For information on submitting your materials, please see here.

DECIDING WHETHER TO SUBMIT

Mission

The Journal of Law and Religion publishes cutting-edge interdisciplinary, interreligious, and international research on critical issues of law and religion.

Scope

The mandate and terrain of the Journal of Law and Religion are interdisciplinary, international, and interreligious. Bridging the gap between law and religion, scholarship and practice, and normative and descriptive approaches, the journal invites and publishes articles, essays, and book reviews that include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Law—(1) constitutional and comparative law on religion; religion-state systems and relations; legal pluralism of religious and secular law; (2) canon and ecclesiastical law; religions organizations and the law; theological jurisprudence; (3) religious freedom; religion and human and non-human rights; religious rights and laws on education, employment, health, land and environment, charitable organizations, and social welfare; (4) family and child law; personal and customary law; religion, women, and gender in law; sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity in law; (5) religion, civil rights, and social justice; religion, race, and racial justice in law; religion, incarceration, and prisons in law; (6) religious sources and dimensions of public, private, penal, and procedural law; (7) religious and spiritual dimensions of the legal profession.
• Religion—(1) law in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Asian and African traditional religions, indigenous religions, and new religious movements; (2) biblical, Islamic, and other scriptural law; (3) interpretation and hermeneutics of legal and religious texts; (4) comparative religious ethics, law, and policy; (5) religious rituals, communities, and the law; (6) religion, politics, and political theology; (7) religious and legal approaches to conflict, violence, and restorative justice.
• Humanities and Social Sciences—(1) anthropology and sociology of law and religion; (2) philosophy of law and religion; (3) legal and religious history and historical approaches to law and religion; (4) law and religion in the arts and media; (5) literary approaches to law and religion; (6) religion and social movements; (7) law, religion, and culture.

Interdisciplinary and General Interest Readership

Essays, articles, book reviews, and other content published in the Journal of Law and Religion cast, conceptualize, and contextualize their animating issues and themes as matters of both law and religion, as well as informing general readers of the relationship between the fields. They do the real interdisciplinary work of making ideas, theories, and methods in the field of law and religion mutually intelligible to scholars across boundaries of discipline, speciality, and geography, as well as to a wider readership.

JLR welcomes articles that treat topics specific to a discipline, subfield, religious tradition, religious legal system, or national context, so long as the article is not so technical or narrowly construed that it would be difficult to understand or of little interest to readers with personal or scholarly interest outside of that context. Authors are encouraged to write in such a way that a non-specialist who has developed an interest in the subject would find the article informative and accessible. Authors are also encouraged to write such that a non-specialist doing comparative work could incorporate the findings of the article into a broader discussion. Where an author sees connections to broader discussions in law and religion or comparative possibilities, the author is encouraged to develop these aspects in the manuscript.

Manuscript Types

JLR publishes five types of manuscripts.

Research Articles: Research articles are peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles grounded in substantive research and analysis. Research articles are generally unsolicited but may be solicited by a JLR editor.

Essays: Essays are shorter, less formal reflections on a topic that may take the form of an early exposition on a new line of research or theory, a commentary on recent developments, or a creative engagement with the field of law and religion. Essays are not peer reviewed, and they may be solicited or unsolicited.

Review Essays: Review essays are longform reviews, usually of multiple books on a common theme. The review essay extends beyond a standard book review by offering new insights or analysis on the theme. A review essay may also be solicited for a roundtable or symposium on a new book of importance or on the work of a particular author. Review essays are not peer reviewed. They are usually solicited, but JLR will consider unsolicited review essays.

Book Reviews: Book reviews are short reviews of a single book. Book reviews are not peer reviewed. They are usually solicited, but JLR will consider unsolicited review essays.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Exclusive Submissions

JLR does not require exclusive submissions; however, JLR does expect a right of first refusal for manuscripts that are sent for external review. If an author receives an offer to publish from another journal, the author should notify JLR as soon as possible, and we will work to expedite any pending review.

JLR will not accept any submissions that have been submitted simultaneously to another journal that does have an exclusive submission policy. If JLR determines that a manuscript under review is also under review at a journal with an exclusive submission policy, the manuscript will be immediately rejected.

