How to cite a Spanish court ruling: Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, Audiencias and CJEU, with ECLI and ROJ

This guide explains how to write the reference, not what the judgments say, and it is for Spain: those of other countries (a Latin American supreme court, for example) follow their own rules. For legislation, see how to cite a law or an article of a law.

What details go in the citation of a judgment?

The citation of a judgment carries the details that let anyone find it with no margin for error. Almost all of them are in the header that CENDOJ, the documentation centre of the Spanish judiciary, puts on every decision: ROJ, ECLI, court, seat, section, date, appeal number, decision number, procedure, reporting judge and type. How to reach that header, in the CENDOJ case-law search engine step by step.

The abbreviations are in appendix 2 of the Libro de estilo de la Justicia (the style guide of the Spanish justice system, by the RAE and the CGPJ): STS (judgment of the Tribunal Supremo, the Supreme Court), STC (of the Tribunal Constitucional, the Constitutional Court), SAN (of the Audiencia Nacional, the National High Court), STSJ (of a tribunal superior de justicia, a regional High Court of Justice), SAP (of an audiencia provincial, a provincial court) and STJUE (of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the CJEU). Autos (court orders) change the S for an A: ATS, ATC, ATSJ, ATJUE. The same book lists FJ for fundamento jurídico, the legal ground (also f. j.), and in its appendix of abbreviations, «rec.» for recurso (appeal) and «núm.» or «n.º» for número (number).

What are the ECLI and the ROJ?

The ECLI (European Case Law Identifier) is a unique code for each court decision, the same across the EU. It has five parts separated by colons: the abbreviation ECLI, the country (ES), the court code, the year and a sequence number of up to 25 characters. It was created by conclusions of the Council of the EU in 2011, updated in 2019, which recommend using it as the preferred or an additional way of citing court decisions and always writing it in full, without removing any element.

In Spain, the ECLI was introduced in November 2012 and it is coordinated by CENDOJ, the documentation centre of the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ, the General Council of the Judiciary), which offers about 5,600,000 decisions openly according to its page on the European e-Justice Portal, updated in 2025. The ROJ (Repositorio Oficial de Jurisprudencia, the Official Case Law Repository) is CENDOJ's own identifier, older than the ECLI. The sequence number of the Spanish ECLI is the ROJ number, and for autos an A is added at the end. That is why decisions from before 2012 also have an ECLI, such as the 2011 one in the table.

Two things that confuse people. The ROJ and ECLI number is not the number of the judgment: Supreme Court judgment 241/2013 is number 1916 in the ROJ, and the two cannot be swapped. And the court code is written differently: SAP M in the ROJ, APM in the ECLI.

How do you cite a judgment in a brief?

In a brief there is no single, mandatory citation format: there are guides, custom and a recommended identifier.

The guides that exist (the Supreme Court's from 2016, the Public Prosecutor's Office's and the High Court of Justice of Catalonia's) contain “non-binding recommendations”, according to the 2021 study by Jesús Barquín Sanz (University of Granada) on the identification of court decisions. The same paper describes “a heterogeneity of case-law citation styles and little use of the ECLI”: of the five most recent criminal judgments of the Supreme Court it reviewed, from December 2020, none cited with the ECLI.

The most common form, probably, according to that study, is the decision number with the date, sometimes with the appeal number: STS 241/2013, de 9 de mayo (rec. 485/2012). Adding the ECLI takes one copy and paste and removes any doubt about which decision it is. Two habits help: the first citation in full and the following ones abbreviated (the rule in guideline 80 of the Directrices de técnica normativa, the Spanish Government's drafting guidelines for its legislation), and the same format throughout the brief.

Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court)

The Guía breve del prontuario de estilo para el Tribunal Supremo (a short style guide for the Supreme Court), which its Sala de Gobierno (governing chamber) approved in 2016 for drafting the Court's own judgments, devotes a section to citing judgments. The Court has not officially circulated it (the study cited above points this out); we read it in a copy published online. It recommends:

• Citing by the number of the judgment; the date then only carries day and month: «sentencia 124/2015, de 17 de febrero». If you cite by the date alone, give the full year: «sentencia de 24 de enero de 2012».
• Giving the fundamento jurídico, which it considers “very advisable” to avoid referencing errors.
• Abbreviating the appeal as CENDOJ does: «rec.».
• Adding the ECLI to the traditional identification, not replacing it, because the ECLI alone “does not show the type and number of the case”.

Its full model is «STS, Sala de lo Contencioso-Administrativo, Sección 1.ª, 124/2015, de 17 de febrero, FJ 2.º (rec. 569/2013) ECLI:ES:TS:2015:1136». It is there to show the order, not for copying the details: the ECLI is always copied from the header of the decision you cite.

