Aims and Scope

Global Constitutionalism (GlobCon) offers an interdisciplinary space for addressing the foundations, limitations and contestations of the principles and norms of political order and their dynamics over time on a global scale. The journal publishes cutting-edge peer-reviewed work which refers to and advances global constitutionalism as an interdisciplinary field. 

Submissions are invited from a broad range of disciplines including International Law, Political Science, International Relations, Comparative Constitutional Law, Comparative Politics, Political Theory and Philosophy.

Types of Article

The journal accepts the following types of article:

• Research Article*
• Symposium Article*
• Special Issue Article*
• Agora**

* All or part of the publication costs for these article types may be covered by one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access. For authors not covered by an agreement, and without APC funding, please see this journal's open access options for instructions on how to request an APC waiver.

** No APCs are required for these article types.

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Global Constitutionalism will review articles up to 15,000 words (including notes and bibliography), although authors will be encouraged to reduce their papers to fewer than 12,000 words before publication. Brevity is encouraged and shorter papers will be advantaged in acceptance decisions. Authors should submit both a complete version of the manuscript and an anonymous version, stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) that can be sent to reviewers. The citation style of the submission should either be Chicago or Harvard Style, as specified below. Please do not use endnotes.

Global Constitutionalism occasionally publishes Agoras. These are debates between several scholars over a contentious issue in global constitutionalism or a critical discussion of a recent piece of scholarship. The editorial team accepts proposals for Agoras on a rolling basis. They usually consist of a brief introduction by the Agora organizer, contributions of around 3,000 words by 3 – 5 scholars, and a concluding reply. There is some scope for variation in this format if it makes sense for the topic being debated. Those interested in proposing an Agora should send a brief (approximately 500 words) proposal, along with a list of contributors to the journal. It will be considered at the next editorial team meeting (held three times per year). Agoras are not peer-reviewed but are internally reviewed by one of our editors.

Guest-Edited Issues

Please see here for Global Constitutionalism’s policy on Guest-Edited Issues, outlining the procedures and expectations for guest-edited issues of the journal.

Preparing your article for submission

Beneath article title and author(s) name(s) provide name of academic (or other) institution/attachment together with its full address. Also supply on a separate line the contactable email address.

Check that the article’s Abstract is present after the above and follow the Abstract with a maximum of five Keywords in alphabetical order.

Harvard-based style:

NB: There are no separate footnotes in this style.

Headings: Use Roman numerals in the A head. Do not use numbers or letters in the B and C heads. Keep to the three levels as below:

<A head> I. Introduction

<B head> International terrorism as a trigger for ‘bad’ norm dynamics

<C head> Securitization theory: Security speech and its context. [Text continues]

References (main text): In main text separate references with semi-colons e.g. (Dunoff and Trachtman, eds 2009; Klabbers, Peters, and Ulfstein 2009; Krisch 2010). Separate date from page reference with colon e.g. (Gerring et al. 2005: 336). When quoting page ranges elide numbers and combine with an en dash not hyphen e.g. (Smith 2008: 427–29).

Quotation marks: In main text use single quotation marks and double quotation marks within single quotation marks e.g. As Michael Williams notes: ‘Any issue is capable of securitization if it can be intensified to the point where it is presented and accepted as an "existential threat"’ (2003: 516).

Superscripts: Only use to refer to footnote and place outside punctuation e.g. From the Rousseauian point of view, the latter duty is the exclusive ‘virtue of sovereigns’,³³ and since (as above) a global sovereign seems an unlikely prospect, concern for overall condition remains a purely domestic affair, as arguably reflected in the fact that even committed cosmopolitans focus today on much more minimal goals.³⁴

Abbreviations: e.g., i.e., vs., cf. but ed, eds, edn (no full points).

Acknowledgements: Place at end of text under separate A head and before their competing interests declaration (not in footnotes).

Reference section: Ensure that references in the main text are included in the Reference section together with full citation detail. Similarly check that all references in the Reference section are referred to in the main text. Please do not use author name placeholders in the reference list, names need to be spelled out in each occurrence.

Book-style references:

Dworkin, Ronald. 2000. Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Aiko, Yuichi. 2006. "Rousseau and Saint-Pierre’s Peace Project: A Critique of ‘History of International Relations Theory’." In Classical Theory in International Relations, edited by Beate Jahn, 96–120. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Journal-style references:

Perry, Glenn E. 2006. "Imperial Democratization: Rhetoric and Reality." Arab Studies Quarterly 28(3):55–88.

NB: Insert journal issue number in brackets after volume number, where appropriate.

Internet/website references:

Working Paper available at: .

Press Release, October 9, 2009, at:.

Enclose URL in angle brackets. Please do not include 'recently accessed' dates in website references.

Chicago-based style:

NB: All notes, citations (book/journal/cases) are contained in the footnotes. There is no separate Reference section.

Headings: Use Roman numerals in the A head. Do not use numbers or letters in the B and C heads. Keep to the three levels as below:

<A head> Introduction

<B head> Methodological orientation

<C head> Securitization theory: Security speech and its context. [Text continues]

Quotation marks: In main text and footnotes use single quotation marks and double quotation marks within single quotation marks e.g. As Michael Williams notes: ‘Any issue is capable of securitization if it can be intensified to the point where it is presented and accepted as an "existential threat"’.

