The Cambridge Law Journal publishes articles on all aspects of law. Special emphasis is placed on contemporary developments, but the journal's range includes jurisprudence, international law and legal history. We rarely, if ever, publish manuscripts devoted to a single foreign (i.e. non-UK) legal system; but we welcome comparative work where a persuasive explanation is offered for the selection of jurisdictions. Manuscripts are expected to develop new arguments, push forward intellectual debate or provide original insights with an enduring quality

Categories of Publication Accepted

Articles: These should be between 10,000 and 13,000 words long, including footnotes.

Shorter Articles: These should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words, including footnotes.

Case Notes: These should be no longer than 1,500 words. Footnotes are not permitted.

Book Reviews: These should be no longer than 2,000 words. Footnotes are not permitted.

NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

PLEASE USE THESE IN PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPTS FOR SUBMISSION

Submissions should be formatted in advance, but in any event, all articles accepted for publication will need to comply with these guidelines.

Preparation of manuscripts

Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This will help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood. Any submission with poor English will be rejected without being sent for review. We list a number of third-party services specialising in language editing and/or translation, and suggest that authors contact them as appropriate.

Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge published journal.

Abstract and keywords: All manuscripts should be submitted together with an Abstract of 80 to 100 words in length and up to seven key words. The purpose of the Abstract is to identify the subject matter of the article and to summarise the distinctive contribution to the literature which the article makes. It enables the reader using electronic databases to identify articles that are of interest to them.

Word Length: The number of words in the text and the footnotes, as well as the total, should be stated after the abstract and keywords.

Page layout: Paragraphs start flush left after headings but otherwise are indented, with no extra space between them.

Name/Affiliation: All identifying information should be removed from the manuscript to allow for anonymous peer-review.

Footnotes: cannot be included in book reviews or case notes and any references in those submissions should be included in the main text. Notes for articles should be numbered consecutively (after an initial unnumbered note attached to the author's name by an asterisk) and should be placed as footnotes at the bottom of the relevant page. Numbers in cross-references should be highlighted.

The purpose of footnotes is to provide reference to the principal sources on which the author relies to support his or her argument. Their function is not to provide a comprehensive list of what the author has read nor the materials which the reader could use to follow up the argument. Significant points should be included in the text and not in the footnotes. As a guide, the Journal would not expect footnotes to exceed 20% of the length of the text of the article as a whole. Where the author considers it necessary to have longer footnotes, it would be helpful if she or he could explain the reasons briefly when first submitting the article to the Journal. For good reasons, the Journal may publish an article with longer footnotes.

Cross-references to other parts of the manuscript should be to footnotes and section names not to page numbers. Use "See note 7 above/below" rather than "supra/infra note 7". Numbers should be highlighted to allow for proof correction. For cross-references to material already cited, see below (short form citations are used).

Headings

In articles a maximum of four levels of heading is available, one for the title and three within the article:

1. TITLE/AUTHORSHIP

This is centred. Type in capitals:

CENTRED CAPITALS FOR TITLE OF ARTICLE

Only once accepted, the author’s name appears, centred, below the title in capitals/small capitals:

ARNOLD MCNAIR^*

The author’s institutional affiliation appears in the asterisked reference.

Pending peer review, the author’s identity, affiliation and other identifying information should be removed as far as possible.

2. FIRST LEVEL SUBHEADING

Centred. Type in capitals/small capitals (precede by roman I, II, etc. if required): e.g.

I. INTRODUCTION

3. SECOND LEVEL SUBHEADING

Centred. Type with initial capitals for main words only and in italics (precede by A, B, etc. if required): e.g.

A. Subheading in Italics

4. THIRD LEVEL SUBHEADING

Flush left. Type with initial capitals for the first word and proper names only and in italics (precede by arabic numbering 1, 2, etc., if required): e.g.

1. Subheading in italics

Case-Notes

Normally, case notes should not contain headings.

Titles of case-notes are centred and in small capitals: e.g.

LEGISLATE IN HASTE, REPENT AT LEISURE

For case-notes, author attribution appears at the end of the note, in capitals/small-capitals and is right-justified:

PERCY WINFIELD Address for Correspondence: Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, CB3 9DZ. Email: pw9@cam.ac.uk

Style

Quotations of more than c. 60 words (unless in footnotes) should be indented and set off from the text without quotation marks. Otherwise double quotation marks should be used except for quotations within quotations which should use single marks. The note indicator should be placed after the quotation: e.g.

