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GAZETTE
APRIL 1992
Eurlegal Library
The Law Society library has a large
European Community law collection
and the volume of requests for this
material is increasing all the time -
for textbooks, journal articles,
regulations, directives and other
secondary legislation, decisions of
the European Court and the Court
of First Instance.
In this article,
Margaret Byrne,
Librarian, gives an outline of the
material held and the services
available.
Members are welcome to consult the
library in person or to phone, fax or
post their enquiries to us. While
most material requested is located
using our own resources, when
necessary, we also seek information
from other agencies, such as the
Dublin Office of the European
Commission, the information service
of the European Court, and
Government Departments. In some
cases, we may advise members to
contact these agencies directly.
Legislation
The library holds copies of all the
primary legislation, comprising
treaties and accession documents, the
secondary legislation which includes,
among other material, the
regulations, directives, Commission
decisions, recommendations and
opinions under the EEC Treaty.
Legislation is published in the
Official Journal
L series which we
have from 1973 to date, together
with the retrospectively published
special English language edition
covering the period 1952-72. We also
hold the
Official Journal
C series
from 1973 which contains selected
proposed legislation, opinions of the
Economic and Social Committee,
summaries of Court cases, written
parliamentary questions and answers
Margaret Byrne
and other official information. A
number of indexes are available to
locate this material - the Official
Journal's own Indexes, the annual
Directory of Community Legislation
in Force
and Butterworths
European
Communities Legislation: Current
Status
- which enable the following
kinds of everday requests to be dealt
with -
• "Have you got Council Directive
88/627 on company law?
• Where will I find a recent
directive on computer software?
• Can you supply copies of Milk
Quota Regulations per list
supplied, and are there any more
recent Regulations?"
Secondary Legislation Implemented
in Ireland
Directives are implemented either by
statute or, more usually, by statutory
instrument, all of which are available
in the library.
Case law of the ECJ and the Court
of First Instance
The European Court Reports,
which
is the official series,
the Common
Market Law Reports
and
European
Community Cases
are held in the
library. We also subcribe to the
transcripts of the judgments of the
Court and the opinions of the
Advocates General which are usually
available 6 - 8 weeks after a decision
or opinion is given. Examples of
requests received for case law are -
• "I need a copy of the " H a g "
case CIO/89
• Have you got the "Groener"
case relating to discrimination in
employment on grounds of
language?
• Can I have copies of
competition cases T69/89,
T70/89 and T76/89?
• Where can I find a list of all
cases on the Lomé
Conventions?"
Various indexes and other sources
are used to locate this material -