Jurisdictions/EU

European Legal System

Jurisdiction code: eu. Language: fr only (current limitation; multi-language planned). Covers EU law (EUR-Lex, CJEU) and Council of Europe (ECHR).

Court structure

court_level mapping (T1 tag)

court_level	Court (court tag)	Institution	Notes
supranational	Court of Justice (cjeu)	CJEU	Highest EU court; preliminary rulings, appeals from General Court
supranational	ECHR (echr)	Council of Europe	46 member states; human rights
first_instance	General Court (general_court)	CJEU	Direct actions: competition, state aid, trademarks
first_instance	Civil Service Tribunal (civil_service_tribunal)	CJEU	Dissolved 2016 — competence transferred to General Court

CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union)

Two active courts:

• Court of Justice (Cour de justice): highest EU court. Preliminary rulings (art. 267 TFEU), appeals from General Court, infringement proceedings.
• General Court (Tribunal): direct actions — competition, state aid, trademarks, EU staff disputes (since 2016).

Procedure types:

Type	Treaty basis	Description
Preliminary ruling	Art. 267 TFEU	National court asks CJEU to interpret EU law. CJEU answers; does NOT decide national case.
Annulment	Art. 263 TFEU	Challenge legality of EU act
Infringement	Art. 258-260 TFEU	Commission vs. member state for failure to comply
Opinion	Art. 218 TFEU	Compatibility of international agreement with treaties

ECHR (European Court of Human Rights)

Covers 46 Council of Europe member states (broader than EU). Application number format: NNNNN/YY (e.g., 36022/97).

Margin of appreciation: ECHR grants states discretion on sensitive topics (morals, religion, national security). A ruling against Italy does NOT automatically apply to France. Filter by respondent state: tags={"respondent_state": "FRA"} (3-letter ISO codes).

CJEU publication grades (official_grade)

Grade	Label	importance_level
ecr_grand_chamber	Published in ECR (Grand Chamber)	highest_importance
ecr_chamber	Published in ECR (Chamber)	high_importance
oj_only	Published in OJ only (not in ECR)	low_importance
unpublished	Unpublished	minimal_importance

ECR = European Court Reports. OJ = Official Journal (series C).

ECHR importance grades (official_grade)

Grade	Label	importance_level
1	Key case (ECHR Reports of Judgments and Decisions)	highest_importance
2	High importance	high_importance
3	Medium importance	medium_importance
4	Low importance	low_importance

Formation / solemnity system

CJEU formations

Formation	Solemnity tag	Notes
Single judge	single_judge
Chamber (3 judges)	reduced_bench
Chamber (5 judges)	standard_bench
Grand Chamber (15 judges)	grand_bench
Full Court (all judges)	full_court	Rare; constitutional matters

ECHR formations

Formation	Solemnity tag	Notes
Single Judge	single_judge	Admissibility only
Committee (3 judges)	reduced_bench	Repetitive cases
Section / Chamber (7 judges)	standard_bench	Standard formation
Grand Chamber (17 judges)	grand_bench	Relinquishment or referral; highest authority

EU legislation

Hierarchy

Treaties (TEU, TFEU, Charter of Fundamental Rights) > Regulations > Directives > Decisions > Recommendations/Opinions (non-binding)

Key types

Type	Effect	Direct effect	Tag example
Regulation (reglement)	Directly applicable in all member states	Full (vertical + horizontal)	tags={"nature": "REGLEMENT"}
Directive	Binds as to result; requires national transposition	Vertical only (vs. State), after deadline	tags={"nature": "DIRECTIVE"}
Decision	Binding on addressees only	Depends on content
Recommendation	Non-binding	None

CELEX numbers

Official EU identifier. Format: 3{year}{type}{number}.

Example	Meaning
32016R0679	Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR)
32016L0680	Directive 2016/680 (Law Enforcement Directive)
32004D0001	Decision 2004/1

Direct lookup: get_document("32016R0679") resolves to EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679.

Enforcement status

EU EUR-Lex emits only two values:

Value	Meaning
in_force	In force
repealed	Repealed — NEVER cite as current

Direct effect and primacy

Instrument	Direct effect	Notes
Regulation	Vertical + horizontal	No transposition needed
Directive (after deadline)	Vertical only (vs. State)	NOT horizontal (between private parties)
Directive (before deadline)	None	Must wait for transposition
All EU law	Primacy over national law	Costa v ENEL (1964)

Multilingual documents

EU texts exist in 24 official languages, all equally authentic (TFEU art. 55).

Each language version is a separate document with a :lang suffix in the ID:

• EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679:fr — GDPR in French
• EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679:en — GDPR in English

The cross-language identifier tags.text_id is unsuffixed (EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679). The language parameter narrows results to the requested language.

Documents ingested in a fallback language (e.g., EN-only when no FR available) carry tags.translation_pending="fr".

Advocate General opinions

Separate documents (kind=decision, type=advisory_opinion). Precede the judgment, provide more detailed reasoning. Not binding but highly persuasive — often followed by the Court. Linked to judgments via edges when available.

Current limitation: AG opinions are not yet ingested. type=advisory_opinion with jurisdiction="eu" returns 0 results.

Charter of Fundamental Rights

Treaty-level value since Lisbon Treaty (2009). Binds EU institutions and member states when implementing EU law.

Article	Right
Art. 7	Private and family life
Art. 8	Protection of personal data
Art. 21	Non-discrimination
Art. 47	Right to effective remedy and fair trial

Do not confuse: Charter Art. 7 (private life) and Art. 8 (data protection) are separate from ECHR Convention Art. 8 (private life). Same wording, different instruments.

What is NOT in the corpus

Gap	Notes
Advocate General opinions	Not yet ingested; planned
English-language documents	Only FR ingested currently; multi-language planned
EU national transposition measures	EUR-Lex transposition data may be incomplete — verify in FR sources
EU secondary legislation (delegated/implementing acts)	Partial coverage
Pre-accession case law for newer member states	Historical gaps

Practical notes

• Cross-border queries: use jurisdiction="eu|fr" to combine EU and FR sources
• GDPR search tip: "RGPD" as FTS term returns few EU results — prefer "donnees a caractere personnel" or "protection des donnees", or direct CELEX: get_document("32016R0679")
• Transposition: get_document() the directive, check edges for transposition links, then search FR sources
• Brexit: UK no longer member state since 2020-01-31. Pre-Brexit case law involving UK still relevant for general EU law principles.
• Preliminary rulings: CJEU interprets EU law but does NOT decide the national case. The national court applies the interpretation.