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Contributing to the Journal

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Instructions for authors

The Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education (JCLLE) is an open access, online, peer-reviewed journal.

Articles submitted to the JCLLE that do not conform to the following guidance will be returned to the author(s) for revision.

Submission

  • Articles should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words in length and an accurate word count should be included with each article submitted. An abstract of between 100 and 150 words should also be included.
  • JCLLE welcomes case notes of up to 800 words and comments on cases, new legislation and proposed law reforms likely to be of interest throughout the Commonwealth of up to 2,000 words.
  • Book reviews of recent publications up to 2,000 words are also invited.
  • Authors are requested to ensure that articles are written in appropriate language and that they follow the editorial style and format adopted by JCLLE (see below).
  • The whole text, including references and abstracts, should be double spaced throughout.
  • Articles are published in English and should follow British spelling convention.

Mode of submission

  • Only electronic submissions will be accepted, unless the author has previously had agreement from the editorial team for another method of submission. Submissions should be sent via email.
  • Together with a covering letter providing details of the author(s), contact details and a brief statement of how the authors believe that the article fits within the scope of JCLLE.
  • Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submissions are virus free, and are grammatically and typographically accurate.

References

References have to follow the following guidance and authors are asked to pay particular attention to the accuracy and presentation of references.

  • References should be incorporated into the text using the Harvard system showing author and date of publication (e.g. Bloggs (2000)) and page numbers where a direct quote has been used (e.g. Bloggs (2000: 26)).
  • A list of references cited should appear at the end of the text arranged alphabetically by author and in chronological order for each author.
  • Two or more publications by an author appearing in the same year should be distinguished by an alphabetical suffix (e.g. Bloggs (2000a) and Bloggs (2000b)).
  • Books should be listed as follows: Bloggs, J (2000) Law in the Commonwealth, London: Smith and Jones.
  • Articles should be listed as follows: Bloggs, J (2002) ‘Law in the Commonwealth’, Commonwealth Law and Legal Education 1: 1–10.
  • Multi-author publications with more than two authors should be cited within the text as Bloggs et al, but the names of all the authors should be included in the reference list.
  • Cases cited should also be incorporated into the text thus: (Re Bloggs [2002] 1 All ER 1). Where quotations from judgments are given the page from the judgment should also be cited (e.g. Re Bloggs [2002] 1 All ER 1 at 3).
  • Only references cited in the text should be included in the reference list.

Footnotes and appendices

Footnotes and appendices that expand on content are discouraged, but if included references within them should follow the journal style as outlined above.

Decisions

The editorial team will inform the authors of the decision regarding their papers within three months of the receipt of an article.

Rights

Articles are considered on the understanding that they are not being considered concurrently by any other journal, nor have they been published elsewhere. Exceptionally, JCLLE will consider publication of articles previously published elsewhere. In such cases it will be the responsibility of the author to confirm that she or he retains the copyright in that article and has the right to reproduce it elsewhere.

Authors submitting a paper retain the copyright in their work. They agree to grant JCLLE the right to publish the work in print or electronic form and to hold the submission in archive form (either electronic or print) once it has been published. The copyright in the style and nature of the published work rests with JCLLE. Authors remain free to use the material contained in the paper in other works.

Open Access

Authors are encouraged to place their articles in institutional open access repositories.  Permission from JCLLE prior to doing this is not necessary, so long as there is a reference to the work being published in JCLLE along with the correct article citation.

The Editorial Board and the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for the views expressed by contributors.

Queries

Any queries regarding the submission of articles should be addressed to the Editors.