The Court of Appeal was of the view that “the appellant’s conviction is far from ‘unsafe’”.¹

Figures and tables. Charges apply for all colour figures that appear in the print version of the journal. At the time of submission, contributors should clearly state whether their figures should appear in colour in the online version only, or whether they should appear in colour online and in the print version. There is no charge for including colour figures in the online version of the Journal but it must be clear that colour is needed to enhance the meaning of the figure, rather than simply being for aesthetic purposes. If you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article.

Punctuation. All punctuation marks should be outside closing quotation marks except an exclamation mark, question mark, dash or parenthesis belonging only to the quotation or a full point at the end of a grammatically complete sentence beginning with a capital letter. Full stops should be outside closing parentheses unless the parenthesis is a complete sentence beginning with a capital letter.

Note indicators in the text follow punctuation marks. e.g.:

This is known in the economic literature as “market failure”;¹²

Capitals. Capitals should be used when a specific reference is intended: the Act, the Bill, the Cabinet, the Crown, the Directive, the Government (but government and industry), Parliament (but parliamentary). Unless the writer is referring to a court by name (e.g. the Supreme Court), "court" should not have a capital.

Abbreviations. No full points should be used with abbreviations consisting of initials (ACAS, EC, USA). Otherwise full points are retained (ch., Dr., L.J., ed., Ltd., St., vol.) including “para.” for paragraph and "s." for section. The abbreviation for public limited company is "plc". Note also "per cent.", with full point.

Dates. Use the style "10 February 1989"; "1988-89"; "1990s".

Numerals. If below 10, these should be spelt out. E.g. “the four defendants”.

Spelling. Except in quoted matter English spelling should be used (labour, not labor).

Use:

-ise (not -ize); judgment for a court’s decision (not judgement); ius (not jus; i.e. Latin i not j).

Italics. The following should be italicised:

• Case names (including the “v”).
• Latin (and other foreign) words and phrases except those in common use such as: bona fide, de facto, de jure, (obiter) dicta/dictum, habeas corpus, intra vires, mens rea, prima facie, ratio decidendi, ultra vires.
• Ship names.

Latin abbreviations should be in roman but retain full points: cf., e.g., ibid., i.e., loc. cit., op. cit., per, viz.

Note indicators. Wherever possible note indicators should be deferred to the end of the relevant sentence or clause of the text.

References

At first mention, the full title and date and place of publication should be given: e.g.

F. Stark, Culpable Carelessness: Recklessness and Negligence in the Criminal Law (Cambridge 2016)

R. Brazier, "The Crown and Constitutional Reforms" in M. Sunkin and S. Payne (eds.), The Nature of the Crown (London 1999), ch. 13, 337-362.

E.J. Bloustein, “Privacy, Tort Law, and the Constitution: Is Warren and Brandeis’ Tort Petty and Unconstitutional As Well?” (1968) 46 Tex. L.R.611

R. (Miller) v Prime Minister (Lord Advocate and others intervening); Cherry and others v Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Advocate and others intervening) [2019] UKSC 41, [2020] A.C.373

Thereafter a short title should be used: e.g.

Stark, Culpable Carelessness

Brazier, "The Crown”

Bloustein, “Privacy, Tort Law, and the Constitution”, 623-27

Miller v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41.

Do not use cross references , e.g. “See note XX above”, to the earlier footnote containing the full citation. Where the full reference is a considerable distance from its original appearance, the General Editor may decide an internal cross reference or repeat of the full citation is desirable.

Page numbers below 100 should not be compressed: see example under Books below.

Where referring to pages, “p.”, “pp.” are avoided. Merely use a comma or, for paragraphs, “, at [xx]”: e.g.

R. Goode, “Inalienable Rights?” (1979) 42 M.L.R. 553, 554. (no “p.”)

R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, at [37]

J.W.F. Allison, A Continental Distinction in the Common Law: A Historical and Comparative Perspective on English Public Law (Oxford 1996), 171-73 (no “pp.”)

Ibid., at 436. (no “p.”)

See also at [24].

