The European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) has been developed to facilitate the correct and unequivocal citation of judgments from European and national courts. A set of uniform metadata will help to improve search facilities for case law.
Before ECLI, it was difficult and time-consuming to find relevant case law. Take, for example, a case where a ruling of the Supreme Court of Member State A was known to be of interest for a specific legal debate. The case was registered in various national and cross-border case law databases, but in each database the ruling had a different identifier. All these identifiers – if known at all – had to be cited to enable readers of the citation to find the case in the database of their preference. Different citation rules and styles complicated the search. Moreover, users had to go to all the databases to find out whether this Supreme Court case was available – summarised, translated or annotated. With the ECLI system one search via one search interface using just one identifier will suffice to find all occurrences of the ruling in all participating national and cross-border databases.
Easy access to judicial decisions of other Member States is of growing importance in reinforcing the role of the national judge in applying and upholding EU law. Searching for, and citation of judgments from other Member States is seriously hampered by differences in national case law identification systems, citation rules and technical fields describing the characteristics of a judgment.
To overcome these differences and to facilitate easy access to - and citation of - national, foreign and European case law, the Council of the European Union invited Member States and EU institutions to introduce the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) and a minimum set of uniform metadata for case law.
ECLI is a uniform identifier that has the same recognizable format for all Member States and EU courts. It is composed of five, mandatory, elements:
The elements are separated by a colon. A (non-existent) example of an ECLI could be:
ECLI:NL:HR:2009:384425, which could be decision 384425 of the Supreme Court (‘HR’) of the Netherlands (‘NL’) from the year 2009.
To make it easier to understand and find case law, each document containing a judicial decision should have a set of metadata as described in this paragraph. These metadata should be described according to the standards set by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
The Council Conclusions on ECLI give a description of the metadata that can be used.
Every Member State using ECLI must appoint a governmental or judicial organisation as the national ECLI coordinator. The National ECLI coordinator is responsible for establishing the list of codes for the participating courts, the publication of the way the ordinal number is made up, and all other information that is relevant for the functioning of the ECLI system. The ECLI co-ordinator for the EU is the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Each Member State decides whether, and to what extent - it will use the ECLI system, e.g. if it will apply it retroactively to historical records or the number of courts participating, for example only at supreme court level, all courts, etc.
By clicking on the EU and international flags available at the right hand side, you will find information on implementation of ECLI by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Patent Office.
In accordance with the Council conclusions the European Commission has developed a multi-lingual ECLI search engine which allows users to find judicial decisions from the databases of those case law publishers who have implemented the ECLI standard and provided us with access to their data.
An ECLI resolver is also available at https://e-justice.europa.eu/ecli/ - any ECLI typed after this path will display the relevant ECLI metadata (if available). For example https://e-justice.europa.eu/ecli/ECLI:NL:HR:2016:764 would directly display the metadata of decision ECLI:NL:HR:2016:764.
On the Member State pages you can find information on:
Please select the relevant country's flag to obtain detailed national information.
This page is maintained by the European Commission. The information on this page does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission. The Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice with regard to copyright rules for European pages.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECLI-Coordinator@curia.europa.eu) is the ECLI coordinator for the Union jurisdictions.
The "country code" for the Court of Justice of the European Union to be used in the second element of the ECLI is: [EU]
Components of the ECLI to identify decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union:
C = Court of Justice
T = General Court
F = Civil Service Tribunal
Serial number of the decision per jurisdiction per year
Examples:
ECLI:EU:C:1998:27 is the 27th document of the Court of Justice with an ECLI in 1998
ECLI:EU:T:2012:426 is the 426th document of the General Court with an ECLI in 2012
ECLI:EU:F:2010:80 is the 80th document of the Civil Service Tribunal with an ECLI in 2010
This page is maintained by the European Commission. The information on this page does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission. The Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice with regard to copyright rules for European pages.
European Patent Office
The European Patent Office (EPO) offers inventors a uniform application procedure which enables them to seek patent protection in up to 40 European countries. Supervised by the Administrative Council, the Office is the executive arm of the European Patent Organisation.
Coordination of ECLI in the European Patent Office is carried out by Publication Department.
Postal address
Postfach 90Address
Rennweg 12The country code for the European Patent Office to be used in the second element of the ECLI is: [EP]
Components of the ECLI to identify decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office:
Example:
ECLI:EP:BA:2002:D000300.20020503
EP= European Patent Office
BA= Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office
2002 - year in which the decision was rendered (example)
D000300= D0003/00 (decision case number)
20020503 = 2002.05.03 (date of the decision)
The ECLI is used to uniquely identify decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office.
Search by ECLI is enabled via the EPO Board of Appeal decisions database (see link below)
EPO Board of Appeal decisions database
This page is maintained by the European Commission. The information on this page does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission. The Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice with regard to copyright rules for European pages.
The central services of the Federal Public Service Justice (SPF Justice – info@just.fgov.be) act as national coordinator for Belgium.
ECLI country code for Belgium: [BE]
ECLI indexation was activated in October 2017.
Case-law:
registered in the JUPORTAL public database of Belgian case-law, is also available via the ECLI search engine.
The ECLI number is composed of the following: ECLI:BE:[court code]:[year of the decision]:[serial number]
The ordinal number is in two parts, separated by a point:
ARR for judgments/rulings,
CONC for Public Ministry findings,
DEC for judicial decisions,
ORD for orders,
AVIS for opinions.
Until mid-November 2019, this serial number comprised the decision date format YYYYMMDD (year-month-day) followed by a point and a sequence number.
From mid-November 2019, the serial number of the judgments and findings of the Court of Cassation also contain information on the chamber where the case was heard. The serial number format is YYYYMMDD (year-month-day) followed by a point, the chamber code, another point and a sequence number.
The full ECLI of a conclusion of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Cassation for a case in which a judgment was delivered on 6 May 2010 is as follows: ECLI:BE:CASS:2010:CONC.20100506.5
For example, the full ECLI of a judgment of the Court of Cassation of 30 October 2020 is as follows: ECLI: BE: CASS: 2020: ARR.20201030.1N.4
If you are looking for a decision and you already know its ECLI number, you can access the specific page containing details of the decision directly using the following URL: https://juportal.be/content/<numéro ECLI>.
For example, you will find the detailed pages of the ECLI numbers given as an example at the following addresses:
https://juportal.be/content/ECLI:BE:CASS:2010:CONC.20100506.5
https://juportal.be/content/ECLI:BE:CASS:2020:ARR.20201030.1N.4
Belgium has a large number of jurisdictional codes. The code list for Belgian courts can be found in the attached table(276 Kb).
