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STRATEGIES
For EU Legal Research
Fundamental Source
The EU Glossaryhttp://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/index_en.htm
(Access from the documents tab on the main Europa page.)
If you want to peruse in subject categories…
• SCADPlus • Commission’s alphabetical index• Commission Library’s catalog• Panoramas
SCADPlus
This source summarizes and links to legislation. It doesn’t get you to every
possible underlying document.http://europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm
So, that’s how you get from SCADPlus to the law.
Now…
The Commission’s Alphabetical Index
http://eurunion.org/infores/eu_a.htm
(Actually, there are two.)
This one is managed by the the Commission’s library in the U.S.
This one is managed by the Commission headquarters in
Brussels.
Both alphabets get you to similar pages.
If one doesn’t have a listing that helps you, go to the other
alphabetical index.
If you click on “air quality” in one index, you get…
The other alphabet lists “air quality data” and “air quality legislation”
as two separate entries.
If you click on the legislation link,
You land in Eur-Lex.
So, those alphabetical lists are easy to browse and can get you to either primary or contextual information
pretty efficiently.
Panoramas
Under the activities tab on http://www.europa.eu.int
click on topic, then choose “panorama.”
If you click on one of those summaries of legislation, you get
to the SCAD-Plus material.
If you scroll down through a Panorama page, you can jump
into the law.
If you are not searching by subject…
Use the Index to Information Sources
http://europa.eu/geninfo/info/index_en.htmUnder the services tab on the
main Europa page.
Notice that this legislation list is the ONE place where you can
see simple one-line distinctions between the various sources of
EU legislative information
The Official Journals(EU version of government gazette)
The “C series” of the journal has communications such as minutes of the Parliament, decisions and resolutions of the
institutions, and government notices. The “CA series” is an annex with additions to legislation and job ads. The “CE
series” has major Commission proposals and the Commission’s answers to questions. The “L series” contains
the text of legislation.
Use the Official Journal when you are monitoring legal
developments by topic or agency.
Bulletin
This is also chronological and it also has information from all of the
EU lawmaking bodies.
EUR-Lex
Is the route to primary law in force and in-progress.
For legislation in progress or legislative history
You can choose between Pre-Lex and OEIL (the Legislative
Observatory)
Pre-Lex includes more Council and Commission documents…
But you cannot distinguish between them because Pre-Lex merely names
them. If you already know about a source, start with Pre-Lex.
OEIL has commentary about each stage of the legislative
procedure.
If you haven’t already learned about particular stages of a law’s development, start here and
then look to Pre-Lex to fill-in any gaps that might exist for a particular stage.
Document Registers
Council, Commission, and Parliament each have document
registers.
Use those when you have exhausted the ordinary Eur-Lex
offerings.Even if you don’t have a document number, you can investigate internal reports or find
other background information as long as you can describe the issue and relate it to
eventual legislation.
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