverage begins with
January 1999. Some documents are available in full-text. Documents not marked
as public may be requested. Types of documents included are:
Monthly Summaries of Council Acts;
Council Minutes, which consist of two
types—minutes concerning the adoption of the legal acts and general
minutes; and
Press Releases, which are eventually
loaded into RAPID, the European Commission’s press release database, but are
available first in the Council’s Press Room Web site.
7.7.
Parliamentary Documents and Reports
As an important institution involved
in the legislative process, the European Parliament generates documents such as
committee reports and floor debates that are of interest to legal researchers.
The European Parliament has created
OEIL, the Legislative Observatory database to track parliamentary action on legislative proposals. It
can be searched by multiple criteria such as keywords, document reference,
legislation document number, and stage of legislative procedure.
In addition, the European Parliament
maintains the following documents on its Web site:
“Topical Subjects” are covered in a
portion of OEIL, the Legislative Observatory database; it
organizes proposed legislation by topic and provides links to relevant
documents.
Official Journal of the European
Communities: Annexes—Debates of the European Parliament, Luxembourg: Office of Official Publications of the
European Communities. This component of the Official Journal contained verbatim
reports of parliamentary debates until it ceased publication in print in 1999.
Reports of the European Parliament
are available in the Procedures Section of the European
Parliament web site, a searchable database of reports published
after 1994. Researchers request the A series documents (parliamentary reports)
most frequently; these are roughly analogous to U.S. Congressional committee
reports.
Example: A4-0485/98, Report on the Communication from the
Commission on the Information Strategy for the Euro. — The A refers to
the A series of documents. The number 4 refers to the fourth European
Parliament session. The European Parliament is currently in its seventh
session, which began in 2009. The number 485 is the number of the report and 98
refers to the year of the report.
European Parliament documents
published before 1990 are available in print in serials variously named Session
Documents, Working Documents, and Documents de Séance. Prior to
1973, reports were not generally available in English. For more detail on the
different series of European Parliament documents, refer to the European
Commission Delegation’s dated, but still useful guide, Accessing European
Union Information.
Members of the European Parliament
regularly question the European Commission on EU policy. These questions and
their responses are available electronically in various sources:
EurLex, Parliamentary
Questions (since 1999)
European Parliament,
Parliamentary Questions
(all questions since 1999; written questions since 1994) Search for the B
series of documents.
LexisNexis — EURCOM; PARLQ
database (since 1964)
Westlaw — EU-QUESTIONS database
(since 1992)
EurLex Advanced Search in
Parliamentary Questions file (Sector 9)
Parliamentary questions also were
published in the C Series of the Official Journal of the European
Communities until 1999.
7.9.
Economic and Social Committee Documents
Many official documents are available
on the official Web site of the Economic and Social Committee . The legal researcher would be most interested in the
ESC opinions, its Annual Report, and its monthly Bulletin. ESC
opinions since 1990 are available on its Web site and in the C Series of the Official
Journal.
7.10.
Committee of the Regions Documents
Its official Web site contains a searchable database of opinions and
resolutions of the Committee of the Regions as well as press releases and the
committee’s recent Activity Reports. COR opinions are also available in
the C Series of the Official Journal.
To verify the status of proposed
legislation or to learn more about the steps in the enactment of a particular
legislative proposal, the following two databases are useful. PreLex is maintained by the European
Commission and collects the documents issued at each step of the legislative
process. It is searchable by keyword, document number, and citation, and
includes hypertext links to relevant documents. Its database includes
bibliographic information from 1965 and full text in English since 1991. OEIL, the Legislative Observatory
database maintained by the European
Parliament, provides a synopsis of legislative procedures taken in enacting
legislation and is searchable by document number, title of document, and other
means. It has procedural documents going back to 1994 and is updated
daily.
RAPID, maintained by the European Commission, is a searchable
database of press releases by various EU institutions. The press releases
generally include Web links to official EU documents. Press releases often are
the quickest and easiest way to learn of new developments in EU law.
