European Union Law: An Integrated Guide to

Electronic and Print Research

By Marylin J. Raisch, Published on May 29, 2007
Printer-Friendly Version
Marylin Johnson Raisch is the Librarian for International and Foreign Law at the John
Wolff International and Comparative Law Library of the Georgetown Law Center.
She received her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law (1980) with work both
in civil and common law courses as well as international law and Roman law. She
holds degrees in English literature from Smith College ( B.A. magna cum laude 1973)
and St. Hugh's College, Oxford (M.Litt. 1978). She received her M.L.S. degree from
Columbia University School of Library Service in 1988 and has worked as a law
librarian for fifteen years, ten of which were at Columbia University School of Law as
International and Foreign Law Librarian. Marylin has edited (with Roberta I. Shaffer)
the resulting volume of proceedings, Transnational Legal Transactions (Oceana,
1995) and is the author of several articles, book reviews, and web guides on
international and foreign legal research. Recent examples include the chapter
"European Union: Basic Legal Sources" in Rehberg and Popa, Accidental Tourist on
the New Frontier: An Introductory Guide to Global Legal Research (Littleton, CO:
Rothman, 1998) and other legal research guides at LLRX as well as Religious Legal
Systems: A Brief Guide to Research and Its Role in Comparative Law (2006).

Introduction
The European Union is a twenty-seven member political entity with its population
now almost half a billion. This common market and its "ever-closer union" of political
cooperation is unique in the world and in world history. Its evolving legal system is
now one which is such a strong player on the global scene that academic and
practising lawyers alike in all areas of trade and business can benefit from greater
familiarity with its institutions and sources of law. The Treaty on the Accession of 10
new Member States, which was signed on 16 April 2003, entered into force on 1 May
2004. Now that Bulgaria and Romania acceded on the 1st of January 2007, the EU is
composed of 27 Member States. The list of current members and applicant countries
is at http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/index_en.htm.

There are five major institutions in the European Union: the twenty-seven member
Commission, the Council, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice, and the
Court of Auditors. The Commission proposes legislation and policies, the Council
approves legislation and can propose legislation of its own, and the Parliament gives
its opinion on proposals, amended proposals, and addresses questions to the
Commission. The Court of Justice enforces the legislation under the Treaties, and the
Court of Auditors examines expenses and revenue of the Communities. See "Key
players in EU legislation," http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/about/pap/index.html

The Economic and Social Committee represents civil and social policy interest groups
and may be consulted for opinions, linked at http://eesc.europa.eu/.
The Committee of the Regions, http://www.cor.europa.eu/ contributes opinions and
consultations for the implementation of many EU policies at the closest regional or
national level under the principle of subsidiarity emphasized in the Maastricht
agreement.

The Treaty on European Union established a more cohesive intergovernmental entity

supporting three "pillars" or spheres of operation:

1. EC law as well as economic 2. Common Foreign and 3. Justice and

institutions and activities Security Policy Home Affairs

A. Draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, http://european-

convention.eu.int/docs/Treaty/cv00850.en03.pdf the first two parts of which were
presented and approved by the European Council in Thessaloniki on 20 June 2003, is
still under consideration (text now complete in four parts) as of 18 July 2003 with the
Rome Declaration, http://european-convention.eu.int/docs/Treaty/Rome_EN.pdf . Its
aim overall is to integrate all the treaty provisions and the conceptual "pillars" above
into a coherent and efficient whole that is very close to a European federation.
Important changes to the structure and operation of the institutions and processes
described in this guide, which will take place if this treaty is approved, will be noted
in sections below on the treaties, the legislative process, and the court.

On 29 October 2004, the Heads of State of the then 25 Member States and the
candidate countries signed the treaty and it was unanimously adopted by them on 18
June 2004.

However, referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005 resulted in a rejection of

the language of the constitution, and in its "ratification and state of play" section of
the constitutional web site, http://europa.eu.int/constitution/referendum_en.htm , the
official position is stated as follows:

In the light of these results, the European Council, meeting on 16 and 17 June 2005,
considered that "we do not feel that the date initially planned for a report on
ratification of the Treaty, 1 November 2006, is still tenable, since those countries
which have not yet ratified the Treaty will be unable to furnish a clear reply before
mid-2007." A period of reflection, explanation and discussion is currently under way
in all countries, whether or not they have ratified the Constitution. The state of
discussions on ratification of the Constitutional Treaty will be examined by the
European Council under the Austrian Presidency (in the first half of 2006).

