1. European Union

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

3. 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

4. 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

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

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

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

8. 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

9. EUR-Lex

10. EUR-Lex Search Screen
sea

11. 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)

12. EUR-LEX record

13. EUR-LEX record (con’t)

14. National Execution Measures (implementation by members)

15. 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

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

17. Directory of European Union consolidated legislation

18. Directory of European Union consolidated legislation: Competition policy

19. consolidated legislation: continued

20. Summaries of EU Legislation
Subject arrangement
Starting point
May be more intuitive for US lawyers

21. “Summaries” continued

24. European Commission “Policies”: another finding approach

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

26. ECJ site: Search form for cases

27. Results list

28. 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