European Union Research: E.C.R. Reports, case-finding tools & citation

For additional surveys, commentary and analysis of EU case law, search the Law Library's JULIUS catalog with keywords such as "European court"  or europ* with keywords for your topic.

NOTE: As paper publications, the general Court reports ceased after 2011 and the reports of Staff Cases ceased after 2009. Starting with 2012 for the general Reports and 2010 for the Staff Cases, cases are published officially online on EUR-Lex and available on Curia, the court's website. See also two posts by Alison Shea here (Bluebook, 19th edition) and here (Bluebook, 20th edtion), and also Citation of ECJ cases below (Bluebook 21st edition). According to Curia, there has not been a separate Reports of Staff Cases since 1 September 2016. Staff cases are now part of the general Reports. Curia has more details about the Reports, including criteria for which cases are published and which are not. Bluebook Rule 21.5.2 permits you to cite to Curia, another database or a commercial publication.

Citation examples for a judgment published in the 1999 Reports of Cases Before the Court, Section I, at p. 345

• Example per Bluebook, 21st edition, rule 21.5.2:
  Case C-18/95, Terhoeve v. Inspecteur, 1999 E.C.R. I-345
• Example adapted for the Bluebook, but also based upon the Court's use of the ECLI* (see also Note 1 below):
  Case C-18/95, Terhoeve v. Inspecteur, 1999 E.C.R. I-345, ECLI:EU:C:1999:22

*ECLI:  The Court's citation method now includes a neutral European Case-Law Identifier (ECLI). This list provides ECLIs for the cases. For example, ECLI:EU:C:1999:22 above indicates the 22d decision delivered by the EU Court of Justice in 1999. (The case number C-18/95 relates to the entry of the case in the Court's register in 1995.) See the Court's explanation of the new ECLI citation method. See also two posts by Alison Shea here (Bluebook, 19th edition) and here (Bluebook, 20th edtion). The ECLI is also being used to identify decisions from the courts of many of the EU member state. See also van Opijnen et al., Online Publication of Court Decisions in Europe, 17 LEGAL INFO. MGMT. 136, 143-44 (2017). The ECLI search engine allows you to search for cases that have been assigned an ECLI number, including cases that have been re-published outside of official sources. 

Note the following about the citation examples in the Bluebook, 21st edition:

1. Bluebook Rule 21.5.2 states that the ECLI started with 2012 cases and that a citation for cases post-2011 should include the ECLI, if available. The list of the cases on the Court's Curia website shows, however, that ECLIs are available for cases starting 1953. (Perhaps the Bluebook is assuming that, starting in 2012, ECLIs replaced the official reporter for citation purposes.) Because the Court has assigned ECLIs to cases starting with 1953, should Bluebook citations for cases pre-2012 also include the ECLI?
2. If yes, should the ECLI appear before or after the citation to the official reports for pre-2012 cases? Based upon this example for a post-2011 case, the ECLI would appear before any reference to the source (paragraph numbers in this citation because there were no reports after 2012): Case C-434/16, Peter Nowak v. Data Prot. Comm’r, ECLI:EU:C:2014:994, ¶¶54—55 (Dec. 20, 2017). Based upon the Court's list here, however, the ECLI would appear after the citation to the reports. The example in the Court's explanation of the new ECLI citation method does not include an ECR reference. Is there another rule on international cases in the Bluebook, 21st edition, that by analogy would tell us where to put the ECLI for pre-2011 cases?
3. Notice that the Bluebook examples include "ECLI" at the beginning of the number, whereas the Court's own citation format here does not.