The European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the General Court (EGC) are responsible for hearing EU cases.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) hears cases from any of the European countries in the Council of Europe. This court is NOT a European Union institution.
The European Court of Justice is the supreme court of the European Union for EU law and hears cases from national courts and appeal cases. The General Court (GC) mainly hears cases from individuals and companies.
Since 1989 EU cases heard at the ECJ are prefixed with C and those heard at the GC are prefixed with a T. Cases heard before 1989 have no prefix (examples of these follow below).
Where possible refer to the official reports, which are cited as ECR. ECJ cases are reported in volume 1 (ECR I) and GC cases are reported in volume 2 (ECR II).
If there is no ECR reference, use the Common Market Law Reports (CMLR) unless the case has been reported in the Law Reports, The Weekly Law Reports or the All England Law Reports (European Cases).
ECR Law Reports ECR I or ECR II LR
ECR The Weekly Law Reports ECR I or ECR II WLR
ECR All England Law Reports (European Cases) ECR I or ECR II All ER
ECR Common Market Law Reports ECR I or ECR II CMLR
Where possible cite cases from the European Court Reports first, then Common Market Law Reports, or other major series.
Format (ECR citation):
Case number | case name | [year] | ECR | first page.
Footnote
General Court example
T-194/04 Bavarian Lager Co. Ltd v Commission [2007] ECR II-4523.
European Court of Justice example
C-39/94 SFEI v La Poste [2006] ECR I-3547.
Format (unreported ECJ cases)
For an unreported case, cite the relevant notice in Official Journal (OJ) series.
Case number | case name | [year] | OJ number.
Footnote
Case C-527/15 Stichting Brein v Jack Frederik Wullems [2017] OJ C195/02.
If the case is not yet reported in the OJ, then cite the case number and case name, followed by the court and date of judgment in brackets.
Bibliography
According to OSCOLA (page 11) EU cases should be arranged alphabetically by first party name in the table of cases, with the case number following the name of the case in brackets.
Bavarian Lager Co. Ltd v Commission (Case T-194/04) [2007] ECR II-4523
Stichting Brein v Jack Frederik Wullems (Case C-527/15) [2017] OJ C195/02
Format:
Case Name | (Year) OR [Year] | Volume number | Abbreviation of the law report series | Page/case/application number.
Footnote
Omojudi v UK (2009) 51 EHRR 10.
Footnote with paragraph pinpoint
Omojudi v UK (2009) 51 EHRR 10, para 3.
Bibliography
Omojudi v UK (2009) 51 EHRR 10