Author Guidelines

How to submit your manuscript?

All manuscripts should be submitted to the journal via the online submission system (see above links). Submissions can be made by single or multiple authors. Once submitted, the author can track the submission and communicate with the editors via the online journal management system.

Articles can be submitted at any time throughout the year. However, as we publish in themes, it is advisable to consider the forthcoming topic as phrased in the call for papers before submitting (see homepage announcement). If you do submit a work that does not fit within the current theme, we will keep your article on file to consider at a later stage.

Utrecht Journal of International and European Law encourages authors to contact the editorial board with ideas for articles or case notes they are planning to write. The editorial board is more than happy to discuss these ideas and how well they fit within the journal with the authors.

To avoid relays/rejections, please ensure that all content that has been sourced from elsewhere clearly includes citation details and quotation marks, where appropriate.

 

Structure

Title page

To ensure blind peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript file.

The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, biography (optional), and the corresponding author details must be completed online as part of the submission process. All authors must fit within the journal's definition of an author, detailed in our authorship guidelines.

Author names should include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot include only initials.

  • J. Bloggs is not preferred. The full name, Joe Bloggs is required (this will enhance the 'findability' of your publication).

The affiliation should ideally include ‘Department, Institution, City, Country’. However only the Institution and Country are mandatory.

Author information (optional)
A short biographical statement from the author(s) may be placed after the title page information. This must be no longer than 200 words and include only information relevant to the subject matter. This will be moved to before the reference list in the final publication.

Abstract
Research articles must have the main text prefaced by an abstract of no more than 200 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions of the article. This must have the heading ‘Abstract’ and be easily identified from the start of the main text.

A list of up to eight key words may be placed below the abstract (optional).

The Abstract and Keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online submission.

Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy to follow manner. A clear introduction section should be given that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved. Methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections may then follow to clearly detail the information and research being presented.

Supplementary Files (optional)
Any supplementary/additional files that should link to the main publication must be listed, with a corresponding number, title and option description. Ideally the supplementary files are also cited in the main text.

e.g. Supplementary file 1: Appendix. Scientific data related to the experiments.

Note: additional files will not be typeset so they must be provided in their final form. They will be assigned a DOI and linked to from the publication.

Reproducibility
If data, structured methods or code used in the research project have been made openly available, a statement should be added to inform the reader how/where to access these files. This should include the repository location and the DOI linking to it. Read our reproducibility guide for more information on best practice and maximising the impact of your open data.

If data used in the research project has not been made available, a statement confirming this should be added, along with reasoning why.

The journal's data policy is available on the Editorial Policies page.

Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. The identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymised whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian) and added to this statement. If a study involving human subjects/tissue/data was exempt from requiring ethical approval, a confirmation statement from the relevant body should be included within the submission.

Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, see the ICMJE Recommendations for Protection of Research Participants.

Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list.

Funding Information (if applicable)
Should the research have received a funding grant then the grant provider and grant number should be detailed. 

Notes
Manuscripts must be formatted with all references, including URLs, cited within footnotes. Please use OSCOLA formatting when referencing all sources. For a comprehensive guide to OSCOLA formatting, please click here.

Competing interests
If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references.

References
All published journal articles and books cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.

Permissions

The author is responsible for obtaining all permissions required prior to submission of the manuscript. Permission and owner details should be mentioned for all third-party content included in the submission or used in the research.

If a method or tool is introduced in the study, including software, questionnaires, and scales, the license this is available under and any requirement for permission for use should be stated. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, it is the author's responsibility to check the license and obtain the necessary permissions. Statements confirming that permission was granted should be included in the Materials and Methods section.

 

Formatting

Spelling

The British English spelling is used in Utrecht Journal publications. Thus, please be aware of differences in US spelling and the British spelling. Some examples follow:
analyse vs analyze
authorise vs authorize
cancelled vs canceled
centre vs center
defence vs defense
labour vs labor
organisation vs organization

An exception to using British spelling would be merited if, for instance, the proper name of something uses the American spelling (for example, Organization of American States).

Cases

Case names should be italicized. Do not put a full stop after ‘v’.
e.g. A case which highlights the overtly pro foreign investor stance of Chapter 11 is Loewen Group, Inc v United States.