7.12.
National Implementing Legislation
The enforcement of EU directives
depends on enactment of national legislation to fulfill the purposes and
objectives of a particular directive. National implementing measures, or MNEs,
are provisions taken by Member States to implement the directives laid down by
EU legislation. As Member States are
allowed to choose the way they implement EU legislation, national implementing
legislation varies state to state. To determine if the Member State has enacted national
legislation in response to EU legislation, the researcher has several aids.
In Westlaw, there is a section at the
end of each directive entitled “National Measures,” which lists the national
laws enacted in response to that particular piece of legislation. The European
Commission relies on self-reporting of enacted legislation by Member States, so
the information on national legislation is often incomplete.
LexisNexis also has a National
Provisions Implementing Directives database (EURCOM; NATPRV) that contains
summaries of citations to national legislation passed in response to EU laws.
Coverage is from 1989 to present.
In EurLex, MNEs can be viewed in by
first accessing the directive and clicking on the bibliographic notice
link. Under the bullet “Relationships
between documents,” a link to the national execution measures (MNE) provides
citations to the implementing legislation enacted by each Member State.
Finally, Commercial Laws of Europe,
a monthly journal published in London by Sweet & Maxwell, contains a list
of important national legislation enacted in the countries of Western Europe,
including legislation implementing EU directives and English translations of
selected statutes.
The Court of Justice interprets and
applies European Union law as found in the EU treaties and legislation.[[8]]
The founding treaties state that the
Court “shall ensure that in the interpretation and application of this Treaty
the law is observed.”[[9]] The court sits in Luxembourg and its working language is
French. A case may be brought in any of the official languages of the EU, and
one language will be designated the language of the case (generally the
language of the national court referring the case or that of a party to the
case). About one-quarter of the court’s opinions are not immediately translated
into English.
Typically, panels of three, five, or
seven judges will hear a case, although occasionally the entire
court will do so. U.S. legal researchers will be unfamiliar with an official
judicial officer active at the European Court of Justice—the
advocate-general. Advocates-general review the written documents submitted in a
case and issue a written opinion advocating a legal position prior to the court
issuing its own opinion.[[10]] The eight advocates-general are appointed by common
accord among the Member States for six-year terms.
The ECJ has broad jurisdiction in EU
matters and its decisions have the force of law in the Member States. Decisions
of the ECJ can override national legislation and decisions of national courts
that are deemed contrary to the provisions of EU treaties and legislation.[[11]] More information about the
court and its jurisdiction is available at the Court’s web site.
The Court of First Instance (now
known as the General Court), created in 1989 to relieve the case load of the
ECJ, originally heard cases dealing with competition law, dumping, subsidies,
and staff grievances. Decisions of the Court of First Instance are appealable
to the European Court of Justice on points of law. More
information on the Court of First Instance is available at its web site.
There are generally two types of
cases that are filed before the Court of Justice. The first involves a party
filing a direct action that seeks relief under European Union law.
A second occurs when a national court makes a reference for a preliminary
ruling from the Court. The national court determines that a question of
European Union law is relevant to the resolution of the case before it and
submits the question of European Union law to the Court for resolution. The
court’s preliminary ruling on the question submitted is binding on the national
court.
The Lisbon treaty expands the scope
of the court’s jurisdiction. The court
now interprets and applies the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European
Convention on Human Rights. The Charter
of Fundamental Rights will be applied
within the European Union with the exception of the United Kingdom, the
Czech Republic, and Poland, who negotiated opt-outs. In addition, the accession to the ECHR will
bind EU institutions to the convention.
Also, the Lisbon treaty allows
national parliaments to bring suits before courts where they believe that a
European Union legislation has breached the principle of subsidiarity. Where
national parliaments feel that the result of targeted EU legislation could have
been accomplished at a national level rather than at a supranational level, the
Lisbon treaty allows for the parliaments to bring suit against the EU.
