Your submission must be an original, unpublished work that is not under consideration elsewhere. Under the ICLQ’s exclusive submission policy, you may not submit your work to another journal until you receive a decision from us or formally withdraw your article from consideration.

Scope of the Journal

The ICLQ publishes articles on public international law, private international law, human rights law, comparative law and European Union law. The journal particularly encourages submissions that engage with multiple subject areas or explore their interplay in innovative ways. Articles that merely restate well-known material or that focus solely on national law (except in the context of private international law) without a comparative perspective should not be submitted.

Word Limits

Articles must not exceed 15,000 words, including footnotes. The Short Article section features articles that address a narrow question or recent development in depth, as opposed to the broader analysis typical of longer articles. While inclusion in this section is based on the article’s scope rather than its length, short articles must not exceed 8,000 words, including footnotes. When submitting, please enter the word count on ScholarOne, and indicate whether it is intended to be an article or a short article. Please note that the editors will decide on the appropriate section for all accepted submissions.

Footnotes

Number footnotes consecutively throughout the article, following the ICLQ’s standard citation format (see the Style Guide below). Footnotes should be concise – footnote text should be no more than a third of the length of the body text for articles, or a quarter for short articles.

Abstract and Keywords

Your article must include a 150–250-word abstract and 5–10 keywords that include relevant subject areas to facilitate digital indexing.

Manuscript Submission

Before submitting, please read these Instructions and the Style Guide and ensure you have complied with them. You must submit your article in Microsoft Word format via ScholarOne (articles submitted by email will not be considered). The manuscript must be fully anonymised for peer review by removing any author information from the document and redacting any references where it is clear they are by the same author. Any personal or professional involvement in the article’s subject matter must be declared, along with any relevant funding.

Images

Any images or figures (including tables or charts) should be included in the article and also uploaded as a separate high-resolution file. Images should be grayscale, with colour only used where it is essential to understand the image. There is no cost for colour figures in the online version of an article, but charges apply for the print version. If you request the latter, once your article is accepted you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink, who collect author charges on behalf of Cambridge University Press, who publish the ICLQ.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Any use of AI tools for generating content (including text, images and translations) must be clearly declared and described, including the specific tool or process used. AI tools cannot be credited as authors and must not be used to present third-party ideas, words or data without citation, in line with best practice and the Cambridge University Press plagiarism policy.

Book Reviews

Book reviews of 500–1,000 words should be submitted via ScholarOne in Microsoft Word format, though longer review articles discussing multiple books (up to 1,500 words) may be considered at the editors’ discretion. Reviews must not include footnotes or endnotes, and any connection to the book’s author or editors must be declared. Review copies may be requested by email to the Managing Editor, Anna Riddell-Roberts (a.riddell@biicl.org) including a link to the book on the publisher’s website, a brief explanation of your suitability as a reviewer, the book details (title, author, ISBN) and your information (institution, address, email, phone number). Please see the Book Review Guidance for further information.

Acknowledgment of Submission

After submission, you will receive an email acknowledgment with a manuscript reference number, which should be quoted in all correspondence. If you do not, please check your Author Centre to ensure your submission is complete and your email is entered correctly.

Gold Open Access

Once an article is accepted, you may choose to publish it Gold Open Access, which makes it freely available under a Creative Commons license. This attracts an Article Processing Charge which may be covered by your funding body or institution, or fall under a waiver or discount initiative from Cambridge University Press. Please note availability is based on the affiliation of the corresponding author only. Authors can explore their available options via the online eligibility checker. Book reviews cannot currently be published Open Access

Green Open Access (Self-Archiving)

If your article is accepted, you retain the right to archive the peer-reviewed, pre-production version in institutional and non-commercial subject repositories. This Green Open Access option ensures compliance with funder requirements. Only the abstract may be shared on commercial repositories like ResearchGate, SSRN, and Academia.edu. For full details on open access policies including what can be shared and where, visit Cambridge Open Access.

Read-only sharing via Core Share The Cambridge University Press Core Share function allows a read-only version of your final published article (the Version of Record) to be freely accessed and shared on social media and scholarly networks to enhance the article’s impact and visibility. A link can be generated from your article record on Cambridge Core. For more information, visit Core Share.

Supplementary materials

Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary materials. Supplementary materials will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary materials may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.

