Information for Authors 

The Journal of Law & Politics is an entirely student-run publication at the University of Virginia School of Law. JLP is published two to three times a year.

The Journal consists of articles, essays, and commentaries by scholars, practitioners, political leaders, and students focusing on issues at the intersection of law and politics, including but not limited to: the role of the judiciary in making law, the relationship of the three branches of government, federalism, the politics of the judicial appointment process, voting rights, campaign finance, redistricting, voter initiatives, ethics investigations, the politics of education, and religious freedom in a pluralist society, and other broad discussions of policy.

For student note submission guidelines visit the Student Notes Pool page. 

General Submission Guidelines 

 
Editing Policy: JLP practices a light-editing policy. That being said, all pieces must be rigorously substantiated in accordance with the best publication practices. Authors agree to make any changes required for their pieces to meet the JLP’s publication standards, including making changes to and adding explanatory text and footnotes. Authors must authorize JLP to edit and revise the work prior to publication, but the final work shall not be published by unless it is acceptable in its final form to both the Author and JLP.

AI Policy: JLP recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) is an increasingly useful tool in the legal field and in legal research and writing, in particular. Nonetheless, we expect that all submitted scholarship is the original and sole work of the author. You represent and warrant that no part of the work, above or below the line, was written by Artificial Intelligence. If Artificial Intelligence was used in the research process, you must — prior to the start of your work’s initial edit — disclose to the editors the type and extent of AI usage. Should JLP discover after acceptance that the piece is not the sole work of the author or has been misrepresented, JLP reserves the right to rescind the offer of publication.

Article Submissions 

 
We encourage submissions from scholars, practitioners, and individual S.J.D. candidates. Article submissions should be between 15,000–28,000 words, and Essay submissions must be between 10,000–15,000 words, including footnotes.
Claims must be supported by citations in Bluebook format, and authors should refer to the 21st edition of the Bluebook for citation form. For the ease of the production process, non-English-language sources cited are expected to be submitted along with the manuscript upon author’s acceptance of offer for publication.

While authors are strongly encouraged to submit via Scholastica, we consider submissions by email to submissions@lawandpolitics.org. Your email submission should include (1) a Word document that contains your piece, including title, abstract, and table of contents, and (2) a CV or resume.

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot provide feedback on pieces that we do not accept. The review process may take multiple weeks, but we will do our best to honor “expedited review” requests, should you have an outstanding offer from a different journal. Additionally, it is our policy to only communicate with authors when we intend to extend an offer, however we will provide you with an update upon email request.

Please note that we do not accept hard-copy submissions.