The process of ratification by the Member States has therefore not been abandoned. If
necessary, the timetable will be adjusted to reflect the circumstances in the countries
which have not yet ratified the Treaty.

Research guides already abound, and one aim of this "integrated guide" will be to
offer a selection of these, both official and unofficial, in the context of research
strategies. The other goals will be 1) to provide a context for categories of sources
within this body of law and 2) to provide a template for research across all formats
given that, even with electronic access to the materials, researchers face large amounts
of documentation and terminology that is unique and perhaps unfamiliar. Most
references will be to the official web site of the EU, http://europa.eu/ .

The following topics will be covered in this guide:

 Treaties establishing the European Union

 Rome, Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Nice
 Intergovernmental Conferences (IGCs)
 Implications of the Draft Constitution for Europe
 Legislation
 Legislative process and history
 Basic documentation
 Documenting the process
 Commission
 Parliament
 Council
 Case law
 Periodical literature and other sources
 Implementing legislation at the national level
 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
 Citation issues and "a guide to the guides"

1. Treaties establishing the European Union

Treaties are the Primary Legislation of the European Union, much as a constitution or
civil code might be for public and private areas of national law. The Treaty on
European Union was signed in Maastricht in February 1992 and came into force
November 1, 1993. A consolidated version of the TEU published in 2002 is at Official
Journal C 325 of 24 December 2002 and in a scanned versions at http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf. It is
now the main constituent document of the European Union and sets forth the
institutional and political arrangements of "the new Europe." It added a new treaty
alongside the Treaty Establishing the European Community. Research tip: EU law is
often organized according to the topics set forth in the articles of the governing
treaty, and this includes finding aids for legislation and commentary. Terminology
used in indexing legislation and case law often tracks this language closely as well.

For officially-published texts in print/PDF, see European Union: consolidated

versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European
Community

(Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities), 2003.

(The latter office, known formerly as OOPEC, is now using EUR-OP as its imprint
for most official documents). Major treaty commentaries may be found via online
catalogues locally or via RLIN, OCLC, and the Internet, often under the subject
headings "European Federation" or "Treaty on European Union." This Treaty on
European Union (TEU) was amended in part by the Treaty of Amsterdam, which was
signed in 1997 and, after ratification by all the Member States, came into force on 1
May 1999.

The Treaty of Nice,

http://www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/treaties/dat/nice_treaty_en.pdf further amends the
existing treaties. Signed on 26 February 2001, it entered into force on 1 February
2003.

Rome, Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Nice

Four cities have given romantic but potentially confusing "nicknames" to a series of
documents which have imparted structural changes to the European "common
market" over the past decade. The changes are complex, the more so because the
documents refer to, and affect, different parts of parts of what used to be known
simply as "the European Communities" and created the new entity known as the
European Union. And to make matters worse for research and citation, the Treaty of
Amsterdam altered the numbering of the TEU and the "E.C. Treaty" (which is how
one commonly refers to the Treaties of Rome). Feeling confused? Please refer to the
Treaties Page at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm where both current and
pre-Amsterdam versions of the treaties reside. The following brief table is intended to
serve as a guide:

Treaty Amending… Main Features Status

Name
Rome Treaty Original treaty Council with direct As amended
Establishing setting up a member to date, still
the European common market, representation; the
Economic itself amended 1) "First Pillar"
Community* by a Merger Commission which of economic
Treaty (1967) to initiates and union and
give it and the executes Council trade
other two treaties decisions; relations for
a common set of what has
institutions, and A Court of Justice since become
2) a Single and Assembly or the European
European Act European Union
(SEA) for Parliament (EP).
European
Political SEA introduces a
Cooperation in co-operation
foreign policy procedure,
enlarging role of EP
in legislative
process
Maastricht Treaty on Treaty Brought into being Amended by
European Establishing the the European the Treaty of
Union, 1993 European Union, *founded on Amsterdam,
Communities the European 1999
Communities,
supplemented by And Nice, but
 intergovernmental
co-operation with
formalized as consolidated
texts now,
a common foreign
and security policy
and

a common justice
and home affairs
(crime) policy

subsidiarity
principle
Amsterdam Treaty of Treaty on free movement of In force but
Amsterdam, European Union workers since 1993 subject to
1999 enhanced with amendment
closer cooperation by Nice
on security and Agreement
crime, drug control,
corruption, and
terrorism

common borders
(passport control)
under incorporated
Schengen
Agreement

Co-decision for
parliament and
Council

More areas where

Council of
Ministers may
decide using
qualified majority
voting instead of
unanimity

New title on
employment; inserts
Social Chapter into
main body of the
treaty
Nice Treaty of Treaty on Looking to In force as of
Nice European Union enlargement of 1 February
(as amended by member states, 30 2003
Amsterdam) new treaty article
 areas of concern
open to qualified
majority voting of
the Council
Co-decision :7 new
areas

*"Treaties" of Rome, plural, may refer to all three founding treaties: The Treaty
Establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, which ended 23 July 2002 ,and
the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). Also
called the European Communities, plural, until the Amsterdam treaty mandated the
name "Treaty Establishing the European Community," singular.

