6/26/08

Call for Papers

INDIAN JOURNAL OF JUSTICE STUDIES – INVITATION FOR SUBMISSIONS

The National Judicial Academy, India (NJA) has been set up under the guidance of the Supreme Court of India for judicial education, policy and research, as a means for improving the quality of justice delivery in the country. As part of this mandate, the NJA has decided to publish a peer-reviewed annual journal for discussion, thinking and deliberation on the theme of "quest for justice"- broadly defined. Named the Indian Journal of Justice Studies, this journal aims to contribute to thinking on issues of justice, like, for example, the various and often competing concepts of justice; ideas and social, political, religious and economic forces shaping these concepts; struggles and social movements for justice; institutional frameworks and formal and informal networks influencing justice delivery; state policies, including developmental policies and their impact on justice; the role of judicial institutions in relation to justice; the role of the legal profession and legal education in the quest for justice; multidisciplinary approaches to justice; legal frameworks and their impact of justice, international and comparative approaches to justice, etc.
The Editorial Board of the Journal invites submissions for the 2007-08 issue, in keeping with the editorial policy provided below. The deadline for submission of manuscripts is July 25, 2008.
The editorial policy and the Call for Papers are also available at http://www.nja.gov.in/journal.html.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Objective

The Indian Journal of Law and Justice ("Journal") aims to foster thinking, research and writing centered on the theme of "quest for justice"- broadly defined. It encourages scholarship drawing on a variety of theoretical bases, research methodologies and disciplines.

The Journal welcomes submissions from judges, lawyers, academics as well as law students. In addition, given its policy of encouraging interdisciplinary scholarship, it also welcomes submissions from specialists from other disciplines.

Solicited and Unsolicited Articles, Review Procedure and Selection

The Editorial Board of the Journal may, at its discretion, invite articles, comments and reviews from individuals who are leaders in their fields. Apart from such solicited pieces, the Journal will also consider unsolicited papers that are submitted to it for publication. All articles, comments and reviews, whether solicited or unsolicited, will be reviewed by the Editorial Board to determine publishability. The decisions of the Editorial Board will be final and no request will be entertained for further review.

The Editorial Board will carefully consider all manuscripts received by it. All unsolicited pieces will be reviewed anonymously, without regard to the author's name, affiliation, prior publications, etc.

The editorial policy of the Journal seeks to afford substantial deference to authors. Therefore, the Journal only accepts manuscripts that are well written and completely argued at the time of submission, as it will not be possible for the Editorial Board to engage in detailed editing of the substantive content of the manuscripts. The changes that are suggested by the Editorial Board are intended to hone the ideas advanced by the author, not to replace them. Therefore, after the editing process, the Board will send the author a marked copy of the manuscript, highlighting the suggested changes. These changes are meant as reasoned suggestions, not editorial diktats, and the author's judgment regarding whether the changes should be made or not, will be respected.

Articles, Notes, Comments, Reviews, Essays

The Journal seeks to publish a variety of legal and other writings on the issue of justice. The only consideration is that the writing should be scholarly in nature. Based on the length of the piece and the merit of its substantive content, the Editorial Board will decide whether to publish the accepted pieces as articles, notes, comments, reviews or essays. Generally articles will be of 10,000 words or more and will either develop a theory, or apply theoretical and/or research findings from law and other disciplines to legal subject matter.

A comment is a shorter piece of about 5,000 words which discusses one particular issue of legal or policy significance in detail. A piece will be considered an essay if it is around 3,000 words and its primary purpose is to advance an idea, or to initiate or engage in analytical discussion.

Notes and reviews are descriptive pieces which summarize a recent legal or policy development like a new legislation, judicial decision or policy and place them in their wider legal and social context. The main purpose of such these writings is to familiarize the reader with current developments. The reviews section will also include book reviews.

Citation Style

The Journal follows the Blue Book citation style. (The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds., 18th ed. 2005). However, the manuscripts need not necessarily comply with this citation format in draft form.

Exclusivity

The Journal will publish only original articles and research papers. Manuscripts are accepted for publication on the understanding that their contents, all or in part, have not been published elsewhere. Every contribution should be the author's own original work, and should not constitute a substantial repetition of work already published or to be published elsewhere.

Copyright

Submissions are considered for publication on condition that copyright in any material included in the Journal is assigned to the National Judicial Academy on the understanding that the Academy can re-publish the article elsewhere, or can allow third parties to publish the piece. Authors are free to use their own copyright materials in other publications, provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication. The author also retains his or her moral rights in the submission.
Submission format

All submissions should be made in electronic format only, in a MS Word document. The manuscripts should contain footnotes and not endnotes. The manuscripts can either be e-mailed to: njabhopal@nja.gov.in (put the words "To the Editor" in the subject line) or be sent in a disk to: The Editor, Indian Journal of Juridical Studies, National Judicial Academy, Surajnagar, Bhadbadha Road, Bhopal- 462044, India. Please ensure that the disk is virus free, and is not corrupted.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in the Journal are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Editorial Board, the National Judicial Academy, or any other persons or institutions affiliated with it.