ICLQ Articles

Instructions for Contributors

The ICLQ welcomes the submission of contributions for consideration by the editors with a view to publication. All manuscripts must be submitted online via: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/iclq.

The Board of Editors will only consider material which complies with the following:

1) The submission should be an original, unpublished, work not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Please note that our exclusive submission policy means you cannot submit your work to another journal until you have received a decision from us. If you would like to submit to another journal, you must withdraw your article from consideration by the ICLQ. Please visit www.cambridge.org/core/services/open-access-policies for information on our open access policies, compliance with major funding bodies, and guidelines on depositing your manuscript in an institutional repository.

2) The ICLQ publishes articles that deal with public international law, private international law, human rights law, comparative law and European Union Law. It particularly encourages the submission of innovative and original articles whose theme or content illuminate several of these subject areas. Articles which do no more than rehearse familiar and well-known material, or which are concerned only with national law (other than private international law) in a non-comparative way, should not be submitted.

3) Long articles should not exceed 15,000 words including footnotes. Pieces of up to 8,000 words including footnotes will be considered for the 'Short Articles' section, which may secure earlier publication. The editors will decide on the section to which all contributions, irrespective of length, are best suited should they be accepted for publication. ScholarOne will require you to enter the word count (including footnotes) when submitting your article, and to indicate if you intend it for the 'Short Articles' section.

4) Footnotes should be numbered consecutively through the article and be in the form normally used by the ICLQ (see Style Guide below). Footnoting should not be excessive, and certainly no more than a third of the total word count.

5) A short (50-100 words) abstract of the article should be supplied. We reserve the right to edit abstracts for length and style. Please also supply a minimum of five keywords (and a maximum of ten) for your article to enable digital searching.

6) Please ensure you have read and complied with the ICLQ Style Guide below before submitting your manuscript.

Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the editor and any reviewers. We list a number of third-party services specialising in language editing and/or translation, and suggest that authors contact as appropriate: http://www.cambridge.org/academic/author-services/

Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge published journal.

7) The ICLQ only accepts submissions online via the ScholarOne platform. To upload your manuscript please go to: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/iclq. Detailed instructions for submitting your manuscript online can be found at the submission website by clicking on the 'Instructions and Forms' link in the top right of the screen; and then clicking on the 'Author Submission Instructions' icon on the following page. The Editor will acknowledge receipt of the manuscript, with a reference number, which should be quoted in all correspondence.

8) Authors should state their present academic or professional affiliation and indicate any professional or personal involvement in the subject matter of the article in the box provided. Please ensure the word document of your article is anonymous for peer review purposes before you upload it. Please do not upload a separate title page or CV.

9) Authors of articles in International & Comparative Law Quarterly have the option to publish on a Gold Open Access basis. This model of publishing makes the article freely available for anyone to read and reproduce immediately upon publication, under Creative Commons licensing. Under this model the costs associated with the publication process, from peer review through to copy-editing and typesetting, are covered by an article processing charge which is met by the author, the author's funding body or institution.

Authors will be given this option at the point at which the article is accepted. 

All authors published in International & Comparative Law Quarterly also retain the right to archive the accepted (peer reviewed, prior to production) version of their article in institutional and non-commercial subject repositories. This activity is known as Green Open Access, allowing authors to meet the requirements of their funders. The journal's Green Open Access policies are included in the licence to publish form that an author receives on acceptance and are also detailed here: www.cambridge.org/core/services/open-access-policies/open-access-journals/green-open-access-policy-for-journals

For more detail about Open Access, see: www.cambridge.org/core/services/open-access-policies

ICLQ Style Guide

1. Layout

All articles should be submitted in 12-point font, single-spaced MS Word document with margins of at least 2.5 cm.

The first page should include the title of the article (in capitals), and a short abstract. Please do not include your name, affiliation or any acknowledgements on the submission, but enter it in the appropriate boxes on ScholarOne. New paragraphs should be indented, except for the first paragraph in a section. All sentences should be separated by a single space and double spaces should not be used.