National courts also frequently
decide issues of European Union law without referring questions to the European
Court of Justice. Although sources of case law of the Member States is beyond
the scope of this article, researchers should be aware that national court
decisions are frequently relevant to points of EU law and should be consulted
along with the case law of the European Court of Justice itself.
Commonly known as the European Court
Reports or ECR, the Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the
Court of First Instance, is the official case reporter of these
courts. The ECR is divided into three sections. Section I includes
decisions from the European Court of Justice; section II includes decisions
from the General Court (formerly known as the Court of First Instance). A third
section, ECR-SC, began in 1994 and includes staff cases, employee grievances
against an European Union institution or agency. Prior to 1990 when the
Court of First Instance began its work, the ECR was not divided into
numbered sections.
Publication of decisions in ECR is
frequently delayed by eighteen months or longer because of the necessity of
translating the decisions into all the official languages of the European
Union. The ECR is analogous to United States Reports, the official case
reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States.
U.S. legal researchers using the ECR
will note that there are no concurring or dissenting opinions of the judges on
the European Court of Justice. The court issues a judgment of the court to
which all the judges agree. The opinion of the advocate general is published
separately.
The Proceedings of the Court of
Justice and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities is a
weekly publication containing summaries of judgments, opinions of the
advocates-general, and listings of new cases to be brought before the Court. It
is also available on the ECJ Web site.
The C Series of the Official
Journal of the European Union publishes court orders and judgments and
lists cases filed before the European Court of Justice.
Opinions of both the Court of Justice
and the General Court are available in the following electronic databases:
Curia, the European Court of Justice Web
site, contains full text
decisions since 1997 and all decisions by case number from the Court’s
inception in 1953;
LexisNexis, in EURCOM; ECJ database
(since 1954);
Westlaw, in EU-CS-ALL database (since
1954);
EurLex Advanced Search contains
judgments and orders since 1954, full text opinions since 1987.
Following are several of the more
prominent commercial publications of EU case law.
European Community Cases. London: Sweet & Maxwell. This loose-leaf service
publishes selected European Commission and European Court of Justice decisions,
including opinions of advocate-generals. Headnotes precede each case. This set
includes a table of contents, a topical index, and a list of authorities cited.
It is updated monthly. It also includes EU Focus, a newsletter on EU law and
affairs.
Common Market Law Reports. London: Sweet & Maxwell. This publication collects
selected cases from both the European Court of Justice and the appellate courts
of individual member nations that resolve questions of European Union law. This
weekly publication includes a roundup of actions of the European Court of
Justice.
C.M.L.R. Antitrust Reports. London: Sweet & Maxwell. This reporter focuses on
European Union documents dealing with mergers, acquisitions, and antitrust
issues and includes a summary of European Commission actions, the status of
cases before the European Commission and the European Court of Justice, and
decisions of the European Court of Justice and the European Commission.
Finding aids include a list of cases reported and a subject index.
9. Official Reports on EU
Activities
Researchers may find the following
two regularly published reports and one Web site useful for an overview of EU
policy.
Bulletin of the European Union. Brussels: European Commission, Secretariat-General,
1994–present. Formerly known as the Bulletin of the European Communities
(1968–93), this monthly publication by the European Commission provides a
summary of EU activities in selected policy areas. Issues since 1996 are
available on Europa.
General Report on the Activities of
the European Union. Brussels: European
Commission, 1994–present. Previously called the General Report on the
Activities of the European Communities (1967–93), this annual report by
the European Commission to the European Parliament summarizes EU activity for
the previous year and includes citations to official EU documents. Full text
reports since 1997 and summaries of the 1995 and 1996 reports are available on Europa.
University of Pittsburgh,
Archive of European Integration.
While not an official publication per se, this archive contains
the full text of historic documents dealing with European integration,
including many official EU documents. The archive is searchable by subject,
institutional author, year, and other criteria.