The Treaty of Nice enhances Parliament's role as co-legislator and creates a new legal
arrangement, allowing the Council to lay down regulations governing political parties
at the European level. Anticipating the enlargement of the Union, the Treaty of Nice
limits the number of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to a maximum of
732 and allocates seats between Member States and candidate countries (when they
become members of the Union). The Treaty of Nice information page at the Europa
site is at http://ec.europa.eu/comm/nice_treaty/index_en.htm and includes a summary,
a ratification chart, and, most conveniently, a list of exactly which topics in European
Union law http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/nice_treaty/procedures_en.pdf (click once
or twice into the PDF document), designated by articles of the amended TEU, will
require decision by qualified majority voting in the Council.

Intergovernmental Conferences (IGCs)

The Intergovernmental Conferences are in the nature of major summit meetings held
to negotiate and propose important changes to the European co-operative framework
within, and recently, beyond, the context of the original EC common market. They are
newly important as a source of information and travaux préparatoires for the
amendment of the treaties and accession of new member states. A link to the 2000
IGC exists from the Treaty of Nice information page noted above.

For more context, see also the history section of Europa at

http://europa.eu/abc/history/index_en.htm . The information is based on that found in
the Bulletin of the European Union (10 times a year), revised annually as the General
Report on the Activities of the European Union. To see the archives of European
integration through its own "way-back machine" consult the European Integration
History Index, a group project among the European University Institutes Library , the
Historical Archives of the European Union and the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance
sur l'Europe, at their web history page
http://vlib.iue.it/hist-eur-integration/WebHistory.html .

Convention on the Future of Europe and the draft Constitution

Finally, to broaden public participation and transparency in a wider forum for debate
on the future of an "ever-closer union" with a greatly enlarged membership, the
intergovernmental conference held in 2004 was preceded by a round of meetings,
public discussions, e-mail contacts, and the like in a formal "debate on the future of
the European Union" http://europa.eu.int/futurum/informations_en.htm#txt . The web
site of the European Convention on the Future of Europe and its documentation is at
http://european-convention.eu.int/ .

Based on themes set forth in the Laeken Declaration,

http://europa.eu.int/futurum/documents/offtext/doc151201_en.htm , this phase of
treaty consolidation moving towards a true constitution is hope for true citizen input.
The process of institutional reform through the IGC of 2004 is summarized at
http://europa.eu/roadtoconstitution/index_en.htm .

Draft Constitution at a glance:

Part I (which is just called Part I of the Constitution) consists of nine titles, from
definitions and objectives to descriptions of institutions and membership, all set forth
in terms of institutional powers and general principles, such as democracy,
subsidiarity, and proportionality.

Part II will be the actual Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union as per Article 7
on Fundamental Rights. The EU as a whole will seek accession to the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Council
of Europe) http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?
NT=005&CM=8&DF=7/18/2006&CL=ENG to clarify in the EU the status of the
convention, which has been incorporated by reference in cases before the European
Court of Justice (EU); this fulfills the goal stated by the Chairman of the European
Convention on the Future of Europe, Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing, of "…the attribution
of legal personality to the Union." Preface to the Draft Constitution, and Art. 6.

Part III, The Policies and Functioning of the Union, incorporates as chapters 1-3 of
Title III, a current version of the original

Rome Treaty's details on the internal market: goods and services, monetary and
financial policy, and employment and social policy. The "justice and home affairs" or
home security of Pillar III above is addressed in Chapter 4 of Title III; and the
common external security and foreign policy, the old second pillar, is set forth in Title
V, chapter 2, along with other issues of external relations regarding trade, treaties, and
humanitarian aid.

2. Legislation

A European Union statutory text is considered Secondary Legislation within the legal
framework of the EU, with the treaties serving as the Primary Legislation. can be any
one of three types:

 regulations, binding directly on member states;

  directives, framework statutes binding only through enactment of a law within
the member state of a similar law or amendment to laws harmonizing the
member state's laws with the requirements of the directive;
 decisions, of the European Council or Commission, binding only on the
member states or parties to which it is addressed in interpreting the treaty, but
indicative of the thinking of the body promulgating it and so a pointer to
general policy for member states.

