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National case law

The courts of the Member States of the European Union (EU) apply and interpret the law of the relevant Member States as well as EU law. Therefore, it is in the interest of citizens and legal practitioners to have access not only to case law of their own Member State, but also to that of other EU Member States.

Most Member States have one or more databases of the decisions and opinions of their courts - regarding EU law, national law and also regional and/or local law. The information available on the web may sometimes be restricted to certain courts (for instance, supreme courts) or to certain types of decisions.

You can search for Member State case law either via a Member State database by selecting one of the flags listed on the right hand side you will be redirected to the relevant national page; or you can use one of the European databases (the following list may not be exhaustive):

  • JURE, a database created by the European Commission, contains case law on jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters and on the recognition and enforcement of judgments in a State other than the one where the judgment was passed. This includes case law on relevant international conventions (i.e. 1968 Brussels Convention, 1988 Lugano Convention) as well as EU and Member State case law).
  • The Association of Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union (ACA Europe) provides two databases of Member State case law which deal with the application of EU law, called "JuriFast" and "Dec.Nat". Decisions are provided in the original language, with a summary in English and French. The "Dec.Nat" database also contains references and analyses of national decisions which have been supplied by the Research and Documentation Service of the European Court of Justice.
  • Via the website of the Network of the Presidents of the supreme judicial courts of the EU, you can find the sites of a number of national databases (and also of some candidate countries) containing the case law of the supreme courts of those Member States.
  • The information portal of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights includes a database of national decisions of courts and special bodies related to issues of discrimination law.
  • CODICES, a database created by the so-called Venice Commission at the Council of Europe, contains case law on constitutional matters not only of EU Member States but also of other members of the Council of Europe.

In addition, the European e-Justice Portal also provides information on the various Member State courts.  Many of these courts have a website providing a database of their own case law.

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