European Court Reports

The European Court Reports are the official publication of the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Under the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice and the General Court, the Reports are published in all official EU languages.

What do the Reports contain?

Until 1 September 2016, the European Court Reports included

  • the general Court Reports, containing case-law of the Court of Justice and the General Court
  • the Reports of Staff Cases, containing the civil service case-law of the General Court and Civil Service Tribunal

Since 1 September 2016 – following the transfer of the Civil Service Tribunal’s jurisdiction to the General Court – all case-law, including civil service decisions, has been published only in the general Court Reports.

Format of the Reports

The Reports of Staff Cases were published in paper format until 2009, and the general Court Reports were published in paper format until 2011. The only official version for decisions published before these dates is the paper version. This paper version is still available from the Office of Publications. You can also find PDFs of these decisions on EUR-Lex.

The Reports of Staff Cases have been published exclusively online on EUR-Lex since 1 January 2010, and the general Court Reports have been published exclusively online on EUR-Lex since 1 January 2012. They are available free of charge.

The digital Reports are in PDF format and include judicial decisions and Advocates General’s Opinions. They also contain supplementary information and hyperlinked HTML versions for easier access. However, this additional information is not part of the official Reports.

Accessing the Reports

The Reports are available in full in the Reports of cases section of EUR-Lex.

The individual judgments are also available in the Court’s case-law database alongside other information and documents about each case. 

Criteria for publication of case-law in the Reports

Court of Justice

Since 1 May 2004, the following decisions have been published:

  • judgments by the full Court and the Grand Chamber
  • preliminary rulings by Chambers of five and three Judges
  • other judgments by Chambers of five or three Judges that have an Advocate General’s Opinion
  • Opinions – requested by the Parliament, Council, Commission or a Member State – on whether a potential agreement is compatible with the EU Treaties

Unless the formation of the Court decides otherwise, the following decisions are no longer published in the Reports:

  • judgments by Chambers of five or three Judges that are not preliminary rulings and do not have an Advocate General’s Opinion
  • orders

Since September 2011, it has been possible for Chambers of five or three Judges to decide, in exceptional cases, not to publish a preliminary ruling in the Reports.

General Court

Since September 2005, the following decisions have been published:

  • judgments of the Grand Chamber
  • judgments of Chambers of five Judges

The formation of the Court decides on the publication of judgments of Chambers of three Judges on a case-by-case basis.

Unless the formation of the Court decides otherwise, the following decisions are no longer published in the Reports:

  • judgments of the General Court ruled by a single Judge
  • orders involving a judicial determination

Some decisions may be published as extracts.

Unpublished decisions

Decisions which are not published in the Reports are still available in the case-law database, in the language of the case and the language of deliberation (usually French). The general Court Reports also contain certain information about these decisions.

Reports of Staff Cases

General Court

Until 31 August 2016, General Court decisions delivered on appeal in the area of civil service law were published in the Reports of Staff Cases. They were available as summaries in all official EU languages, and in full in the language of the case. In some cases, they were also published in the general Court Reports in all official EU languages.

Since 1 September 2016, General Court decisions concerning civil service disputes have been published in the general Court Reports.

Civil Service Tribunal

Until 31 August 2016, decisions of the Civil Service Tribunal were published in the Reports of Staff Cases. They were available as summaries in all official EU languages, and in full in the language of the case and the language of deliberation (usually French).

In cases of decisions of general interest, the full text was also published in the other official EU languages.