Instructions for contributors

Important notice

We have become aware that there are websites such as University Press Journals, Association of British University Presses and International Agency for Development of Culture, Education and Science (IADCES) which are claiming to offer publication in certain Cambridge University Press journals for a fee. We do not work with such companies.

Submissions to Cambridge University Press journals can only be made via the online peer review systems linked to from this Cambridge Core website, or else directly to the editorial offices of those journals that do not operate online peer review systems.

To submit an article, follow the instructions in the ‘Submission of Articles’ section below.

For more information on predatory publishing, please visit the Think Check Submit website.

EDITORIAL TEAM

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Lionel Bently (clj.editor@law.cam.ac.uk)

General Editors: Professor John Allison and Professor Helen Scott (clj.editor@law.cam.ac.uk)

Senior Case-Note Editor: Professor David Ibbetson (clj.notes@law.cam.ac.uk)

Book Review Editor: Dr Stelios Tofaris (clj.reviews@law.cam.ac.uk)

The full editorial board can be found here.

Postal address for the journal:
Cambridge Law Journal, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, The David Williams Building, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ

Categories of Publication Accepted

Articles*: These should be between 10,000 and 13,000 words long, including footnotes.

Shorter Articles*: These should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words, including footnotes.

Case Notes*: These should be no longer than 1,500 words. Footnotes are not permitted.

Book Reviews: These should be no longer than 2,000 words. Footnotes are not permitted.

Books Received

* If publishing Gold Open Access, all or part of the publication costs for these article types may be covered by one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access.

Submission of Articles

Authors are required to submit all articles to the CLJ in Word format via our ScholarOne Platform: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tclj.

Authors submitting to the platform for the first time will be required to create an account in order to submit their copy.

Submission of Book Reviews

Authors are required to submit all book reviews to the CLJ in Word format to:
clj.reviews@law.cam.ac.uk

Submission of Case Notes

Authors wishing to submit case notes should contact the Senior Case-Note editor via the email address listed above and NOT submit them via ScholarOne Platform.

The Review Process (for Articles/Shorter Articles)

*At present, we are experiencing delays at all stages due to Covid-19.*

After submission, manuscripts will go through the following stages:

Formal examination to ensure the identity of the author is not on the manuscript and to check length, as well as situations where the submission is self-evidently unsuitable. This stage is normally complete within two weeks of submission.
A substantive assessment by one of the General Editors to assess whether the manuscript is prima facie suitable and ready to be sent for anonymous review. If the manuscript is not thought suitable or ready it will be rejected at this point. This normally occurs within two weeks, so at the latest one month after submission.
If the manuscript is suitable and ready for review, normally two anonymous reviewers will then be sought to offer independent and expert advice. This stage can take up to a month as it can be difficult to locate suitable reviewers who are willing to act.
If the manuscript is sent for review, the reviewers are given a standard period of four weeks (though this may be extended if the reviewer needs more time).
Once the external reviews have been received, the General Editor will make an assessment based on those reviews and their own assessment of the paper. A decision will be made whether to reject, to accept or to seek revisions.
If revisions are sought, the author will be asked to resubmit the revised paper explaining how they have responded to the criticisms of the Reviewers/General Editors. The revised version, once submitted will probably again be sent out for review (often to the initial reviewers, if available). In order to maintain anonymity, responses to reviewer comments should not contain identifiable information.
If accepted, the author will once again be asked to check all references to ensure they are correct and to ensure the manuscript complies with the style-guide.

The Review Process (Case-Notes)

Most case-notes are commissioned by the team of Case-Note Editors following a meeting to identify the most important cases (usually in early December for the March edition, March for the July edition and August for the November edition).

However, the Senior Case-Note Editor welcomes proposals for case-notes. It is recommended that you contact the Senior Case-Note Editor before writing your case-note for guidance on (i) whether the case is one that the Editors think is of such significance to warrant a case-note (ii) whether someone is already writing a note on that case (iii) whether you are likely to be regarded as a suitable person to write on the case (in some circumstances, the Note-Editors may prefer a note from an acknowledged expert or senior person in the field).

Case-notes are reviewed by the team of Case-Noted Editors (in January for the March Edition, in April for the July edition and in September for the November issue). Changes are commonly requested and necessarily have to be carried out within days.

