It is the responsibility of the Court of Justice to ensure that the law is observed in the interpretation and application of the Treaties establishing the European Communities and of the provisions laid down by the competent Community institutions. To enable it to carry out that task, the Court has wide jurisdiction to hear various types of action. The Court has competence, inter alia, to rule on applications for annulment or actions for failure to act brought by a Member State or an institution, actions against Member States for failure to fulfil obligations, references for a preliminary ruling and appeals against decisions of the General Court.

The texts and information contained in the internet site of the Court of Justice of the European Union are available free of charge for the purposes of public information.

The electronic versions of the judgments of the Court of Justice and of the General Court and the Opinions of the Advocates General reproduced on this site are from the web site of the Court of Justice of the European Union site. These electronic versions are not authentic and are subject to amendment. The definitive version of these texts is published in the "Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the General Court" which alone are authentic and, in the event of their differing from the electronic version, are alone to be regarded as authoritative.

The ECJ judgments available on this site and on the Court of Justice of the European Union site may be reproduced provided that the source is acknowledged as the Court of Justice of the European Union site. Readers should be aware that certain parts of such information and texts might be protected under intellectual property law, in particular by copyright.

Links to the pages on the site of the Court of Justice of the European Union are permitted provided that:

- the browser window does not contain any information other than that of the page of the site of the Court of Justice of the European Union to which the link is made and its address;

- none of the information provided on site of the Court of Justice of the European Union is modified.