National case law

Bulgaria

This section provides an overview of Bulgarian case law as well as descriptions of and links to the relevant case law databases.

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Bulgaria

Justice is administered by the Supreme Court of Cassation, the Supreme Administrative Court, the courts of appeal, the regional courts, the military courts and the district courts. Convictions and decisions are stored in the information databases of the relevant courts, both on paper and in electronic form.

The Supreme Court of Cassation is the supreme judicial instance in criminal, commercial and civil cases. Under Article 124 of the Constitution of Bulgaria, the Supreme Court of Cassation exercises supreme judicial oversight over the accurate and uniform application of the law by all courts. Its jurisdiction covers the whole of Bulgaria.

The Supreme Administrative Court exercises supreme judicial oversight over the accurate and uniform application of the law by the administrative courts.

The Supreme Administrative Court has jurisdiction over:

  1. challenges to statutory regulations, excluding those issued by municipal councils;
  2. challenges to acts of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers issued in the exercise of their constitutional leadership and governance powers; in the cases provided for by law and where those authorities have delegated their powers to the officials concerned, administrative acts issued by them are challenged before the relevant administrative court;
  3. challenges to decisions of the Supreme Judicial Council;
  4. challenges to acts of the Bulgarian National Bank and its bodies;
  5. appeals in cassation and appeals against decisions issued at first instance;
  6. appeals by parties to proceedings against rulings and orders;
  7. applications for final judicial decisions in administrative cases to be overturned;
  8. challenges to other acts specified by law.

Case law available on the website

The Supreme Administrative Court has had a website since the beginning of 2002. The site was created to meet the needs of natural persons, legal persons and administrative bodies requiring easy access to information on the judicial activity of the Court.

Case law is available on the Court’s website. Access to the database is subject to standard registration open to all (username and password).

The Supreme Court of Cassation has a website providing direct access to the information database of the Supreme Court.

Presentation of decisions / Titles

Supreme Administrative Court

There are no titles/headings on the internet that link to decisions or other activities of the Supreme Administrative Court. Acts are published together with their number, date of issue and the number of the case to which they relate, for example:

Decision No 5908 of 23.06.2005 in Case No 4242/2005

Supreme Court of Cassation

Decisions are issued on paper and published in the Bulletin, the Yearbook and on the website of the Supreme Court of Cassation of Bulgaria.

You can search by: Court and the names of the parties to the case; case number registered with the Supreme Court of Cassation; case number in the division of the Supreme Court of Cassation.

The full text of decisions issued since 1 October 2008 (with personal data deleted) is available via a link at the bottom of the ‘search result’ page.

News and press releases from the Supreme Court of Cassation of Bulgaria are regularly published in the press releases section of the website of the Supreme Court. Decisions in cases of major public interest are published in this section as well as in the information database of the Supreme Court of Cassation.

Formats

Supreme Administrative Court

Case law is available on the Supreme Administrative Court’s website in HTML format.

Supreme Court of Cassation

Case law is available on the Supreme Court of Cassation’s website in PDF format.

Courts

Further proceedings


Supreme Courts - Supreme Administrative Court and Supreme Court of Cassation

Other courts

Is information also available on:

  • appeals?

Yes

Yes

  • whether a case is still pending?

Yes

Yes

  • the results of appeals?

Yes

Yes

  • the irrevocability of decisions?

Yes

Yes

  • other proceedings before:

other national courts (Constitutional Court, etc.)

the Court of Justice of the European Union

the European Court of Human Rights?

Not applicable

Not applicable


Publication rules


At national level

At court level

Are there binding rules for the publication of case law?

Yes - Article 64(1) of the Judicial System Act

Yes



Supreme Courts

Other courts

Is full case law published or a selection thereof?

Supreme Administrative Court and Supreme Court of Cassation - full case law

Full case law / only a selection thereof

What criteria are used to make the selection?

Not applicable

Not applicable

Last update: 20/08/2021

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