Guide to basic research on European Union law in Tarlton Law Library
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** Please note: Information in this guide regarding stack or floor locations of materials may not be accurate due to current Library renovations. We are making efforts to update these guides as soon as possible. In the meantime, please check TALLONS, the online catalog, for current location information, or inquire with Library staff. **
Prepared by Jonathan Pratter, Foreign & International Law Librarian
(Revised June 2009)
I. Overview
The Law Library is an official depository of publications from the EU. Many of these publications are legal or law-related. Also, the Law Library has built a major collection of materials about EU law from many other publishers.
General areas of the Law Library where publications from the EU or about EU law will be found are:
- JX 1982 (stack 628) - JX 1984 (stack 630)
- KJE 916 (stack 653) - KJE 7975 (stack 654)
Excellent recent introductory texts on EU law and institutions are:
- Anthony Arnull, et al.,Wyatt and Dashwood's European Union Law (5th ed. 2006) KJE 947 W96 2006
- Catherine Barnard, The Substantive Law of the EU: The Four Freedoms (2nd ed. 2007) KJE 5170 B37 2007
- Paul Craig & Gráinne de Búrca, EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (4th ed. 2003) KJE 947 C73 2008
- Trevor C. Hartley, The Foundations of European Community Law: An Introduction to the Constitutional and Administrative Law of the European Community (6th ed. 2007) KJE 947 H37 2007
- P.J.G. Kapteyn, The Law of the European Union and the European Communities (4th ed. 2008) KJE 947 K36313 2008
- P.S.R.F. Mathijsen, A Guide to European Union Law (9th ed. 2007) KJE 947 M38 2007
- Stephen Weatherill, Cases and Materials on EU Law (8th ed. 2007) KJE 945 W42 2007
Periodicals devoted to EU law in the Law Library include:
- The Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies, v.1 (1998-) K 3 A478
- Columbia Journal of European Law, v.1 (1994/95-) K 3 O3525
- Common Market Law Review, v.1 (1963/64-) JX 1982 A1 C65
- European Law Journal, v.1 (1995-)(current issues available online) K 5 U7864
- European Law Review, v.1 (1975/76-) K 5 U7865
- European Public Law, v.1 (1995-) K 5 U787
- Journal of Common Market Studies, v.1 (1962-)(current issues available online) HC 241.2 J68
- Maastricht Journal of European & Comparative Law, v.1 (1994-) K 13 A27
- Yearbook of European Law, v.1 (1981-) KJE 958 Y42
Two excellent overview sources published by the EU for keeping track of developments in the EU are:
II. EU law on the web
EUR-Lex
EUR-Lex is the official “access to European Union law” sponsored by the European Commission. It contains a vast amount of EU legal information of all kinds and has excellent search capability. EUR-Lex is available free to anyone with access to the Web. Some of the more significant components of EUR-Lex are summarized below.
- Treaties - A comprehensive collection of EU treaties, including consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the the European Union (formerly the EC Treaty), the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, among others.
- Official Journal of the European Union - Electronic versions of the Official Journal, current to the day, and with an archive going back to January 1998.
- Legislation in force - A comprehensive collection of all EU legislation currently in force.
- Legislation in preparation - A comprehensive collection of proposals for legislation made by the European Commission.
Europa
Europa is “The European Union On-Line.” It is the official Web portal, sponsored by the European Commission, to EU information of all kinds. Europa has a good search capability. Some of Europa's more significant elements are:
- Under “Institutions” links to the websites of all the EU institutions. Note that each EU institution has its own website containing large amounts of information. (See below for more information.)
- Under “Activities” overviews of EU action in over 30 fields.
- Under “Documents” links to documents of all the institutions.
- Under “The EU Day by Day” links to press releases and to the press services of all the EU institutions.
III. The EU institutions (with their websites)
The main European Union institutions are:
Two other EU institutions with mainly consultative status are:
Other significant EU institutions are:
Web links to 22 specialized agencies of the EU can be found at http://europa.eu/agencies/community_agencies/index_en.htm.
IV. Primary EU law and where to find it
Founding and amending treaties - These are the treaties among the member states that establish the EU and contain the foundations of EU law. The main treaties with preferred sources for citation are the following. As noted above, a comprehensive collection of the treaties is available on EUR-Lex.
- Treaty Establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) (often referred to as the E.C.S.C. Treaty), 261 U.N.T.S. 140
- Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (1957) (often referred to as the Euratom Treaty), 298 U.N.T.S. 167
- Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community (1957) (often referred to as the Treaty of Rome or the E.E.C. Treaty), 298 U.N.T.S. 11
- Treaty Establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities (1965) (often referred to as the Merger Treaty), 1965 J.O. (152) 1, 4 I.L.M. 776
- Single European Act (1986), 1987 O.J. (L 169) 1, 25 I.L.M. 503
- Treaty on European Union (1992) (consolidated version), 2008 O.J. C115/13
- Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), 1997 O.J. C340/1
- Treaty of Nice (2001), 2001 O.J. (C 80) 1
- Treaty of Lisbon (2007), 2007 O.J. (C306) 1
- Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2007) (consolidated version), 2008 O.J. C115/47
Finding EU legislation
Finding EU law as currently in force - There is no hard copy compilation of EU law in force - no EU code. To compensate for this, EUR-Lex has a sector called Legislation in force . It is organized by subject classification, or it can be used with the EUR-Lex search facility.
Tracking EU legislation
--This is the popular name for proposals for legislation presented by the Commission (“COM”).
--An extensive collection of COM documents is found in the Prepartory acts sector of EUR-Lex.
- PreLex - This is the main website for monitoring Commission proposals in the EU lawmaking process. It has good search capability and links to documents.
- Legislative Observatory - This website tracks the legislative process in the European Parliament. It also has good search capability.
Finding judgments of the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance - The official reports are formally titled Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance JX 1984 C3 C69
- Note that the official reports are usually abbreviated E.C.R. (“European Court Reports”).
- The standard commercial reporter is Common Market Law Reports. JX 1982 A1 C64
- The website of the Court has the full text of judgments back to June 1997.
- Westlaw has the full text of judgments from the beginning (1954) in the EU-CS database. Westlaw also has the full text of the Common Market Law Reports.
- Lexis has a file called EUR-Lex European Union Cases and another file called European Court of Justice Cases Selected by Butterworths.
Finding national implementing measures
- EU directives have to be implemented in member-state law by legislation.
- Find references to national implementing measures on EUR-Lex by using the Directory of Community Legislation in Force as located in the Legislation in force section of EUR-Lex.
- Lexis has a file called EUR-Lex National Provisions Implementing Directives.
- On Westlaw in the European Union Legislation database (EU-LEG) directives are followed by references to national implementing measures.
VI. Citing EU legal materials
- See The Bluebook, 18th ed., pp. 184-187
- See also A Citation Manual for European Community Materials, 23 Fordham Int'l L.J. 935 (2000)
VII. Related research guides