[1908] 2 K.B. 454, 458.

[2002] 2 A.C. 164, at [24].

Brazier, "The Crown”, 339

In case-notes, in text references to paragraphs of the case being noted should be in the form “at [xx]”, either in parentheses e.g. “(at [62])” or after a colon, e.g., “Lord Hoffmann rejected this proposition: at [62]”.

References within footnotes. If a proposition made in a footnote requires a supporting reference this should be placed after a colon: e.g.

The idea of a “relational contract” has recently been imported into English contract law doctrine: Al Nehayan v Kent [2018] EWHC 333 (Comm).

Cases

Names: References to cases carry full points and v does not carry a full point and is in italic. E.g.,

Various Claimants v Barclays Bank plc [2020] UKSC 13, [2020] 2 W.L.R. 960

Law Reports: The neutral citation should be given first, without any full points and before the report reference, for all cases to which the practice has been extended since 2001; references to paragraphs should be in square brackets. Where English cases have been reported, reference should be made to the Law Reports, failing this to the W.L.R., failing that to the All E.R., and failing that to one of the specialist reports: e.g.

R. (Hart) v Bow Street Magistrates' Court [2001] EWHC (Admin) 1141, [2002] 1 W.L.R. 1242.

Twinsectra Ltd. v Yardley [2002] UKHL 12, [2002] 2 A.C. 164, at [24].

R. v Dyson [1908] 2 KB 454.

Re Atkins [1989] 1 All E.R. 14.

DPP v Armstrong [2000] Crim. L.R. 379.

Where a case was reported in the nominate reports but has been reproduced in the English Reports, it is only necessary to use the citation to the English Reports: e.g.

Knight v Knight (1840) 49 E.R. 58, 173 (affd. as Knight v Boughton (1844) 8 E.R. 1195).

(i.e. no citation to 3 Beav. 148 and 11 Cl. & Fin.513).

But cite to the nominate report if the English Reports deviate in a relevant way.

Courts: You should not refer to the court if it is self-evident (as it usually is with neutral citation). However, if the court is not clear, it should be specified in abbreviated form in parentheses after the cite (including specific page):

Interlego AG v Tyco Industries Inc. [1989] A.C. 217, 266 (P.C).

(not Interlego AG v Tyco Industries Inc. [1989] A.C. 217 (P.C.), 266.)

References within judgments: When citing case-law it will often be desirable to refer to passages from particular judgments or speeches. This should be done as follows:

Twinsectra Ltd. v Yardley [2002] UKHL 12, [2002] 2 A.C. 164, at [24] (Lord Hoffmann).

There is no need for “per”.

If it is necessary to repeat a case reference, use an abbreviated citation - do not cross-reference to an earlier footnote. The abbreviated citation should include an abbreviated version of the names of first plaintiff and the first defendant, but not non-identifying information such as “Ltd.” For example:

First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC v BP Oil International Ltd. [2018] EWCA Civ 14.

Becomes

First Abu Dhabi Bank v BP [2018] EWCA Civ 14.

And

Re McPhail and other Appellants v Doulton and Other Respondents (sometimes referred to as Re Baden’s Trust) [1971] A.C. 424

Becomes

McPhail v Doulton [1971] A.C. 424

The abbreviated citation should only refer to the neutral citation (where it exists), or the Law Report where no neutral citation exists. Sometimes, clarification will also be necessary:

OBG v Allan, Mainstream Properties Ltd. V Young, Douglas v Hello! Ltd. [2007] UKHL 21, [2008] 1 A.C. 1 (hereafter, Douglas v Hello!)

Becomes

Douglas v Hello! [2007] UKHL 21

European Union Cases:

Decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union after 2011 follow the ECLI method:

Judgment of 12 July 2005, Schempp, C-403/03, EU:C:2005:446.

Decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union before 2011 may use the ECLI method or may continue to be cited as follows: Number, names of the parties in italics, year in square brackets, report (without the date of the decision), e.g.

