Submissions

Author Guidelines

All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal and subsequently sent for review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

Submission Guidelines

The NUJS Law Review is a quarterly journal which accepts submissions on a rolling basis from external contributors. All submissions must be accompanied with a covering letter containing the name of the author(s), title of the submission, email address as well as the institutional affiliations of the author(s).

The submissions will be reviewed and edited by the Editorial Board under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief.

I. Conditions of Publication

1. Exclusive Submission Policy

All submissions to the NUJS Law Review ('Journal') must be original and must not be simultaneously considered by any other publication, whether prior to, during, or after the submission to the Journal or at any stage of its review process.

2. Indemnity for Liability

Submissions are accepted for publication on the condition that they do not infringe the copyright or any other rights of any third parties and that the work does not contain any obscene, offensive, defamatory, racially or otherwise prejudicial material. All submissions will be checked for plagiarism by the Editorial Board. Infringing, offensive, or plagiarised submissions will be liable for rejection.

3. Copyright Policy

As a condition of publication, the authors grant the Journal an irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reproduce, publish and distribute their submission(s) in all media including but not limited to print and any electronic services. The licence is granted for the duration of the subsistence of the copyright including any extensions and/or renewals.

II. Open Access Statement

The NUJS Law Review is committed to open access for academic work. All the articles published in the NUJS Law Review are freely accessible immediately from the date of publication. There are no author charges prior to publication, and no charge for any reader for accessing and downloading our articles for their own personal use.

III. Submission Process:

We encourage contributors to submit manuscripts as Microsoft Word documents through this website. This can be done through the Online Submission Portal, after providing requisite details, providing a cover letter, and accepting the Journal's Policies and Guidelines.

Alternatively, manuscripts can be mailed to: nujslr@nujs.edu with the following subject: Submission | [Article name]. In the body of the mail, mention all the details are mentioned in the Online Submission Portal.

1. Timelines

The Journal strives to ensure a speedy and efficient review process. We normally review and revert with comments to submissions within 3–4 weeks. Please note that this time may be sufficiently higher during March – April and October – November, due to additional university commitments. Authors should be prepared to make suitable changes to their articles as required by the Board of Editors before acceptance.

2. Expedited Review

The Journal recognises that submissions addressing contemporary or time-sensitive legal issues may lose significance, relevance, and novelty if subjected to the standard review timeline. To ensure that research on such pressing matters can be disseminated in a timely manner, we offer an expedited review process.

Authors who believe their manuscript qualifies for expedited review must indicate in their cover letter and/or their e-mail clearly the request for an expedited review. It should contain a clear justification of the contemporariness of the subject-matter, how the standard review timeline is unsuitable and how the manuscript's novelty would be compromised by delay.

The Board of Editors will review the justification and if approved, it will communicate the decision of acceptance/rejection within one week. If the request is not approved, the standard review timeline will be followed.

It must be noted that expedited review is not a substitute for, and does not exempt the submission from, the threshold of scrutiny in the Editorial Review Process.

3. Length

The NUJS Law Review accepts submissions in the following categories:

All word limits are exclusive of footnotes. The Journal is flexible on the word count depending on the quality of the submission. Submissions must necessarily contain an abstract of not more than 200 words.

4. Citation and Style Standards:

Referencing and citations must be in conformity with the NUJS Law Review Citation and Style Standard.

• The main text should be in font size 12 and footnotes in font size 10.
• The submission must be word-processed and in Times New Roman.
• A one line gap must be maintained between all paragraphs and headings.
• All paragraphs must begin with a one-inch indent.
• All hyperlinks must be in black colour and must not be underlined.

For further reference see the NUJS Law Review Citation and Style Standard.

IV. Co-Authorship Policy:

We encourage the co-authoring of papers among individuals, irrespective of whether they are affiliated with the same or different institutions.

• There is no cap on the number of co-authors permitted to submit a manuscript.
• The submission's covering letter must explicitly indicate the name and email address of all co-authors. This letter must also include the mandatory details regarding the academic qualifications, degrees completed, and the name of the university or institution to which each author is currently affiliated. It is assumed that all co-authors approve of the manuscript submitted for consideration and publication.
• All co-authors must be prepared to assume responsibility for the integrity of the work and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
• Once a manuscript has been submitted, any changes to the authorship list (including additions, deletions, or changes to the order of authors) must be formally approved by the Board of Editors. Requests for changes in authorship must be made in writing by the Corresponding Author and must include a signed statement from all named authors (including those to be added or removed) affirming their agreement to the change. The request must provide a clear and comprehensive justification for the proposed change, detailing the intellectual contribution of any author being added or removed. Changes to authorship after the manuscript has received an offer of publication are severely restricted and will only be considered in the most exceptional circumstances, at the final discretion of the Board of Editors.

V. Empirical Research Policy:

The NUJS Law Review recognises the value data-driven insights bring to legal scholarship.

The author(s) bear the sole responsibility for the accuracy and reliability of the data presented in the manuscript. The Board does not assume responsibility for independent verification of the data or its methodological execution. The Editorial Review Process will be limited to general plausibility, presentation, clarity, and link to the legal argument.

Editorial Review Process

The Journal prides itself on being student-run and does not have a peer-review board. We maintain a detailed and high standard of editorial review of each manuscript, involving a three-stage review process:

I. Publishability Review

After submission of a manuscript, a preliminary review is conducted by an Editor along with Associate Members who assesses the submission on (a) quality of arguments, (b) novelty, (c) structure, (d) quality of citations, and (d) language and formatting. In accordance with the Timelines as under III.1, a publishability review is normally completed within 3–4 weeks from the date of submission.

II. Substantive Review

Post tentatively accepting the submission at the publishability review stage, a detailed review of the entire manuscript is conducted to provide specific comments to the author(s). Depending on the extent of modifications required and the response to the comments, a submission may require multiple rounds of substantive reviews.

III. Finalisation Review

At this stage, the Editor-in-Charge of the manuscript formats and finalises the manuscript in accordance with the NUJS Law Review Citation and Style Standard, preparing the manuscript for publication on the website and the distribution in print version.

The Board of Editors retain the final and authoritative decision to reject or halt the publication of the manuscript at any stage of the Editorial Review Process.

All decisions made by the Board of Editors are final and may not be subject to additional review. We request all our authors to review our terms and conditions, before contacting us with any queries.