Belgium’s judicial landscape was redesigned on 1 April 2014. The attached table shows the names of the courts before and after the reform of 1 April 2014.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator is:
Supreme Judicial Council (SJC)
Ul. Ekzarh Yosif 12,
Sofia 1000,
Bulgaria
Web: http://www.vss.justice.bgvss@vss.justice.bg
The country code for Bulgaria is: BG
An ECLI is generated for each court decision that is published on the central web-based interface for case law (https://legalacts.justice.bg/). The portal is maintained by the Bulgarian ECLI coordinator, the Supreme Judicial Council. The ECLI syntax is specified in Chapter Seven of Regulation No 4 of 16 March 2017 on keeping, storing and accessing the register of court documents.
The abbreviation ‘ECLI’
The country code ‘BG’
The court code, consisting of two parts:
Table 1 below lists the codes of all courts used in the third component of the ECLI.
Year of the court decision in the ‘YYYY’ format
Number of the court decision, consisting of four sub-components, the last of which is separated from the first three by a dot.
ECLI:BG:DC530:2017:20160100630.001
BG = Bulgaria
DC530 = Plovdiv Provincial Court
2017 = Year of court decision
20160100630.001 = First decision of the Plovdiv Provincial Court in a first-instance civil case with number 630 of 2016.
https://legalacts.justice.bg/ – Central web-based interface for the publication of case law
http://www.vks.bg/ – website of the Supreme Court of Cassation
http://www.sac.government.bg – website of the Supreme Administrative Court
______________________________
1 Court codes ‘000’, ‘001’ and ‘002’ are not included in Annex No 9 to the Rules on Administration in Courts, as the rules do not concern the administration of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court.
Code | Court |
CC000 | Constitutional Court |
SC001 | Supreme Court of Cassation |
SA002 | Supreme Administrative Court |
AP100 | Sofia Court of Appeal |
PA101 | Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal |
PC105 | Specialised Criminal Court |
DC110 | Sofia City Court |
RC111 | Sofia District Court |
DC120 | Blagoevgrad Provincial Court |
RC121 | Blagoevgrad District Court |
RC122 | Gotse Delchev District Court |
RC123 | Petrich District Court |
RC124 | Razlog District Court |
RC125 | Sandanski District Court |
DC130 | Vidin Provincial Court |
RC131 | Belogradchik District Court |
RC132 | Vidin District Court |
RC133 | Kula District Court |
DC140 | Vratsa Provincial Court |
RC141 | Byala Slatina District Court |
RC142 | Vratsa District Court |
RC143 | Knezha District Court |
RC144 | Kozloduy District Court |
RC145 | Mezdra District Court |
RC146 | Oryahovo District Court |
DC150 | Kyustendil Provincial Court |
RC151 | Dupnitsa District Court |
RC152 | Kyustendil District Court |
DC160 | Montana Provincial Court |
RC161 | Berkovitsa District Court |
RC162 | Lom District Court |
RC163 | Montana District Court |
DC170 | Pernik Provincial Court |
RC171 | Breznik District Court |
RC172 | Pernik District Court |
RC173 | Radomir District Court |
RC174 | Tran District Court |
DC180 | Sofia Provincial Court |
RC181 | Botevgrad District Court |
RC182 | Elin Pelin District Court |
RC183 | Etropole District Court |
RC184 | Ihtiman District Court |
RC185 | Kostinbrod District Court |
RC186 | Pirdop District Court |
RC187 | Samokov District Court |
RC188 | Svoge District Court |
RC189 | Slivnitsa District Court |
AP200 | Burgas Court of Appeal |
DC210 | Burgas Provincial Court |
RC211 | Aytos District Court |
RC212 | Burgas District Court |
RC213 | Karnobat District Court |
RC214 | Malko Tarnovo District Court |
RC215 | Nesebar District Court |
RC216 | Pomorie District Court |
RC217 | Sredets District Court |
RC218 | Tsarevo District Court |
DC220 | Sliven Provincial Court |
RC221 | Kotel District Court |
RC222 | Nova Zagora District Court |
RC223 | Sliven District Court |
DC230 | Yambol Provincial Court |
RC231 | Elhovo District Court |
RC232 | Topolovgrad District Court |
RC233 | Yambol District Court |
AP300 | Varna Court of Appeal |
DC310 | Varna Provincial Court |
RC311 | Varna District Court |
RC312 | Devnya District Court |
RC313 | Provadiya District Court |
DC320 | Dobrich Provincial Court |
RC321 | Balchik District Court |
RC322 | General Toshevo District Court |
RC323 | Dobrich District Court |
RC324 | Kavarna District Court |
RC325 | Tervel District Court |
DC330 | Razgrad Provincial Court |
RC331 | Isperih District Court |
RC332 | Kubrat District Court |
RC333 | Razgrad District Court |
DC340 | Silistra Provincial Court |
RC341 | Dulovo District Court |
RC342 | Silistra District Court |
RC343 | Tutrakan District Court |
DC350 | Targovishte Provincial Court |
RC351 | Omurtag District Court |
RC352 | Popovo District Court |
RC353 | Targovishte District Court |
DC360 | Shumen Provincial Court |
RC361 | Veliki Preslav District Court |
RC362 | Novi Pazar District Court |
RC363 | Shumen District Court |
AP400 | Veliko Tarnovo Court of Appeal |
DC410 | Veliko Tarnovo Provincial Court |
RC411 | Veliko Tarnovo District Court |
RC412 | Gorna Oryahovitsa District Court |
RC413 | Elena District Court |
RC414 | Pavlikeni District Court |
RC415 | Svishtov District Court |
DC420 | Gabrovo Provincial Court |
RC421 | Gabrovo District Court |
RC422 | Dryanovo District Court |
RC423 | Sevlievo District Court |
RC424 | Tryavna District Court |
DC430 | Lovech Provincial Court |
RC431 | Lovech District Court |
RC432 | Lukovit District Court |
RC433 | Teteven District Court |
RC434 | Troyan District Court |
DC440 | Pleven Provincial Court |
RC441 | Levski District Court |
RC442 | Nikopol District Court |
RC443 | Pleven District Court |
RC444 | Cherven Bryag District Court |
DC450 | Ruse Provincial Court |
RC451 | Byala District Court |
RC452 | Ruse District Court |
AP500 | Plovdiv Court of Appeal |
DC510 | Kardzhali Provincial Court |
RC511 | Ardino District Court |
RC513 | Krumovgrad District Court |
RC514 | Kardzhali District Court |
RC515 | Momchilgrad District Court |
DC520 | Pazardzhik Provincial Court |
RC521 | Velingrad District Court |
RC522 | Pazardzhik District Court |
RC523 | Panagyurishte District Court |
RC524 | Peshtera District Court |
DC530 | Plovdiv Provincial Court |
RC531 | Asenovrag District Court |
RC532 | Karlovo District Court |
RC533 | Plovdiv District Court |
RC534 | Parvomay District Court |
DC540 | Smolyan Provincial Court |
RC541 | Devin District Court |
RC542 | Zlatograd District Court |
RC543 | Madan District Court |
RC544 | Smolyan District Court |
RC545 | Chepelare District Court |
DC550 | Stara Zagora Provincial Court |
