European Union Legal Research--Documentation Sources
The preceding section described our overall approach for beginning research. This section deals more specifically with EU documentation. Major sources for information on European Union activities published by the EU are: Commission Documents, SEC Documents, General Report on the Activities of the European Union and the Bulletin of the European Union, along with the Official Journal and EP Documents.Commission Documents, commonly known as "COM DOCS," are an excellent place to start your research. These documents are the vehicle through which the Commission communicates with the Council, containing all proposals for new legislation, new policy initiatives, actions reports and "state of play" papers.
In the case of proposals for legislation, the text will be published in the OJ. The COM DOC will often have a lengthy explanatory memorandum with a summary not included in the OJ. These reports often contain translations of member states' legislation dealing with the subject in question. At the Harvard Law School Library, COM DOCS are in microfiche and are located in the Microform Room at Mic HC241.2.C66 (drawer 412-413).
Documents from the
Commission are indexed in the catalogue of documents published by the
Office for Official Publications and simply entitled Documents [ILS
RR KJE 5305.A12 .D63]; this catalogue is published monthly (sometimes
quarterly) with an annual cumulation. The database SCAD
indexes these documents too. The version as it appears in the OJ is
also available via Eur-Lex
under "Community
preparatory acts". These are also included in
Westlaw in the database called EU-ACTS. Please see Appendix
B for search tips.
SEC documents, a contraction of "Secretary-General," are another type of the
Commission’s working documentation. Unlike COM DOCS, these are usually less formal
containing draft resolutions, discussion documents etc. and are only available on
request. Although bibliographic control is minimal, many SEC documents are indexed
in the publication Documents discussed above. In an attempt at greater transparency, the
Commission has indicated that fewer reports will be issued as SEC documents in favor of
COM documents which are more accessible to the public, but you will still commonly see
citations to these documents in many of the other sources mentioned in this guide.
General Report on the Activities of the European Union
[ILS RR KJE 903.A17 and http://europa.eu.int/abc/doc/off/rg/en/welcome.htm
(from 1997)] is the annual report that the Commission is required to make to the
Parliament. It gives a concise outline of the major actions, policy developments, and
activities of the year. The General Report includes such items as the budget, recent
European Court interpretation and application of Community law, and priority activities
and objectives of the Community as regards the Single Market.
Bulletin of the European Union
[ILS RR KJE 903.B84 and http://europa.eu.int/abc/doc/off/bull/en/welcome.htm
(from 1996)] reports on the activities of the Council and Commission. In addition to
discussing legislation or proposals adopted or being considered, there is usually
information about the purpose of the act and citations to related documents such as
Commission proposals, opinions of various bodies of the EU as well as references to the
OJ. Although the references and footnotes are excellent, the major drawback is that it is
usually four to six months behind in publication. The Bulletin is not indexed
online but each volume is indexed and an annual index is published in the first issue of
the following year.
In using these publications, we find the Bulletin to be the best starting point
because of the excellent footnotes containing citations to other relevant documentation.
Legislation
The types of legislation produced by the EU governing bodies are:
Decisions are Community laws, issued by the Council or Commission, which
are directly binding on those to whom the decisions are addressed, whether they be
governments, companies or individuals.
Directives are Community laws adopted by the Council of Ministers on
proposals from the Commission. Directives differ from decisions in that national
authorities must draw up legislation in order to conform with the directive within a
certain time-frame for implementation. Directives are binding on the member states to
which they are addressed as regards the results to be achieved, but the form and methods
are left up to the member states.
Opinions are written statements by the Council or Commission and have no
binding force. Opinions are, however, an important indication of Council or Commission
policy. Opinions of the Council or Commission should not be confused with Opinions of the
Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice or with those of the Parliament.
Recommendations adopted by the Commission are like directives in that
they are binding only on the parties cited and only with respect to the end results.
Regulations are Community laws adopted by the Council of Ministers upon a
proposal from the Commission. As they are binding on all member states and are the
equivalent of a national statute, there is no need to enact any national implementing
measures and they generally go into effect 20 days after publication in the Official
Journal.