Supplementary materials will be published with the same metadata as your parent article, and are considered a formal part of the academic record, so cannot be retracted or modified other than via our article correction processes. Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please make sure you are familiar with our detailed guidance on supplementary materials prior to submission.

Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.

Style Guide

Layout

All articles should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document, in 12-point font (footnotes in 10-point font), single-spaced, with margins of at least 2.5 cm.
Paragraphs should be indented to 1cm from the left margin, except for the first paragraph in a section or where a paragraph continues following an indented quotation.

Structure

The title, abstract and keywords should be included at the beginning of the article.
Once the article is accepted, author name (and ORCID if applicable), affiliation (in the format: role, institution, city, country) and email should be inserted below the title (not in a footnote) and any acknowledgements should be added to the foot of the article. Please note this information must be omitted from the original submission.
The article should be logically structured, with sections clearly divided by headings and the argument signposted throughout.
The ICLQ uses the following heading levels:

1. First-level subheading

1.1. Second-level subheading

1.1.1. Third-level subheading

Lower heading levels should not be used.
Paragraphs should have a single point and not be excessively long.

Syntax and language

Clear, concise, simple language is preferred over complex constructions.
The active voice is preferred unless the passive is necessary to maintain objectivity or where the subject is unknown or intentionally omitted.
Use of the first person should be avoided.
Use of casual idioms should be avoided, and academic idioms should be used sparingly where necessary to clarify an argument or improve readability.
Writing should be objective, avoiding emotive language and the use of hyperbole.
In introducing the argument of an article, the present tense is preferred, e.g. This article argues, rather than This article will argue.

Punctuation

Full stops should be followed by a single space.
The serial (or ‘Oxford’) comma (i.e. the one before and in peace, war, and defence) should not be used, unless needed to prevent ambiguity.
Words omitted from quotations should be indicated by an ellipsis (…), e.g. The treaty must prevent all aspects of proliferation ... in any form or shape.
Where quotations do not comprise a full sentence the punctuation should be placed outside the closing quotation mark.
To avoid double punctuation, i.e. and e.g. should not be followed by a comma, but e.g. should always be preceded by one: See, e.g..

Spelling

Spelling should follow the Oxford English Dictionary or the Concise Oxford Dictionary.
For the -ise /-ize sound expressed as ‘z’, the ‘s’ spelling should be used (e.g. organise).

Quotations

Quotations that do not exceed three lines should be set in single quotation marks within the main text, with double quotation marks reserved for quotations within quotations.
Longer quotations should begin on a new line and be indented to 1 cm from the left margin. The font should be 1-point size smaller. Quotation marks should not be used.

Abbreviations

All acronyms should be spelled out on first use, with the acronym following in brackets, e.g. European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Where a preposition is included in an acronym (e.g. ‘of’), this should be in lower case, e.g. Council of Europe (CoE).
Acronyms should not be separated by full stops, e.g. USA, nor should abbreviations be followed by one, e.g. doc, para. Note however, i.e. and e.g. are separated by full stops.
Always write ‘section’ rather than §. Section should be capitalised when specifying a particular numbered section of the article, e.g. see Section 1.2.
Use ‘per cent’ rather than the symbol ‘%’.
References to treaty provisions should be abbreviated, e.g. Article 3 ECHR, rather than Article 3 of the ECHR, except on first mention of a particular treaty (where the name should be given in full), e.g. Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lists

Numbered lists should use Roman numerals.
Where list items are complete sentences, capitals and punctuation should be used, but otherwise lower case should be used with a semi-colon after each point.
Where points are enumerated within the text, simple ordinal adverbs should be used: first, second, third.

Italics

Emphasis should generally be indicated through sentence structure, rather than with italics, though italics may be used if the emphasis cannot otherwise be made clear.
If adding emphasis to a quotation, indicate this by including (emphasis added) after the citation in the footnote. If the emphasis appears in the original text, indicate this by including (emphasis in original) after the citation in the footnote.
Foreign language should generally not be italicised, including:
- words that have become part of the English language (ad hoc, ibid, de facto, ex officio, ex ante, ex post facto, per se, inter alia, prima facie, vis-à-vis, et al, etc);
- words commonly used in legal writing (obiter dicta, ratio decidendi, ratio juris, a priori, prima facie, res judicata, lex fori, jus cogens, mutatis mutandis, jus gentium, jus inter gentes, travaux préparatoires, etc);
- quotations in a foreign language; and
- names of foreign courts and institutions;
Individual words and short phrases in a foreign language not falling within the above rules should be italicised.

