Contents of the case-law database on Curia

The case-law database contains:

Any difference in the results obtained from a search on the words of the text in the different language versions of the site is explained by the fact that documents not published in the ‘ECR’ are available only in certain languages.

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Document required

By default, the search is carried out on all documents in the database. By ticking or clearing tick-boxes, it is possible to limit the search to a section of the database.

The limitation may be applied to the Court (Court of Justice – Court of First Instance – Civil Service Tribunal) or to the type of document (judgments – orders – Opinions – Opinions of the Court – summaries – information – notices) whether published or not in the Reports of Cases or the Official Journal of the European Union (see Basis for publication below).

Documents not published in the ECR are not translated into all languages of the Union. They are available in the language of the case and the language of deliberation only.

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Basis for publication

‘Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance’
Part I – Court of Justice

Since 1 May 2004, subject to a decision to the contrary by the formation of the Court concerned, the following are not published in the ECR:
- judgments delivered, other than in preliminary ruling proceedings, by Chambers of three Judges,
- judgments delivered, other than in preliminary ruling proceedings, by Chambers of five Judges ruling without an Advocate General’s Opinion,
- orders.
However, those decisions are accessible on the Court’s internet site (http://curia.europa.eu) in the available languages, namely the language of the case and the language of deliberation.

As from Part 2006-1, the ECR includes a section containing information on unpublished decisions (pages numbered I-1*, I-2*, etc.).

‘Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance’
Part II – Court of First Instance

As from Part 2005-9, subject to a decision to the contrary by the formation of the Court concerned, the following are published in the ECR:
- judgments of the Grand Chamber,
- judgments of Chambers of five Judges.

The decision to publish judgments of Chambers of three judges is made on a case-by-case basis by the formation of the Court.

Judgments of the Court of First Instance ruling as a single Judge and orders of a judicial nature, subject to a decision to the contrary, are not published in the ECR. Unpublished judgments, orders bringing an action to a close and orders in interim proceedings are, however, accessible on the Court of Justice’s internet site (http://curia.europa.eu) in the available languages, namely the language of the case and, if applicable, the language of deliberation.

Also as from Part 2005-9, the ECR includes a section containing information on unpublished decisions (pages numbered II-1*, II-2*, etc.).

‘Reports of European Community Staff Cases’

Part I contains summaries of judgments and orders of the Court of First Instance given in Community staff cases and summaries of judgments of the Court of Justice given on appeal. It is published in all official languages.

Part II contains, in the language of the case concerned, the full text of judgments and orders of the Court of First Instance, the summaries of which appear in Part I.

A new part will be added to these Reports for the case-law of the Civil Service Tribunal, following the same system.

‘Official Journal of the European Union’

The following are published in the Official Journal of the European Union - Series C (Notices),

for the Court of Justice:
(a) notices of applications initiating proceedings, as referred to in Article 16(6) of the Rules of Procedure;
(b) notices of the removal of cases from the register;
(c) subject to a decision by the Court to the contrary, the operative part of every judgment and interim order;
(see Article 25 of the ‘Instructions to the Registrar’)

and for the Court of First Instance and the Civil Service Tribunal: notices of proceedings brought and of decisions closing proceedings.
(see Article 17 of the ‘Instructions to the Registrar of the Court of First Instance’)

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Case number:

This field makes it possible to search for a case by its number in the Register.
Examples :
C-408/01 (Case No 408 of 2001 before the Court of Justice)
T-122/99 (Case No 122 of 1999 before the Court of First Instance)
F-16/05 (Case No 16 of 2005 before the Civil Service Tribunal)

It is also possible to search by partial number.
Examples :
122/05 (Case No 122 of 2005 before any of the three Community Courts)
122/ (Case No 122 of any year before any of the three Community Courts)
/05 (all cases brought in 2005 before any of the three Community Courts)

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Date:

To search for documents by exact date, give the desired date in the first field in the format dd/mm/yyyy
example : 23/02/2006.
To search over a period, complete the fields with the start date and end date of the period.
Truncation is not possible in the date field.

The date associated with each document is its date of delivery, except for notices for publication in the Official Journal, which are given the date of their publication in the Official Journal.

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Names of parties:

This field makes it possible to search using the ‘usual name’ of the case. This is the short name of the parties to the action.
Should a search in the ‘names of parties’ field give no results, you are advised to make the same search in the field ‘words in the text’.

The percentage sign (%) may be used to replace one or a number of characters at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word.
example: transport% finds names of parties including transport, transports, transporte, transportes, ...

Entering several words allows selection of documents which include all the words given.

To search for an exact phrase, use inverted commas (").
example: "Impresa Portuale"

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Field:

A drop-down menu allows the search to be limited to a specific subject area.

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Words in the text:

The percentage sign (%) may be used to replace one or a number of characters at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word.
example: %dump% finds documents mentioning dumping or antidumping

Entering several words allows selection of documents which include all the words given.

To search for an exact phrase, use inverted commas (").
example: "domestic legal order"

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Official languages: Spanish, Danish, German, Greek, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish and Swedish to 30 April 2004, and Czech, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak and Slovene from 1 May 2004, and Bulgarian and Romanian from 1 January 2007.
For Maltese (until 30 April 2007) and Irish (until 31 December 2011) respectively, temporary derogations have been laid down by Council Regulations (EC) Nos 930/2004 and 1738/2006 and by Council Regulation No 920/2005.

The electronic version of the texts of the three Community Courts is available free of charge on the internet for the purposes of public information. That version is subject to amendment. The definitive version of those texts is published in the ‘Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance’, the ‘European Court Reports - Reports of European Community Staff Cases’ or the ‘Official Journal of the European Union’ and is alone authentic and takes priority in the event of differences in the electronic version. Reproduction of texts supplied on this site is permitted on the condition that their source is given and the fact that they are non-authentic and free of charge is stated.