European Union

European Union

Legal Materials

Two sources for E.U. information stand out in my mind. First, the European Union’sEuropa, which posts (a) EU news and press releases, (b) links to EU Web sites, including the European Parliament, banks, courts and agencies and (c) the best collection of EU legal materials on the Web, via the EUR-Lex portal.

Second, an excellent source of material and information is The Delegation of the Commission of the European Communities (212-371-3804). The Delegation’s mission is to provide information on EC/EU policies.

Also, the Library Information Services of the E.C. info line can be a good information source (202-862-9539).

For an overview of EU resources, see European Union Law: An Integrated Guide to Electronic and Print Research by Marylin J. Raisch, European Union Legal Materials: An Infrequent User’s Guide by Duncan E. Alford and/or the “European Union Resources” chapter of Legal Research Methods in a Modern World: A Coursebook(DJØF Publishing).

Following are sources I’ve found for specific materials:

Legislation & regulations: Several publishers have put out useful selections of E.U. law in English, notably, Oceana’s European Union Law Guide, Sweet & Maxwell’s EU Karnov: Deskbook of European Union Laws, CCH’s European Union Law Reporter.

Europa’s EU Legislation section provides access to most significant EU legislation including (a) all EU laws in force (EUR-LEX), (b) the Official Journal of the European Community, which is where the EU publishes its session law, new regulations, etc., (c) summaries of EU laws, (d) an index of “Community Legislation in Force,” which tells you where to look in the Journal for laws on a particular subject (e) “Consolidated Texts,” which is similar to a codification in that the original text of EU laws in force are presented as amended by subsequent legislation and more, (f) national legislation, (g) proposed legislation.

Additional materials may be available on Lexis and/or Westlaw.

Judicial Branch: The Court of Justice of the European Communities is an appellate panel responsible for interpreting European Union law and treaties. The Court of Justice is assisted by a General Court (formerly the Court of First Instance) and a Civil Service Tribunal. The official case reporter is called European Community Cases. Other reporters include the Common Market Law Reports, CCH’s European Community Cases and CCH’s Common Market Reporter.

Court rules, contact information and additionl information is available on the Court web site.

The court does not make copies of pleadings available to the public, but you can look up case numbers and retrieve four kinds of documents through Curia and Bloomberg Law. The available documents are:

  • the Notice published in the Official Journal when a case is lodged;
  • the Report for the Hearing (for General Court cases only, as of November 2012);
  • the Opinion of the Advocate General; and
  • the final Judgment.

Judicial opinions are available from:

(a) Curia, which has Court of Justice opinions from 1954, Court of First Instance opinions from 1989 and the Civil Service Tribunal from 2005. The case law of all three courts is searchable from 1997, including materials not in the official case reporter. The site also provides a topical case digest, a subject index and annotations;

(b) The “EU Case Law” section of Europa’s EU Legislation page;

(c) Lexis (EUROPE;ECLAW);

(d) Westlaw (EU-CS-ALL);

(e) Caselex, which provides “the most important national and European case law linked to the EU’s commercial areas of law;”

(f) The Delegation of the Commission of the European Communities (212-371-3804);

(g) Libraries holding the relevant case reporters, including the Fordham, NYU and Columbia law school libraries.

Treaties: The Treaty on European Union, the Consolidated EC Treaty, the Treaty of Amsterdam and many Intellectual Property conventions are published in volume 4 of the CCH Eadditionaluropean Union Law Reporter. The Treaty of Rome and theMaastricht Treaty are posted on the Internet by The Multilaterals Project. Many other EU/EC treaties are posted in the “Treaties” section of Europa’s EU Legislation page.

Otherwise, call the Delegation of the Commission of the European Communities (212-371-3804) or see the sources listed under the separate entry for “Treaties – Foreign.”

Other materials: The EU Bookshop lets you search for and order EU & EC publications. CLEX on Westlaw offers EU National Provisions back to 1989 andpreparatory documents of the Economic & Social Committee, Court of Auditors, European Parliament and European Commission. COM Documents and Presidency Conclusions of the European Counsel are posted by the European Parliament.

All official EU documents since 1952 are supposed to be available free through a “Digital Library” accessed through the EU Bookshop Advanced Search. Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Search page to see a mention of the Digital Library.

The EU posts an on-line catalog of EU materials on ECLAS. If you have a subscription, the Foreign Law Guide (formerly by Reynolds and Flores) discusses the EU’s primary legal materials and lists the treatises available in various subject areas.

The Legal History of European Union

This section provides an overview of European Union History.

European Union and the Treaties of the European Union

Description of European Union provided by the European Union Commission: The 1957 Treaty of Rome, which laid the foundations for the European Community (EC), was a milestone in the process of Western European integration. It looked forward to creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, and set out the basis for a common market and an economic and monetary union. The implementation of a common trade policy was historically at the heart of the original plan that led to the founding of the European Union. In 1992, building on the success of the EC, European leaders signed the Treaty of Maastricht, which established the EU. The European Union is composed of three pillars: the European Community (first pillar), the common foreign and security policy (second pillar) and co-operation in the fields of justice and home affairs (third pillar). Matters falling within the second and third pillars are handled by the Community institutions (the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament etc.), but intergovernmental procedures apply.