RC551 | Kazanlak District Court |
RC552 | Radnevo District Court |
RC553 | Stara Zagora District Court |
RC554 | Chirpan District Court |
RC555 | Galabovo District Court |
DC560 | Haskovo Provinicial Court |
RC561 | Dimitrovgrad District Court |
RC562 | Svilengrad District Court |
RC563 | Harmanli District Court |
RC564 | Haskovo District Court |
RC565 | Ivaylovgrad District Court |
MA600 | Military Court of Appeal |
MC610 | Sofia Military Court |
MC620 | Plovdiv Military Court |
MC630 | Varna Military Court (closed)* |
MC640 | Pleven Military Court (closed)* |
MC650 | Sliven Military Court |
AD701 | Sofia City Administrative Court |
AD702 | Sofia Province Administrative Court |
AD703 | Blagoevgrad Administrative Court |
AD704 | Burgas Administrative Court |
AD705 | Varna Administrative Court |
AD706 | Veliko Tarnovo Administrative Court |
AD707 | Vidin Administrative Court |
AD708 | Vratsa Administrative Court |
AD709 | Gabrovo Administrative Court |
AD710 | Dobrich Administrative Court |
AD711 | Kyustendil Administrative Court |
AD712 | Kardzhali Administrative Court |
AD713 | Lovech Administrative Court |
AD714 | Montana Administrative Court |
AD715 | Pazardzhik Administrative Court |
AD716 | Pernik Administrative Court |
AD717 | Pleven Administrative Court |
AD718 | Plovdiv Administrative Court |
AD719 | Razgrad Administrative Court |
AD720 | Ruse Administrative Court |
AD721 | Silistra Administrative Court |
AD722 | Sliven Administrative Court |
AD723 | Smolyan Administrative Court |
AD724 | Stara Zagora Administrative Court |
AD725 | Targovishte Administrative Court |
AD726 | Haskovo Administrative Court |
AD727 | Shumen Administrative Court |
AD728 | Yambol Administrative Court |
______________________________
* The Varna and Pleven Military Courts were closed in early 2014. However, these court codes are used in the ECLI of the court decisions published so far.
Code | Case type |
01 | First-instance civil case |
02 | First-instance criminal case |
03 | Notarial case |
04 | Enforcement case |
05 | Second-instance civil case |
06 | Second-instance criminal case |
07 | Administrative case |
08 | Company case |
09 | Commercial case |
10 | Second-instance commercial case |
11 | Second-instance company case |
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Supreme Court (Nejvyšší soud)
Burešova 571/20, Brno - Veveří, postcode: 657 37
Czech Republic
Telephone: +420 541 593 111
Fax: +420 541 213 493
Data box ID: kccaa9t
Email: podatelna@nsoud.cz (please put 'ECLI' in the subject line)
web: https://nsoud.cz/
Contacts:
Petra Polišenská, Michal Ježek (from 1 August 2022)
The ECLI identifier has been used in the Czech Republic since April 2012 to designate judgments of the Supreme Court (Nejvyšší soud) and since March 2014 to designate judgments of the Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud). The ECLI identifier is currently being implemented at high court and regional court levels. Judgments designated with the ECLI identifier are also searchable using the identifier on court websites (judgments of the Supreme Court at https://nsoud.cz/ and judgments of the Constitutional Court at http://nalus.usoud.cz/).
[CZ]: country code for the Czech Republic.
[NS]: Nejvyšší soud (Supreme Court of the Czech Republic).
[US]: Ústavní soud (Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic).
ECLI:CZ:NS:2012:[case number].1
[CZ] country code (CZ for the Czech Republic);
[NS]is the code of the court that issued the judgment (NS for the Supreme Court - Nejvyšší soud);
[2012] indicates the year the judgment was rendered;
[case number] does not contain spaces or forward slashes; these are replaced by full stops;
The number [1] is the ordinal number of a decision with the same case number.. Inclusion of the ordinal number ensures that the same ECLI identifier is not used to designate more than one judgment from one court in the same year.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The ECLI country code for Denmark is: [DK]
Information will be provided at a later stage.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The designated ECLI coordinator for Germany is:
The Federal Office of Justice (Bundesamt für Justiz)
Unit VII 1
Adenauerallee 99-103
53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel.: +49 228 99410-5801
Email: kompetenzzentrum-ris@bfj.bund.de
https://www.bundesjustizamt.de
In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht), the Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof), the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht), the Federal Social Court (Bundessozialgericht) and the courts of the Länder have introduced the ECLI into their databases of decisions. An ECLI is allocated to all decisions published on their respective websites since the ECLI was introduced. For details, see:
Federal Constitutional Court
http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de (there are plans to retroactively allocate ECLIs to all published decisions);
Federal Court of Justice
http://www.bundesgerichtshof.de (for decisions published on the website of the Federal Constitutional Court since 1 January 2016);
Federal Administrative Court
http://www.bundesverwaltungsgericht.de (for all decisions published on the website of the Federal Administrative Court);
Federal Fiscal Court
http://www.bundesfinanzhof.de (for decisions published on the website of the Federal Fiscal Court since 4 October 2016);
Federal Labour Court
http://www.bundesarbeitsgericht.de (for decisions dated after 1 January 2015);
Federal Social Court
http://www.bundessozialgericht.de (for decisions published on the website of the Federal Social Court since 1 January 2010);
courts of the Länder
http://www.justiz.de/onlinedienste/rechtsprechung/index.php.
You can also use the EU ECLI search engine to search for Federal Constitutional Court and Federal Administrative Court decisions to which an ECLI has been allocated.
General
ECLIs have five components. Each component is separated from the others by a colon. ECLIs allocated by Germany always start with ECLI (①) followed by DE for Germany (②). The third component, known as the court code (③), shows which court took the decision (e.g. BVerfG for the Federal Constitutional Court). The fourth component (④) indicates the year in which the decision was taken and consists of a four-digit sequence (in the format yyyy, e.g. 2016).
The courts generate the final component, known as the ordinal number (⑤ and upwards), according to their own individual rules. The court codes and ordinal numbers used by each court are explained separately below.
