The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is the EU`s judicial body. It consists of three courts: the Court of Justice, the General Court (formerly the Court of First Instance) and the Civil Service Tribunal. Its task is to ensure the uniform interpretation and application of Community law in the Member States. The CJEU has one judge per Member State and nine Advocates-General. The judges elect from among themselves a President and a Vice-President for a renewable term of three years. The President is one of 13 judges sitting in plenary or Grand Chamber for particularly important cases. Other cases are heard by chambers of three or five judges. The Advocates-General assist the Court by delivering opinions on cases. The General Court hears actions brought by individuals and organisations against the EU institutions or acts of a regulatory nature, as well as competition cases.

Appeals against decisions of the General Court are brought before the ECJ. Cases are numbered consecutively throughout the year; The second issue of a file number is the year in which the matter was brought before the courts. Since 1989, case numbers have included a letter indicating the court: CJEU case numbers are preceded by C-; The case numbers of the court/court of first instance are preceded by T-; and the case numbers of the Civil Service Tribunal are preceded by F-. When citing cases, the file number (and letter) must appear in the Latin alphabet before the case name, which is in italics. The year of publication of the report follows in square brackets and then the abbreviation of the Compendium. The volume number is distinguished by a Roman numeral I or II: Volume I includes the ECJ and Volume II includes the General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal. The first page of the report is hyphenated to the volume number, as shown in the following examples. Primary law can be regarded as the supreme source of law in the European Union.

It is at the top of the European legal order and consists mainly of the following treaties: There are three sources of EU law: primary law, general principles of EU law and secondary legislation (detailed in the hierarchy of norms). The two main sources of EU law are: primary law and secondary law. The Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECR), the most authoritative series of legal reports, are published in all official EU languages. Print production of the RCT was discontinued in 2011, but all reports are available electronically on the EurLex and Curia websites. The ECR is also available in the Justis and Westlaw cases, and BAILII delivers judgments. The Common Market Law Reports and All England Law Reports (European Cases) publish comprehensive reports on selected CJEU hearings (and take place at the Westlaw Library and the Lexis Library respectively). Many of these legal opinions include the Advocate General`s Opinion and the judgment. Recent case summaries appear in the Times and Financial Times. ⇒ These rank above secondary law, but below primary law – this is the official opinion of the CJEU in this Caddy case ⇒ case law of the CJEU has created principles that have ensured the integration of policies across the EU International agreements with third countries or with international organisations are also an integral part of EU law.

They are distinct from primary and secondary law. According to the CJEU judgment in Meryem Demirel v. Stadt Schwäbisch Gmünd (case 12/86), they may have direct effect and their force of res judicata is superior to secondary law, which must therefore comply with it. Their rules have direct effect if they contain a clear and precise obligation which is not subject to the adoption of a subsequent act. Primary law consists of treaties that define the legal framework of the European Union. Secondary legislation consists of legal instruments based on these treaties, such as regulations, directives, decisions and agreements. In addition, there are general principles of EU law, case law developed by the Court of Justice of the European Communities and international law. If a case has not yet been reported in the RCT, cite the CMLR or another authoritative British series, or cite the ECLI after the name of the case (as shown in the last example). ⇒ The CJEU has drawn general principles from several sources: In 2014, the EU introduced the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) to facilitate the identification and location of cases.

The ECLI consists of a number for each decision, which identifies the court of origin, the code of the court that issued the decision, the year of the decision and its number. Each component is separated by two dots. ⇒ The 9 sources of law that make up the acquis are: decisions; Directives; Regulation; treaties; Case law of the ECJ; general principles; Charter of Fundamental Rights; international agreements; Recommendations and opinions ⇒ There are two types of legally binding secondary acts: (a) acts adopted in accordance with the ordinary or special legislative procedure (Article 289(3) TFEU), consisting of regulations, directives, decisions, and (b) non-legislative acts which are not adopted under the legislative procedure, consisting of delegated acts (Article 290, paragraph 1 TFEU) and implementing acts (Article 290 TFEU). Article 2 TFEU). The terms primary and secondary law have different meanings when applied to Community law. than in the UK single market.