Of note, there should not be a full stop after abbreviations, such as ‘Inc’, ‘Corp’, or ‘Co’, in case names.

Commas

Do not put a comma before ‘and’ if it’s ending a list (a list for example: bananas, kiwis and strawberries). (The exception to this would be if removing the comma would cause confusion.)

e.g. According to Guild and others, this is especially true for the EU Home Affairs agencies, Frontex, Europol and EASO, due to their experimental governance strategies and their areas of intervention.52

Capitalised Words

The word ‘State’ in noun form should be capitalised. There will situations where the word ‘State’ is part of another word and will not be capitalised. Additionally, when the noun ‘state’ is referring to states within the United States, the ‘s’ should not be capitalised.

Quotes

Single quotation marks (‘’) are used for quotes. If a quote or phrase occurs within a quote, use double quotation marks (“”).
Please note that punctuation occurs outside of the quotation marks unless the original had the punctuation also.

Before publishing

Check for in-line author references to different sections of the article (example: In Part IV.B, I argue that…) and make sure that they match the Utrecht Journal outline/publication format.

Of note, when authors refer to sections within their own work, the sentence should not be in future tense. It should be in present tense.

Wrong: In Part V, I will discuss the nature of the UN Human Rights Committee.
Correct: In Part V, I discuss the nature of the UN Human Rights Committee.

Acronyms & Abbreviations

With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. In order to enhance understanding and accessibility for all readers, any abbreviations should be defined when they are first mentioned. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references.

  • Research completed by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows …

A number of abbreviations are so common that they do not require the full text on the first instance. Examples of these can be found in the Wikipedia: Manual of Style.

Our accessibility policy determines that links, when used within the article, should ideally be descriptive and understandable from the link text alone or from its context. This is crucial for screen readers, so please avoid “click here” or “read more” links, but instead e.g. “View PMC page”. 

Links, like images, also require alt text to improve clarity, especially when the link text alone isn’t descriptive enough. Please provide us with one for each link to assist with improving overall accessibility. It should be short and clear - e.g. “View the article [article title]” if you’re linking to another article.

It isn’t necessary to provide alt text for links in the reference list (e.g. DOIs) as this will be added by the production team.

Figures & Tables

Figures

Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask to re-render or omit it.

Please avoid using scans/images of text if possible, since these are not machine-readable and are thereby inherently inaccessible. We permit this only in cases where a scan/image of a text is required for the content of the article. Please reach out to the production editors after the article has been accepted to discuss these requirements.

All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).

Each figure must have an accompanying descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the figure image. A short additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description.

  • Figure 1: 1685 map of London.
  • Figure 1: 1685 map of London. Note the addition of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Each figure must have accompanying alt text, which is different from the title or caption. This will function as a textual substitute for the image, in cases where this is needed, and should be a short description of the image. We recommend the alt text is no longer than 10 words. For guidance on how to write appropriate alt text, see the WebAIM guide: https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/

Figure titles, and legends and alt text should be placed within the text document, either after the paragraph of their first citation, or as a list after the references.

The source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed).

  • Figure 1: Firemen try to free workers buried under piles of concrete and metal girders. Photo: Claude-Michel Masson. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.

If your figure file does need to include text (see above) then please present the font as FS ME or a sans serif alternative (e.g. Ariel, Helvetica, or Verdana). This will mean that it matches the typeset text.

NOTE: All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector file (e.g. .ai, or .eps).

Tables

Tables must be created using a word processor's table function, not tabbed text.

Tables should be included in the manuscript. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible.

In order to enhance understanding and accessibility for all readers (including screen readers), tables should be kept as simple as possible without compromising the value of presenting the table.

All tables must be cited within the main text, and numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.).

Each table must have an accompanying descriptive title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the table. A short additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The table title and legend should be placed above the table.

Tables should not include:

  • Rotated text
  • Colour to denote meaning (it will not display the same on all devices)
  • Images
  • Vertical or diagonal lines
  • Multiple parts (e.g. ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.

NOTE: If there are more columns than can fit on a single page, then the table will be placed horizontally on the page. If it still can't fit horizontally on a page, the table will be broken into two.