The ICLQ uses the following heading levels:

I. FIRST-LEVEL SUBHEADING

A. Second-level Subheading

1. Third-level subheading

a) Fourth-level subheading

Lists

Numbered lists should use Arabic numerals. Bullet-point lists may also be used. Where list items are complete sentences, capitals and punctuation may be used. Otherwise, use lower case and a semi-colon to end each point, eg:

Activities of the Institute include:

• projects;
• events;
• publications.

Quotations

Quotations of fewer than three lines should be set in single quotation marks within the main text, with double quotation marks reserved for quotations within quotations. Longer quotations should begin on a new line, without quotation marks, and should be indented.

Images

Charges apply for all colour figures that appear in the print version of the journal. At the time of submission, contributors should clearly state whether their figures should appear in colour in the online version only, or whether they should appear in colour online and in the print version. There is no charge for including colour figures in the online version of the Journal but it must be clear that colour is needed to enhance the meaning of the figure, rather than simply being for aesthetic purposes. If you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article.

2. Points of Style

Abbreviations

• All abbreviations should be spelled out in first use with the abbreviation following in brackets, eg ‘European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)’.
• Abbreviations and acronyms should not be followed or separated by a full stop, eg:

document – doc

paragraph – para

United Kingdom – UK

• Use ‘per cent’ rather than the symbol ‘%’.

Capital letters

• State is capitalized when it means a country, but not when it means an internal state, eg

the State breached its obligations under the treaty;

the state of Minnesota;

EU Member State;

State Party.

• Article should be capitalized, ie Article and Art.

Dates and Times

• Dates should be written in the form ‘day month year’ (2 December 2003).
• For a period of years, separate the years with an en dash and elide the second year as follows: 2000–03, 1985–86.
• Times should be written using the 24-hour clock, not am or pm, eg: ‘09.30’ and ‘18.15’.

Italics

• Italics may be used occasionally to emphasize individual words and short phrases that are written in English.
• Individual words and short phrases in other languages should always be italicized (subject to the below exceptions).
• Words that have become part of the English language should not be italicized (ad hoc, ibid, de facto, ex officio, per se, inter alia, prima facie, vis-à-vis, et al etc).
• The names of foreign courts and institutions should not be italicized, eg ‘Cour de Cassation’ not ‘Cour de Cassation’.
• Quotations in a foreign language should not be italicized.  Note also that an English translation should be provided in brackets in a footnote.

Em dashes

A pair of em dashes, with no spaces either side, may be used in place of commas or parentheses in order to add particular emphasis and/or to enhance readability, eg:

• This article describes alternative motives for developing the laws of war: first to protect the political order within Europe by discouraging civilians—at home or in the colonies—from taking up arms, and thereafter, to challenge that order.

A single em dash may be used to add emphasis to the conclusion of a sentence, eg:

• It provided one of the key provisions of the Additional Protocol I of 1977—a general, comprehensive and objective criterion for distinguishing between military and non-military objectives.

Note that hyphens and en dashes should not be used in this context.

Numbers

• Numerals should be written out up to and including ten; 11 and above should be given in figures. Where a sentence includes numerals either side of ten, these should all be given as figures.
• Ranges of numbers should be separated by an en dash and elided to the shortest  form, so 283–5, rather than 283-285; but note 311–12.
• Note, however, that paragraph numbers should always be written out in full, eg paras 283–285.
• Ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, etc) should be written out in full (first, second, etc), particularly in the case of centuries (‘the seventeenth century’).

Punctuation

• The serial comma (ie the one before ‘and’ in ‘peace, war, and defence’) should not be used, unless there is a need to clearly separate items to avoid a risk of confusion.
• Words omitted from quotations should be indicated by three full stops:

the Court stated: ‘There is no suggestion in the present case ... that the father is in any way unfit to have access.’

• Where quotations do not comprise a full sentence the punctuation should be placed outside the closing quotation mark.
• A single space rather than a double space should be used after full stops.
• Split infinitives should not be used.
• All footnotes should end with a full stop.

