Opinio Juris In Comparatione - Call for submissions

• Francesco Donato Busnelli - Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
• Gert Bruggemeier - Universität Bremen
• Guido Calabresi - Yale Law School
• Hugh Collins - London School of Economics and Political Science
• Fernando Hinestrosa - Universidad Externado de Colombia
• Ewoud Hondius - Utrecht University
• Nicholas Kasirer - Mc Gill University
• David Owen - University of South Carolina
• Vernon Palmer - Tulane University
• Rodolfo Sacco - Università di Torino
• Stephen Sugarman - University of California, Berkeley
• Geneviève Viney - Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne

The birth of Opinio Juris stems from several ventures of international collaboration among a large number of universities in Europe, America and Asia. The Social Science Research Network will regularly publish Opinio Juris.

Opinio Juris is a generalist electronic open platform devoted to “Studies in Comparative and National Law”. It aims at enhancing the dialogue among all legal traditions in a broad sense e.g.:

1. in a pure cultural sense in order to increase legal knowledge and to promote circulation of (and competition between) models and legal transplants;
2. in a more political perspective, in order to harmonize, when possible/feasible, substantive (or procedural) civil law or private international law rules having regard to the different 'legal formants'.

Its international character, the fully anonymous peer review process and its openness to publication in several languages are among its challenging features. Finally, it offers an on-line discussion arena where comparative law experts may debate, similar to that experienced by the classic comparative law journals.

Yet, Opinio Juris will not desert exploring national law. The aim of diffusing contributions on national law as well, is to expand access to foreign legal materials and ideas to those who do not already have access to the traditional avenues (such as journals in the language of the explored legal system).

Authors will retain their copyrights. Authors will only mention in further publication(s) of the article\essay\case note that it has previously belonged to the Op.J. collection. Quotation suggested: “This article/essay/case note, was previously selected by Op.J., n. ---, year, ---”
Conversely, if the article/essay/case note is never published elsewhere the final citation mode will read as follow: “Title, Op.J., n. ---, year, ---”

All contributions will be inserted in our on-line platform: http://www.ssrn.com

Opinio Juris offers the strength of a peer reviewed international publication.

Op.J. offers the benefits of a preliminary diffusion of the contributions before the papers are actually published somewhere else. Indeed, accepted papers can be also published on national or international law journals: in this case it would be likely that they be removed from the Op.J. collection upon request of the author or the final publisher.

To date there are five typologies of contribution in the platform:

Articles

(Op.J. will give preference to articles under 25,000 words in length including text and footnotes);

Essays

(a piece will be considered an essay if it is 8.000 words or less in length, and its primary purpose is to advance an idea, to summarize a development, or to initiate or engage in discussion);

Case notes

(a case note not exceeding 7.000 words will focus on an important decision);

Selected Conference Proceedings;

News and book reviews

(overview of conferences, new books, etc.).

The three different languages of preferred submission are English, French and Spanish. The constraints set out for dealing with purely national law contributions is to give descriptions of domestic law in a language other than the language of the system itself (please see instructions for submission for further details).

NOTE for publication purposes all contributions must have their title and abstract translated into English.

The article/essay/case note or book review should be submitted via email as an attachment in Word (.doc) or rich text format (.rtf) to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it along with:

1. a brief abstract of 250 words or fewer summarizing the article, and, at your convenience,
2. translation of title and abstract into English (where applicable)
3. a résumé or curriculum vitae (optional)
4. a cover letter

For further details please refer to Guidelines for submission PDF

As to the division of the text, where it occurs, authors are required to structure their texts as follows: Part (typed in bold small capitals, in Roman numerals, e.g. Part I), sub part (typed in bold italic, in Arabic numerals, e.g. 1), and Sub-sub-part (in bold type, followed by a letter of the alphabet and a round bracket, e.g. Sub-subpart a) ). Please submit the text in Times New Roman, double-spaced.

Notification of acceptance for peer review shall be communicated via email no later than 10 working days upon receipt. We expect to normally complete the peer review process within 4 weeks from receipt of the submission.