There are numerous journals and
periodicals that report on and analyze EU legal developments. This section
highlights finding aids and a very selective list of journals that may be
useful in EU legal research.
The following indexes can be used to
identify periodical articles relating to EU issues and topics.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. Print
coverage from 1960 to present; electronic coverage since 1985. This index
contains citations to articles in selected legal journals published abroad and
U.S. law reviews focused on international law. The print version has subject,
geographical, and author indexes.
Legal Resource Index (also known as Legaltrac). Gale Group. On LexisNexis:
LEXREF; LGLIND; on Westlaw: LRI; directly from the Gale Group: Legaltrac.
Indexes legal journals from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New
Zealand, but mainly focuses on U.S. journals since 1980. This database is the
electronic companion to Current Law Index.
Legal Journals Index. London: Sweet & Maxwell. On Westlaw: LJI. Indexes
articles from legal journals in the United Kingdom and Europe on European Union
law. This database is the electronic companion to the print indexes, European
Legal Journals Index and Legal Journal Index, both of which ceased
publication in print in 1999.
ECLAS, European Commission Libraries Catalogue. This database of documents on European
affairs includes the departmental collections of twenty directorates-general.
The catalog also includes Web resources and secondary sources that were
previously cataloged in SCAD, a now defunct database of EU documents.
Numerous journals and magazines deal
with EU law and affairs regularly. Following is a very selective list of these
journals.
The Economist. London: The Economist Newspaper. This British weekly
newsmagazine usually includes two to three articles in each issue related to EU
affairs.
European Current Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell. This monthly publication
contains digests of European Union legislation, cases, and articles organized
by subject and a cumulative subject index.
Common Market Law Review. New York: Aspen Publishers, Inc. Quarterly.
European Law Review. London: Sweet & Maxwell. Bimonthly.
EU Focus: Essential Developments in
EU Law and Policy. London: Sweet &
Maxwell. This biweekly newsletter includes topical summaries of EU legal
developments and is part of European Community Cases.
Journal of Common Market Studies. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Quarterly.
European Yearbook. The Hague:
Kluwer Academic Publishers. Each yearbook contains a chapter on EU legal
developments.
Yearbook of European Law. New York: Oxford University Press. Each annual contains
selected articles on European legal topics and book reviews.
European Journal of International Law. London: Oxford University Press. Contains systematic
coverage of the relationship between international law and EU law. Issues since
1990 available on the Web.
European Integration Current
Contents. Published by the
Academy of European Law of the European University Institute, this electronic
journal contains tables of contents from selected international law journals.
Following is a selective list of EU
legal research guides available on the Web and in print.
“Accessing European Union
Information” (February 2004). No longer available on the Web. An excellent,
comprehensive guide to European Union information sources, both legal and
nonlegal, written by Barbara Sloan, retired head of the Public Inquiries
Section of the European Commission Delegation in Washington, D.C.
“European Union” (January 2003). Georgetown University, Edward Bennett
Williams Law Library.
“European Union Legal
Materials: Research Guide”
(January 6, 2004). Columbia Law School, Arthur W. Diamond Law Library.
Marylin Raisch, “European Union Law: An
Integrated Guide to Electronic and Print Research” (Oct. 15, 2002).
“European Union Research” New York University Law Library. 2007.
“Regional Economic Integration”
(October 11, 2003). In ASIL Guide to Electronic
Resources for International Law, International Economic Law, American Society for International
Law. Includes a brief section on the European Union.
Claire Germain,
Germain’s Transnational Law Research: A Guide for Attorneys. Ardsley-on-Hudson,
N.Y.: Transnational Juris Publications, 1991–. This loose-leaf guide on
various topics of international law includes a section on EU legal materials (section
2.09) and a separate chapter on the European Union.
Marylin Raisch, “European Union:
Basic Legal Sources,” in Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier: An
Introductory Guide to Global Legal Research, edited by Jeanne Rehberg and Radu
D. Popa. Littleton, Colo.: Fred B. Rothman, 1998.
12. Recent Articles on EU
Legal Research
The following law review articles
published since 1995 guide researchers in the use of EU legal materials.
