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Researching Legal Information in the European Union

Researching Legal Information in the European Union. Presented by Alison A. Shea Reference Librarian and Adjunct Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law. Why the EU matters to you.

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Researching Legal Information in the European Union

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  1. Researching Legal Information in the European Union Presented by Alison A. Shea Reference Librarian and Adjunct Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

  2. Why the EU matters to you • If you want to practice transnational law, the EU regulates a number of areas that are often involved in transnational practice, most especially competition law • EU is now a leading voice in international affairs and monetary policy • Euro crisis/austerity measures • EU court cases have far reaching policy effects • Google’s “Right to be Forgotten” case

  3. What is the European Union? • A “unique economic and political partnership between 28 democratic European countries” • Primarily created to avoid any future inter-Europe wars and to encourage more cross-border cooperation in commercial matters (“internal market”)

  4. What isn’t the European Union? • Council of Europe • European Court of Human Rights • Consult the “Do not get confused” chart to see differences • http://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/do-not-get-confused

  5. Establishing Treaties • Treaty of Paris (1951) (ECSC) • EC Treaty (1957) (originally The Treaty of Rome; renamed the Treaty Establishing the European Community or The EC Treaty in 1993) • Merger Treaty of 1965 • Single European Act (1987) • Maastricht Treaty (1993) (also called the Treaty on European Union or TEU) • Treaty of Lisbon (2007) • Information on the succession of treaties available here: http://europa.eu/abc/treaties/index_en.htm

  6. Current Treaties in Force • Consolidated Treaty on European Union (TEU) • Consolidated Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) • Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU • All available here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/collection/eu-law/treaties.html

  7. Treaty of Lisbon • Started off as the “EU Constitution” but most member states freaked out about that, so now it’s just another Treaty that amends, rather than replaces, existing treaties • Came into force December 1, 2009 • Amended treaty available at Europa: http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/index_en.htm • Be sure to consult the consolidated treaty, which incorporates all changes to existing treaties

  8. Treaty of Lisbon • What’s the big deal? • Greater democracy and transparency • Simplification and more efficient working • Single voice on the international stage • Promoting rights and values • Key issues to watch will be what the EU does with increased power in foreign policy and justice, freedom and security

  9. Treaty of Lisbon • Completely renumbers existing Treaty articles • When citing articles of the Treaty as it stood before 1 May 1999, “Article 85 EEC” • References to the Treaty as it stands from 1999 – 2009 should read ‘Article 81 TEC’ • Reference to the Treaty after 2009 should read ‘Article 101 TFEU’ • If you need to clarify the old number, use “Article 101 TFEU (ex Article 81 TEC)” • “Table of Equivalencies” for old and new article numbers available at: • 2012 OJ(C 326) 363

  10. Major Institutions of the EU • Legislative Body • European Parliament • Judicial body • European Court of Justice • Administrative body • European Commission (EC)

  11. Hypo skeezyJet Does this agreement fall foul of EU law? Two leading low-cost carriers, Scaryair (based in Dublin) and Skeezyjet (based in the UK) currently have an estimated 35% of the market share of the total UK and Ireland domestic routes. Scaryair approach SkeezyJet about the possibility of coming to some sort of agreement whereby Scaryair would agree to drop some of its UK domestic routes that SkeezyJet also operates in return for SkeezyJet agreeing not to start a new service from UK-Ireland. SCARYAIR

  12. Hierarchy of EU Law Treaties (Primary Legislation) Regulations, directives, decisions (Secondary Legislation) Treaties between Member States General Principles of Law Case Law

  13. Where to start?

  14. Europa – EU’s main info portal • http://www.europa.eu • Provides a gateway for locating EU information • Use this page to access various EU legal information portals • Search by Policy Area if you know what subject matter you’re looking for • Do a site-wide search if you’re not sure where to begin • Press releases are required to contain links to relevant docs

  15. LOCATING INFORMATION ON A TOPIC - Europa If you are starting from scratch, try browsing EU by Topic for relevant links Search function is not very good, but remember that press releases are now required to link to primary source documents referred to, so they may be useful If you have a citation, you can locate it through the links under EU Law

  16. LOCATING INFORMATION ON A TOPIC - Europa Links to relevant other sites, i.e. DG Comp Links to relevant laws in this policy area

  17. LOCATING INFORMATION ON A TOPIC - European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/policies/index_en.htm

  18. LOCATING INFORMATION ON A TOPIC - Commission

  19. Example #1 • I’m looking for legislation that deals with Bathing Water quality. I don’t have a cite, and don’t know how exactly it’s regulated or by whom. • When you are looking for general policy, try starting with Europa • Remember that press releases are now required to contain links to the relevant documents, so try searching the site • Also, you can browse the “Policy Areas” to try and locate the relevant DG for that topic