Legislative process and history

The legislative process for the European Union is more complex than that for most
individual countries, including the United States. Legislative initiatives and the
participation of a European Parliament take place under a complex set of rules.
Decision-making in the major policy areas in the Amsterdam TEU proceeds as
outlined at http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/a29000.htm but legislation under the
original Article 189b of the TEU designated different procedures for different subject
categories of legislation: consultation (document code CNS), co-operation (SYN), and
co-decision (COD), to name the three most common.

Since Maastricht, emphasis has been on the co-decision procedure, with the
Parliament and Council exercising legislative functions together in relationship to
proposals, mostly from the Commission. The Amsterdam Treaty now provides that
most legislation be adopted by the co-decision procedure.

If the Draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe is eventually approved,

procedures outlined in this guide will undergo changes, some of which are already
detailed in the draft Constitution and in the White Paper on Governance in the
European Union, 25 July 2001, COM(2001) 428 final,
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/cnc/2001/com2001_0428en01.pdf

Basic documentation

The source for all three types of legislation is a legal journal or gazette of the
European Union which is still titled Official Journal of the European Communities.
Luxembourg: OOPEC, 1964- (hereinafter OJ). Before 1973, when the United
Kingdom joined the then European Economic Community, the OJ was published only
in French, but there is now an OJ Special Edition which contains English translations
of most of the legislation from 1964 through 1972. The OJ is published in two
different parts, an "L" part and a "C" part. The legislation referred to above is all
published in the "L" part. Locating legislation can be difficult in print because the
index published with the OJ uses a very selective vocabulary; fortunately almost all
research may now be done electronically through the official CELEX database via the
Eur-Lex portal, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm

providing free access to the Official Journal of the European Communities, L, C, CA

and CE Seriesin full text, electronic versions from 1998 to present and several paid
subscription databases such as Westlaw, Justis from Context Ltd., and Lawtel,
described more fully at the conclusion of the legislative process section, below.

Features of Legislative research on the Europa official web site

Eur-Lex on the europa.eu.int site is the best place to find all amendments to a piece of
legislation consolidated in one text.

Consolidated acts and the Directory f Community Legislation in Force enable

researchers to gather all versions of one act or all acts under one topic. From the Eur-
lex page, http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/en/index.htm , click the link for "legislation
in force." Once you are on that page,
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/en/legis/index.htm you can click "Directory of
Community Legislation in Force" and browse the legislation under the defined
chapter divisions, which are derived from the TEU. However, it is often the case that
researchers will not know how the area of interest has been classified.

Most researchers therefore will begin with a search in the simple "search in
legislation" feature provided in the left side bar. Note the options allow one to search
the secondary legislation and then set other limits; unless you want to include the
international agreements, a format for options on the initial search template page will
look like this:

Let us run a search for "defective products" in the secondary legislation, which here
includes regulations (you will find that products liability is not the term used!) Note
that we also restricted the search initially to "acts in force" by checking the box at the
bottom. Now we click search and go to the actual search screen and enter our terms:
Note that we limited the search to document titles. Upon comparing the results with
this search and the "title and text" search, one learns that if the goal is to see
legislation in force on product liability as usually defined for a that legal regime, the
latter approach is too broad, but if the results are too limited one can always go back
and run the broader search. The results with these parameters were as follows, ordered
by date:
The bibliographic notice displays additional information including a link to
consolidated texts, legislative history documents, and an option to "display the
national implementing measures" (with additional sources discussed under section 5
below on "implementing legislation at the national level"). The example above shows
the bibliographic notice for one of the defective products enactments retrieved in the
search outlined above, Directive 1999/34/EC .

The application of Community law in member states is gathered in reports monitoring

the adoption of directives at http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/eulaw/index_en.htm
and ScadPlus summarizes implementing information by topic at
http://europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm.

If you are restricted to print sources, however, an alternative way to locate legislation
using official or depository materials is to use the print version of the text named
above, a two-volume Directory of Community Legislation in Force and other acts of
the Community institutions. Luxembourg: OOPEC, 1984- . It is published twice a year
and all the information is cumulated so that each semi-annual compilation includes all
the legislation still "on the books." It is tricky for beginners in EU research, though,
because the text and subdivisions of the Treaty determine the broad subject areas
under which legislation appears. For example, even an American lawyer would not
know at first that his own profession would be regulated under "freedom to provide
services." But some brief attention to the TEU text and use of the somewhat better
index to this publication will take you to a particular piece of legislation or all
legislation on a topic.

