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Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

Submitting to the DJLS

1. SUBMISSIONS

The Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies (the DJLS) publishes articles and case comments from law students and recent graduates. The Journal publishes annually in the Spring and accepts submissions at all times. Publications cover a wide array of law-related topics that have a connection to Canadian law, with no particular thematic focus.

2. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Before submitting your work to the DJLS, please read through the following requirements carefully. Submissions which do not comply with these requirements will be rejected.

Author Eligibility:

Authors that fall within one of the following categories are automatically eligible to submit an article to the DJLS:

  • Students enrolled in any of the following courses of study in law recognized by that jurisdiction's law society (or equivalent) as a pre-requisite to the practice of law as a profession:
    • Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)
    • Bachelor of Civil Law (LL.L. or B.C.L.)
    • Juris Doctor (J.D.)
    • Master of Laws (LL.M.)
    • Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.)
  • Law school graduates that have graduated from one of the above courses within 12 months of submission.
  • Students-at-law and articling students.

The DJLS may grant exceptions to the above eligibility requirements on a case-by-case basis. Please contact the editorial team at djls@dal.ca for more information or to request an exception. Exceptions may be granted where:

  • The author previously submitted when eligible and was asked to resubmit.
  • The author wrote the paper while eligible but waited slightly too long to submit.
  • The author is a paralegal student or recent graduate.

Content:

The DJLS considers for publication articles written in English with a substantial legal focus and a connection to Canadian law.

While submissions that focus on international law or the law of a foreign country are welcomed, the article’s focus must bear some relevance to Canada, for example by having a comparative aspect with Canadian law or a clear application to Canadian law.

Citations:

The DJLS uses the most recent version of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation ("McGill Guide") for all citations. All citations must be in the form of footnotes. Bibliographies or reference lists should be excluded. All links must include a corresponding perma.cc link.

American and other international authors may use the accepted format of legal citation in their home jurisdiction, but must undertake to convert their citations to comply with the McGill Guide if their submission is accepted for publication.

Formatting and Length:

Submissions must be single-spaced, use Times New Roman 12-point font, and be submitted in Microsoft Word or equivalent, not PDF format.

There are no firm length requirements. While the average length of a paper is generally between 20 and 35 pages, longer and shorter submissions have been published in the past.

Identifying Information:

Any information that could be used to identify the author must be removed from all submissions. This includes the author’s name, university, and footnote references to classes and classwork. Identifying information must be removed from the entire submission document, including the title page, header, footer, and the body of the text.

Exclusivity:

To be considered for publication, submissions to the DJLS must not have been submitted to any other journal at the time of submission, and will not be for 12 months following submission.

3. TIPS FOR GOOD PAPERS

To impress your reviewers, we encourage all papers to have:

  • An explicit research question or hypothesis;
  • A methodology paragraph (even if it's a "doctrinal" piece) that explains how you will answer the research question; and
  • A literature review that compares your conclusion to what's already been written on the topic.

For additional guidance on writing a paper of publishable quality, refer to the foreword of volume 29: Legal Essays: A Checklist.

4. SUBMIT YOUR PAPER

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Submissions received by September 29th (11:59pm AST) will be considered for the next volume.

Once the above requirements have been met, please submit via email to the editors at djls@dal.ca.