If you are a first-time author we recommend reading this checklist for Authors (60 KB).

The International Journal of Law in Context is the companion journal to the 'Law in Context' book series. It provides a forum for interdisciplinary legal studies and offers intellectual space for ground-breaking critical research. It is not committed to any particular theory, ideology or methodology and invites papers from a variety of standpoints, ideologies, perspectives, and methods. It publishes contextual work about law and its relationship with other disciplines including but not limited to science, literature, humanities, philosophy, sociology, psychology, ethics, history and geography. The journal aims to explore and expand the boundaries of law and legal studies.

Research articles

Articles should be between 8,000 and 12,000 words, including notes and references.

Articles should be written in English. They should not have been published already, nor should they be under consideration elsewhere.

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. Cambridge University Press offers a language-editing service in conjunction with a third-party provider American Journal Experts: www.cambridge.org/academic/author-services/. Please note that use of this service is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of this service does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge published journal. Cambridge is providing this service in order to provide a convenient option for prospective authors, which comes with the reassurance that we have checked the quality of the provider, and will be continuously monitoring the quality of the service.

Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any materials, including photographs and illustrations, for which they do not hold copyright and for ensuring that the appropriate acknowledgements are included in the manuscript.

Reviews

For information on book reviews see here.

Special issues or themed sections

The journal also welcomes proposals for special issues or themed sections of the journal. We encourage you to look at past issues to see examples published by the journal in the past. A complete special issue will typically contain six articles and an introduction but shorter themed collections within a standard issue are also acceptable. Anyone with a proposal of this kind should contact one of the Editors-in-Chief.

Your proposal should include:

• the title of the special issue or themed section
• the rationale for this proposal
• an overview of the collection
• the titles, authors and ideally an abstract for all proposed articles
• your expectations for word count
• when you expect all content to be ready to publish
• a confirmation that you understand you will be expected as Guest Editor to review and edit each contribution

All proposals will be reviewed by the Editors-in-Chief who also reserve the right to share with external reviewers.

Should your special issue or themed section be accepted, as Guest Editor of the issue or section you will be expected to:

• work to a deadline which has been pre-agreed with the Editors-in-Chief
• keep the Editors-in-Chief informed of how work is progressing
• have each potential contribution double-blind peer reviewed by two independent reviewers
• share the reviews and articles with the Editors-in-Chief and pass on feedback from the Editors along with the reviewers to each author before they are asked to make revisions
• send revised articles to Editors-in-Chief for final approval
• content edit each article and put it into house style
• ensure each article is complete including title, author name, abstract, all references complete
• submit only articles that are publishable and ready for production

The Editors-in-Chief reserve the right to choose not to publish all or some of the articles if they are not satisfied they meet the journal’s quality standards. 

Style

For referencing use the Harvard-style system. Surname and date should be cited in the text, with a page reference where relevant, together with an alphabetically-ordered end list.

Use the following style in the Reference List:

Dworkin R (2000) Sovereign Virtue. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Daniels C R (1999) ‘Fathers, Mothers and Fetal Harm: Rethinking Gender Difference and Reproductive Responsibility’ in Lynn M Morgan and Meredith W. Michaels (eds) Fetal Subjects, Feminist Positions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 83–98.

Macaulay S (2003) The Real and the Paper Deal: Empirical Pictures of Relationships, Complexity and the Urge for Transplant Rules. Modern Law Review 66, 44–79.

Citations in new editions of previously published works should include the date of the original edition and the new edition in the text and in the reference list e.g. Mill (1859/1989)

Footnotes should be used rather than end notes. Each time a case is referred to in the text, the case report reference should be set out in a footnote. One report reference is sufficient.

References to UK statutes should be made as follows:

Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, s.25

Statutory instruments should be referred to by name and date (i.e. short title) followed by the number e.g.

Local Authorities (Smallholdings) Order 1974, SI 1974/396

Tables and figures

Tables should be presented on separate sheets at the end of the article and should have short descriptive titles. Figures should be clearly numbered and should have explanatory captions. The author must indicate where Tables and Figures should be placed in the text.

Submitting your manuscript

Once you have prepared your manuscript, please follow the instructions on how to submit your paper via ScholarOne here.