Digest of the case-law

The Répertoire de jurisprudence communautaire (Digest of Community case-law) is a systematic collection of the summaries of the judgments and orders of the Court of Justice and of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities and the Civil Service Tribunal of the European Union delivered since their inception, presented following a layout subdivided into seven parts

The summaries contain the essential points of law laid down in the decision in question, following as faithfully as possible to the wording of the decision itself.  Linked to each summary is: a series of key words which reflects, systematically and telegraphically, the content of the point under consideration; a classification code relating to the field concerned; and a reference to the paragraphs in the decision used in creating the summary.

The layout follows that in the "Digest of Community law - Series A" published by the Court of Justice in respect of the period 1977-1990 (v. Catalogue of publications). Under each classification code, the summaries are categorised in the chronological order of the decisions to which they relate. However, where they contain a chain of keywords which are in every respect identical to the preceding chain of keywords, the text itself of the summary is linked to that chain irrespective of its date. Likewise, where the chain of keywords and the text of the summary are identical in every respect to a pre-existing set of summaries and keywords, only the publication details and the relevant paragraph numbers are added below the existing summary.