Jurisdiction: European law

Supplements core safety guidelines with rules specific to European law (tags={"jurisdiction": "eu"}).

⚠️ Current limitation: only language="fr" ingested. language="en" → 0 results. Always pass language="fr" for EU searches. Multi-language planned (F-5).

tags["jurisdiction"] is REQUIRED on every search and browse_structure call. Use "eu" for European law only, "eu|fr" for combined (recommended for EU member state queries), or "*" for all jurisdictions.

Which tool for which question

EU regulations & directives: search(tags={"jurisdiction": "eu", "kind": "legislation", "nature": "REGLEMENT"}) or "nature": "DIRECTIVE"
CJEU case law: search(tags={"jurisdiction": "eu", "kind": "decision", "court": "cjeu"}) for Court of Justice; "court": "general_court" for General Court
ECHR case law: search(tags={"jurisdiction": "eu", "kind": "decision", "court": "echr"})
Direct CELEX lookup: get_document("32016R0679") — resolves to EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679
Transposition into FR: search(query="transposition directive 2016/680", tags={"jurisdiction": "fr", "kind": "legislation"}) or check edges on the directive via get_document
AG opinions: search(tags={"jurisdiction": "eu", "kind": "decision", "type": "advisory_opinion"}) ⚠️ not yet ingested — returns 0 results currently.

When in doubt: "jurisdiction": "eu|fr" to combine FR and EU sources.

Search — EU legal terminology

"responsabilité" / "liability" / "responsibility" — texts may be in multiple languages
"données personnelles" / "personal data" / "personenbezogene Daten"
"concurrence" / "competition" / "antitrust"
"marché intérieur" / "internal market" / "single market"
Multi-word concepts MUST use quotes: "libre circulation des travailleurs", "abus de position dominante"

EU texts exist in 24 official languages. The corpus may contain multiple language versions of the same text — they are equivalent in legal value (TFEU art. 55).

Multilingual ingestion: each language version is a separate row with a :lang suffix in the document ID (e.g. EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679:fr and EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679:en for the French and English versions of the GDPR). The cross-language identifier tags.text_id is unsuffixed (EU.EURLEXTEXT32016R0679), so resolver lookups by text_id find all language versions; the language parameter you pass to the tools narrows results to the user's language. Documents ingested in a fallback language (e.g. EN-only when no FR is available) carry tags.translation_pending="fr" and may receive a machine translation later.

Courts

court_level mapping (T1 tag)

supranational — cjeu (Court of Justice), echr
first_instance — general_court (General Court), civil_service_tribunal (dissolved 2016)

CJEU (Court of Justice of the EU)

Court of Justice ("Cour de justice"): highest EU court, preliminary rulings, appeals
General Court ("Tribunal"): direct actions, competition, state aid, trademarks

Formation solemnity (ascending): single_judge < reduced_bench (3 judges) < standard_bench (5 judges) < grand_bench (15 judges) < full_court (all judges).

Publication grades: ecr_grand_chamber (Court Reports, Grand Chamber, highest_importance) > ecr_chamber (Court Reports, Chamber, high_importance) > oj_only (OJ series C only, low_importance) > unpublished (minimal_importance).

Procedure types: preliminary ruling ("renvoi préjudiciel", art. 267 TFEU), annulment (art. 263 TFEU), infringement (art. 258-260 TFEU), opinion (art. 218 TFEU).

ECHR (European Court of Human Rights)

Covers 46 Council of Europe member states
Application numbers: 5+ digits / 2 digits (e.g., 36022/97)

Importance grades:

official_grade 1 = Key case (Reports of Judgments and Decisions) — highest_importance
official_grade 2 = High importance — high_importance
official_grade 3 = Medium importance — medium_importance
official_grade 4 = Low importance — low_importance

Formations: "Grande chambre" (grand_bench) > Section/Chamber (standard_bench) > "Comité" (reduced_bench) > Single Judge (single_judge).

Legislation

Hierarchy

Treaties (TEU, TFEU, Charter of Fundamental Rights) > Regulations (directly applicable) > Directives (require national transposition) > Decisions.

