Legal Theory is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal that is edited to the highest standards with the assistance of a prestigious international editorial board. Like other peer-reviewed journals, Legal Theory has an exclusive submission policy and will consider only manuscripts that have not been previously published and that are not being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors should, upon submission, confirm that their essays have not been previously published and are not undergoing review by another publication.

Legal Theory publishes work on a broad range of topics, including but not limited to analytical jurisprudence, normative jurisprudence, policy analyses of legal institutions and doctrines, theories of law as a social or cultural phenomenon, and critical perspectives on law and legal institutions. Although Legal Theory especially seeks articles that make a positive original contribution, submissions directly commenting on other works in the existing literature are welcome.

Authors should not contact the editors directly about whether Legal Theory might be interested in their articles. Any queries relating to submissions should be sent to Managing Editor Mariam Kazanjian on mk.legaltheory@gmail.com.

Legal Theory publishes book reviews and review essays from time to time. These pieces are usually commissioned by the Legal Theory editorial team but if you are interested in submitting a review piece please contact Mariam Kazanjian.

Special issues may be considered in certain circumstances and any proposals should also go to Mariam Kazanjian.

Preparation of manuscript

A separate title page should be prepared including the article title, short title for use as a running head (not to exceed 45 characters), author’s full name and affiliation, complete contact information (including phone number and e-mail address), and competing interests declaration.

The author competing interests declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article. Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.

Manuscripts should be prepared for blind review by external reviewers, with any information that might identify the author removed. This includes:

• Any references or citations to the author’s or co-author’s published or unpublished work, including in the bibliography or reference list.
• Any acknowledgements, including footnotes thanking others for contributions made throughout the work.

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

Legal Theory has a strong preference for manuscripts shorter than 15,000 words, inclusive of notes. Authors should be aware that manuscripts in excess of this limit may be unsubmitted at the Managing Editor's discretion. A separate abstract of no more than 150 words should be included. Short comments (4,500 words or less, excluding reference and note material) on articles that have appeared in Legal Theory will undergo expedited review by the editors, with additional external review where this is deemed necessary.

The entire manuscript (including notes and references) should be typed double-spaced with wide margins for copyediting. Manuscript pages should be numbered consecutively. Authors of accepted articles will be asked to prepare a final version in the journal’s style.

Style

The main text of manuscripts should conform to Chicago style. References and notes should use footnotes rather than endnotes and conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.

Pre-submission English-language editing

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.

Figures

If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author must provide figures that are ready for photographic reproduction; they cannot be redrawn by the publisher, unless the author pays for the cost of such work. Charts, graphs, or other artwork must be drawn by a professional artist or computer generated on a laser printer, in black ink on white paper, and should remain legible after a 50% reduction. All labels and details on figures should be clearly printed. Full information on how to prepare and supply figures, tables and graphics can be found here and should be followed with care.

Charges apply for all color 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 color in the online version only, or whether they should appear in color online and in the print version. There is no charge for including color figures in the online version of the Journal but it must be clear that color is needed to enhance the meaning of the figure, rather than simply being for aesthetic purposes. If you request color 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.

Exclusive submission

Submitting an article to Legal Theory implies that it has not been published elsewhere and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

ORCID

Legal Theory now requires that all corresponding authors identify themselves using their ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript to the journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:

• Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you’ve authored.
• Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
• Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.

If you don’t already have an iD, you’ll need to create one if you decide to submit a manuscript to Legal Theory. You can register for one directly from your user account on Scholar One or via https://ORCID.org/register. If you already have an iD, please use this when submitting, either by linking it to your Scholar One account or supplying it during submission by using the “Associate your existing ORCID ID” button.

Submitting your manuscript

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