Submissions

Author Guidelines

Edinburgh Student Law Review Submission Guide  

1. Word Count 

The Edinburgh Student Law Review will be accepting submissions in multiple formats: 

Case Notes: Up to 3,000 words (Including footnotes) 

Short Articles: Up to 5,000 words (Including footnotes) 

Legal Book Reviews: Up to 5,000 words (Including footnotes) 

Long Articles: Up to 10,000 words (Including footnotes) 

Blog Pieces: 1,500 words 

2. Title 

The main title of the article should appear centered at the head of the first page.  

The author’s name should appear below the title, also centered, in italics. 

There should be an asterisk after the author’s name, referring to the first of the footnotes (also asterisked), giving the author’s current level of study or, if appropriate, position(s) of employment. 

3. Text

Text language should be in English and in 12-point Arial, single-line spaced.  

Footnotes should be in 10-point Arial.

4. Indenting

New paragraphs should be indented except in the case of the opening paragraph and any paragraph following a heading.

5. Headings

Headings within the text are encouraged, to make the structure of the argument clear. It is recommended that no more than three degrees of heading be used, as follows: 

FIRST HEADING (all caps, in bold) 

(1) Second Heading (first letters capitalised, in bold)  

(a) Third heading (sentence case, in italics) 

6. Spacing of Headings

There should be a double line space above all principal headings except for the first principal heading, which should have three. Second grade headings should have one space above and one below. Third grade headings should have one space above but none below. 

7. Use of Language

Please use the British spelling of words wherever possible. 

8. Quotations

Please use single quotation marks (' ') for the initial quote, and other words that might be quoted within the initial quote should use double quotation marks (“ ”). 

Any punctuation should be placed before the quotation mark. 

Double quotation marks should be used to denote emphasis on certain words (i.e. This conduct was deemed as an “act of aggression” rather than a legitimate form of use of force.) 

 9. Acronyms

Please use the full version of the words in the first instance an acronym will be used, before introducing the acronym in parentheses. No periods should be put between each letter of the acronym. Please use the acronym in the following instances of use (i.e. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was adopted in 1989. UNCRC encompasses fundamental rights of children.) 

10. Italics 

Please italicise case names in-text and in footnotes. 

Please italicise any non-English words in the text. (i.e. opinio juris, jus cogens, prima facie, raison d’être) 

10. Footnote referencing style: OSCOLA   

All submissions, except for blog submissions, should be fully cited in strict accordance with the OSCOLA referencing style in footnote format. Footnotes will be included as part of the word count for each submission, and as indicated should be written in 10-point Arial. Please note that no separate bibliography is necessary alongside the footnotes. 

You can find the full guide for the OSCOLA style at the following link: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/migrated/oscola_4th_edn_hart_2012.pdf 

Blog submissions should primarily rely on hyperlinks instead of footnote references, which should be embedded in the text. In order to create hyperlinks in Microsoft Word please select the text, click on the “Insert” tab, and select “Link”. Footnotes should be avoided in blog pieces whenever possible, though if used, should be written in the OSCOLA style, following the same rules outlined in this document for footnotes regarding other forms of submissions. 

Note: 

Commas 

In general, there is no comma before page numbers, paragraph numbers or, in the case of statutes, section numbers. Commas are used mainly to separate the author from the title of the book or article (W M Gordon, Scottish Land Law). 

Stops 

No stops are used with abbreviations other than e.g. and i.e. (e.g. Mr Lloyd LJ, SC, QC, Co, Ltd, Trs, Exrs). 

Subsequent citations 

Please include the full OSCOLA citation of the source for the first instance of citation within the piece. Where a source has already been cited, subsequent citations should be abbreviated in accordance with the OSCOLA style set out in the above link. 

In-text placement of footnotes 

When using footnotes, please place the footnote after punctuation. 

10. File.

The file should be named: 'Author Name_Title of Paper_ESLR' 

Files should be submitted as Microsoft Word (.docx) 

11. Prior Publication 

The submission has not been previously published and has not been submitted to another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the editor). 

12. Who may submit work? 

Submissions are welcome from all law students and year groups, including both postgraduate and undergraduate. 

Submissions are welcome from law students at other institutions and recent law graduates. 

13. What can you submit? 

We welcome submissions in any of the categories outlined in point number one.  

We welcome submissions of honours-level and postgraduate course essays, or dissertations as well as original non-course related work. 

We welcome submissions from any topic within the legal field. This scope includes both Scots Law and International Law. 

14. How to submit work? 

Please submit your work, in accordance with the above guidance, by clicking the "Make a Submission" button on the website. You will be directed to a page where you would need to create an account, and submit your paper directly to the journal platform. If you have any questions about this process or run into any difficulties, please do not hesitate to contact "edslr@ed.ac.uk". 

15. Additional information

If the piece(s) of work you are submitting has previously been submitted in fulfilment of a degree course examination and received an overall essay grade, please indicate the grade this piece received, the course it was submitted for, and the name and email address of the course organiser who awarded the grade in the body of the email.