Online Publication by CUP

Online-ahead-of print publication: The Cambridge Law Journal may publish articles using Cambridge Journals’ FirstView workflow. This is a system which enables an article to be published online as soon as it is ready and then moved to a print issue later. This means authors can be sure of fast publication. Authors should understand that once an article appears on FirstView it is ‘published’ and therefore no further corrections can be made.

Online Posting by the Author (Repositories, SSRN)

Authors are permitted to publish a pre-publication text of their article on repositories such as SSRN. But they should replace the pre-publication text with a reference to the CUP website once the article appears in FirstView. On acceptance for publication, the author is permitted to post the accepted manuscript in an institutional repository. But such a publication should still contain a reference to the year and page reference of the publication in the CLJ.

Publishing your article as Gold Open Access

You will have the option to publish your article as Gold Open Access, enabling the final published version to be made freely available under a Creative Commons license. You might be required to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) for Gold Open Access. You may be eligible for a waiver or discount, for example if your institution is part of a Read and Publish sales agreement with Cambridge University Press. For more information about your Open Access options, please see here. For more information about the benefits of choosing to publish Open Access, see here.

NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

PLEASE USE THESE IN PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPTS FOR SUBMISSION

Submissions should be formatted in advance, but in any event, all articles accepted for publication will need to comply with these guidelines.

Preparation of manuscripts

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 will help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood. Any submission with poor English will be rejected without being sent for review. We list a number of third-party services specialising in language editing and/or translation, and suggest that authors contact them as appropriate.

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.

Abstract and keywords: All manuscripts should be submitted together with an Abstract of 80 to 100 words in length and up to seven key words. The purpose of the Abstract is to identify the subject matter of the article and to summarise the distinctive contribution to the literature which the article makes. It enables the reader using electronic databases to identify articles that are of interest to them.

Word Length: The number of words in the text and the footnotes, as well as the total, should be stated after the abstract and keywords.

Page layout: Paragraphs start flush left after headings but otherwise are indented, with no extra space between them.

Name/Affiliation: All identifying information should be removed from the manuscript to allow for anonymous peer-review.

Footnotes: cannot be included in book reviews or case notes and any references in those submissions should be included in the main text. Notes for articles should be numbered consecutively (after an initial unnumbered note attached to the author's name by an asterisk) and should be placed as footnotes at the bottom of the relevant page. Numbers in cross-references should be highlighted.

The purpose of footnotes is to provide reference to the principal sources on which the author relies to support his or her argument. Their function is not to provide a comprehensive list of what the author has read nor the materials which the reader could use to follow up the argument. Significant points should be included in the text and not in the footnotes. As a guide, the Journal would not expect footnotes to exceed 20% of the length of the text of the article as a whole. Where the author considers it necessary to have longer footnotes, it would be helpful if she or he could explain the reasons briefly when first submitting the article to the Journal. For good reasons, the Journal may publish an article with longer footnotes.

Cross-references to other parts of the manuscript should be to footnotes and section names not to page numbers. Use "See note 7 above/below" rather than "supra/infra note 7". Numbers should be highlighted to allow for proof correction. For cross-references to material already cited, see below (short form citations are used).

Headings

In articles a maximum of four levels of heading is available, one for the title and three within the article:

1. TITLE/AUTHORSHIP

This is centred. Type in capitals:

CENTRED CAPITALS FOR TITLE OF ARTICLE

Only once accepted, the author’s name appears, centred, below the title in capitals/small capitals:

ARNOLD MCNAIR^*

The author’s institutional affiliation appears in the asterisked reference.

Pending peer review, the author’s identity, affiliation and other identifying information should be removed as far as possible.

2. FIRST LEVEL SUBHEADING

Centred. Type in capitals/small capitals (precede by roman I, II, etc. if required): e.g.

I. INTRODUCTION

3. SECOND LEVEL SUBHEADING

Centred. Type with initial capitals for main words only and in italics (precede by A, B, etc. if required): e.g.

A. Subheading in Italics

4. THIRD LEVEL SUBHEADING

Flush left. Type with initial capitals for the first word and proper names only and in italics (precede by arabic numbering 1, 2, etc., if required): e.g.

1. Subheading in italics

Case-Notes

Normally, case notes should not contain headings.