The same order with a real judgment and a real auto, checked in CENDOJ:

• Judgment: STS, Sala de lo Civil, 241/2013, de 9 de mayo (rec. 485/2012) ECLI:ES:TS:2013:1916.
• Auto without a number: ATS, Sala de lo Penal, de 10 de enero de 2024 (rec. 5124/2023) ECLI:ES:TS:2024:1000A. In the CENDOJ header, its «Nº de Resolución» (decision number) is empty, so it is cited by the full date, the appeal and the ECLI, as the Directrices de técnica normativa ask for unnumbered decisions.

Provincial courts, high courts of justice and the Audiencia Nacional

For the audiencias provinciales and the tribunales superiores de justicia, the abbreviation is followed by the seat, and the chamber or section is taken from the header:

• SAP Madrid (Sección 30.ª) 51/2024, de 30 de enero (rec. 16/2024) ECLI:ES:APM:2024:1000.
• STSJ Castilla y León (Sala de lo Contencioso-Administrativo, Burgos, Sección 2.ª) 158/2011, de 15 de abril (rec. 8/2011) ECLI:ES:TSJCL:2011:782.
• SAN (Sala de lo Penal, Sección 2.ª) 10/2014, de 30 de mayo (rec. 86/2010) ECLI:ES:AN:2014:2389.

With a juzgado (a single-judge court), the same: the court with its number and seat (Juzgado de Primera Instancia n.º 4 de Valencia), the date and the ECLI, which is safer to copy ready-made than to build from the list of codes.

How do you cite a judgment of the Constitutional Court?

Judgments of the Tribunal Constitucional are cited as STC, number and year, date (day and month) and, where relevant, the FJ.

It is the form set by guideline 79 of the drafting guidelines for Government legislation: “STC (no change in the plural), NUMBER and YEAR (with all four digits), separated by a slash, DATE (day and month) and SUBJECT”, with the grounds written «F.J.» or «FF.JJ.». The Court itself, in its judgments, writes FJ without full stops: in STC 292/2000 it cites, for example, «STC 254/1993, de 20 de julio, FJ 6».

The Constitutional Court is not in CENDOJ. Its decisions are found in its own case-law search engine, and the page of each one shows the ECLI and the issue of the BOE (the Official State Gazette) in which it was published: «SENTENCIA 292/2000, de 30 de noviembre (BOE núm. 4, de 04 de enero de 2001) ECLI:ES:TC:2000:292». The search engine lets you search by ECLI, which is formed with the year and the number of the decision, plus an A if it is an auto or a D if it is a declaration.

Full citation: STC 292/2000, de 30 de noviembre, ECLI:ES:TC:2000:292. If it matters who delivered it, add (Pleno), the full court, or the chamber.

How do you cite a CJEU judgment?

The CJEU cites with the date, the case name, the case number and the ECLI. It is the method it explains on its website, with this example (in its Spanish version): sentencia de 12 de julio de 2005, Schempp, C-403/03, EU:C:2005:446.

• C-403/03 is the case number: the 403rd case received by the Court of Justice (C) in 2003. Cases of the General Court carry a T.
• EU:C:2005:446 is the ECLI: European Union, Court of Justice, year 2005 and sequence number 446. For the EU courts the ECLI prefix can be left out, and according to the Court itself all its decisions since 1954 have one.
• In references for a preliminary ruling that concern private individuals, since January 2023 the case carries a fictitious name assigned by the Court, and that is the one you cite.
• To refer to a passage, give the paragraph: the Library of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid writes it «EU:C:2005:446 apartado 19» (paragraph 19).

How do you cite a judgment in APA 7?

In an academic paper, your university's guide or your supervisor's instructions come first.

As an example, the Library of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid has a style guide for Law that, as it explains, applies whatever citation style you choose. Its scheme:

• In the text, the short form: STS 241/2013, de 9 de mayo. If you quote a passage, add the fundamento.
• In a case-law appendix, if you cite many judgments, the long reference, oldest first: Tribunal Supremo (Sala de lo Civil). Sentencia núm. 241/2013, de 9 de mayo de 2013. That appendix goes after the bibliography, and the case law is not repeated in it.
• If you consulted it online, with the link: Tribunal Constitucional (Pleno). Sentencia núm. 292/2000, de 30 de noviembre de 2000. [Internet] https://hj.tribunalconstitucional.es/es/Resolucion/Show/4276

The same library's APA 7 guide puts it in the reference list in a different order: Tribunal Supremo. Sala de lo Civil. Sentencia 241/2013 (9 de mayo). The Law guide also recommends a list of abbreviations at the start of the paper. Don't mix variants in the same paper, and if your guide allows it, add the ECLI: it helps to check the citation.

Common mistakes when citing case law

The mistakes that cost most when citing judgments are copying mistakes, not formatting ones.