Dates and Times

Dates should be written in the form ‘day month year’, e.g. 2 December 2003.
For a period of years, separate the years with an en dash and elide the second, e.g. 2000–03, 1985–86, but do not elide if the years span more than one decade, e.g. 1995–2005.
Times should be written using the 24-hour clock, not am or pm, e.g. 09.30 and 18.15.

Numbers

Numbers should be written out up to and including ten; 11 and above should be given in figures, unless a sentence includes numerals either side of ten, when all should be given as figures.
When indicating a range, for numerals up to 99, use both figures (e.g. 11–17, 45–53). For 100 and above, retain as few digits as possible in the second while ensuring clarity, always keeping at least two (e.g. 121–23, 101–07). However, paragraph numbers should always be written out in full, e.g. paras 283–285.
Ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, etc) should be written out in full (first, second, etc), particularly in the case of centuries, e.g. the seventeenth century.

Capital Letters

State is capitalised when it means a country, but not when it means an internal state. Note also States Parties and Member State. When referring to the government of a particular State, use a capital letter, e.g. UK Government.
When referring to treaty provisions, ‘Article’ should be capitalised, except in footnotes.
Official documents of regional and international institutions (e.g. declarations, resolutions, reports, communications, directives etc) should be capitalised where referring to a specific example, e.g. Regulation 1/2003, but not generally, e.g. An EU regulation is applicable in all Member States.

Original Texts and Translations

When quoting text in a language other than English, include the original language in the body of the article and provide an English translation in the footnote, after the citation.
Indicate the source of the translation in brackets, e.g. (author’s own/official translation).
If AI translation software is used, this should be acknowledged in the footnote, noting the particular tool used. It is advisable to verify AI translations via other resources.

Footnotes

Footnote cues should appear after the punctuation mark, e.g. This was stated by the Court in Defrenne.¹
All footnotes should end with a full stop.
Cross-references should be used for all subsequent references to a particular source, i.e. author surname/abbreviated case name/ short document name (if abbreviating for the purpose of cross-referencing, add the abbreviation in brackets after the reference where it first appears) and the footnote in which the full citation can be found, e.g. Smith (n 4), Oil Platforms (n 6), TFEU (n 32). Where multiple documents by the same author are cited in one footnote, subsequent citations must include the author’s surname AND the title of the document, e.g. Smith ‘Law not War’ (n 4).
If a subsequent citation immediately follows the full citation, or a cross-reference to it, and that citation is the only one in the preceding footnote, ‘ibid’ should be used. A comma should not be used after ibid where indicating a page or paragraph reference, e.g. ibid 42 or ibid para 15.
Please do not include ‘above’ or ‘below’ to indicate the location of other footnotes or specific sections of the article, e.g. See n 14, or See Section 3.2.
Authors should be identified by their initials (not separated by spaces) and surname, e.g. JES Bloggs. Where there are more than three authors, include only the first and indicate the omitted authors with ‘et al’, e.g. JES Bloggs et al.
When citing a particular page in an article or chapter in an edited volume, include the first page of the article/chapter followed by a comma and the pinpoint page number, e.g. D French, ‘Treaty Interpretation and the Incorporation of Extraneous Legal Rules’ (2006) 55 ICLQ 281, 287.
To cite a footnote, refer to the relevant page or paragraph number and then to the footnote number preceded by ‘n’, e.g. WA Schabas, The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary (OUP 2010) 50 n 100.
Words such as ‘Article’ or ‘paragraph’ should be written in full in the main text but should be abbreviated in footnotes, e.g. art, para, vol, ch. Words such as ‘appendix’ and ‘annex’ should be written in full in a footnote, with all letters in lower case. Always use capital ‘N’ when abbreviating the word ‘number’, e.g. Regulation No 1/2003.
With the exceptions of ibid and et al, avoid the use of Latin in footnotes, instead using English terms where necessary. Note that ‘cf’ means ‘compare’ and should not be capitalised. Websites should not be indicated by ‘available online’ or followed by an ‘accessed on’ date, but should be checked before initial submission and following copy-editing.

