ACL's European Union Law Guide
1.
Brief history of the European Union
2.
Institutions of the European Union
3.
Main sections of the European Documentary Centre
4.
Electronic information sources
Legislation
Cases
Books and articles
1. Brief history of the European Union
It is helpful to have a basic understanding of the history of the European Union when undertaking research into the EU.
1951 European Coal & Steel Community formed (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg. Treaty of Paris)
1957 European Economic Community and European.
Atomic Energy Community formed (same countries as above, Treaties of
Rome).
1973 UK, Denmark and Ireland join EEC
1981 Greece joins.
1986 Portugal and Spain join
Single European Act signed. European Community to abolish its
internal borders.
1992 Treaty on European Union signed at Maastricht.
Move towards economic and monetary union, with intergovernmental co-operation in
areas such as foreign and security policy. European Community becomes
European Union.
1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden join EU.
1999 Amsterdam Treaty entered into force on 01.05.99. This treaty revises the Treaty on European Union signed at Maastricht.
2. Institutions of the European Union
2.1 European Commission
The main functions of the Commission are to initiate proposals for legislation; to act as a guardian of the treaties; and to be the manager and executor of EU policies and international trade relationships. There are 20 Commissioners, each responsible for a particular Directorate-General and policy area. The Commission is also responsible for the 'European civil service' which employs over 1500 staff. The majority of the material in the EDC is produced by the Commission.
Main publications:
COM docs (the working documents of the EU, often proposals for legislation)
1983-95
1996-
Recent COM docs are also available from
EURLEX.
Bulletin of the European Communities Also available online click here.
General report of the activities of the European Communities. Also available online from the Europa web-site click here. (Full text from 1997)
Official Journal (L, C and S series). Contains material from all EU Institutions (see 3.3). Current issues are available online from EURLEX for 45 days.
2.2 Court of Justice
The Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg, has 15 judges and 9 advocates-general. The role of the Court is to ensure that the law is observed in the interpretation and application of the Treaties. Judgements of the Court of Justice are superior to those of national courts.
In 1989 the Court of First Instance was established to rule on cases involving individual interests so that the Court of Justice could concentrate on ensuring uniform interpretation of Community Law.
Main publications:
Reports of cases before the Court… (often referred to simply as the European Court Reports)
Translated transcripts of Opinions and judgements of the European Court…
Proceedings of the Court of Justice. Available on the WWW and at classmark
Judgements of the Court are
published in the Official Journal C series.
Recent Case Law can be found at the ECJ website.
N.B. The Court of Justice should not be confused with the European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg (Council of Europe) or the International Court of Justice at the Hague (United Nations)
2.3 Council of the European Union/Council of Ministers
The Council is the principal decision making body of the EU. It consists of
appropriate ministers from each of the member states depending on the subject to
be discussed. The senior council is the Council of Foreign Ministers, also known
as the General Affairs Council.
The Council co-ordinates the activities of the EU and is responsible for
intergovernmental co-operation in common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and
in justice and home affairs (JHA). It should not be confused with the Council of
Europe based in Strasbourg.
Details of the activities of the Council can be found in the Review of the
Council's work and in the General report of the activities of the
European Communities
The Council now provides a Public Register of Council Documents as from January
1999. This is in the form of a searchable bibliographic databases. For
information on how to receive access to the full text of these documents
click here.
2.4. European Parliament
The European Parliament consists of 626 MEPs who are directly elected by the citizens of the EU member countries every 5 years. It has supervisory, budgetary and some legislative powers which were increased by the Single European Act and the Treaty on European Union. The Parliament has 20 standing committees covering all areas of policy and these meet to discuss new Council and Commission proposals which they then report on to the main body.
Main publications:
European Parliament reports/Working documents of the European Parliament
Debates of the European Parliament.
EP News
European Parliament decisions
and resolutions are included in the Official Journal C series.
Much current information is on the
Parliaments web-site, such as European Parliament reports, Verbatim debates,
progress of legislation (from the
Legislative Observatory)
2.5. Economic and Social Committee
The Economic and Social Committee is an advisory body consisting of 222
members appointed by member governments. It includes employers, trade unions and
people representing consumer or special interests.
The opinions and reports of the Economic and Social Committee are included in
the Official Journal C series and are also held in the library on
microfiche from 1984-1997
ESC web-site.
3. Main sections of the EDC
3.1 Primary legislation (treaties)
Treaties establishing the European Communities, treaties
amending these treaties,
Single European Act, 1987.
Treaty on European Union, 1992.
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1999
See also
EURLEX the European Union official legal information site.
3.2 Secondary legislation
The main instruments of secondary legislation are regulations,
directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions. The
definition of each according to article 189 of Treaty of Rome is:
A Regulation is of "general application." It is "binding in its entirety
and directly applicable in all Member States." It is cited : (institution)
[no.]/[yr]
A Directive is "binding as to the result to be achieved, upon each
Member state to which it is addressed" but leaves "to the national authorities
the choice of form and methods." It is cited [yr]/[no.]/[institution]
A Decision is "binding in its entirety upon those to whom it is
addressed". Cited in similar way to a directive.
Recommendations and Opinions "have no binding force."
N.B. Secondary legislation is printed in the Official Journal (O.J.)
3.3 Official Journal
The O.J. is divided into 3 series - L, C and S series.