Documenting the process

From the time that a Green Paper,

http://europa.eu/documents/comm/green_papers/index_en.htmis issued to stimulate
public discussion or a White Paper,
http://europa.eu/documents/comm/white_papers/index_en.htm detailing the policy, is
produced by the Commission, usually as a COM document (see below), the legislative
process begins.

1) Commission

When legislation is introduced, the Commission presents draft legislation in the form
of a Commission or "COM" document presenting the text of the law and a report on
the issues addressed therein. The Commission is responsible for representing the
agenda of member states. The Council of Ministers also sets for the issues it considers
important for legislative action. Parliament does not originate legislation but plays a
role in the subject areas designated for its greatest input in the treaties, such as the free
movement of workers.

Each COM document is numbered with the year in parentheses, e.g., COM(96)606
(final). The document codes indicated above may appear to show which procedure
applies to the area of law in question (that is, consultation (document code CNS), co-
operation (SYN), or co-decision (COD)). The importance for the researcher of
knowing the procedure is to predict which documents might exist in the legislative
history of the proposal.
The Co-decision procedure outlined in Article 251 of the TEU (EC Treaty) would
proceed as follows;

At a First Reading, the Commission would submit a proposal to the Parliament, which
would then go to the Council for approval of those Parliamentary amendments or,
the Council might instead adopt a Common Position.

At a Second Reading, Parliament might approve that Common Position (so proposal
gets adopted), reject it, or propose amendments. These amendments receive
Commission scrutiny for a Commission Opinion, and then the Council may or may
not approve the amendments.

If the amendments are not approved, then a Conciliation Committee is formed to try
to approve a joint text. Both Parliament and Council have to approve the joint text. If
they do not or the joint text could not be reached by the Conciliation Committee, the
act fails to pass. But if the joint text goes through, then it is adopted.

For a graphical presentation of the cooperation procedure, and a full description of the
co-decision procedure, are linked through a pop-up window at the Pre-lex site for
inter-institutional cooperation, http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/apcnet.cfm?CL=en .

2) Parliament

The increased role for Parliament is now easier to track in the above process thanks to
the online chart produced by Pre-lex and OEIL (Legislative Observatory) at the
EuroParl section of Europa, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/public.do?
language=en using the Legislative Logbook,
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/iris/en/tleg_form.htm .

These are the most useful sites on the European portal site for legislative tracking.

The Parliamentary documents will appear in a series called Session Documents

(called "Working Documents" prior to 1987), and its "A" series contains committee
reports on legislation sent to the plenary of Parliament, much as the committees of the
US Congress report on pending bills. Texts Adopted is its other major text set, which
can include the amendments to proposals. EU depositories may have these available
in microfiche. The "Activities" tab at the Europarl site has an archive and this covers
the 5th session (1000-2004) and part of the 4th session (1994-1999)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/archive/staticDisplay.do?
id=120&pageRank=1&language=en . There is an overview of recent Texts Adopted
under the Activities tab as well.

On Europa, recent Session Documents and Texts Adopted are also at Europarl; click
"access to documents" and then "register of documents" to perform a search, or, one
can browse by clicking another option on the left once you are on the search page, and
this option is called "list of Parliament documents." If you get the list and open up its
outline, you can drill down to reports of the Parliament and search them via the
template below (links at this site are part of a dynamic system and must be anchored
carefully in html)
>Documents relating to Parliamentary activity:

>Committee documents

>Reports-Committees …

Will take you to a list of documents for the 5th parliamentary session; to search more
broadly requires use of the broader search template described above at "register of
documents."

The "drill down" page

The broader search template page at

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/recherche/RechercheSimplifiee.cfm?
langue=EN
Search results:

As indicated in the search result picture above, the Europarl site also contains relevant
portions of the debates where opinions are reproduced and questions posed to the
Commission. Official Journal of the European Communities, Annex: Debates of the
European Communities is the official print source.

One can search written and oral questions at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-

WEB/home.jsp?language=en .Excerpts of the questions to the Commission are on
Lexis under the same EUROPE library in the PARLQ file.

3) Council

The Council's action on proposals and amendments and its Common Positions and
documents related to Conciliation are reported in the C series of the OJ as well, and
these are now on the web at the Official Journal site in Europa, but the OJ on Lexis
does not appear in full, so apart from the PREP draft texts cited above, only the final,
approved legislation can be obtained in English in the EUROPE library in the LEGIS
file. It will not track all of the above- cited legislative history.