Citations

ICLQ citations are based on the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA). This guide is to be followed in the first instance, but for citations not covered here please see the 4th edn of OSCOLA. For international sources, please see the OSCOLA 2006 Guide to Citing International Law.

PRIMARY SOURCES: DOMESTIC

Legislation

Legislation should be cited with its full title and year, as it is cited in its own jurisdiction. If the jurisdiction is not clear from the citation, it should be given in brackets at the end.

Human Rights Act 1998.

Accident Compensation Act 1972 (NZ)

Loi n° 75-1349 du 31 décembre 1975 relative à l’emploi de la langue française

Case Law

Cases should appear in italics, including the v, which takes no full stop. Where there are multiple parties, only the first claimant and the first defendant are named.

Macmillan Inc v Bishopsgate Investment Trust Plc and Others (No 3) [1996] 1 WLR 387

If the court or jurisdiction is not obvious from the citation, give this in brackets at the end.

Callaghan v The Queen (1952) 87 CLR 115 (HCA)

Roe v Wade 410 US 113 (1973) (SCOTUS)

Henningsen v Bloomfield Motors Inc 161 A 2d 69 (NJ 1960)

CA Colmar 25 January 1963, Gaz Pal 1963.I.277

Sebastian Hongray v Union of India (1984) 1 SCC 339 (Supreme Court of India)

Kok Hoong Tan v Public Prosecutor [1997] 1 SLR 123 (Supreme Court of Singapore)

Bundesverfassungsgericht, Judgment of the Second Senate of 5 May 2020 – 2 BvR 859/15 (German Federal Constitutional Court)

Trybunał Konstytucyjny, Judgment of 7 October 2021, Case K 3/21 (Polish Constitutional Tribunal)

Reported decisions should be cited by their neutral citation. However, if that is unavailable, they may be cited by their law report citation. Unreported decisions should be reported by their neutral citation if they have one, otherwise in the following format: name of case (court, date of judgment) transcript page or paragraph number. Omit the word ‘unreported’.

PRIMARY SOURCES: INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATION

Treaties, Conventions and Codifications

These include multilateral, bilateral and regional treaties.

Treaties should be cited in the following format: name of treaty (date adopted, date entered into force) treaty series details.

Charter of the United Nations (adopted 26 June 1945, entered into force 24 October 1945) 1 UNTS XVI

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights, as amended) (adopted 4 November 1950, entered into force 3 September 1953) 213 UNTS 221

Codifications include International Law Commission texts and other formal restatements of custom, and any commentaries thereto.

International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with commentaries (2001) UN Doc A/56/10

Resolutions and Soft Law Instruments

These include binding (Resolutions, Directives etc) and non-binding documents (Proposals, Guiding Principles, Model Laws etc) from international organisations (UN, UNCITRAL, OECD, etc) and regional organisations (EU, Council of Europe, African Union, etc).

United Nations documents should be cited in the following format: name of UN body, title of document (Day Month Year) UN Doc number. See pp. 32–36 of OSCOLA 2006 for detailed guidance.

UNSC Res 1373 (28 September 2001) UN Doc S/RES/1373

EU legislation should be cited in the following format: Legislation type (number) title [year] OJ series and number/page number.

Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin [2000] OJ L180/22

Soft Law instruments (such as UN General Assembly Resolutions, Declarations, Guiding Principles or Guidelines) should be cited in the following format: type of document, name of the document (year) source or publisher, specific reference number (if applicable).

UNGA, Declaration on Principles of International Law (1970) UN Doc A/RES/2625 (XXV)

UNHRC, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011) UN Doc A/HRC/17/31

UNESCO, Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) UNESCO Doc 33 C/Resolution 25

Other Institutional Materials

These include reports of UN Special Rapporteurs and fact-finding missions, and reports of commissions of inquiry.

UNHRC, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, David Kaye (6 April 2018) UN Doc A/HRC/38/35

PRIMARY SOURCES: CASES OF INTERNATIONAL COURTS AND TRIBUNALS

Primary Judicial Authority

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v United States of America) (Merits) [1986] ICJ Rep 14

Separate and dissenting opinions should be indicated in brackets following the case name, e.g. (Separate Opinion Judge Higgins).