  20. From the main Europa page, you can either search the site for relevant hits, or browse through the policy areas to locate the relevant DG for this area

  21. If you can only find press releases, at the bottom of the press release are links to the documents mentioned—which show that the relevant DG is Environment—and also the citations to the relevant legislation

  22. This is the relevant DG for bathing water quality—you can now browse for links to relevant legislation and other policy documents

  23. Where do we find EU legal information?

  24. EUR-Lex • Best way to access authentic versions of EU treaties, legislation, cases and international agreements • http://eur-lex.europa.eu • NOTE: be aware that “treaties” are EU founding/accession treaties (i.e. the “constitution” of this IGO) between members of the EU, and “international agreements” are agreements (i.e. treaties) that have been entered into with other countries on behalf of the EU as an entity

  25. To browse different types of documents, click here

  26. Primary legislation: Treaties • Source of primary legislation • Current treaties in force: • Consolidated Treaty on European Union (TEU) • Consolidated Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) • Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU • All treaties can be found here: • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/collection/eu-law/treaties.html

  27. A good place to find the pinpoint citations to relevant sections of a treaty is to use the Europa Policy Areas page (discussed above in slides 13-15)

  28. Full text of treaties can be found on EUR-Lex

  29. BB translation: 2012 O.J. (C 326) 88

  30. Official Journal • The OJ has been published since 1967 • two main series: • L (Legislation) • C (Communication = Information and Notices). • published daily in 22 of the 23 official languages. • Available on Eur-Lex • You can now get PDFs back to 1973 in English, 1968 for original EC languages • “Certified” PDF version available—on the way to becoming “authentic” versions • E-only since July 1, 2013 – click on “Official Journal” icon to get the e-journal with “legal value”

  31. Example #2 • Can I get a full text version of the following cite: 1990 O.J. (L 180) 26 • Since you already have the OJ cite, use Eur-Lex to search by OJ reference and simply fill in the relevant information: • Year: 1990 • OJ Series: L • OJ Number: 180 • Page: 26

  32. Now locate the page number in your cite

  33. PDF of official version in all official languages – you want “EN”

  34. Secondary Legislation • Regulations • binding legal force throughout every Member State • Directives • lay down certain end results that must be achieved in every Member State • national authorities have to adapt their laws to meet these goals, but are free to decide how to do so. • may concern one or more Member States, or all of them. • Decisions • Binding in entirety but only to those Member States or entities to whom addressed • Recommendations/Opinions • No binding force

  35. How to Find EU Legislation (without a cite) • Summaries of EU Legislation • Allows you to browse through topical areas • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/browse/summaries.html • Europa • Through EU Policy Areas (discussed in slides 13-15) • Through the relevant Commission group’s website • List of relevant DG sites: • http://ec.europa.eu/about/ds_en.htm

  36. SUMMARIES OF EU LEGISLATION

  37. SUMMARIES OF EU LEGISLATION

  38. SUMMARIES OF EU LEGISLATION The new interface via Eur-Lex can be kind of confusing – once you choose your area of interest in the previous page, you are now brought to a Eur-Lex page that looks like you’re selecting documents but in reality you’re choosing a “guide”

  39. SUMMARIES OF EU LEGISLATION Again, this page closely resembles the page for a primary source document, but be aware it is SECONDARY – helps you determine what the relevant legislation is for a particular topic

  40. How to Find EU Legislation (witha cite) • Eur-Lex • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/ • Simply go to the main page box entitled “Find Results by Document Number” and fill in the required fields • Lexis & Westlaw also have legislation

  41. RETRIEVING LEGISLATION ON EUR-LEX Easiest way to retrieve legislation by citation—by document number. You will still retrieve to the OJ version

  42. RETRIEVING LEGISLATION ON EUR-LEX Unfortunately you often get lots of irrelevant results, even when searching by citation – the first two links are not at all relevant to our query – the final result is the one we want

  43. RETRIEVING LEGISLATION Select “Linked documents” for annotations like you would see in West or Lexis’ annotated US code—if this were a directive, always select this feature to locate national implementing legislation Select PDF for official full text version from OJ

  44. “LINKED DOCUMENTS” Affected by case: Case law that litigates this particular piece of legislation – like Notes of Decisions for USCA CELEX numbers “6” stands for Sector 6, which is case law

  45. Example #3 • Locate Directive 2011/7/EU. What is it about? • Since you have the document number already, simply go to Eur-Lex and search by document number • Is it published in an official source? • The Official Journal is the official source for all EU legislation

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