Documentation of the Council's work is available at

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.ASP?lang=en and includes the
oversight of the two other "pillars" and not just the legislative role of the Council (see
links to Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Justice and Home Affairs
(JHA) Economic and Monetary Affairs (EMU) Scientific and Technical
Research(COST).

Common Positions may be found via the Parliament's OEIL or Legislative

Observatory page at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/index.jsp?language=en .
Procedure tracking for topics or specific proposed legislation underway and moving
between the institutions in the complex procedural environment best begins at the
search template at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/search.jsp and shown below:
Words in a title at left might be search as follow, and the results page is generated:

The middle term in the results on the next screen is of most interest:
And when you click on the red highlighted document, a green paper, you see the full
status:

One can also get an overview of legislation through the Council's Co-decision guide
http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsUpload/code_EN.pdf , which explains (and a chart tracks)
the procedure for approval of legislation, but the clickable illustrative chart is only in
French ("cp" will stand for "position commune").
Finally, recourse may be had to the C series of the Official Journal, once you have the
citation, at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?ihmlang=en which is only archived
back to 1998.

The other legislative procedures: consult PreLex under "help- description of the
database" (as described on p. 12 above):

Co-operation procedure requires two readings in the parliament and the Council
and is depicted in a graphical chart at
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/procedure_de_cooperation.gif.

Consultation procedure: Council and Parliament get a copy of the Proposal from the
Commission and the Council decides if it will consult Parliament. Certain TEU treaty
articles require it.

To wrap up on legislation: ONLY final adopted texts of regulations, directives, or

decisions published in the Official Journal L Series are binding.

Case Law

Official case reports for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Court of First
Instance appear in the Reports of Cases before the Court. Luxembourg: Court of
Justice of the European Communities,1959- , and these reports include the Opinions
of Advocates-General. British legal publications refer to the set as the European Court
Reports, abbreviated ECR. As with many official reports, they are slow to appear.
Cases accepted and decisions rendered are also noticed (but not fully reported) in the
"C" series of the Official Journal of the European Communities. There are slip
decisions some libraries receive directly from the court for the ECJ and the Court of
First Instance.

One can begin via Euro-lex: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm

CURIA, the official web site http://curia.europa.eu/ , provides full-text of recent
opinions (not complete; many lack Advocate Generals' opinions) from 1997. A digest
and alphabetical subject index, http://curia.europa.eu/en/content/outils/index.htm may
be found as "research tools" under "proceedings" on the front page.

Case reports are also available on Lexis 1, in the EUROPE library in the CASES file,
and on Westlaw via the EU-CS file.
In print, unofficial reports may be found in binders annexed to the European Union
Law Reporter. This attached set, entitled European Community Cases, CCH, 1989- ,
abbreviated CEC, contains selected reports of cases from the Court of Justice and its
index functions as a fairly good case-finding aid. For texts of judgments and opinions
of the ECJ and higher British courts on EC law, consult the unofficial British-
published Common Market Law Reports, Edinburgh, 1962-1979; London: Sweet &
Maxwell,1979-.

The application of European Community law by national courts and legislatures

as a result of ECJ judgments is summarized annually and these summaries are posted
at http://curia.europa.eu/en/coopju/apercu_reflets/lang/index.htm

Summary: document location and databases

The following chart lists major documents and case reports and their location in full
text at the Europa official web site and the two major legal databases in North
America, Westlaw and Lexis. However, other fee-based services offer enhanced
access to much of the same documentation. The following three services are among
the more prominent:

 Justis by Context Ltd.: Celex and Official Journal C Series databases; a new
companion index JustCite. These databases contain document references and
references to national implementing legislation, some from as far back as
1951, C series from 1990, and COM documents from 1995. Common Market
Law Reports from 1962 as well as ECJ Proceeding (an updating information
service) from 1996.
 Lawtel (Sweet & Maxwell), www.lawtel.com . Proposals for Directives,
Regulations, Decisions and Recommendations as soon as they are issued,
Amended Proposals, Common Positions, EP Resolutions (since May 1999), all
COMDOCs since 1987, Opinions of the Economic and Social Committee as
well as Opinions of the Committee of the Region and other EU bodies
involved in the legislative process. Case law updates and archive to 1989.
 ProQuest European Sources Online,
http://www.knoweurope.net/search/goHome.do "ESO provides access to
 thousands of expertly selected, well known and less well known, websites,
publications and documents from the EU and other international organisations,
national governments, thinktanks, stakeholder organisations, working papers
etc, plus full text articles from respected sources of news and analysis,
bibliographic records to key academic textbooks and periodical articles, and
features compiled by the ESO editorial team." Consolidates working paper
sources as well.

