We have already considered how to reference legislation made by the European Union (EU), so we will now be looking at how to reference judgments from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This consists of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), General Court (GC) and the Civil Service Tribunal (CST). These can be very valuable sources if you are drawing from EU law and are a form of primary legislation, as I explain in my blog OSCOLA Referencing Summary for Legislation. This is about legislation from England, but the same principles apply.
The European Court of Justice
The role of the European Court of Justice is to ensure that all legislation is interpreted and applied in the same way in all Member States of the EU, as well as dealing with some actions for annulment of EU law if it is believed to infringe on EU treaties or fundamental rights. It also hears some appeal cases.
The ECJ is made up of 28 judges, one from each Member State and 11 Advocate Generals. Each case is initially assigned one judges and one Advocate General and will then be heard by a Chamber of three, five or, occasionally, 15 judges. Rarely, the whole court may gather to hear a case of great importance or the type of cases described in the Statute of the Court.
The General Court (formerly the Court of First Instance)
The General Court also hears cases concerning the annulment of Acts, in addition to actions seeking compensation, those concerning intellectual property, actions brought by Member States and actions between EU institutions. It was created in 1989 as the Court of First Instance (CFI), then changed name to become the General Court in 2009.
The GC comprises at least one judge from each Member State. There are currently 47 judges in the GC, which is due to increase to 56 in 2019, to allow for two judges from each Member State. The procedure for each case in the GC is similar to the procedure in the ECJ, except that there are no Advocate Generals and most cases are heard by three judges.
The Civil Service Tribunal
The final section of the CJEU is the Civil Service Tribunal, which was created in 2005. Its role is to resolve disputes arising in the EU’s civil service. It can hear and make judgments on first instance cases between the EU and its civil service, on matters such as pay and disciplinary measures, as well as social security issues such as sickness and accidents at work.
The CST consists of 7 judges appointed for 6 years and normally sits in Chambers of 3 judges to hear cases. There are exceptions to this, however; some cases may be important or complex enough that the whole court will gather to hear them. There are also situations, as set out in the Rules of Procedures of the court, where they may sit in a Chamber of 5 judges or just as a single judge.
Referencing Cases
The basic format for a case from these courts is:
Case number | Case name | [Year] | Report abbreviation | First page
We will now look at each of these elements in turn.
Case number
EU cases have been numbered since 1989 according to whether they were registered in the ECJ or the GC. Cases registered in the ECJ are given the prefix C– to their reference number while cases registered in the GC are given the reference prefix T–. Cases from the CST have the prefix F–.
Do not add the prefix C– to cases from before 1989, as this system was not in use then, and no courts except the ECJ had been created in the CJEU. Also, remember that the General Court was called the Court of First Instance until 2009.
Case name
The case name should be given in italics after the case number, with no punctuation between them. The rules for citing case names from England and Wales still apply here, which can be found in my blog OSCOLA Referencing Summary for Cases from England and Wales, with further information on subsequent citations to be found in my blog OSCOLA Referencing for Cases – Law Report Hierarchy and Subsequent Citations.
Year
This is the year of the case, as for all citations. Write the year in square brackets, without any other punctuation separating it from the rest of the citation.
Report abbreviation
As with the other jurisdictions we have looked at, the EU has its own series of reports and a corresponding hierarchy. The official report series from 1954 to 2011 was the European Court Reports (ECR), so you should always use these in preference if they are available. ECJ cases will be cited in volume 1 and referenced as ECR I–, whereas GC cases are in volume 2 and referenced as ECR II–.
If there is not an ECR citation you can use, the next best option is usually Common Market Law Reports (CMLR). However, some cases may appear in reports such as the Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports (WLR) or the All England Law Reports (European Cases) (All ER).
If a case is unreported, cite it using the notice given in the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJ). If it has not been reported on here either, cite the case number and name, followed by the court and the date the judgment was passed in brackets.
Case T–277/08 Bayer Healthcare v OHMI—Uriach Aquilea OTC (CFI, 11 November 2009).
This case has since been reported on elsewhere, this is just an example!
Page Number
This is simply the page in the law report where the case details start.
Pinpoints
Pinpoints should be placed at the end of the citation, after a comma. Standard abbreviations such as “para” and “paras” can be used. For details on how to cite a range of numbers, look at my blog OSCOLA Referencing Introduction and Quick Summary.
Case C–176/03 Commission v Council [2005] ECR I–7879, paras 47–48.
Opinions of Advocates General
If you wish to refer to the opinion of an Advocate General, write “Opinion of AG [Name]” after the citation and a comma, but before any pinpoints.
Case C–411/05 Palacios de la Villa v Cortefiel Servicios SA [2007] ECR I–8531, Opinion of AG Mazák, paras 79–100.
Wrapping Up
EU cases are not too dissimilar from ones from more familiar jurisdictions, such as England and Wales, so referencing them is fairly easy once you have the basic format. Next time, we will cover how to reference cases from the European Court of Human Rights.
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