Federal Constitutional Court
The court code (③) is always BVerfG. The ordinal number consists of parts ⑤ to ⑨. The second-last and last parts are separated by a point. The exact components of the ordinal number are explained in detail below.
b | Finding that one or more parties have acted unconstitutionally |
c | Appeal against a ruling in an electoral dispute |
e | Dispute resolution proceedings between constitutional bodies |
f | Abstract judicial review |
g | Federal Government / Länder disputes |
h | Other disputes between the Federal Government and the Länder |
k | Disputes concerning the constitution of a Land |
l | Substantive judicial review |
m | Review of international law as Federal law |
n | Interpretation of the Basic Law following referral by the constitutional court of a Land |
p | Decisions on other matters referred to it by Federal Act |
q | Interim measures |
r | Constitutional complaints |
up | Full-court decisions |
vb | Complaints regarding judicial delay |
Example:
The ECLI for the decision of the Second Division of the Federal Constitutional Court of 1 March 2016 with file reference 2 BvB 1/13 is:
The additional character c indicates that this is the fourth decision with an otherwise identical ECLI.
The court code (③) is always BGH. The ordinal number consists of parts ⑤ to ⑧. Parts ⑦ and ⑧ are separated by a point. The exact components of the ordinal number are explained in detail below.
Example:
The ECLI for the ruling of the Second Criminal Division of the Federal Court of Justice of 15 March 2016 with file reference 2 StR 487/15 is:
The additional character 2 indicates that this is the third decision with an otherwise identical ECLI.
The court code (③) is always BVerwG. The ordinal number consists of parts ⑤ to ⑧. Parts ⑦ and ⑧ are separated by a point unless the file reference suffix D (judicial protection in the event of excessively long legal proceedings) has been assigned, in which case there is no point between the file reference (⑦) and the additional distinguishing character (⑧). The exact components of the ordinal number are explained in detail below.
Example:
The ECLI for the judgment of the Ninth Division of the Federal Administrative Court of 17 April 2002 with file reference 9 CN 1/01 is:
The court code (③) is always BFH. The ordinal number consists of parts ⑤ to ⑧. Each part is separated from the others by a point. The exact components of the ordinal number are explained in detail below.
VE | Request to the Court of Justice of the EU for a preliminary ruling |
VV | Submission to the Federal Constitutional Court |
BA | Ruling in proceedings for interim measures: application for suspension of enforcement [A1] and appeal against a decision to suspend enforcement [A2] |
B | Ruling, except where BA is to be assigned |
U | Judgment, legally binding court order, interlocutory order, etc. |
Example:
The ECLI for the judgment of the Tenth Division of the Federal Fiscal Court of 1 June 2016 with file reference X R 66/14 is:
The court code (③) is always BAG. The ordinal number consists of parts ⑤ to ⑧. Each part is separated from the others by a point. The exact components of the ordinal number are explained in detail below.
Example:
The ECLI for the judgment of the Tenth Division of the Federal Labour Court of 7 January 2015 with file reference 10 AZB 109/14 is:
The court code (③) is always BSG. The ordinal number consists of parts ⑤ to ⑧. The parts are not separated in any way. The exact components of the ordinal number are explained in detail below.
Example:
The ECLI for the judgment of the Third Division of the Federal Social Court of 25 January 2017 with file reference B 3 P 2/15 R is:
The admissible court codes (③) are listed in the attached table (52 KB). The ordinal number consists of parts ⑤ to ⑦. Each part is separated from the others by a point. The exact components of the ordinal number are explained in detail below.
Example:
The ECLI for the decision of the Sixth Grand Chamber for Economic Offences of Stuttgart Regional Court of 26 January 2015 with file reference 6 KLs 34 Js 2588/10 is:
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Since 2018 it has been possible to search Estonian case law that has been published and is in force by using ECLI, the European Case Law Identifier. It is easier and quicker to find Estonian case law using the identifier. The adoption of the ECLI also supports the implementation of open data policies. The ECLI has also been added to the metadata page for case law, which opens in the search results.
The ECLI has been added to all Supreme Court and county and district court case law since the second half of 2016.
Published case law has been given an ECLI since the second half of 2016, and the number is made up of five components separated by a colon (for example ECLI:EE:RK:2016:1.16.2798.84).
ECLI – European Case Law Identifier; EE – country identifier; RK – court identifier; 2016 – year of publication; 1.16.2798.84 – (e.g. 1-16-2798/84) in the number of the court case, the symbols ‘-’ and ‘/’ are replaced by dots and the sequential control number ‘84’ is added at the end.
The ECLI number can also be used as a URL and searches can be performed using the following logic (where ‘kohtulahendid’ means ‘case law’):
…/kohtulahendid/ecli/ECLI:EE – all case law with an ECLI
…/kohtulahendid/ecli/ECLI:EE:RK:2016 – all Supreme Court case law in 2016
…/kohtulahendid/ecli/ECLI:EE:RK:2016:1.16.2798.84 – a specific Supreme Court judgment
The court identifiers are as follows:
RK – Supreme Court
TLRK – Tallinn District Court
TRRK – Tartu District Court
TLHK – Tallinn Administrative Court
TRHK –Tartu Administrative Court
HMK – Harju County Court
PMK – Pärnu County Court
TMK – Tartu County Court
VMK – Viru County Court
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator is the Department of Justice.
The country code for Ireland is: [IE]
It is currently not possible to build an ECLI based on existing publicly available information. The exact form of the ECLI is still under consideration and has not been finalised.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Greece currently participates in the ECLI system, with the Council of State (Symvoúlio tis Epikrateías).
There is no unified electronic database containing all domestic court rulings.
There are several electronic case law databases on the web, relating to:
There are also private subscription databases.
For example:
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The National ECLI coordinator is CENDOJ (CENTRO DE DOCUMENTACION JUDICIAL), the Centre for Judicial Documentation, a technical body in Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary: cendoj.ecli@cgpj.es.
The code for Spain is: [ES]
The ECLI was introduced in Spain in November 2012.
This was possible because, since the start of the ECLI Project on 27 October 2011, case law in Spain already had a national identifier, called the ROJ (Repositorio Oficial de Jurisprudencia) - the Official Case Law Repository, which identifies the decisions handed down by all the Spanish courts, from the Courts of First Instance to the Supreme Court.
Through the website https://www.poderjudicial.es, we offer all citizens open access to the decisions handed down by all the Spanish courts, consisting of a total of 5 600 000 judgments, a number which increases every year. Judges/Senior Judges, Prosecutors and Court Clerks have access in a restricted environment with additional information and hyperlinks to the case law of the Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional), the European Court of Justice, as well as national and international legislation and doctrine: https://www.poderjudicial.es.
