CELEX – Introduction

The CELEX (Communitatis Europeae Lex) group of databases, on which the CELEX databases on Justis are based, is the computerised documentation system for European Union law that is used by all of the institutions that make up the Union. It was originally intended only for in-house use by EU institutions and EU civil servants, but has been available to the public since 1981.

The CELEX databases include the full text of most documents.

The CELEX databases are updated weekly.

The CELEX databases include many types of documents; coverage of some documents starts from 1951, but others have been added more recently:

Document type	Start of coverage
Legislation	1951
Judgments and orders	1951
Treaties	1953
Written parliamentary questions	1963
Opinions of Advocate-General	1965 (full text from 1987)
Oral parliamentary questions	1973
European Parliament resolutions	1974
Economic and Social Committee opinions	1975
Questions at Question Time	1975
Court of Auditors opinions	1977
Parliamentary documents	1979 (July)
Commission proposals	1984 (full text from 1996)

More information about the CELEX database