EU Document Location Chart

(see also Ann Sweeney, "Essential European Union Law Websites,"

http://www.eurunion.org/infores/bestlawsites.htm )

Type of Database Source of Document Print

Document Equivalent
Treaties  Europa web site Official
EU as a  Westlaw EU-TREATIES Journal L
Whole/EC founding Series
external (with  EurLex Europa
other countries  Westlaw EU-LEG Treaty on
or European
organizations) *** Union and
others in
***  Eur-lex Europa volumes from
 Westlaw EU-LEG EUR-OP
legislation official
 Lexis EC legislation 1979-current publications,
Luxembourg
COM docs  Europa web site-Commission Separate
Commission  Westlaw EU-ACTS from 1984 documents in
(Green & White and OJCSERIES from 1990 cites print or
papers, and 1992 full text microfiche;
proposed acts,
amended  Lexis EC legislation (above) and Official
proposals, Preparatory Acts (asbstracts) Journal C
assessment of Series
common
position,
opinion on EP
amendments)
Session  Europa web site Session
documents  Westlaw EU-ACTS (citations) Documents
(print or
Opinions ****** microfiche)
Parliam
ent Readings Euro-Parl on Europa Official
Journal C
 *** Westlaw EU-QUESTIONS Series

Debates and Lexis Parliamentary questions from 1964 ******

questions
Official
Journal of the
European
Communities
Annex
(debates)
Common  Europa web site (Council)
Council Position  Westlaw EU-ACTS full text from Official
1995; citations from 1985 Journal C
***  Lexis EC legislation (above) Series

Joint text-  Joint texts Europa web site and

conciliation
Curia web site Reports of
Courts of Judgments, Cases before
Justice and opinions of Westlaw EU-CS the Court
First Advocates-
Instance General Common
Market Law
Reports

Committee Opinions and Europa , http://www.cor.europa.eu/ Official

of the resolutions Journal C
Regions Series

Economic & Opinion Europa Official

Social http://www.eesc.europa.eu/index_en.asp Journal C
Committee . Series

4. Periodical literature and other sources

ECLAS, the European Commission Libraries Catalogue, http://europa.eu.int/eclas/

indexes some full text articles through the catalogue link (click "Access ECLAS") and
also provides an excellent quick search option for primary documents of the EU
through clicking "Internet Resources"; the items under "defective products" as a
search are hot linked back into the Europa database. As of this writing the library
software is undergoing changes; this is still and doubtless will remain a very useful
resource.

Periodical articles on specific legislation or cases can be located using the European
Legal Journals Index, Hebdon Bridge, UK: Legal Information Resources, 1993- .
(part of Legal Journals Index now on Westlaw). Another source for articles about EU
law national European laws is the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, London:
Institute for Advanced Legal Studies and AALL, 1964- . . The two standard Anglo-
American periodicals indexes for law also index many journals focused on European
Union law and many articles about the EU appear in law reviews published
throughout the English-speaking legal world. Consult Index to Legal Periodicals.
New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1908- , and Current Law Index, Los Altos, CA:
Information Access Corp., 1980- . The electronic version of the latter, Legal
Resources Index (LRI) is on Westlaw and Lexis and separately as Legaltrak.
Additional articles in a deep historical archive is now available through Hein Online.
The RAVE database at the University of Düsseldorf, http://www.jura.uni-
duesseldorf.de/rave/e/ee/ee2.htm , collects article citations on European law,
including EU/EC law, though not all in English. There are links to electronic full text
where possible. Many articles on European Union law may of course be located
through Lexis and Westlaw as part of the legal journals databases of those services.