We currently maintain the ROJ national identifier - the Cendoj ID - as the official body for the dissemination of Spanish case law, and the ECLI at European level. On the e-justice portal, we therefore have, as of 2014, 2 500 000 decisions of the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo), the National High Court (Audiencia Nacional), the High Courts of Justice (Tribunales Superiores de Justicia) and Provincial Courts (Audiencias Provinciales), as well as a selection of judgments from the Courts of First Instance (Primera Instancia) that are of legal interest or have social impact. The number of decisions increases every day as they are uploaded into the system. The ECLI integration process was successfully completed in Spain, and we are currently a partner in the BO-ECLI project.
The ECLIs in Spain consist of the following fields:
EXAMPLES:
Where the ROJ is: the national case-law identifier.
1) *Judgment of the National High Court of 30 May 2014. Criminal Court, with ROJ SAN 2389/2014
The corresponding ECLI will be:
ECLI:ES:AN:2014:2389
2) *Judgment of the High Court of Justice of 15 April 2011. Appeals Chamber of Burgos, Autonomous Community of Castile-Leon, with ROJ: STSJ CL 782/2011
The corresponding ECLI will be:
ECLI:ES:TSJCL:2011:782
Order of the National High Court Chamber for Criminal Matters of 29 October 2015, with ROJ: ANN 199/2015
The corresponding ECLI will be:
ECLI:ES:AN:2015:199A
In Spain, the court code for the ECLI is represented using the acronym of the court that issued the judgment and which corresponds with that used in the judgment’s ROJ national identifier.
ACRONYM | NAME |
--------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
TS | Supreme Court |
AN | National High Court |
TSJAND | High Court of Justice of Andalusia |
TSJAR | High Court of Justice of Aragon |
TSJAS | High Court of Justice of Asturias |
TSJBAL | High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands |
TSJICAN | High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands |
TSJCANT | High Court of Justice of Cantabria |
TSJCL | High Court of Justice of Castile-Leon |
TSJ CLM | High Court of Justice of Castile-La Mancha |
TSJCAT | High Court of Justice of Catalonia |
TSJCV | High Court of Justice of the Community of Valencia |
TSJEXT | High Court of Justice of Extremadura |
TSJGAL | High Court of Justice of Galicia |
TSJLR | High Court of Justice of Rioja |
TSJMAD | High Court of Justice of Madrid |
TSJMU | High Court of Justice of Murcia |
TSJNAV | High Court of Justice of Navarre |
TSJPV | High Court of Justice of the Basque Country |
TSJCE | High Court of Justice of Ceuta |
TSJML | High Court of Justice of Melilla |
APVI | Provincial Court of Alava |
APAB | Provincial Court of Albacete |
APA | Provincial Court of Alicante |
APAL | Provincial Court of Almeria |
APAV | Provincial Court of Avila |
APBA | Provincial Court of Badajoz |
APIB | Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands |
APB | Provincial Court of Barcelona |
APBU | Provincial Court of Burgos |
APCC | Provincial Court of Caceres |
APCA | Provincial Court of Cadiz |
APCS | Provincial Court of Castellon |
APCR | Provincial Court of Ciudad Real |
APCO | Provincial Court of Cordoba |
APC | Provincial Court of A Coruña |
APCU | Provincial Court of Cuenca |
APGI | Provincial Court of Girona |
APGR | Provincial Court of Granada |
APGU | Provincial Court of Guadalajara |
APSS | Provincial Court of Guipuzcoa |
APH | Provincial Court of Huelva |
APHU | Provincial Court of Huesca |
APJ | Provincial Court of Jaen |
APLE | Provincial Court of Leon |
APL | Provincial Court of Lleida |
APLO | Provincial Court of Rioja |
APLU | Provincial Court of Lugo |
APM | Provincial Court of Madrid |
APMA | Provincial Court of Malaga |
APMU | Provincial Court of Murcia |
APNA | Provincial Court of Navarre |
APOU | Provincial Court of Ourense |
APO | Provincial Court of Asturias |
APP | Provincial Court of Palencia |
APGC | Provincial Court of Las Palmas |
APPO | Provincial Court of Pontevedra |
APSA | Provincial Court of Salamanca |
APTF | Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife |
APS | Provincial Court of Cantabria |
APSG | Provincial Court of Segovia |
APSE | Provincial Court of Seville |
APSO | Provincial Court of Soria |
APT | Provincial Court of Tarragona |
APTE | Provincial Court of Teruel |
APTO | Provincial Court of Toledo |
APV | Provincial Court of Valencia |
APVA | Provincial Court of Valladolid |
APBI | Provincial Court of Vizcaya |
APZA | Provincial Court of Zamora |
APZ | Provincial Court of Zaragoza |
APCE | Provincial Court of Ceuta |
APML | Provincial Court of Melilla |
JPII | Court of First Instance and Local Criminal Court |
JPI | Court of First Instance |
JI | Local Criminal Court |
JSO | Social Affairs Court |
JCA | Administrative Appeals Court |
JM | Commercial Court |
JVM | Court for Violence against Women |
JP | Criminal Court |
JVP | Court with special duties in the matter of criminal sentences |
JME | Juvenile Court |
JF | Family Court |
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The Office of Legal and Administrative Information (Direction de l’information légale et administrative (DILA)) has been designated as the national ECLI coordinator for France by the General Secretariat of the Government.
The country code for France is: [FR]
The French supreme courts covered by the ECLI system are:
ECLIs are made up of five components, the first two of which are constants for a Member State:
ECLI:FR:{Court_code}:{year when decision was rendered}:{ordinal number}
Each of the three courts has adopted a court code and rules for creating an ordinal number.
The year in which the decision was handed down is always made up of four numerical characters (in the format YYYY, for example 2012).
The court code is always CC.
The generic form of an ECLI is therefore:
ECLI:FR:CC:{year of decision}:{ordinal number}
The ordinal number is in two parts, separated by a full stop:
For example:
the ECLI for the decision of Friday 27 July 2012 No 2012-270 QPC would be ECLI:FR:CC:2012:2012.270.QPC.
The court code is always CCASS.
The generic form of an ECLI is therefore:
ECLI:FR:CCASS:{year of decision}:{ordinal number}
The ordinal number is made up of two elements, written without a break:
AP | Assemblée plénière (Full Court) |
AV | Avis (Opinion) |
C1 | Première chambre civile (First Civil Division) |
C2 | Deuxième chambre civile (Second Civil Division) |
C3 | Troisième chambre civile (Third Civil Division) |
CO | Chambre commerciale (Commercial Division) |
CR | Chambre criminelle (Criminal Division) |
MI | Chambre mixte (Joint Bench) |
OR | Ordonnance du premier président (Order of the President) |
SO | Chambre sociale (Social Division) |
The code is based on the use of an internal administration number, which itself has eight characters:
a one-character code identifying the division of the court;
two digits for the year of the decision;
a five-digit serial number running within that year for the division of the court in question.