1. Swapping the number of the judgment for the ROJ number. STS 241/2013 and ROJ STS 1916/2013 are the same decision with two different numbers.
2. Shortening the ECLI. The conclusions of the Council of the EU ask for it to be written in full. The only exception is the ECLI prefix for the EU courts, which the CJEU allows you to leave out.
3. Copying the ECLI from a template or from another brief. An ECLI copied from somewhere else can lead to a different judgment: copy it from the header of the decision in CENDOJ.
4. Hesitating between SSTS and STS. The Libro de estilo de la Justicia acknowledges that SSTS and SSTC (the plural forms with a doubled S) are established, but it considers STS and STC correct in the plural too, because abbreviations do not change; guideline 79 says the same of STC. Choose one form and keep to it.
5. Writing the date wrong. Day, month in lower case and year: 9 de mayo de 2013. No zero before the day and no full stop in the year (2015, not 2.015), as the Supreme Court's guide says.
6. Marking verbatim quotations wrong. They go in angle quotes («»), and anything left out is marked with three dots in square brackets ([…]), as the Libro de estilo says. Abbreviations such as STS go in roman type, not italics.
7. Stringing case law together in the text. The Libro de estilo recommends moving repetitive case law to the footnotes: in the body text it breaks the reading.

The other style mistakes in a brief («en base a», «el mismo», «nº» without a full stop) are in legal writing mistakes according to the Libro de estilo de la Justicia.

The brief, dictated; the citation, pasted

Citations are the part of the brief you should not dictate from memory: a misheard digit in an ECLI will not be caught by any spellchecker. A method that works: dictate the argument with the short reference (STS 241/2013, de 9 de mayo) and, when you review it, paste the ECLI and the appeal from the CENDOJ header or the Constitutional Court's page. How to prepare the rest of the brief for dictation, in how to dictate a legal brief.

In short

A complete citation of a judgment carries type and court, chamber or section, number and date, the fundamento if you quote a passage, the appeal if it helps and the ECLI copied from the header of the decision. There is no single, mandatory format: the Supreme Court's guide, the Libro de estilo de la Justicia and the Council of the EU make recommendations, and in a brief what shows most is consistency. In an academic paper, your university's guide comes first.

Sources: RAE and CGPJ, Libro de estilo de la Justicia (in Spanish; sections 4.1.2, 10.6.1.2, 10.8, 13.2.4 and 15.5.1.1, and appendices 1 and 2); BOE, Directrices de técnica normativa (in Spanish; Resolution of 28 July 2005, guidelines 79 and 80); Council of the EU, Conclusions on the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI) (in Spanish; OJ C 360, 24 October 2019, annexes I and II); European Commission, e-Justice Portal, ECLI in Spain (in Spanish); CGPJ, CENDOJ case-law search engine (in Spanish; headers of the decisions cited); Tribunal Constitucional, STC 292/2000 in the constitutional case-law search engine (in Spanish); Court of Justice of the European Union, Names of cases and citations (in Spanish); Tribunal Supremo, Guía breve del prontuario de estilo para el Tribunal Supremo (in Spanish; 2016, sections III.6 and III.7; unofficial copy); Library of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Style for Law and APA 7th edition style (in Spanish); Jesús Barquín Sanz, ECLI, Tribunal Supremo e identificación de resoluciones judiciales (in Spanish; Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, 2021). Checked on 23 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How do you cite a Spanish court judgment?

With the type of decision and the court, the chamber or section, the number and year, the date and, if you quote a passage, the fundamento jurídico (legal ground); at the end, the ECLI. For example: STS 241/2013, de 9 de mayo (rec. 485/2012), ECLI:ES:TS:2013:1916.

How do you cite a court judgment in APA?

It depends on your university's guide. In the one from the Library of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the short form goes in the text (STS 241/2013, de 9 de mayo) and the long one goes in a case-law appendix after the bibliography: Tribunal Supremo (Sala de lo Civil). Sentencia núm. 241/2013, de 9 de mayo de 2013.

How do you cite a Constitutional Court judgment in APA?

According to the Law guide of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, in the text you write STC 292/2000, de 30 de noviembre, and in the case-law appendix, Tribunal Constitucional (Pleno). Sentencia núm. 292/2000, de 30 de noviembre de 2000, with the link to the Court's search engine if you consulted it online.

Where is the ECLI of a judgment?

In the header of every decision CENDOJ publishes, next to the ROJ, and on the page of each decision in the Constitutional Court's search engine. How to find a judgment in CENDOJ, in the guide to the case-law search engine.

Is the plural SSTS or STS?

The Libro de estilo de la Justicia considers the invariable form (STS, STC) correct in the plural too, because abbreviations do not change, although it acknowledges that SSTS and SSTC are established in legal language. What matters is always using the same one.

What does FJ mean in a judgment?

Fundamento jurídico, the legal ground. The Libro de estilo de la Justicia lists FJ as an initialism and f. j. as an abbreviation; for several, FFJJ is used («FFJJ 2 y 3»). Many judgments title that part fundamentos de derecho.