Following a case: what information is publicly accessible?

Lodging of the case

Cases are lodged at one of the two Registries. The Court of Justice and the General Court each have their own Registry. These departments are the point of contact for parties to cases and national judges and are responsible for the procedural management of cases.

When a case arrives, the Registry assigns it a case number and records it in the Register. The case details are available in the case-law database on the Court’s website the following day. The following information is available:

• the names of the parties
• the date on which the application was lodged
• the language of the case

More information is added as the case progresses. The database is updated daily.

Written procedure

Requests for preliminary ruling

When a national court requests a preliminary ruling, it is checked to ensure that any sensitive personal data is removed. It is then translated and published in in the case-law database on the Court’s website. A notice is also published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Parties involved in the national case, as well as Member States and EU institutions, can submit observations to the Court. These are made public after the case is closed, unless the author of the observations objects. They are published on the Court’s website.

Direct actions and appeals

The Registry prepares a summary of the applicant’s claims and arguments. This is translated into all EU languages and published in the case-law database on the Court’s website. It is also published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Oral procedure

Hearing

Hearings take place in public in the Court’s hearing rooms in Luxembourg. Hearings in some cases are streamed on the Court’s website.

As a general rule, the Court of Justice streams all hearings of the full Court or its Grand Chamber. Hearings of Chambers of five judges may also exceptionally be streamed if the Court considers it appropriate.

The General Court does not usually stream its hearings, although it can decide to do so.

The Court’s judicial calendar indicates which hearings will be streamed.

The videos remain available online for one month after the hearing.

Very rarely, the Court will allow a hearing, or part of a hearing, to take place in private – known as in camera. This can happen in cases involving national security or cases involving children.

In some direct actions before the General Court, the Judge-Rapporteur prepares a document called the “Report for the Hearing”. This document outlines the facts of the case and the arguments of the parties and interveners. It is available in the language of the case on the day of the hearing, upon request, from the Court’s press service.

Advocate General’s Opinion

The Advocate General’s Opinion is delivered in open court. All Opinions delivered by Advocates General of the Court of Justice are streamed on the Court’s website. Some Opinions delivered by Advocates General of the General Court are also streamed.

The Opinion is also published in the case-law database on the Court’s website on the day of delivery.

Deliberation, drafting and decisions

Deliberation

As required by the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, only the Judges take part in the deliberations and these discussions are confidential.

Judgment

The judgment is delivered in open court. All Court of Justice judgments are streamed on the Court’s website. Some General Court judgments are also streamed.

The judgment is made available in the case-law database of the Court’s website on the day of delivery.

Most judgments are available in all official EU languages.

These judgments are also published in the European Court Reports, the official record of Court judgments.

Some judgments, which have limited importance for anyone not directly involved in the case, are not translated. For further information about which judgments are translated, see “Which cases are published in all languages?” These judgments are available in the language of the case and the language in which it was drafted.

A notice of all judgments is published in the Official Journal of the EU.

Orders

After an order has been notified to the parties, it is made available in the case-law database of the Court’s website.

A notice of an order closing a case is published in the Official Journal of the EU.

Press Releases

The Court’s Press Service issues press releases on certain opinions, judgments or orders.

Around 10% of cases have a press release. In principle, all judgments of the Grand Chamber and Full Court of the Court of Justice and all judgments of the Grand Chamber of the General Court have a press release.  

These are typically related to matters that attract significant media interest. They are made available in a number of EU languages on the day of delivery. They can be found in the “Media Centre” section of the Court’s website.

Journalists can also contact the Court’s Press Service at any point in the life of a case. Press Officers are available to provide information and to explain the Court’s rulings and how the Court works.

Abstracts

The Court also produces abstracts of its more important judgments. Longer and more detailed than the press releases, the abstracts are aimed at a legal audience.

They are usually published on the day of delivery.