Standing Specialised Judicial Bodies

International Criminal Court (ICC)

Prosecutor v Lubanga (Judgment) ICC-01/04-01/06-2842 (14 March 2012)

International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

The M/V “Saiga” (No 2) (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v Guinea) (1999) 38 ILM 1323

WTO Dispute Settlement Body/Appellate Body

Panel Report, Saudi Arabia—Measures concerning the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, WT/DS567/R, adopted 16 June 2020.

Appellate Body Report, Korea—Anti-Dumping Duties on Pneumatic Valves from Japan, WT/DS493/AB/R, adopted 30 September 2019.

Regional Judicial Bodies

European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)

Soering v United Kingdom (1989) 11 EHRR 439

Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)

Case C-621/18 Wightman and Others v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union ECLI:EU:C:2018:999

African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Tanganyika Law Society v Tanzania (2013) App Nos 009/2011 and 011/2011

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Velásquez Rodríguez v Honduras (Judgment) IACtHR Ser C No 4 (1988)

UN Ad Hoc Tribunals

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Prosecutor v Tadić (Decision on Jurisdiction) ICTY-94-1 (2 October 1995)

International Arbitral Tribunals

Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)

South China Sea Arbitration (Philippines v China) PCA Case No 2013-19, Award (12 July 2016)

ICSID, and Ad hoc Tribunals (e.g. UNCITRAL)

Chevron Corporation and Texaco Petroleum Company v The Republic of Ecuador (Third Interim Award, 27 February 2012) ICSID Case No ARB/06/11

Methanex Corporation v United States of America (Preliminary Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility, 7 August 2002) UNCITRAL, paras 122–126.

UN Treaty Bodies

Including the Human Rights Committee, Committee Against Torture (CAT), CEDAW Committee etc.

Mbenge v Zaire Communication No 16/1977 (25 March 1983) UN Doc CCPR/C/OP/2.

SECONDARY SOURCES

Books (and any other document with an ISBN number)

ND White, The Law of International Organisations (3rd edn, Manchester University Press 2016).

M Koskenniemi, W Rech and M Jiménez Fonseca (eds), International Law and Empire (OUP 2017).

Where an editor (ed) or translator (trans) is acknowledged along with the author on the front cover, this should be indicated by including their name and role in the publication information.

HLA Hart, Punishment and Responsibility: Essays in the Philosophy of Law (John Gardner ed, 2nd edn, OUP 2008).

Articles

Journal titles should be in abbreviated form with no full stops. For a list of journal abbreviations, see section 4.2.1. of the Appendix to OSCOLA.

B Mayer, ‘The “Highest Possible Ambition” on Climate Change Mitigation as a Legal Standard’ (2024) 73 ICLQ 285.

Chapters in books

EY Krivenko, ‘Women and the International Court of Justice’ in SH Rimmer and K Ogg (eds), Research Handbook on Feminist Engagement with International Law (Edward Elgar 2016) 196.

Pages on websites (e.g. blogs)

A Roberts and T St John, ‘UNCITRAL and ISDS Reforms: What Makes Something Fly?’ (EJIL:Talk!, 11 February 2020) <www.ejiltalk.org/uncitral-and-isds-reforms-what-makes-something-fly>.

Websites should not have an accessed date.

Other secondary sources (e.g. reports, policy documents etc, which are often available as PDF documents on websites)

I Pietropaoli, J Elliott and S Gonzalez de Aguinaga, ‘Towards New Human Rights and Environment Due Diligence Laws: Reflections on Changes in Corporate Practice’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 2024) <www.biicl.org/documents/186_towards_new_hredd_laws_reflections_impacts_on_corporate_practice_15_oct.pdf>.

Newspapers

I Loader, ‘The Great Victim of this Get Tough Hyperactivity is Labour’ The Guardian (19 June 2008) <www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/19/justice.ukcrime>.

Working Papers

E Ferran and V Babis, ‘The European Single Supervisory Mechanism’ (2013) University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No 10/2013, 5 <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2224538>.

Conference Papers

M O’Brien, ‘Conflict and Cooperation under the Genocide Convention’ (31st Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law Annual Conference, Melbourne, 3–5 July 2024) <https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/publications/conflict-and-cooperation-under-the-genocide-convention>.