Superscripts: Only use to refer to particular footnote and place outside punctuation for example:

In turn, sovereignty, even when portrayed today as ‘challenged’ and ‘transformed’, for example by the rise in importance of non-state actors, claiming new subjectivity in international law1 or driving constitutional rights creation in parts of Asia,² still tends to hide the underlying dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, the stark divide between ‘core’ and ‘periphery’³ and the persistent discrimination of the ‘other’.

Acknowledgements: Place at end of text with separate A head (not in footnotes).

Abbreviations: e.g., i.e., vol. but p, pp, para(s), art, ed, eds, edn, vs (no full points).

Footnotes:

When quoting page ranges elide numbers and combine with an en dash not hyphen e.g. Yishai Blank, ‘Localism in the Global Legal Order’ (2006) 47 Harvard International Law Journal 263–81.

When quoting publication cited in earlier footnote, refer to prior note number, for example: ⁴⁵ See (n 33) 695–707.

Case citation examples:

See interpretative controversies in LG&E Energy Corp v Argentina, Decision on Liability, ICSID Case No ARB/02/1 (3 October 2006); LG&E Energy Corp v Argentina, Award, ICSID Case No ARB/02/1 (July 25, 2007); Cont’l Cas Co v Argentina, Award, ICSID Case No ARB/03/9, Sept 5, 2008; Sempra Energy International v Argentine Republic, ICSID Case No. ARB/02/16, Decision on the Argentine Republic’s Request for Annulment of the Award, 29 June 2010; Enron v Argentine Republic, ICSID Case No. ARB/01/3, Decision on the Argentine Republic’s Request for Annulment of the Award, 30 July 2010.

Book-style references:

AI Gavil, WE Kovacic and JB Baker, Antitrust Law in Perspective: Cases, Concepts, and Problems in Competition Policy (2nd edn, Thomson/West, St Paul, 2008) 88.

TE Kauper and EA Snyder, ‘Private Antitrust Cases that Follow on Government Cases’ in LJ White (ed), Private Antitrust Litigation: New Evidence, New Learning (MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1988) 329.

Journal-style references:

O Kahn-Freund, ‘On Uses and Misuses of Comparative Law’ (1974) 37 Modern Law Review 1, 12.

JJ Spengler, ‘Vertical Integration and Antitrust Policy’ (1950) 58 The Journal of Political Economy 347–52; LG Telser, ‘Why Should Manufacturers Want Fair Trade?’ (1960) 3 Journal of Law and Economics 86–105.

Internet/website references:

See International Court of Justice, Case Concerning Ahmadou Sadio Diallo (Republic of Guinea v. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Preliminary Objections of 24 May 2007), available at

Enclose URL in angle brackets. Please do not include 'recently accessed' dates in website references.

Abstract and Keywords Preparation

For guidance on how to prepare your Abstracts and Keywords, please refer to these guidelines.

How to prepare your materials for anonymous peer review

To ensure a fair and anonymous peer review process, authors should not allude to themselves as the authors of their article in any part of the text. This includes citing their own previous work in the references section in such a way that identifies them as the authors of the current work.

Please refer to our general guidelines on how to anonymise your manuscript prior to submission.

Tables and Artwork

Please refer to the following guidance about preparing artwork and graphics for submission.

Seeking permissions for copyrighted material

If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. Guidance on how to do that can be found here.

Ethics and Transparency Policy Requirements

Please ensure that you have reviewed the journal’s Publishing ethics policies while preparing your materials. 

Please also ensure that you have read the journal’s Research transparency policy prior to submission. We encourage the use of a Data Availability Statement at the end of your article before the reference list. Guidance on how to write a Data Availability Statement can be found here. Please try to provide clear information on where the data associated with you research can be found and avoid statements such as “Data available on request”.

A list of suggested data repositories can be found here.

Research with Human Participants

Please see here for Global Constitutionalism’s policy on Research with Human Participants. This policy outlines the procedures and expectations for researchers submitting manuscripts to Global Constitutionalism that involve human participants. Authors are required to address the ethical considerations related to obtaining informed consent and demonstrate compliance with ethical standards in their submission.

Funding statement

A declaration of sources of funding must be provided if appropriate. Authors must state the full official name of the funding body and grant numbers specified. Authors must specify what role, if any, their financial sponsors played in the design, execution, analysis and interpretation of data, or writing of the study. If they played no role this should be stated. 

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.

In particular, any use of an AI tool:

• to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s).
• to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
• to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript.
• must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission.

Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.

Acknowledgements

Authors can use this section to acknowledge and thank colleagues, institutions, workshop organisers, family members, etc. that have helped with the research and/or writing process. It is important that that any type of funding information or financial support is listed under ‘Financial Support’ rather than Acknowledgements so that it can be recorded separately (see Funding statement above).

We are aware that authors sometimes receive assistance from technical writers, language editors, artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication. Such assistance must be noted in the cover letter and in the Acknowledgements section, along with a declaration that the author(s) are entirely responsible for the scientific content of the paper and that the paper adheres to the journal’s authorship policy. Failure to acknowledge assistance from technical writers, language editors, AI tools and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication in the cover letter and in the Acknowledgements section may lead to disqualification of the paper. Examples of how to acknowledge assistance in drafting manuscripts:

• “The author(s) thank [name and qualifications] of [company, city, country] for providing [medical/technical/language] writing support/editorial support [specify and/or expand as appropriate], which was funded by [sponsor, city, country]."
• “The author(s) made use of [AI system/tool] to assist with the drafting of this article. [AI version details] was accessed/obtained from [source details] and used with/without modification [specify and/or expand as appropriate] on [date(s)].