European Law Journal

Edited by:
Francis Snyder

Print ISSN: 1351-5993
Online ISSN: 1468-0386
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Current Volume: 16 / 2010

TopAuthor Guidelines

The Editors will be happy to discuss drafts and proposed contributors. Articles need not necessarily be limited to specific fields. In particular, contributions are encouraged which concern new perspectives on European institutions, analyses of legal developments, case studies on the interaction between law, politics, economics and culture, and review articles discussing major contributions on social, economic and political integration.

Preparation and submission of manuscripts

Submissions to the European Law Journal are now made on-line using Manuscript Central. To submit to the journal go to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/elj

If this is the first time you have used the system you will be asked to register by clicking on 'create an account'. Full instructions on making your submission are provided. You should receive an acknowledgement within a few minutes. Thereafter, the system will keep you informed of the process of your submission through refereeing, any revisions that are required, and a final decision.

Letters of no more than 500 words in response to articles published in the European Law Journal, or on topical developments regarding issues with which the journal is concerned, will be considered for publication in the correspondence section.

All contributions should be submitted in house style.

General
Contributions should be submitted with an abstract of 100-150 words in length. The length of articles should usually not exceed 10,000 words including abstract and footnotes. Articles should be submitted in English. In exceptional instances, it may be possible to arrange for translation (see below).

Corrections
Whenever possible, alterations should be made to the manuscript and not on the proofs. Every correction to proofs results in resetting of the text, hence delay and increased cost. Revisions to proofs should be limited to essential new material which was not available at the time the contribution was initially submitted.

Manuscripts
English rather than American spelling should be used, eg recognise, not recognize; labour, not labor; analyse not analyze.

All full points and commas should be placed inside quotation marks. Semi-colons and colons go outside quotation marks. Footnote numbers should be placed outside quotation marks except when they are part of the exact quoted.

The first letter of the words 'Member States', as in Member States of the European Community, should be capitalised, following the practice of the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Quotations
Quotations should be indicated by single quotation marks. A quotation within a quotation should be indicated by double quotation marks. A quotation that is more than about five lines long should be indicated as a separate paragraph, with a line space above and below and no opening or closing quotation marks. All quotations should remain exactly as in the original.

Latin phrases
Latin phrases and other non-English expressions should always be in italics unless they are so common that they have become wholly absorbed into everyday language: eg etc bona fide, but amicus curiae, pouvoir constituant.

Abbreviations
These may be used provided that the name is set out in full, followed by the abbreviation in brackets, at the first usage, eg European Court of Justice (ECJ). The abbreviation can then be used throughout. Latin abbreviations as follows:

ibid
et seq
op cit
supra

eg
ie
cf

(No full points or comma)

The following, additional, abbreviations should be used:

Court of Justice of the European Communities: Court of Justice
Court of First Instance in full, never CFI
European Court of Human Rights: Court of Human Rights
International Court of Justice: International Court

Footnotes
All reference should be put in footnotes. A separate bibliography should not be included. References should be numbered sequentially throughout the text and should appear at the bottom of the page. Authors are asked to keep footnotes as short as possible and to make cross-references within the text as sparingly as possible. The name of the author(s) and an abbreviated form of the title should be used for cross-references.

Footnote numbers in text should follow punctuation marks - comma, full point etc. The first letter of footnote will be capital except:
where it is part of Latin abbreviations: ibid. eg ie cf
where it is a cross reference to another footnote, eg 'n 4 supra'.

Page references
These are set out in full eg 123-124 (not 123-4)
Page numbers should not be preceded by 'p' or 'pp'

Headings
A logical system of headings and subheadings, of descending levels of importance, should be used throughout. If headings and subheadings are numbered, the numbering should be consistent. The preferred style is as follows:

I Introduction
II Style Sheet

A Quotations
B Headings

III Citation of Published Works

A Books
B Edited Books
C Articles

IV Conclusion

Authors are asked to avoid the use of further subheadings if at all possible. Headings and subheadings are designed to guide the reader through the paper, so all headings and subheadings which do not add substantially to clarity should be omitted.

Books
Books should be cited as in the following examples, with the titles italicised:

M. Jones, European Law in Context (Blackwell, 1995)
M. Jones and J. Smith, European Law in Context Revisited (Blackwell, 1995)
M. Jones, J. Smith and A. Rowe (eds), European Law in Context: Selected Readings
(Blackwell, 2nd edn, 1995)

Contributions to edited books should be cited as follows:
M. Jones, 'Social Regulation', in M. Jones, J. Smith and A. Rowe (eds), European Law in Context: Selected Readings (Blackwell, 1995), at 64 (nb: Include chapter author's initial and the start page number of the chapter)

Articles
Article titles, like the titles of contributions to edited books, should be in single quotation marks and not italicised. The titles of books and journals should be italicised and spelled out in full. (nb: do not use common abbreviations)

For example:
M. Jones, 'Subsidiarity and Social Regulation in Europe', (1995) 1 Journal of Social Regulation Studies 63

A reference to a specific page should be as follows:
(1995) 1 Journal of Social Regulation Studies 63, 67

Cases
References to Court of Justice or Court of First Instance cases should give the European Court Reports (ECR) citation, except if the case has not yet been published in the ECR, in which case the reference should give the Common Market Law Reports citation if possible. Cases should not be cited to both the ECR and the CMLR.

Cases should be cited in the following way:

(a) for ECR citations:
Case 132/82, Commission v Belgium [1983] ECR 1649
Case 188/89, Foster v British Gas [1990] ECR I-3313

(b) for CMLR citations:
Case 246/89, Commission v United Kingdom [1991] 3 CMLR 706

TEU and Community treaties

TEU eg Article A TEU
EC Treaty eg Article 30 EC
ECSC Treaty eg Article 2 ECSC
EAEC Treaty eg Article 3 Euratom

Legislation
EC, ECSC or Euratom legislation should be cited as follows:

(a) in the text: written out:
Article 2 of Regulation 11/89
Article 3 of Directive 89/21
Article 4 of Decision 89/31

(b) in footnotes: abbreviation:
Art 2, Reg 21//89
Art 3, Dir 89/21
Art 4, Dec 89/31

References in Articles
There are several software packages available to help authors manage and format the references and footnotes in their journal article. We recommend the use of a software tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.

EndNote reference styles can be searched for here:
http://Www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp

Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here:
http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

Copyright Transfer Agreement
Authors will be required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) for all papers accepted for publication. Signature of the CTA is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received (US Federal Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections, although copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned). After submission authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various media/circumstances (please see the form for further details). To assist authors an appropriate form will be supplied by the editorial office. Alternatively, authors may like to download a copy of the form Here. Please return the completed forms as soon as possible, but before publication, to the following address:

Regular Issues:

Qianlan Wu

European Law Journal

London School of Economics and Political Sciences
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE
UK
Email: europeanlawjournal@lse.ac.uk

Special Issues:

Magda Salykova
CERIC
38 avenue de l'Europe
Aix en Provence
13090 FRANCE
Email: Europeanlawjournal@wanadoo.fr or europeanlawjournal@ceric-aix.fr

This form can also be downloaded by following the 'instructions & forms' link from http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/elj

NEW: Online production tracking is now available for your article through Blackwell's Author Services
Author Services enables authors to track their article - once it has been accepted - through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The author will receive an e-mail with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

New: Pre-submission English-language editing
Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscripts professionally edited before submission to improve the English. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/english_language.asp. All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.