Spelling

• Spelling should follow the Oxford English Dictionary or the Concise Oxford Dictionary.
• For the ‘-ise’ / ‘-ize’ sound expressed as ‘z’, authors may use either ‘s’ or ‘z’ spellings (eg organise or organize) but usage must be consistent throughout the article.

• There are some exceptions, which always take s instead of z. If in doubt, check the Oxford English dictionary. Below are some examples:

 compromise, exercise, otherwise, revise, advise.

• Note the following miscellaneous spellings:

case law

Cold War

cooperation

decision-maker

judgment

multinational

nonetheless

policymaker

postcolonial

postmodern

Sharia

socio-economic

soft-law (adjectival)

transnational

World War II

Titles

• ‘Professor’ should always be spelt in full, not abbreviated to ‘Prof’.
• Commas should not be used to separate names and gongs (eg The Hon Judge David Edward CBE QC MA).

3. Citations

ICLQ style is based on the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA). This guide is to be followed in the first instance. For citations not covered here please see OSCOLA http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/oscola.php. If the citations are international, please see the OSCOLA 2006 guide to citing international legal citations https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/oscola_2006_citing_international_law.pdf.

Footnote style

Footnote cues should appear after the punctuation mark, eg:

This was stated by the Court in Defrenne.¹

Be careful to ensure that all footnote numbers are consecutive.

Words such as ‘Article’ or ‘paragraph’ should be written in full in the main text but should be abbreviated in footnotes.

Article art

paragraph para

volume vol

• Always write ‘section’ in full; do not use §. Note 'section' should be capitalized when specifying a particular numbered section, eg 'see Section V'.
• With the exception of ibid (see below), avoid use of Latin in footnotes, eg supra, infra, op.cit.
• Always use capital 'N' when abbreviating the word 'number', ie 'No'.
• When pinpointing to a particular page or paragraph, do not use a comma before the pinpoint reference if it follows parentheses, eg  Opuz v Turkey App No 33401/02 (ECtHR, 9 June 2009) para 6.
• Authors should be identified by their initials and surname, eg JES Bloggs.
• In a subsequent citation of a source, briefly identify the source (eg by giving the author’s surname) and provide a cross-citation in brackets to the footnote in which the full citation can be found, eg Smith (n 4) / Gasser (n 6). Note, however, that where multiple documents by the same author have been cited in an article, subsequent citations must include the author’s surname AND the title of the document being cited, eg Smith, ‘Law not War’ (n 4). 
• If the subsequent citation is in the footnote immediately following the full citation and that citation is the only one in the preceding footnote, ‘ibid’ should be used instead. Note that a comma should not be used after ibid, eg to indicate ‘preceding footnote at page 25’ write ‘ibid 25’.

Primary sources

• Cases should appear in italics, including the v, which takes no full stop. Where there are multiple parties, only the first claimant and the first defendant are named.

Callaghan v The Queen (1952) 87 CLR 115 (HCA)

• Unreported decisions should be reported by their neutral citation if they have one, otherwise in the following format: name of case (court, date of judgment) transcript page or paragraph number. Omit the word ‘unreported’.

Thannhauser v Westpac Banking Corporation (Federal Court of Australia, 9 December 1991) [para 90].

• Square brackets should not be used around paragraph numbers. Instead, please write ‘para’.

Secondary sources

Where there are more than three authors only the first author should be cited, eg RES Bloggs et al.

When citing articles or chapters in books, only list the pages you wish to refer to, ie do not include the first page of the article/chapter unless you wish to direct the reader to text on that page.

If a book has an author, but an editor or translator is also acknowledged on the front cover then name the editor or translator in the publication information, as follows: 

• HLA Hart, Punishment and Responsibility: Essays in the Philosophy of Law (John Gardner ed, 2nd edn, OUP 2008). 
  
• K Zweigert and H Kötz, An Introduction to Comparative Law (Tony Weir trans, 3rd edn, OUP 1998).