European Union (EU)

The European Union, abbreviated as EU, is an economic and political union of 28 European countries. The EU was established on 1 November 1993 by the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty)

On 31 December 1994, the EU had 12 Member States: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom

From January 1995, the EU added three Member States: Austria, Finland and Sweden

In May 2004, 10 more countries joined the EU: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. On 1 January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became members of the EU. The latest country to accede was Croatia, on 1 July 2013

The EU has a surface area of 4 413 844 km_, 505 701 172 inhabitants (January 2013, provisional) and 24 official languages. The EU Member States are as follows (alphabetical order, first row down, then second row down, etc.):

Austria (AT) Estonia (EE) Italy (IT) Portugal (PT)

Belgium (BE) Finland (FI) Latvia (LV) Romania (RO)

Bulgaria (BG) France (FR) Lithuania (LT) Slovakia (SK)

Croatia (HR) Germany (DE) Luxembourg (LU) Slovenia (SI)

Cyprus (CY) Greece (EL) Malta (MT) Spain (ES)

Czech Republic (CZ) Hungary (HU) Netherlands (NL) Sweden (SE)

Denmark (DK) Ireland (IE) Poland (PL) United Kingdom (UK)

European Union

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on european union explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

European Union (EU) and Europe

There is an entry on european union (eu) in the European legal encyclopedia.

History of the European Union and Europe

There is an entry on history of the european union in the European legal encyclopedia.

European Union and the European Union

Related Work and Conclusions

Resources

See Also

  • International Organization
  • Foreign Relations
  • Intergovernmental Organization
  • Regional Organization
  • Regional Integration

Resources

See Also

References (Papers)

  • The Baseless Fabric Of This Vision: Eu Citizenship, The Right To Reside And Eu Law, Mel Cousins, Jun 2016
  • Convergences: A Prospectus For Justice In A Global Market Society, Frank J. Garcia, Jun 2016
  • The Luxembourg Effect: Patent Boxes And The Limits Of International Cooperation, Lilian V. Faulhaber, Jun 2016
  • Soviet Accession To The Universal Copyright Convention: Possible Implications For Future Foreign Publication Of Dissidents’ Works, Lee J. Ross Jr., Jun 2016
  • Trading With Socialist Partners, Josef Rohlik, Jun 2016
  • The “Changed Circumstances” Clause After The United Nations Conference On The Law Of Treaties (1968-69), Heribert F. Koeck, Jun 2016
  • Final Thoughts On (A Potential) Brexit: Imposing (And Accepting) Constraints On Sovereignty, Brian Christopher Jones, Jun 2016
  • Which Doctrine Has Had The Bigger Impact On Eu Law, Direct Effect Or Supremacy?, Adrian Berski, Jun 2016
  • Climate Change Law And Policy In The European Union, Sanja Bogojevic, May 2016
  • Approximation And Harmonization Of Kosovo’S Legislation With Eu.Pdf, Safet Beqiri, May 2016
  • Case Of Mouvement Raëlien Suisse V. Switzerland: A Blow To Freedom Of Expression In The Internet Age, Ramya Vallabhaneni, May 2016
  • West Germany’S Eastern Policy: Legal Claims And Political Realities, Manfred Zuleeg, May 2016
  • Operational Autonomy And Public Accountability In Statutory Corporations: A Case Study Of Ghana’S Development Experience And A Blueprint For Reform, E. A. Botchwey, May 2016
  • Judicial Recusation In The Federal Republic Of Germany, Sigmund A. Cohn, May 2016
  • Some Structural Dilemmas Of World Organization, C. Wilfred Jenks, May 2016
  • The Teaching Of International Law, Edward Mcwhinney, Apr 2016
  • The Teaching Of International Law, Ian Brownlie, Apr 2016
  • The Teaching Of International Law, Kenneth R. Simmonds, Apr 2016
  • Foreign Policy And The Government Legal Adviser, Henry Darwin, Apr 2016
  • Foreign Policy And The Government Legal Adviser, Stephen M. Schwebel, Apr 2016
  • Foreign Policy And The Government Legal Adviser, Joyce Gutteridge, Apr 2016
  • The Function Of The International Court Of Justice In The World Community, Ernest A. Gross, Apr 2016
  • The Function Of The International Court Of Justice In The World Community, James Fawcett, Apr 2016

Resources

See Also

  • EU

Resources

See Also

Further Reading

  • Entry “History of the European Union” in the work “A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union from Aachen to Zollverein”, by Rodney Leach (Profile Books; London)

Resources

See Also

Further Reading

  • Entry “European Union (EU)” in the work “A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union from Aachen to Zollverein”, by Rodney Leach (Profile Books; London)

Resources

Further Reading

  • The entry “european union” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press

Resources

Further Information

Europa – The official website of the European Union

See Also

Candidate countries

Council of the European Union

EU enlargements

European Commission (EC)

European Parliament (EP)

Resources

See Also

  • Maastricht Treaty
  • Treaty of Rome
  • Treaties
  • History of Law

Further Reading

Popular Treaties Topics

  • Treaties of the United Nations (UN)
  • Types of Treaties
  • International Treaties
  • Famous Treaties
  • Law of Treaties
  • Numbered Treaties

Hierarchical Display of European Union

European Union > European construction
Geography > Economic geography > EU Member State
European Union > European Union law > European treaties > Treaty on European Union

European Union

Concept of European Union

See the dictionary definition of European Union.

Characteristics of European Union

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Resources

Translation of European Union

Thesaurus of European Union

European Union > European construction > European Union
Geography > Economic geography > EU Member State > European Union
European Union > European Union law > European treaties > Treaty on European Union > European Union

See also

  • Union law

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