Write your prompt in any language, but think in topics rather than citations. Libra distils your question into a handful of English keywords and matches them against document titles and text, so *data protection consent* finds the case law where *Article 6 GDPR 2016/679* finds nothing.
## What it covers
By default Libra searches all of EUR-Lex without restriction, and narrows to a single collection only when your question clearly calls for one.
Case law is the collection most matters need:
| Decision type | Description |
| ------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Preliminary rulings** (Art. 267 TFEU) | References from national courts on EU law interpretation. |
| **Direct actions** | Annulment, failure to act, damages, staff cases. |
| **Infringement proceedings** (Art. 258/259 TFEU) | Commission v. Member State actions. |
| **Appeals** | From the General Court to the Court of Justice. |
| **Opinions** | Court Opinions on draft international agreements, and the opinions of the Advocates General. |
Alongside case law, the same source reaches **EU legislation** (regulations, directives and decisions in force), **consolidated versions** of amended acts, the **treaties**, **international agreements** with third countries, **preparatory acts** from the legislative pipeline, **parliamentary questions**, and EUR-Lex's **EEA and EFTA** material. It also reaches past the EU institutions: EUR-Lex indexes **national transposition measures**, the Member State laws notified as implementing a directive, along with **national case law** applying EU law and the **JURE** collection on jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
Coverage of the Court's own case law runs back to its first judgments in the 1950s.
Nearly every EUR-Lex document carries a **CELEX** number (sector 6 is case law), and that is the identifier Libra works with: search results come back as titles plus CELEX numbers, and each citation in the answer is labelled with the CELEX number of the document behind it, or with the document's title where EUR-Lex returns no CELEX. Libra does not search or cite by ECLI.
## Languages
EUR-Lex publishes in all 24 official EU languages, and Libra reaches all of them, though not quite in the way you would expect.
Your search terms always go to EUR-Lex **in English**, whatever language you wrote your prompt in: the EUR-Lex search engine is queried in English, and Libra translates your terms on the way in. What your own language controls is which documents come back, because Libra restricts the results to documents that exist in the language you are working in.
Retrieval then falls back rather than failing. If a document turns out to have no usable text in the language you are working in, Libra fetches the English version instead of returning nothing; and where there is no usable HTML at all, it falls back to the PDF.
## Practice areas covered well
EU competition and State aid, internal market and the four freedoms, **GDPR and data protection**, consumer protection, VAT and customs, IP (trade marks, SPCs), public procurement, asylum and migration, sanctions.
## Landmark judgments worth knowing
* **Van Gend en Loos**: direct effect of EU law.
* **Costa v ENEL**: primacy of EU law.
* **Cassis de Dijon**: mutual recognition.
* **Francovich**: Member State liability.
* **Schrems I and II**: international data transfers.
* **Achmea**: intra-EU bilateral investment treaties.
* **Google Spain**: right to be forgotten.
## What you can ask
* *"Has the CJEU ruled on whether a national licensing requirement is compatible with the freedom to provide services?"*
* *"What is the CJEU's line on the standing of competitors in State aid actions?"*
* *"Summarise where the case law on international transfers of personal data stands after Schrems II."*
* *"Which Member State measures were notified as transposing the Whistleblower Protection Directive?"*
* *"Give me the consolidated text of the GDPR alongside the case law on the legitimate-interest ground."*
## Setup
None. European Union Case Law is **Included** with every Libra subscription, so there is nothing to connect in **Settings → Integrations**. Click **Research** in the composer, tick **European Union** under **Jurisdictions**, and switch on **European Union Case Law** — it sits in that jurisdiction alongside the **Unified Patent Court**. Like every research source other than **Web Search**, it is off until you switch it on.
## Tips