John Furlong and Susan Doe,
“Researching European Law: A Basic Introduction,” 6 Legal Information
Management 136 (Summer 2006).
·
John Furlong, “How to find European Law:
a basic introduction,” 9 Legal Information Management 89 (2009) .
·
Patrick Overy, “European Union: a guide
to tracing working documents,” 9 Legal Information Management 107 (2009).
·
Paul Clarke, “What’s happening in the
EU?,” 9 Legal Information Management 84 (2009).
Jochen Sreil and Jacqueline Suter.
“Research Guide for United States Users to Materials from the Court of Justice
of the European Communities.” Columbia Journal of European Law 1 (1995):
559–67. Written by senior personnel at the European Court of Justice,
this guide focuses on official publications of the European Court of Justice,
both in print and electronic databases.
13. European Union Depository
Libraries
The European Union maintains
depository libraries in the United States and throughout the world. Depository
libraries receive a select group of official EU publications at no charge and
in exchange allow access by the public to these EU materials. A complete
listing of EU depository libraries in the United States is available at the Web
site of the Delegation of the European Commission in
Washington, D.C.
The following law libraries in the
United States are among the EU depository libraries: American University Law
Library, Emory University Law Library, University of Georgia Law Library,
Harvard University Law Library, University of Illinois Law Library,
Chicago-Kent College of Law/ Illinois Institute of Technology Library,
University of Maine Law Library, University of Michigan Law Library, New York
University Law Library, University of Puerto Rico Law Library, and the
University of Texas Law Library.
With twenty-seven Member States, the
European Union has become an even more prominent economic power in the world.
Interest in EU law and policy will likely grow even at smaller law schools
without extensive international law offerings and at law firms outside major
metropolitan areas. This guide was intended to aid infrequent users of EU
materials in locating sources of EU law and EU official documents. It was not
intended to be a comprehensive guide to EU law. Researchers requiring further
information should consult the introductory texts and research guides described
in this guide for more detailed information on this growing supranational
organization and its law and policies.
[[1]]The author wishes to thank Silke Sahl and Marylin Raisch
for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this
guide.
[[2]]Switzerland and Norway are not members of the
European Union. They, along with Iceland and
Liechtenstein, are members of the European Free Trade
Association. European Free Trade Association, at
[[3]]] The European Coal and Steel
Community terminated its existence in July 2002 and its assets were transferred
to the European Community. Protocol (34) on the Financial Consequences of the
Expiry of the ECSC Treaty and on the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, Treaty
Establishing the European Community, 2001 O.J. (C80) 67.
[[4]]Previously, DG’s were
referred to by Roman numeral but since September 1999 (six months after the Commission
resigned en masse under pressure because of serious allegations of
corruption), DG’s have been reorganized and are no longer referred to by Roman
numeral. Currently, DG’s are referred to by the name of their policy portfolio
such as economic and monetary affairs.
[[5]]Case 26/92, N.V. Algemene Transp. & Expeditie
Onderneming Van Gend & Loos v. Netherlands Inland Revenue Admin., 1963
E.C.R. 1, 12.
[[6]]Formerly known as the Official Journal of the
European Communities, the Treaty of Nice mandated the change in title to
the Official Journal of the European Union effective February 1, 2003.
Treaty of Nice, art. 2, 38, 2001 O.J. (C80) at 26.
[[7]]“The working papers, ‘basket
documents,’ the minutes of the sessions and working party meetings [of the
Council] are considered confidential.” Barbara Sloan, Accessing European Union
Information 12 (1998).
[[8]]The European Court of Justice is
separate and distinct from the European Court of Human Rights of the Council of
Europe.
[[9]]Treaty Establishing the European
Community, art. 220, 2002 O.J. (C 325) 33, 122 (consolidated version).