Titles of case-notes are centred and in small capitals: e.g.

LEGISLATE IN HASTE, REPENT AT LEISURE

For case-notes, author attribution appears at the end of the note, in capitals/small-capitals and is right-justified:

PERCY WINFIELD
Address for Correspondence: Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, CB3 9DZ. Email: pw9@cam.ac.uk

Style

Quotations of more than c. 60 words (unless in footnotes) should be indented and set off from the text without quotation marks. Otherwise double quotation marks should be used except for quotations within quotations which should use single marks. The note indicator should be placed after the quotation: e.g.

The Court of Appeal was of the view that “the appellant’s conviction is far from ‘unsafe’”.¹

Figures and tables. 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.

Punctuation. All punctuation marks should be outside closing quotation marks except an exclamation mark, question mark, dash or parenthesis belonging only to the quotation or a full point at the end of a grammatically complete sentence beginning with a capital letter. Full stops should be outside closing parentheses unless the parenthesis is a complete sentence beginning with a capital letter.

Note indicators in the text follow punctuation marks. e.g.:

This is known in the economic literature as “market failure”;¹²

Capitals. Capitals should be used when a specific reference is intended: the Act, the Bill, the Cabinet, the Crown, the Directive, the Government (but government and industry), Parliament (but parliamentary). Unless the writer is referring to a court by name (e.g. the Supreme Court), "court" should not have a capital.

Abbreviations. No full points should be used with abbreviations consisting of initials (ACAS, EC, USA). Otherwise full points are retained (ch., Dr., L.J., ed., Ltd., St., vol.) including “para.” for paragraph and "s." for section. The abbreviation for public limited company is "plc". Note also "per cent.", with full point.

Dates. Use the style "10 February 1989"; "1988-89"; "1990s".

Numerals. If below 10, these should be spelt out. E.g. “the four defendants”.

Spelling. Except in quoted matter English spelling should be used (labour, not labor).

Use:

-ise (not -ize);
judgment for a court’s decision (not judgement);
ius (not jus; i.e. Latin i not j).

Italics. The following should be italicised:

Case names (including the “v”).
Latin (and other foreign) words and phrases except those in common use such as: bona fide, de facto, de jure, (obiter) dicta/dictum, habeas corpus, intra vires, mens rea, prima facie, ratio decidendi, ultra vires.
Ship names.

Latin abbreviations should be in roman but retain full points: cf., e.g., ibid., i.e., loc. cit., op. cit., per, viz.

Note indicators. Wherever possible note indicators should be deferred to the end of the relevant sentence or clause of the text.

References

At first mention, the full title and date and place of publication should be given: e.g.

F. Stark, Culpable Carelessness: Recklessness and Negligence in the Criminal Law (Cambridge 2016)

R. Brazier, "The Crown and Constitutional Reforms" in M. Sunkin and S. Payne (eds.), The Nature of the Crown (London 1999), ch. 13, 337-362.

E.J. Bloustein, “Privacy, Tort Law, and the Constitution: Is Warren and Brandeis’ Tort Petty and Unconstitutional As Well?” (1968) 46 Tex. L.R.611

R. (Miller) v Prime Minister (Lord Advocate and others intervening); Cherry and others v Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Advocate and others intervening) [2019] UKSC 41, [2020] A.C.373

Thereafter a short title should be used: e.g.

Stark, Culpable Carelessness

Brazier, "The Crown”

Bloustein, “Privacy, Tort Law, and the Constitution”, 623-27

Miller v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41.

Do not use cross references , e.g. “See note XX above”, to the earlier footnote containing the full citation. Where the full reference is a considerable distance from its original appearance, the General Editor may decide an internal cross reference or repeat of the full citation is desirable.

Page numbers below 100 should not be compressed: see example under Books below.

Where referring to pages, “p.”, “pp.” are avoided. Merely use a comma or, for paragraphs, “, at [xx]”: e.g.

R. Goode, “Inalienable Rights?” (1979) 42 M.L.R. 553, 554. (no “p.”)

R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, at [37]

J.W.F. Allison, A Continental Distinction in the Common Law: A Historical and Comparative Perspective on English Public Law (Oxford 1996), 171-73 (no “pp.”)

Ibid., at 436. (no “p.”)

The Cambridge Law Journal