Sources
The Official Journal, the official daily gazette of the Community, is published
in three series:
L Series consists of enacted legislation;
C Series contains non-binding decisions, resolutions, communications and
information such as proposed legislation from the Commission, lists of new cases brought
before the Court of Justice, minutes of the Plenary Sessions, written questions from the
European Parliament, and opinions from the Economic and Social council;
S Series or Supplement publishes information about
public supply contracts.
The Annex contains the full text of debates of the Plenary Sessions of
the European Parliament along with any oral questions.
An Official Journal citation in Bluebook form looks like this:
At Harvard Law Library, you will find the current year's Official Journal at ILS
RR KJE 908 L43 and earlier issues are in the Microform Room at Mic KJE 908 L43a (drawers
410-411).
EUR-Lex
(http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/oj/index.html) makes the full text of the OJ available
within about 24 hours of publication. Unfortunately, the texts are only archived for about
one month.
Before the accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1972,
the Official Journal was not published in English. For legislation before this time,
citations will be given to the French Journal Officiel des Communautés Européennes
or J.O. At the Accession, all legislation in force was translated into English.
Pre-1973 Official Journal citations can be found in the Encyclopedia of EC Law [ILS RR KJE
916 .E52x 1973]. French acts are also available in microfiche: Mic KJE
908.3 .A1 (drawer 410). If the act in question was not in force at that
time, the J.O. is available in microfiche: Mic KJE 908.3 .A1 (drawer
410). These are also available in CELEX.
How to Find Legislation if You Don't Have an
Official Journal Citation
To obtain Official Journal citations for legislation, the best source is the
annual European Communities Legislation: Current Status published by Butterworths
[ILS RR KJE 920 .E97]. This three volume set provides quick access to Official Journal
citations from the legislative act reference. Examples of legislative act references you
are likely to encounter:
Note that for directives the year is given first and the act number follows the slash. To
avoid confusion, regulations are numbered act number/year. In Current Status,
under each year, regulations are given first and directives follow. In addition to
supplying the official bibliographic citation, this index indicates the originating
institution, the treaty under which it was enacted, the title or short summary of the act,
a list of the articles and annexes which have been amended, repealed, or replaced, and the
current status of the act.
The Directory of Community Legislation in Force lists all legislation in force
from 1952 to the present. The main volume lists legislation chronologically under broad
subject headings. Under the principle citation, all modifications and the Official
Journal citation are listed. The second volume is particularly useful if you have,
for example, the regulation number and year; within the section for the year, the material
is arranged in alphabetical order of the code letter denoting the type of act. By looking
at the "Information for Reader" on page v, you see the code for a directive is
"L". So, for Directive 650/90 go to the year 1990 and then to the listing of
"L's" and move down the list to number "0650". There you are referred
to page 709 in volume 1. There you find the directive and any modifications with the Official
Journal citation for them all. The major drawback to this directory is the lack of
references for those acts which were introduced and repealed during the six -month period
between editions. The Directory of Community Legislation in Force is located at
ILS RR KJE 920.5 .D57 and in the Microform Room under the same call number in drawer 412.
The Web version of the Directory of Community
Legislation in Force (http://www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/lif/index.html)
is very useful as it updated monthly and proposed legislation is linked to the
analytical structure as well. Full-text retrieval is available for most acts
listed.
For acts too recent or of too short a duration to be found in the indexes above, the Alphabetical
and Methodological Indexes to the Official Journal prove useful. These are
issued monthly and cumulated annually. Within the Methodological Index, Official
Journal citations can be found from the legislative reference number. The Alphabetical
Index is located at ILS RR KJE 908.2 .A46 and in the Microform Room under the same
call number, in Drawers 410-412 by year. The Methodological Index is located at
ILS RR KJE 908.2 .M47 and in the Microform Room under the same call number, in drawers
410-412 by year.
For patrons with access to legal databases, EC legislation can be found in full-text EC
databases on Westlaw. Please see Appendix
B for more information about EU materials in Westlaw.