References

Manuscripts must be formatted with all references, including URLs, cited within footnotes. Please use OSCOLA formatting when referencing all sources. For a comprehensive guide to OSCOLA formatting, please click here.

The full reference information for any journal articles and books cited should also then be given at the end of the manuscript as a bibliography, with all entries listed in alphabetical order. The format of these references should match the structure of an OSCOLA bibliography. Please note you do not need to include all types of sources (such as Cases) in the bibliography.

Please ensure that all DOI numbers are provided for electronic references, where available.

Examples of the OSCOLA footnote referencing structure can be found below. Additional information on OSCOLA can be found at http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/oscola.php

Primary Source
Cases

A law report citation typically includes the below. If you are not sure of the abbreviation, you can usually find the citation at the start of the case. Give the party names, followed by the neutral citation, followed by the Law Reports citation (eg AC, Ch, QB). If there is no neutral citation, give the Law Reports citation followed by the court in brackets. If the case is not reported in the Law Reports, cite the All ER or the WLR, or failing that a specialist report.

Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884
R (Roberts) v Parole Board [2004] EWCA Civ 1031, [2005] QB 410
Page v Smith [1996] AC 155 (HL)

When pinpointing, give paragraph numbers in square brackets at the end of the reference. If the judgment has no paragraph numbers, provide the page number pinpoint after the court.

Callery v Gray [2001] EWCA Civ 1117, [2001] 1 WLR 2112 [42], [45]
Bunt v Tilley [2006] EWHC 407 (QB), [2006] 3 All ER 336 [1]–[37]
R v Leeds County Court, ex p Morris [1990] QB 523 (QB) 530–31

If citing a particular judge:

Arscott v The Coal Authority [2004] EWCA Civ 892, [2005] Env LR 6 [27] (Laws LJ)

Statutes and statutory instruments


Acts are also known as Statutes. The title and date are always included. Each Act has a chapter number, which you can additionally include, along with publisher information if required.
Statutory Instruments are also known as Orders, Rules and Regulations. Cite the title and year and SI number.

Act of Supremacy 1558
Human Rights Act 1998, s 15(1)(b)
Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004, SI 2004/3166

EU legislation and cases

Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ C115/13
Council Regulation (EC) 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (EC Merger Regulation) [2004] OJ L24/1, art 5
Case C–176/03 Commission v Council [2005] ECR I–7879, paras 47–48

European Court of Human Rights

Omojudi v UK (2009) 51 EHRR 10
Osman v UK ECHR 1998–VIII 3124
Balogh v Hungary App no 47940/99 (ECHR, 20 July 2004)
Simpson v UK (1989) 64 DR 188

Secondary Sources


Books
Give the author’s name in the same form as in the publication, with the first name and then the surname provided. Give relevant information about editions, translators and so forth before the publisher, and give page numbers at the end of the citation, after the brackets.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (first published 1651, Penguin 1985) 268
Gareth Jones, Goff and Jones: The Law of Restitution (1st supp, 7th edn, Sweet & Maxwell 2009)
K Zweigert and H Kötz, An Introduction to Comparative Law (Tony Weir tr, 3rd edn, OUP 1998)

Contributions to edited books

Francis Rose, ‘The Evolution of the Species’ in Andrew Burrows and Alan Rodger (eds), Mapping the Law: Essays in Memory of Peter Birks (OUP 2006)

Encyclopedias

Halsbury’s Laws (5th edn, 2010) vol 57, para 53

Journal articles

Paul Craig, ‘Theory, “Pure Theory” and Values in Public Law’ [2005] PL 440

When pinpointing, put a comma between the first page of the article and the page pinpoint.

JAG Griffith, ‘The Common Law and the Political Constitution’ (2001) 117 LQR 42, 64

Online journals

Graham Greenleaf, ‘The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information’ (2010) 1(1) EJLT < http://ejlt.org//article/view/17 > accessed 27 July 2010

Command papers and Law Commission reports

Department for International Development, Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future (White Paper, Cm 7656, 2009) ch 5 Law Commission,
Reforming Bribery (Law Com No 313, 2008) paras 3.12–3.17

Websites and blogs

Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked Law, 1 May 2009) <www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html> accessed 19 November 2009

Newspaper articles

Jane Croft, ‘Supreme Court Warns on Quality’ Financial Times (London, 1 July 2010) 3