C.J.E.U.:

Case 26/62, Van Gen en Loos v NederlandseAdministratie der Belastingen [1963] E.C.R. 1

Case C-234/02 P, European Ombudsman v Lamberts [2004] E.C.R. I-2803

General Court:

Case T-102/96, Gencor v Commission [1999] E.C.R. II- 753

Civil Service Tribunal:

F-107/06, Berrisford v Commission, [2006] E.C.R.-SC I-A-1- 0000 and II-A-2-0000

Where a judgment has not yet been published:

C-434/09, McCarthy v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Judgment of 5 May 2011, not yet reported.

European Court of Human Rights:

Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are cited as follows:

If reported, names of the parties in italics and report: e.g.

Demir and Baykara v Turkey (2009) 48 E.H.R.R. 54

If unreported, names of the parties in italics, application number in brackets and date of the decision

Taxquet v Belgium (Application no. 926/05), Judgment of 21 November 2010, not yet reported.

Legislation

Acts of Parliament. Use the style:

Law of Property Act 1925, s. 3(1)(a)

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, sched. 1, para. 5(2)(c)

Note that the definite article is omitted unless it is part of the sentence ("the Law of Property Act 1925 provides ..."). The abbreviation "s." is used only following the title of an Act or in parentheses; otherwise "section" should be in full.

EU Legislation. Before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty:

Council Regulation (EC) No 645/2008 (OJ 2008 L 180 p.1), art. 4

After the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty:

Commission Regulation (EU) No 439/2011 (OJ 2011 L 119 p.1)

The abbreviation "art." is used only following the title of a Directive or Regulation or in parentheses. When used in the text "Article" (with a capital) should be in full:

“The right to quote is recognised in Article 5(3)(d) of the Directive.”.

Command Papers. Note the importance of using the correct abbreviation for the period, e.g. ‘Cm.’ in the present series.

Hansard. Use the style:

HC Deb. vol. 255 col. 503w (28 February 1995) (Italic pagination for written answers)

HC Deb. vol. 255 col. 841 (28 February 1995)

HC Deb. vol. 561 cols. 1401-4 (28 February 1995)

HL Deb. vol. 561 col. WA 92 (28 February 1995) (Italics for written answers)

Statutory instruments. Use the style:

Noise at Work Regulations 1989, SI 1989/1790, reg. 8.

Scholarly Literature

Articles. Familiar abbreviations may be used for the titles of legal journals (with full points). Otherwise give the title in full. All titles are in roman. Years are in round brackets if followed by volume number; otherwise in square brackets if citing journals for which square brackets are used, e.g. the C.L.J. or P.L. Only give a reference to the starting page of the article.

F.H. Newark, "The Boundaries of Nuisance" (1949) 65 L.Q.R. 480.

D.G.T. Williams, "Developments in British Environmental Law" (1984) 24 Natural Resources Journal 511.

H.W.R. Wade, “The Basis of Legal Sovereignty” [1955] C.L.J. 172

R. Goode, “Contractual Prohibitions Against Assignment” [2009] L.M.C.L.Q. 300.

References to specific pages do not use “at,” “p.” or “pp.”:

F.H. Newark, "The Boundaries of Nuisance" (1949) 65 L.Q.R. 480, 484.

R. Goode, “Inalienable Rights?” (1979) 42 M.L.R. 553, 554.

Books. The place and date of publication is given, but not the publisher. Where the full citation is provided, no need for "p."/“pp.”.

A.G. Guest (ed.), Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence (Oxford 1980), 171-72.

Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th ed., vol. 10, [1450]-[1454].

F.W. Maitland, Equity, 2nd ed., by J. Brunyate (Cambridge 1936).

R. Brazier, " Constitutional Reform and the Crown" in M. Sunkin and S. Payne (eds.), The Nature of the Crown (London 1999), ch. 13, 337, 349.

Note the following abbreviations: "2nd ed.", "vol.", "ch." (both lower case).

Online Resources. Give the author’s name (if available), the title of the online resource, a link preceded by “available at”, followed by “(last accessed [date]): e.g.

The Secret Barrister, “Televising Sentencing Remarks is a Gimmick that has Not Been Thought Through”, available at https://thesecretbarrister.com... (last accessed 5 June 2020).

When the source is a newspaper, also give the name of the newspaper after the title: e.g.

Owen Bowcott, “Supreme Court Orders Libel Case Retrial Over Judge’s ‘Barrage of Hostility’”, The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/la... (last accessed 5 June 2020).

Last updated 14 April 2021