European Union

“The EU is fantastically exciting...in a really boring way.” Eddie Izzard, Dressed to Kill c1998 Ella Communications Ltd. Used with permission.

What is the EU? a supra-national organization composed of the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) divided into 3 pillars (chiefly economic, foreign, and justice policy) treaty-based

Major Council of Europe Institutions Major European Union Institutions   Major Council of Europe Institutions Major European Union Institutions Committee of Ministers (ministers of foreign affairs from each member state)  Council of the European Union or Council of Ministers (member state representatives, usually foreign affairs ministers) European Commission (elected members) European Council (member state heads of state) Parliamentary Assembly (appointed or elected members) European Parliament (elected members) European Court of Human Rights European Court of Justice European Commission of Human Rights Economic & Social Committee Congress of Local & Regional Authorities Committee of the Regions

Sources of Law in the EU treaties = primary legislation directives and regulations = most important kinds of secondary legislation legislative decisions = less important secondary legislation

Official Journal “L” series –part of OJ where primary and secondary legislation appears “C” series –drafts, notices

Major EU Institutions European Commission Council of the EU European Parliament European Court of Justice

Co-decision Procedure primary procedure for EU legislative enactments wide spectrum of policy areas allows Parliament equal role with Council of Ministers track progress at PreLex http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/apcnet.cfm?CL=en

EUR-Lex http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm

EUR-Lex Search Screen sea

EUR-LEX searching Allows searching by type of material (treaty, legislation, case-law) Allows searching by type of document (e.g., for legislation- regulation, directive)

EUR-LEX record

EUR-LEX record (con’t)

National Execution Measures (implementation by members)

Tracking national implementation N-Lex --EU database giving access to national laws LexisNexis database: National Provisions Implementing Directives EUR-LEX search --National Execution Measures Search in national legislation databases, using number or title of directive Search national legislation by subject Don’t assume countries will abide by deadlines in the directives

N-LEX New, doesn’t always work well Use EuroVoc to find foreign terms

Directory of European Union consolidated legislation

Directory of European Union consolidated legislation: Competition policy

consolidated legislation: continued

Summaries of EU Legislation Subject arrangement Starting point May be more intuitive for US lawyers http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/index_en.htm

“Summaries” continued

European Commission “Policies”: another finding approach http://ec.europa.eu/policies/index_en.htm

EU Court of Justice interpret treaties, other EU law decisions bind only the parties “no precedential effect” can invalidate national legislation

ECJ site: Search form for cases

Results list

EUR-LEX for cases Better than CURIA search & goes back further (Curia, 1997; EUR-LEX, 1954) Can restrict search to Adv.-Gen ops, judgments, orders, etc. Remember to click radio button to search more than title