Abstract:
Ignorance of law excuses no one, according to a quoted adage. Indeed, law is fully available and accessible in Official Gazettes by the general public. On the contrary, Court Decisions (CDs) are not as readily available for several reasons. Access to CDs involves many aspects, such as judicial transparency, data governance, right of the defence and access to public data. The lack of a complete European regulation on the topic implies that every EU Member State provides rules on access to CDs in an autonomous fashion. To draft a European context on the topic, a questionnaire has been sent to each institution involved in access to CDs, such as Ministries of Justice, Judiciary Offices, Judge Associations and Supreme Courts, in order to ask them how access to CDs is managed in the EU. The paper presents the results of the survey.