European Union and Regional Materials

Reading the OJ reference

The series letter tells you what kind of document you are looking at:

The issue number and the starting page are separated by an unspaced slash, so OJ L 88/12 is issue 88, page 12. The pinpoint follows a comma and may be to an article, a paragraph or a page. See rule 14.2.1.

Reported decisions

Where the decision appears in the European Court Reports (ECR), cite the report. The case number follows the parties in parentheses, and its prefix identifies the court: C- for the Court of Justice, T- for the General Court and F- for the Civil Service Tribunal.

Staff cases are reported in ECR-SC, whose page numbers sit in Section II.

Parties (Case number) [year] volume ECR starting page, pinpoint.

Unreported decisions

Where the decision is not in the ECR, cite the court, the case number, the ECLI where one is available, and the full date.

Since 2012 the case reports have been published only digitally, so this is the form you will use for most recent decisions.

Parties (Court, Case number, ECLI, day month year) [paragraph].

Reported decisions

Decisions from 1996 onwards are reported in Eur Court HR. The year appears in square brackets, followed by a volume number in Roman numerals, the starting page and the pinpoint.

Decisions up to the end of 1995 were reported in Series A, cited as Eur Court HR (ser A). Note the two differences: the year appears in round brackets, and no starting page is included.

Where a case has multiple reported phases, the phase is italicised and appears in parentheses after the parties, as (Preliminary Objections) or (Just Satisfaction).

Decisions not in the official reports

Where a decision does not appear in Eur Court HR or Series A, cite an unofficial report series if one is available, such as the European Human Rights Reports (EHRR).

Unreported decisions

Only where no report exists at all is the application number form used. It names the Court, the chamber in which it sat, the application number and the full date, and pinpoints to paragraphs.

The chamber matters: it is either the Grand Chamber or a Chamber, and it is part of the citation rather than optional detail.

Parties (European Court of Human Rights, Chamber, Application No number, day month year) [paragraph].

Regional court decisions

Regional court decisions are cited by including:

• the case name;
• the phase of the proceedings, if applicable;
• the court;
• the case number;
• the date; and
• the paragraph pinpoint.

The case number is labelled to match the court’s own system, so it may appear as Case No, App No or Series No. Where a document has only page numbers, pinpoint to pages instead of paragraphs. See rule 14.4.1.

Case Name (Phase) (Court, Case number, day month year) [paragraph].

Advisory opinions

An advisory opinion is cited by its title in italics rather than by parties, followed by (Advisory Opinion), the court, the document number and the date. Where the court’s name already appears in the title of the opinion, it is not repeated before the document number. See rule 14.4.2.

Documents of supranational organisations

Documents issued by supranational organisations are cited according to the organisation’s own numbering system. A citation may include the organisation, the issuing body, the document title, the document number, the session information, the date and the pinpoint. See rule 14.5.