en.europa-eu-audience

Discover the new EUR-Lex website

 

The Publications Office launched the new portal to EU law. Clearly structured, attractively designed and with improved content, it offers you interesting new features. The EUR-Lex website is now the single point of access to legal information of the European Union: the Official Journal, EU law and case-law, consolidated versions of EU legislation, legislative procedures and other collections. The new portal uses innovative technologies and insights in information management — such as linked data technologies — and thus paves the way for cutting-edge functionalities and a better user experience.      

A new EUR-lex for 2013

See http://surveys.publications.europa.eu/formserver/PO/EURLEX/eurlex_newsletter_en.html

 

 

 

Introduction of the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI)

Council conclusions inviting the introduction of the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) and a minimum set of uniform metadata for case law

Source: Official Journal  of the European Union, C127, 29 april 2011 (noted by Stephane Cottin)

Download C_12720110429en

New Legal Metadata Standard: European Case Law Identifier (ECLI)

“This would really a step forward in the field of e-Justice and eLaw.”

cf. "The Bluebook"

Sources: 

http://ediscoveryjournal.com/2010/11/new-legal-metadata-standard-european-case-law-identifier-ecli/

http://legalinformatics.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/new-legal-metadata-standard-european-case-law-identifier-ecli/

See also http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (online ed. 2010)
by Peter W. Martin

This work first appeared in 1993. It was most recently revised in January 2010. It reflects changes appearing in the third edition of the ALWD Citation Manual, published in 2006 and the most recent edition of The Bluebook, published in 2005. Being online, this guide's further revision is not tied to a rigid publication cycle. Any user seeing a need for clarification, correction, or other improvement is encouraged to send the suggested change, with explanation, to [email protected]  ( Please include "Citation" in the subject line.) The content of this guide is also available for $20 in three different e-book formats: 1) a pdf version that can be printed out in whole or part and also used with point-and-click navigation on any computer; 2) a version designed specifically for use on the Kindle and other readers or apps using the Mobipocket format; and 3) a version in ePub format for the Nook and other readers or apps that work with it.

 

The European e-Justice Portal is now online

Version française

 

14/07/2010

EN https://e-justice.europa.eu/home.do?&action=home&lang=en

FR https://e-justice.europa.eu/home.do?&action=home&lang=fr

New prospects for relations between the Court of Justice and national courts

Everyone knows the important role of the Court of Justice in the construction of a European legal space and with its preliminary rulings through which it guides the work of national courts when they are called upon to enforcement Community law. Over the decades, the dialogue between European and national courts has allowed not only to ensure a more faithful interpretation of Community Law but also the formation of one true common legal culture.

After all, what would it be the value of holders of fundamental rights without judges capable to secure their protection?

Source: http://afsj.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/new-prospects-for-relations-between-the-court-of-justice-and-national-courts/

Lisbon Treaty and Changes to the Court of Justice

Version française

Source: http://eulaw.typepad.com/eulawblog/2009/12/lisbon-treaty-and-changes-to-the-court-of-justice.html

or Download Cp090104en (a PDF file)

As you know by now, the Lisbon Treaty entered into force today, December 1st 2009.

The Court of Justice has published this very useful short guide to the changes that the Lisbon Treaty makes to the Court of Justice itself, the General Court, as the Court of First Instance is now known, their jurisdiction and their procedures.

It is definitely worth reading.

December 01, 2009

CURIA, European Case Law and RSS feeds: well done but it could be better

Version française

Recently, with the renovation of its Internet website , the Court of Justice of the European Communities provides  RSS feeds for press releases (in each of  the 22 languages!) 
Well done! We would also appreciate such flows on the EUR-LEX , a reference site for EU law. ( http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm ). They were planned for late 2007! (see note of  November 12, 2007 at http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/en/2007/11/eur-lex-review-.html ) 

However, the titles of  the Curia RSS feeds are not explicit enough. See below for  June 2009. 
We would also like a feature similar to that offered by the excellent site of the BnF on Gallica2 (http://gallica.bnf.fr ) as explained by the two images attached to this post.
At least, as regards the Court of Justice, you should be able to select the jurisdiction (Court, CFI, ..) and the main field to avoid too much "noise".

 

European Court of Justice Statistics for 2008

Version française

Source: http://eulaw.typepad.com/eulawblog/2009/02/court-statistics-for-2008.html

The Courts have made public some statistics for 2008 and made a press release. As always, there some good news and some bad news.

For the Court of Justice, there is a decline in the number of preliminary references made but a general increase in the number of cases brought before it (592 cases in 2008 as compared with 580 in 2007).

The Court of Justice has got cracking with cases too:

"As regards the duration of proceedings in 2008, there was a considerable improvement. Thus, for preliminary rulings, the duration of proceedings was on average 16.8 months, that is 3 months less than in 2006. A comparative analysis shows that the average duration of preliminary ruling proceedings has reached its lowest level for 20 years. As regards direct actions and appeals, the average duration was 16.9 months and 18.4 months respectively (18.2 and 17.8 months respectively in 2007)."

The Court of Justice dealt with three urgent preliminary rulings, while the urgent procedure was requested in three other cases but not granted.

The number of new cases brought before the Court of First Instance has increased also: 629 cases were brought in 2008, compared with 522 in 2007 and 432 in 2006.

The Court of First Instance has also pressed on with a lot of cases:

"The Court of First Instance dealt with 605 cases during 2008, which represents a 52% increase compared with 2007, whilst the number of hearings held in 2008 doubled: 341 compared with 172 in 2007. The average duration of proceedings decreased: 24.5 months compared with 27.7 in 2007."

For the 2007 statistics, see our post here.

European Legal e-Access Conference 10, 11 and 12 Decembre 2008 in Paris

Version française

Several governmental and private initiatives have been coordinated by the Secretariat-General of the French Government in order to organize, under France’s EU presidency, an event intended to inform the public about the progress of projects that have been carried out in France and in Europe. Those projects are favouring the improvement of access to law and the elaboration of law thanks to technological developments, and to promote the improvements that have been made in this field. Since the law of the Member States started to be published via the Internet a decade ago, a European “Digital Legal Area” composed of several elements (whether public or private, with charge or open source) has progressively emerged. With the development of this area, it is easier to put together and compare the legal systems on one hand, and the technological standards enabling their digital broadcasting on the other hand. The Official Journals of the Member States play a key role in that process. The have gained a new dimension, by participating actively to the economic life of their country, by contributing to the budget orthodoxy of their regulatory authority through innovation in the field of self-financing, and finally appear as a privileged way to experience the e-administration. In the same time, most of the States are facing a growing (...)

Some short comments :

- http://www.service-public.gouv.fr  is one of the best websites that makes law accessible to the general public.

- European law applicable to the  European citizen is the least widely known law ,not only to the average citizen but also to local or national authorities

-European institutions' websites do not "press on" their information on to civil society at large, private sector or non-profit making publishers and do not encourage  further distribution by other  potential mediators .they still consider themselves as the centre of the world.

-the public sector information directive is still badly applied in most European countries

 

See all the presentations on http://www.legalaccess.eu/?lang=en