Citations should follow the following examples:

Books (and any other document with an ISBN number) JES Bloggs, The Application of the European Convention on Human Rights (3rd edn, Butterworths 1987) vol 2, 17–68.

Articles JES Bloggs, ‘The Future of Human Rights in Europe’ (1989) 1 NQHR 6.

Chapters or Articles in books JES Bloggs, ‘Children and the European Convention on Human Rights’ in F Matscher and H Petzold (eds), Protecting Human Rights: The European Dimension (Hart Publishing 1988).

Pages on websites (eg blogs) D Smith, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked Law, 1 May 2009) <htt://www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html>. Websites should not have an accessed date. Ensure the address is enclosed by single angle brackets.

Other secondary sources (eg reports, policy documents etc, which are often available as PDF documents on websites)

S Barker, ‘Directors’ Liability and Climate Risk: Australia – Country Paper’ (Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative 2018) .

Newspapers I Loader, ‘The Great Victim of this Get Tough Hyperactivity is Labour’ The Guardian (London, 19 June 2008) .

Working Papers JD Bloggs, ‘European Law’ (2010) Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper 1/2010, 8 .

Conference Papers B McFarlane and D Nolan, ‘Remedying Reliance: The Future Development of Promissory and Proprietary Estoppel in English Law’ (Obligations III conference, Brisbane, July 2006).

Specific subject areas should be cited as follows:

EU legislation Council Directive (EC) 2000/43 of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin [2000] OJ L180/22.

European Commission documents European Commission, ‘Proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters’ COM (99) 348 final.

International Arbitration cases should be formatted as follows: case name, case number, document name (Day Month Year), eg:

• Metal-Tech Ltd v Republic of Uzbekistan, ICSID Case No ARB/10/3, Award (4 October 2013).

WTO cases should be formatted as follows: name of body, case name, WTO Doc number, date adopted, eg:

• Panel Report, Saudi Arabia—Measures concerning the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, WT/DS567/R, adopted 16 June 2020.

ICJ cases Oil Platforms (Islamic Republic of Iran v United States of America) (Merits) [2003] ICJ Rep 16.

European Court of Human Rights cases Opuz v Turkey App No 33401/02 (ECtHR, 9 June 2009).

Inter-American Court of Human Rights cases Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants, Advisory Opinion OC-18, Inter-American Court of Human Rights Series A No 18 (17 September 2003).

African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights cases Anudo Ochieng Anudo v United Republic of Tanzania App No 012/2015 (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 22 March 2018).

EU court cases For EU cases since 1954 the format is as follows: case number case name European Case Law Identifier, eg: 

• Case C-542/09 Commission v the Netherlands EU:C:2012:346.

United Nations documents should be cited in the following format: name of UN body, ‘title of document’ (Day Month Year) UN Doc number, eg: 

• UNGA, ‘Report of the Credentials Committee’ (1 December 2021) UN Doc A/76/50.
  

United Nations resolutions are formatted in the same way as other UN documents but with less punctuation, eg: 

• UNGA Res 46/7 (11 October 1991) UN Doc A/RES/46/7.

United Nations Human Rights Committee decisions should be formatted as follows: case name communication number (Day Month Year) UN Doc number, eg:

• Mbenge v Zaire Comm No 16/1977 (25 March 1983) UN Doc CCPR/C/OP/2.
  

ITLOS cases M/V ‘Saiga’ (No 2) (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v Guinea) (Judgment of 1 July 1999) ITLOS Reports 1999.

ICC cases Prosecutor v Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui (Decision on the confirmation of charges) ICC-01/04-01/07 (30 September 2008).

Treaties should be cited in the following format: name of treaty (date adopted, date entered into force) treaty series details, eg:

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 23 March 1976) 999 UNTS 171 (ICCPR).

For treaties that are not yet published in an official treaty series, cite where the treaty has been published in International Legal Materials (ILM), eg:

• African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986) 21 ILM 58 (African Charter).
  

Last updated 14th June 2022