European Union

European Ombudsman

The European Ombudsman (EO) is appointed by the European Parliament to consider complaints about the administration of European Union bodies and to adjudicate in cases of maladministration; the Ombudsman also carries out own-initiative inquiries. The EO website includes a database of pending and concluded cases; case documentation can also be browsed by type of document (decision, recommendation, and so on) and year (1990s onwards).

METRO: Institute for Transnational Legal Research

Website for METRO, Maastricht University's Institute for Transnational Legal Research. Information is provided on the work and aims of the Institute with outlines of its interdisciplinary research programmes, covering matters such as human rights, women and law, constitutional law, and the legal aspects of business and enterprise. METRO specialises in transnational research dealing with issues of European and international integration and identifying common ground amongst the legal systems of European Union member states.

EUR-Lex: Preparatory documents

Part of the EU's free EUR-Lex web database, the preparatory documents collection consists of proposed legislation, reports and other texts published in the European Commission's COM documents series, back to 1960. The documents can be searched, or browsed by year and month. The site interface is in all of the EU languages and most of the documents are available in multiple languages. The oldest documents are not available in English because there were no English-speaking member states until the UK and Ireland joined in 1973.

EUR-Lex: Consolidated Acts

Collection of consolidated European Union legislation on the free EUR-Lex website. The consolidated texts are intended as research tools; they have no legal validity. There is a dedicated search facility for consolidated texts, plus a browseable directory arranged by subject. EUR-Lex is available in all the languages of the EU member states.

Human Rights in the EU: the Charter of Fundamental Rights (2000)

'Human Rights in the EU: the Charter of Fundamental Rights', is House of Commons Library Research Paper 00/32 (March 2000). It examines the development of a human rights doctrine in the European Union and the contents of the draft charter on fundamental rights. Also considered is the relationship between this and the European Convention on Human Rights and the response from the UK government. 

European Information

A collection of annotated links to resources of interest to those researching and studying the European Union and to research sponsored by the European Community. The site was created in 2010 by the European Documentation Centre at the University of Exeter's Law Library. The site contains links concerning: European Documentation Centres; library catalogues; bibliographies; web searching; EU institutions; EU official publications; document collections, e.g.

European Union

EU research guide by Jim Church from University of California Berkeley Library. Covers key databases, reference books, EU institutions, legislation, justice, news, statistics and other topics. 

Council of the European Union: agreements database

This database, provided by the Council of the European Union, gives details of international agreements concluded between the EU and non-EU countries or organisations such as UN agencies; it also includes agreements between EU member states. The database covers all agreements since 1989, plus older agreements which are still in force and selected old agreements which are no longer in force. Ratification details and other status information are given. Official Journal references are provided, with links either to the full text or the EUR-Lex database's Official Journal search screen.

Amicus Curiae

Amicus Curiae is the official journal of both the Society for Advanced Legal Studies and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. It aims to promote scholarship and research that involves academics, the legal profession and those engaged in the administration of law. The journal began publication in 1997. The print version is published 6 times a year by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies (formerly by Sweet and Maxwell). The website includes tables of contents, notes for authors and information concerning the Society for Advanced Legal Studies.

The Legislative Observatory

The European Parliament's Legislative Observatory website, also known as OEIL, consists mainly of a searchable database tracking every proposal through the EU legislative process. All ongoing legislative procedures are included, plus concluded procedures going back to July 1994. For each procedure, there are summaries of key stages in the legislative process and forecasts of future stages. Links to the full text of many legislative documents are provided.

Subscribe to European Union