Implementing legislation at the national level

Please see the discussion above in section 2, "Legislation," p. 10 for Europa and Eur-
lex access, which is the best and most official and now fully available as merged with
CELEX. Lexis also provides a database of "National provisions implementing
directives" from CELEX, which retrieves documents which list citations to the
national legislation, often from the member country's official gazette. To keep track of
national laws in many subject areas for broader Europe as well as implementations of
EU legislation and case law, consult European Current Law, London: Sweet &
Maxwell, 1992-. It is a monthly publication cumulated annually. Also helpful is
Commercial Laws of Europe. London: European Law Centre, 1978- , also a monthly,
cumulated annually, and it reprints full texts of commercial laws first in the
vernacular and later in English. Another helpful source is another spin-off publication
from the CCH European Union Law Reporter entitled Doing Business in Europe,
1972- , which contains articles updating developments in each member country,
though it does not reprint the texts of laws. The databases listed under "Summary:
document location and databases" above cite to national harmonizing and
implementing legislation as well. Sources for foreign law such as Reynolds and
Flores, Foreign Law Guide: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in
Jurisdictions of the World, www.foreignlawguide.com , NYU's Guide to Foreign and
International Legal Databases, ed. Mirela Roznovschi,
http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/index.html , Finding Foreign Law Online
When Going Global Lyonette Louis-Jacques,
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/global.html and information cited above under
"Features of legislative research at the official Euorpa web site" and "Case law"
would all prove useful in locating legislation, as would foreign law links at major
portals such as Findlaw, www.findlaw.com and Social Science Information Gateway,
www.sosig.ac.uk .

Overall statistics on the application of Community law in member states, by country

or by sector, along with other data is posted on the official site at
http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/eulaw/index_en.htm

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European

Union and the future
At the European Council held at Nice in December, 2000, the European Union
proclaimed its Charter of Fundamental Rights ,
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33501.htm .
Drafted by the European Council at its meeting in Cologne in 1999, the document
affirms the commitment of the EU to common values in the areas of social policy and
makes explicit the growing integration of human rights, minority rights, and anti-
discrimination principles into European economic integration. To avoid confusion in
terminology, therefore, it is important to remember that this charter addresses
fundamental socialrights and not just the basic "fundamental freedoms" similarly
denominated in the TEU such as, "freedom to provide services," "free movement of
workers," and the like. The interrelationship among these rights is explored under
"human rights" at the Europa site, http://europa.eu/pol/rights/index_en.htm.

Relationship to the Council of Europe and its European human rights system

The treaties establishing the European Union the Court of Justice for the obvious
purpose of interpreting and enforcing the EC/EU treaties, and it is apparent that there
could be no relief for alleged human rights violations by supranational Union
institutions within the framework of a commercial and economic organization. The
Court of Justice eventually declared over time that fundamental rights were part of
their general jurisprudence and looked to the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) of the Council of Europe for guidance. As it relies more and more on ECHR
case law for the fundamental rights aspects for its decision-making, and given that all
member states of the EU have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights
and accepted the ECHR's jurisdiction, the two bodies of law are drawing closer
together under common constitutional principles. This is acknowledged in the Charter
of Fundamental Rights at many points, such as in Article 2 on the Right to Life which
condemns the death penalty in recognition of the Protocol no. 6
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_en.pdf to the European Convention on
Human Rights http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/005.htm.

7. Citation issues and a "guide to the guides"

In addition to The Bluebook (Harvard 17th ed.), consult "A citation manual for
European Community materials." Fordham International Law Journal, v. 19 (Feb.
'96), p. 1317-34, for guidance in citing EU materials.

The Oxford Standard Citation of Legal Authorities http://www.competition-

law.ox.ac.uk/published/oscola.shtml is also a good one to follow, as UK lawyers and
researchers are citing materials as a member state and in accordance with standards
for legal documents and briefs submitted in courts and to the Brussels offices. The
formats used are subsumed under their general headings along with UK law, e.g.,
cases, legislation, etc. The full version in PDF may be found at
http://denning.law.ox.ac.uk/published/oscola_v2_formatted.pdf

The following list of online guides to European Union legal and documentary
research is a sampling of some of the author's favorite guides and portals for EU law,
beginning with the excellent semi-official guide from the Delegation of the European
Commission to the United States at the EurUnion site:
Ann Sweeney, "Essential European Union Law Websites,"
http://www.eurunion.org/infores/bestlawsites.htm

Bologna (Magagni), http://www2.spfo.unibo.it/spolfo/EULAW.htm (good outline but

not updated)

NYU, http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/european.html

Boston U , http://www.bu.edu/lawlibrary/research/int/guides/guide_eu.htm

Berkeley, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/govinfo/intl/gov_eu.html

SOSIG law portal, European Law, edited by the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies
and University of Bristol Law Library,
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/roads/subject-listing/World-cat/eurlaw.html

Michigan, http://www.law.umich.edu/library/refres/resguides/pdfs/eu.pdf (primary

material); http://www.law.umich.edu/library/refres/resguides/pdfs/eu-secondary.pdf
(secondary materials)