Example: the appeal number of the judgment of the Court of Cassation, Criminal Division, of 27 February 2013, is 12-81.063 and the administration number is C1300710. The first part of the ordinal number of this judgment will be CR, for the Criminal Division.
In our example, the second part of the ordinal number will be 00710. Altogether, the ECLI of the judgment handed down by the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation on 27 February 2013, under the appeal number 12-81063, will be ECLI:FR:CCASS:2013:CR00710.
The Council of State uses a court code which identifies the type of division of the court: the root CE is followed without a break by a number of letters as shown below:
Assemblée (Assembly of Presiding Judges) | CEASS |
Ordonnance (Order) | CEORD |
Section du contentieux (Disputes Division) | CESEC |
Sous-section jugeant seule (Subdivision ruling alone) | CESJS |
Sous-sections réunies (Subdivisions sitting together) | CESSR |
Chambre jugeant seule (Chamber ruling alone) | CECHS |
Chambres réunies (Chambers sitting together) | CECHR |
The code CE is not used on its own.
The generic form is therefore:
ECLI:FR:CE…:{year of the decision}:{ordinal number}
The ordinal number is also made up of two parts, separated by a full stop:
For example:
the ECLI of Council of State decision No 355099 of 1 March 2013, delivered by the third and eighth subdivisions sitting together, would be: ECLI:FR:CESSR:2013:355099.20130301
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
On 18 January 2017 the Republic of Croatia started to apply the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) to court decisions in the database of case law which is kept at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia (Vrhovni sud Republike Hrvatske), and which could previously be consulted only on the Supreme Court's website. The fact that all publicly available court decisions are given an ECLI means that they are publicly available through the search engine of the European e-Justice Portal – ESE EEJP. This makes it easy for citizens and legal practitioners from other EU Member States to search the database for decisions of Croatian courts, and for Croatian citizens and legal practitioners to consult decisions of courts of other Member States.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator has not yet been appointed. For the time being the Ministry of Justice’s Directorate‑General for Automated Information Systems (DGSIA) is acting as coordinator.
The country code for Italy is: [IT].
As part of the current pilot phase activities, a proposal for the introduction of ECLI is being drawn up. More particularly, rules are being drawn up on the composition of the ordinal number for case-law documents, as stipulated in the ECLI standard, using a set of accessible metadata in order to guarantee that each identification number is unique.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator is the Department of Legal Publications - email: publicationsc@sc.judicial.gov.cy
The country code for Cyprus is: [CY]
The exact format of the ECLI is still under consideration and is yet to be decided.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The National ECLI coordinator is the Courts Administration (Tiesu administrācija).
Contact e-mail: pasts@ta.gov.lv
The country code of Latvia is: [LV]
In Latvia, ECLI was introduced in September 2017. ECLI is attributed to all court rulings registered in the Court Information System, except for rulings adopted in the form of resolutions and decisions by investigating judges. Publicly available rulings are published on the website https://www.elieta.lv/web/.
ECLI:LV:AAAAAAA:BBBB:CCDD.E12345678.90.FF, where
ECLI is an invariable designation of the European Case Law Identifier;
LV is an invariable country code: international code of the Republic of Latvia;
AAAAAAA court code;
BBBB year of the ruling;
CCDD.E12345678.90 consecutive number of the ruling, where
CC two digits of the month the ruling was adopted;
DD two digits of the day the ruling was adopted;
E12345678 case number or, where there is no case number, the archive number or file number of the application;
90 sequential number of the ruling within the case or in the context of examining a claim, if there is no case number;
FF type of ruling (RS (assignments sitting), L (decision), S (judgment), BL (incidental ruling).
For example: Ruling ECLI:LV:RAT:2016:1201.C28087609.1.S (where ECLI stands for the European Case Law Identifier, LV is the international code of the Republic of Latvia, RAT is the code of the regional court of Riga (Rīgas apgabaltiesa), 2016 is the year of the ruling, 1201 is the date of the ruling (1 December), C28087609 is the case number in accordance with the procedure set out in this chapter; 1 is the sequential number of the ruling, and S means the type of ruling is a judgment).
Court code | Title |
AT | Supreme Court (Augstākā Tiesa) |
KUAT | Kurzeme Regional Court (Kurzemes apgabaltiesa) |
LAAT | Latgale Regional Court (Latgales apgabaltiesa) |
RAT | Riga Regional Court (Rīgas apgabaltiesa) |
VAT | Vidzeme Regional Court (Vidzemes apgabaltiesa) |
ZAT | Zemgale Regional Court (Zemgales apgabaltiesa) |
ADRJJTN | District Administrative Court (Administratīvā rajona tiesa), Jelgava Courthouse (Jelgavas tiesu nams) |
ADRJLTN | District Administrative Court (Administratīvā rajona tiesa), Liepāja Courthouse (Liepājas tiesu nams) |
ADRJRTN | District Administrative Court (Administratīvā rajona tiesa), Rēzekne Courthouse (Rēzeknes tiesu nams) |
ADRJRIT | District Administrative Court (Administratīvā rajona tiesa), Riga Courthouse (Rīgas tiesu nams) |
ADRJVTN | District Administrative Court (Administratīvā rajona tiesa), Valmiera Courthouse (Valmieras tiesu nams) |
AIRT | Aizkraukle District Court (Aizkraukles rajona tiesa) |
ALRT | Alūksne District Court (Alūksnes rajona tiesa) |
BSRT | Bauska District Court (Bauskas rajona tiesa) |
CERT | Cēsis District Court (Cēsu rajona tiesa) |
DAUT | Daugavpils City Court (Daugavpils tiesa) |
DORT | Dobele District Court (Dobeles rajona tiesa) |
GURT | Gulbene District Court (Gulbenes rajona tiesa) |
JELT | Jelgava City Court (Jelgavas tiesa) |
JERT | Jēkabpils District Court (Jēkabpils rajona tiesa) |
KURT | Kuldīga District Court (Kuldīgas rajona tiesa) |
LIET | Liepāja City Court (Liepājas tiesa) |
LIRT | Limbaži District Court (Limbažu rajona tiesa) |
MART | Madona District Court (Madonas rajona tiesa) |
OGRT | Ogre District Court (Ogres rajona tiesa) |
REZT | Rēzekne City Court (Rēzeknes tiesa) |
RPT | Riga City Court (Rīgas pilsētas tiesa) |
RLPT | City of Riga Latgale District Court (Rīgas pilsētas Latgales priekšpilsētas tiesa) |
RVPT | City of Riga Vidzeme District Court (Rīgas pilsētas Vidzemes priekšpilsētas tiesa) |
RZRT | City of Riga Northern District Court (Rīgas pilsētas Ziemeļu rajona tiesa) |
RIRT | Riga District Court (Rīgas rajona tiesa) |
SART | Saldus District Court (Saldus rajona tiesa) |
SIRT | Sigulda City Court (Siguldas tiesa) |
TART | Talsi District Court (Talsu rajona tiesa) |
TURT | Tukums District Court (Tukuma rajona tiesa) |
VART | Valka District Court (Valkas rajona tiesa) |
VLRT | Valmiera District Court (Valmieras rajona tiesa) |
VENT | Ventspils City Court (Ventspils tiesa) |
ELT | Economic Court (Ekonomisko Lietu Tiesas) |
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator is the National Courts Administration, L.Sapiegos gatvė 15, LT-10312 Vilnius, Lithuania. Phone: +370 5 266 29 81, e-mail: info@teismai.lt.