L series - Legislation
The L series is published daily and divided into 2 sections. The first
contains acts whose publication is obligatory, e.g. Regulations; the second
section contains acts whose publication is not obligatory, e.g. Directives,
decisions etc.
C series - Information and Notices
The C series is publishes several times a week. It includes information from
the:
Commission (draft legislation, statements);
European Parliament (minutes of proceedings, resolutions, decisions, written questions);
Economic and Social Committee (opinions);
Council (resolutions, common positions);
Court of Justice (references, judgements);
Court of Auditors (reports);
Committee of the Regions (opinions).
S series - Available on CD-ROM, 1997- (Ask for CD-ROM at Circulation
desk)
Contains invitations to tender for public works and supply contracts.
3.4 Other documentation
The majority of the material in the EDC is arranged according to the
institution from which it originated. This is then separated into alphabetical
sequences of periodicals, series and reports.
The institutions include:
European Parliament
Council of Ministers
European Commission
European Environment Agency
Statistical Office (Eurostat)
Court of Justice
Court of Auditors
Committee of the Regions
Economic and Social Committee
CEDEFOP
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
European Investment Bank
4. Electronic sources of information
4.1 CELEX
CELEX is the most important database of EU legal information. It includes primary and secondary legislation, preparatory acts, reports of cases before the Court of Justice of the EC, national implementation measures and European parliamentary questions. Most of this, but not all, is full-text.
4.2 Eurolaw
Published by ILI Eurolaw contains the official full text legal database of the European Union (Celex), the texts from the C series of the Official Journal since January 1995 plus DTI briefings (Spearhead) on the UK's implementation of EU legislation.
4.3 SCAD
A bibliographic database, listing community documents. legislative texts and
periodical articles on Community topics by broad subject headings:
Sector A: Community legislation
Sector B: Official publications
Sector C: Articles from periodicals
Sector D: Opinions from the two sides of industry
Keyword searching is in French only. However the database can be searched using
keywords in the search heading 'words from title or text'.
4.4 EU InfoBase
EU InfoBase is a version of SCAD published by ILI which indexes official EU publications together with articles about the European Union. It covers books, European Parliament reports and articles in a range of European journals. Whilst this is a very useful research tool, it must be noted that the library will not have all of the material listed in this database.
4.5 ECLAS
ECLAS is the catalogue of the Central library of the Commission in Brussels
and currently contains over 190,000 records, giving bibliographic data on a
range of material and linking to documents available online on the Europa
web-site. Material available includes:
EU documents and publications
Other government publications
publications of international organisations
Monographs and chapters of monographs
Periodicals and articles in periodicals (N.B this may cover journal titles that
are not in the Albert Sloman library, for articles in journals not in the
library contact inter-library loans)
Yearbooks and annuals
Theses
Reports
4.6
RAPID
RAPID is a database of press releases from the various EU institutions. It is updated daily and so is an excellent source of current EU information.
4.7 European Union WWW sites
A list of WWW sites relating to and emanating from the European Union is provided on the Library's EDC site
The list is updated regularly and includes all of the main EU institutions' sites, EU legal information(EURLEX), documents, information sources and databases, a subject guide, political parties and groups, and related sites
5. How to find:
5.1 Legislation
A useful site for EU legal information is EURLEX, the official site for the EU which contains the treaties, directory of legislation in force, the Official Journal (for 45 days), preparatory acts and recent case law.
By no.:
Official Journal. Methodological index.
By title:
CELEX (full text documentation and/or OJ reference)
Eurolaw
European Current Law
Directory of Community Legislation in Force …
By subject/keyword:
CELEX
Eurolaw
Official Journal. Alphabetical index.
Directory of Community Legislation in force
(N.B. Use the EUROVOC thesaurus to find the relevant descriptor for your
subject
Preparatory legislation (COM docs)
CELEX
Eurolaw
Documents. 1987-
Index to documents of the European Commission 1981-1987
5.2 Cases
CELEX (full text or ECR citation)
Eurolaw
Index A-Z : numerical and alphabetical index of cases before the Court of
Justice of the European Communities since 1953, 1995.
European Current Law
Common Market Law Reports (index in 3rd volume of each year)
Recent information and publications can also be found at the ECJ web-site
'CURIA'
5.3 European Parliament reports
Published in Session documents Series A
EU InfoBase (document reference and abstract only)
Documents. 1987-
Index to documents of the European Commission 1981-1987
Parliament web-site
5.4 Books/articles
Search by title, keyword, subject etc.
EU InfoBase
European Access 1989-
SCAD 1985 and online from ECLAS
6. Current awareness
Official Journal
Agence Europe. Daily bulletin of EU developments.
Europa. WWW site of the European Commission. Newsroom updated
daily. Listed on European Union Access + page. (http://europa.eu.int)
RAPID. Database of press releases, updated daily. (http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/spp/rapid.html)
Bulletin of the European Communities. Monthly.
European access. Bi-monthly .
European law review. Bi-monthly.
7. Further reading
Thomson, I The documentation of the European
Communities: a guide. 1989.
European access. 1989-
Clinch, P Using a law library, 1992. (Chapter 4)
Holborn, G Butterworths legal research guide. 1993.
8. Contact details
Send mail to
ACL with questions or comments about this page.