Manuscript Length

Unless otherwise discussed with an editor, the following manuscript lengths are expected.

Articles: Articles of between 10,000 and 16,000 words are strongly encouraged. Submissions in excess of 20,000 words are strongly disfavored.

Essays: Essays should not exceed 8,000 words.

Review Essays: Review essays should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words.

Book Reviews: Book reviews should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words.

Unsolicited Book Reviews and Review Essays

Authors wishing to submit an unsolicited book review or review essay should email [email protected], with an indication of the book(s) reviewed or proposal for review. If a review has already been written, please attach the review to the email.

FORMATTING THE MANUSCRIPT FOR SUBMISSION

Required Formatting

All manuscripts must be

• double-spaced,
• set in 12-point font (preferably Times New Roman),
• cited using footnotes in either Chicago Manual of Style or Bluebook format (see Citation Guidelines below), and
• saved in the Microsoft Word document format, preferably “.docx.”

All manuscripts should be carefully proofread before submission. Manuscripts that contain typos; grammatical, syntactical, or spelling errors; or insufficient or unintelligible citations will be returned to the author without further review.

Preferred Formatting

Authors are strongly encouraged to format manuscripts in accordance with the JLR Style Guide (see below). If accepted for publication, manuscripts formatted according to JLR style prior to submission will proceed to publication on an expedited timeline compared to those that must be reformatted.

Citation Guidelines

The author is responsible for ensuring that the manuscript is fully and accurately cited and for ensuring that citations are in the proper format.

Citation Guidelines for Articles and Essays

All citations should appear in footnotes. To further the interdisciplinary goals of JLR, articles may be cited following either the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, or The Bluebook: A Uniform Style of Citation, 21st edition. Whichever citation style the author chooses, such style should be followed consistently throughout the article. Consistent with the Chicago Manual of Style, all citations of primary legal sources shoudl conform to the Bluebook. Any editing of citations will be done in conformity with the style chosen by the author.

Citation Guidelines for Review Essays and Book Reviews

Parenthetical page citations, rather than footnotes, should be provided for citation to the book or books under review. Parenthetical page citations in multi-book review essays will be understood to refer to the book under discussion in a particular section or paragraph, but reviewers may use (author name, page) for clarity where the texts are not discussed seriatim. Citations to books and sources other than the books under review should be cited in footnotes and follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. Bluebook is not used for footnotes in book reviews and review essays. Footnotes citing external sources are generally to be avoided for book reviews and used sparingly for review essays.

Anonymity

Manuscripts subject to external review (see below) should be anonymized. This includes research articles and symposium articles. To anonymize the manuscript, all references to the author’s name should be removed. If the author’s own work is cited, it should be cited in a manner that does not reveal the author’s identity. If the author’s identity would be evident from the citation, the citation should be redacted.

Abstract, Keywords, and Author Bio

The author should be prepared to provide a 250-word abstract, 5-7 keywords, and professional title and affiliation during the submission process.

Permissions

Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission from the relevant copyright owner for reproduction of any material included in the submission, for which the contributor does not hold the copyright. Contributors are also responsible for including proper acknowledgments and attributions. For information about seeking permission to use copyrighted material, please see here.

Competing Interests

All authors will be asked to submit a competing interest declaration in the online submission site. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article. Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.

Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.

Plagiarism

JLR follows the Committee on Publication Ethics’ definition of plagiarism: “When somebody presents the work of others (data, words, or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment.” JLR expect all quoted material to be properly indicated as a quotation and properly cited.

Pre-submission Inquiries

All pre-submission queries should be addressed to the Managing Editor, Silas Allard, by email at [email protected].

Publishing ethics

Authors should check JLR's Publishing ethics policies while preparing their materials.

JLR STYLE GUIDE

General Formatting

Submissions should be double-spaced, set in 12-point Times New Roman fond, and saved in the Word document format, preferably in the .docx format.

Footnotes should be set in 10-point Times New Roman font and single-spaced.

Paragraphs should begin with a single indent, except the first paragraph following a heading, which should be flush left.