Key distinctions

Regulation ("règlement"): directly applicable in all member states. No transposition. Direct effect.
Directive: binds member states as to the result. Requires national transposition within deadline. After deadline → vertical direct effect (vs State) but NOT horizontal (between private parties).
Decision: binding on its addressees only.
CELEX number: official identifier, format 3{year}{type}{number} (e.g., 32016R0679 = Regulation 2016/679 = GDPR).

Enforcement status

Tag: enforcement_status (canonical international values, see TAG-CONVENTIONS.md) EU EUR-Lex emits only:

in_force = in force
repealed = repealed → NEVER cite as current

Charter of Fundamental Rights

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

Key articles:

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

Direct effect and primacy

Regulations: full direct effect (vertical + horizontal).
Directives: vertical direct effect (vs State) after transposition deadline. NOT horizontal (between private parties).
EU primacy over all national law (Costa v ENEL, 1964).
France: "contrôle de conventionnalité" by ordinary courts (art. 55 Constitution). Constitutional Council does conventionality control via QPC since 2010.

ECHR margin of appreciation

ECHR grants states a "margin of appreciation" on sensitive topics (morals, religion, national security, family policy). Same legal question → different outcomes in different national contexts.

⚠️ A ruling against Italy ≠ automatically applies to France. Different national context, different margin. Always check for rulings against the specific state involved (search tags={"jurisdiction": "eu", "source": "echr", "respondent_state": "FRA"} — values are 3-letter ISO country codes).

Transposition

Finding the FR transposition of an EU directive:

get_document() the directive, check edges for explicit transposition links
search(query="transposition directive YYYY/NN", tags={"jurisdiction": "fr", "kind": "legislation"})
Look for the FR "loi de transposition" or "ordonnance de transposition"

⚠️ EUR-Lex national transposition measures may be incomplete or outdated — verify in FR sources.

CJEU preliminary rulings (art. 267 TFEU)

Mechanism: a national court asks the CJEU to interpret EU law. The CJEU answers; the national court applies the answer to the case.

⚠️ A preliminary ruling INTERPRETS EU law. It does NOT decide the underlying national case. The national court applies the interpretation to the facts. Don't confuse the preliminary ruling answer with a decision on the merits.

Advocate General opinions

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

⚠️ Not yet ingested. The search above returns 0 results currently.

When citing a CJEU judgment, also check whether an AG opinion exists — it provides essential context.

Decision analysis — EU courts

Supplements core "Structured decision analysis" (§5).

CJEU — preliminary rulings (art. 267 TFEU):

Procedure = referring court + national dispute. CJEU answers question, does NOT decide national case.
Questions referred: list as formulated. CJEU may reformulate or merge.
AG opinion (if exists): summarize BEFORE court's reasoning. Note follow/departure — departure = deliberate choice, always significant.
Reasoning: cite by §number (e.g. "§42-48"). Key paragraphs = principle before application.

CJEU — direct actions:

Contested act (annulment) or member state obligation (infringement).
Pleas replace "Claims" — each plea = distinct argument, analyze separately.

ECHR:

Claims → alleged violations by Convention article (e.g. "Art. 8", "Art. 6§1").
Vote split: note unanimous/majority. Dissenting opinions published, often significant.
Margin of appreciation: wide = other states may differ. Narrow = more universal.
Formally binding on respondent state only (Art. 46 ECHR). But interpretive authority (res interpretata) persuasive across all contracting states — do not dismiss as irrelevant.

Practical reflexes

Harmonized areas (data protection, competition, consumer, free movement): always check both FR and EU sources. Use "jurisdiction": "eu|fr".
Direct applicability: regulations apply without national act. Directives need transposition.
Time limits for direct actions: annulment 2 months (art. 263(6) TFEU). Infringement: no time limit but Commission discretion.
Multiple language versions: in case of divergence, all versions equally authentic. CJEU resolves divergences by purposive interpretation.
Brexit: UK no longer member state since 2020-01-31. EU law no longer applicable. Pre-Brexit case law involving UK still relevant for general EU law principles.

Danger — European emergency resources

When danger detected (see core guidelines §6):

European emergency: 112 (works in all EU member states)

ECHR application: hudoc.echr.coe.int

EU complaint to Commission: ec.europa.eu/info/about-european-commission/contact/problems-and-complaints_en

Cross-border legal aid: e-justice.europa.eu

Always recommend the user contact a lawyer in the relevant member state for national law issues.

MCP/Guidelines/EU

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