The country code for Lithuania is [LT].
The ECLI is not yet in use in Lithuania.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Luxembourg is currently looking into the possibility of implementing the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI).
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
In Hungary at present there are no plans for the introduction of ECLI.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator is Courts of Malta (courts.csa@courtservices.mt).
The country code for Malta is: [MT]
In Malta the ECLI number cannot be built from the case judgment details available to the public user. It is automatically generated at the time the judgment is entered in the court system.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator is the Council for the Judiciary (Raad voor de rechtspraak). You can contact the coordinator at the following email address: kennissystemen@rechtspraak.nl
The country code for the Netherlands is: [NL]
The ECLI was introduced in the Netherlands on 28 June 2013. An ECLI can be allocated to:
Regardless of whether the decision itself is published on one of the two websites referred to above, all Dutch ECLIs, together with at least the name of the body that delivered the decision, the date of the decision and the case number, can be found on rechtspraak.nl.
Where known, publication references are also given for any reports of the decision in journals or databases. Dutch ECLIs are made up of the following:
The Netherlands has a large number of law courts. The codes of the most important Dutch courts are listed in the table below.
Highest Courts | |
HR | Hoge Raad (Supreme Court) |
PHR | Parket bij de Hoge Raad (Supreme Court Public Prosecutor's Office) (Advocate-General) |
RVS | Raad van State (Council of State) |
CRVB | Centrale Raad van Beroep (Court of last instance in social security matters) |
CBB | College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven (Administrative court of last instance in matters of trade and industry) |
Courts of Appeal (Appelgerechten) | |
GHAMS | Gerechtshof Amsterdam |
GHARL | Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden |
GHDHA | Gerechtshof Den Haag |
GHSHE | Gerechtshof 's-Hertogenbosch |
District courts (Rechtbanken) | |
RBAMS | Rechtbank Amsterdam |
RBDHA | Rechtbank Den Haag |
RBGEL | Rechtbank Gelderland |
RBLIM | Rechtbank Limburg |
RBMNE | Rechtbank Midden-Nederland |
RBNHO | Rechtbank Noord-Holland |
RBNNE | Rechtbank Noord-Nederland |
RBOBR | Rechtbank Oost-Brabant |
RBOVE | Rechtbank Overijssel |
RBROT | Rechtbank Rotterdam |
RBZWB | Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant |
A full list of Dutch court codes, in alphabetical order, is available here. Bodies no longer in existence are indicated as ‘abolished’ (opgeheven).
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Federal Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs [Bundesministerium für Digitalisierung und Wirtschaftsstandort]
Digitales und E-Government - Programm- und Projektmanagement (Abt. III/5) [e-Government - Programme and project management (Department I/5)]
Stubenring 1
A-1010 Vienna
Helmut Weichsel
Tel.: (+43 1) 53115/204211
Fax: (+43 1) 53109/204211
E-Mail: helmut.weichsel@bmdw.gv.at
ECLI country code for Austria: [AT]
An ECLI is assigned when decisions of the following courts and authorities are published on the internet.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
For the time being Poland does not have any plans concerning implementation of the European Case Law Identifier.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Address: Rua Duque de Palmela No 23, 1250-097 Lisbon – Portugal
Telephone: +351 213 220 020
Fax: +351 213 474 09 918
Email: csm@csm.org.pt
Website: https://www.csm.org.pt/
The country code for Portugal is: [PT].
Portugal’s introduction of the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) was completed in November 2018, as part of a project co-financed by the European Union through the Justice Programme 2014-2020 of the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST). This was a joint initiative of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (Conselho Superior da Magistratura) and the Institute for Financial and Estate Management of Judicial Services (Instituto de Gestão Financeira e Equipamentos da Justiça).
The ECLI currently covers judgments of the higher courts:
The website https://jurisprudencia.csm.org.pt/ provides access to a new search engine for national case-law using the ECLI.
The ECLI in Portugal is made up the following components:
Each component is separated by a colon.
Example of a Portuguese ECLI:
The identifier ECLI:PT:TRC:2017:198.15.3GCACB.C1, corresponds to a judgment handed down in Portugal (PT), by the Coimbra Court of Appeal (TRC), in 2017, in case No 198/15.3GCACB.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The Ministry of Justice is the national ECLI coordinator – dti@just.ro
The Country Code for Romania is [RO]
ECLI was introduced in Romanian courts at the end of 2015.
The ECLI is automatically assigned, using the electronic case management system (ECRIS), to judgments handed down since 2007 by the courts (High Court of Cassation and Justice, appeal courts, tribunals and district courts). For judgments handed down after 15 December 2015, ECLI also appears in paper format.
At the moment there is no online database of national case law base connected to the ECLI search engine within the e-Justice Portal. However, there is a database in which all judgments handed down by Romanian courts in 2010 are taken from the ECRIS system and published in anonymised form - ROLII, currently under development.
In Romania the ECLI code consists of:
Example:
The ECLI code assigned to a judgment delivered by District Court of Bucharest 4 could look like this: ECLI:RO:JDS4B:2017:001.004053, where ‘JDS4B’ is the court code, ‘2017’ – the year of the judgment, ‘001’ – the internal number of the corresponding electronic register in the ECRIS system and ‘004053’ is the judgment number.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator for Slovenia is:
Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia
Registry Department,
Tavčarjeva 9,
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
Contact email: ecli.vsrs@sodisce.si
Contact person: Gregor Strojin
The country code for Slovenia is: [SI]
On 1 October 2011, Slovenia introduced an ECLI as an integral part of all existing documents published in the case law databases of its courts. All new documents which are entered into case-law databases also receive an ECLI. An ECLI will also be included in all new judicial decisions in the near future.
All ECLIs are created automatically on the basis of the existing data.
All known private publishers of case law documents have been informed about the ECLI, and most of them have already assigned an ECLI to published documents.
Court codes:
VSRS: Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia (Vrhovno sodišče Republike Slovenije)
USRS: Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia (Ustavno sodišče Republike Slovenije)
VSCE: Higher Court in Celje (Višje sodišče v Celju)
VSKP: Higher Court in Koper (Višje sodišče v Kopru)
VSLJ: Higher Court in Ljubljana (Višje sodišče v Ljubljani)
VSMB: Higher Court in Maribor (Višje sodišče v Mariboru)
UPRS: Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia (Upravno sodišče Republike Slovenije)
VDSS: Higher Labour and Social Court (Višje delovno in socialno sodišče)
Note: Court codes consist of four letters. The list of participating courts currently only applies to appellate courts, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, whose decisions are already published in national case law databases. Other courts and institutions will be added in the near future.
Year of decision:
The year in which the decision was issued is used (YYYY entry).
Reference number:
The regular ordinal number (hereinafter: RON), e.g. II Ips 123/2005) of a particular court (datafield: Odločba (=decision)) is used as the basis for the formation of the ECLI ordinal number (hereinafter: EON).
Other words (e.g. Sodba, Sklep, etc.) which may be part of the field Odločba are not considered part of RON and are to be omitted/deleted in the formation of EON.
The year, which is a part of RON, remains part of the new EON.
As regular ordinal numbers include signs such as dashes, slashes or empty spaces, each one of these is to be replaced by a period sign within the ECLI format (e.g. II Ips 123/2005 becomes II.Ips.123.2005; I K 123456/2010 becomes I.K.123456.2010, etc.).
The general rules for EON are subject to the exceptions defined in special cases below.
Special cases:
A: Where one joint decision lists two or more RONs, only the first RON is used for the formation of the ECLI. ‘.A’ is to be added at the end of EON in such cases. Other RONs can be accessed through document metadata.
Example:
Sodba II Ips 49/2008 and II Ips 28/2011
then the ECLI is:
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2008:II.IPS.49.2008.A
B: Where a decision uses only one RON which is similar to a number of other decisions with different RONs, the others have not been added to the case law databases. The first RON is used for the creation of the ECLI, and the others are mentioned as ‘same as’ in the metadata. The remaining RONs are used to create ECLIs which are listed in the database as relating to similar decisions.
Example:
Sodba VIII Ips 432/2009, same as VIII Ips 50/2009 and VIII Ips 448/2009, VIII Ips 28/2009
then ECLI is:
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2009:VIII.IPS.432.2009,
same as:
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2009:VIII.IPS.50.2009
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2009:VIII.IPS.448.2009
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2009:VIII.IPS.28.2009
Users searching for any of these ECLIs will be directed to the same document.
C: In the past there were instances where RON of the same court could be duplicated, because the institution operated at different branches and did not have a centralized case management system (e.g. UPRS). The exact branch is identified in the metadata of a document. In such cases a ‘.letter’ combination representing the branch is to be added at the end of EON, based on the following classification:
Celje: .C
Ljubljana: .L
Nova Gorica: .G
Maribor: .M
D: Some penal (criminal law) documents in the SOVS database of the Supreme Court use two RONs in the field ‘Odločba’. The first uses the ordinal number (in the form -NN), while the other is included in brackets ( ). The reason for this is a double registration of cases during a transition phase for the introduction of a computerised criminal case management system.
In these cases only the first RON is used for the creation of the ECLI, to which the ordinal number of the case is added after the year. The other RON mentioned in brackets is discarded and does not form part of the ECLI.
Example:
Sodba I Ips 3248/2009-39 (I Ips 10/2010)
then the ECLI is:
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2009:I.IPS.3248.2009.39
E: In some cases several documents of the same court use the same RON, for example interim measures and final decisions. In these cases, a number is added for the purpose of EON creation. The first decision (according to date of issue) does not have a numerical addendum. The next one receives addendum ‘.1’, the subsequent one ‘.2’, etc. Addenda are assigned automatically based on the date when the document was issued.
Example:
Sklep G 6/2011 (note: duplicated in a number of documents)
then the ECLIs are:
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2011:G.6.2011
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2011:G.6.2011.1
ECLI:SI:VSRS:2011:G.6.2011.2
etc.
Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia (Vrhovno sodišče RS)
Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia (Ustavno sodišče RS)
Case law of the Constitutional Court (Sodna praksa Ustavnega sodišča RS)
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
The national ECLI coordinator is the Informatics and Project Management Section of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic – e-mail: ecli@justice.sk
The country code for the Slovak Republic is: [SK]
An ECLI code is generated when a judgment is delivered. Only judgments delivered after 25 July 2011 are given an ECLI number. If a judgment delivered before 25 July 2011 is appealed after 25 July 2011, this and all other judgments in that file are also given an ECLI code.
Example of an ECLI code for the Slovak Republic:
ECLI:SK:OSBA1:2011:0123456789.123
OSBA1 = abbreviation for the court
2011 = year
0123456789 = IČS (file identification number)
123 = serial number of judgment in the file
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Finland will use the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) in all case law databases in Finlex, the national legal databank.
The national ECLI coordinator is Aki Hietanen at the Finnish Ministry of Justice. E-mail address: finlex@om.fi.
The country code for Finland is [FI].
Finland will use the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) in all case law databases in Finlex, the national legal databank. Use of the identifier was initially tested on the case law databases of the Finnish Supreme Court (korkein oikeus) and the Supreme Administrative Court (korkein hallinto-oikeus). The identifier will also be used in the databases of the Courts of Appeal (hovioikeudet), the administrative courts (hallinto-oikeudet) and the special courts (erityistuomioistuimet). In 2017, metadata in the judgments will be enriched with ECLI metadata. Metadata from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative are already being used in Finlex’s case law databases.
The ECLI is also used in Finlex’s case law literature database, which contains references to court decisions from Finnish legal literature since 1926. Case law consists of judgments of, among others, the Finnish Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, the Courts of Appeal, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Generation of the national ECLI
Supreme Court: ECLI:FI:KKO:2017:21
Supreme Administrative Court: ECLI:FI:KKO:2017:63
- for case summaries: ECLI:FI:KHO:2010:T3764
Courts of Appeal:
Administrative courts:
Insurance Court (Vakuutusoikeus) – ECLI:FI:VAKO:2016:3003
Labour Court (Työtuomioistuin) – ECLI:FI:TT:2016:128
Market Court (Markkinaoikeus) – ECLI:FI:MAO:2010:595
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
Sweden is not yet in a position to implement ECLI.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
While no final decision on whether to implement the European Case Law Identifier has yet been made, the United Kingdom is considering options.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
While no final decision on whether to implement the European Case Law Identifier has yet been made, the United Kingdom is considering options.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.
While no final decision on whether to implement the European Case Law Identifier has yet been made, the United Kingdom is considering options.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.