Article or Essay Title Page

The title page of an article or essay should include: (1) article title; (2) author name(s), title(s), and affiliation(s); (3) the abstract submitted with the article; (4) and the keywords submitted with the article.

Example:

Article Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments should follow the conclusion of the text and be set in italics.

Example:

Review Essay Title Page

The title page of a review essay should include: (1) essay title; (2) author name(s), title(s), and affiliation(s); (3) bibliographic information for the books reviewed; (4) and the keywords submitted with thte article.

Example:

Book Review Title Page

The first page of a book review should include bibliographic information for the book reviewed.

Example:

Author name, title, and affiliation should follow the conclusion of the review and be set in italics.

Example

JLR HOUSE CITATION GUIDELINES

General Guidelines for Articles and Essays

The Journal of Law and Religion publishes articles that follow the citation format of either the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, or the Bluebook, 21st edition. Authors are encouraged to provide citation in the style that they are most familiar with and/or in the style of the scholarly audience that they wish to address.

JLR does alter Bluebook style in some respects, namely, by avoiding many of the abbreviated forms found in tables 6–16 (see “Abbreviations” under house style below.) JLR chooses not to use the abbreviated forms in order to make the citations accessible for our international audience, who may not be familiar with these forms of citation from U.S. legal style.

Basic examples are provided below. For more examples see the respective style guides.

Chicago Manual of Style

1. Book
2. Jenna Reinbold, Seeing the Myth in Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), 110.
3. Chapter in an Edited Volume
4. David Novak, “Law and Religion in Judaism,” in Christianity and Law: An Introduction, ed. John Witte, Jr. and Frank S. Alexander (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 33–52, 45.
5. Journal Article
6. Matthew S. Erie, “Shari‘a as Taboo of Modern Law: Halal Food, Islamophobia, and China,” Journal of Law and Religion 33, no. 3 (2018): 390–420, 395.
7. Primary Legal Sources
8. For citations to primary legal sources (cases, statutes, regulations, treaties, etc.), the Chicago Manual of Style follows the Bluebook.

Bluebook

1. Book
2. Jenna Reinbold, Seeing the Myth in Human Rights 110 (2017).
3. Chapter in an Edited Volume
4. David Novak, Law and Religion in Judaism, in Christianity and Law: An Introduction 33, 45 (John Witte, Jr. and Frank S. Alexander eds., 2008).
5. Journal Article
6. Matthew S. Erie, Shari‘a as Taboo of Modern Law: Halal Food, Islamophobia, and China, 33 Journal of Law and Religion 390, 395 (2018).

General Guidelines for Book Reviews and Review Essays

The Journal of Law and Religion uses a modified form of the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) for citation of book reviews and review essays.

Citation to the book(s) under review are made parenthetically. For reviews of a single book, the parenthetical contains only the page number. For a review of multiple books, the parenthetical may contain the authors’ or editors’ name(s) and the page number if it would add clarity for the reader.

Examples:

Single book review: (11)

Review Essay: (Jones, 11)

Parentheticals should precede punctuation, except for citations following blockquotes. See Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, 15.24.

Citations to works not under review are discouraged in book reviews and should be used sparingly in review essays. If citation is needed for a source not under review, it should be provided in a footnote and formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style.

JLR HOUSE STYLE GUIDELINES

For general matters of style, authors should consult the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. JLR follows U.S. English conventions for spelling and punctuation.

Authors should also adhere to the following house style conventions.

Abbreviations

Because JLR is both interdisciplinary and international, we discourage the use of abbreviation without initial reference to the full term being abbreviated. This includes references to books of the Bible and other religious works. The use of abbreviation as short form, for example, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), is discouraged unless the abbreviated material appears consistently, and significant space is saved.

JLR also discourages the use of abbreviations in citations. This includes the abbreviation of journal titles in Bluebook style, e.g., Journal of Law and Religion, not, J. L. & Religion; Harvard Law Review, not, Harv. L. Rev.; and American Journal of International Law, not, Am. J. Int’l L.

JLR does not alter reporter abbreviations for case reporters or statutory compilations.

Contractions

JLR discourages the use of contractions unless important to a vernacular construction.

Dates

Dates follow the U.S. format: month day, year, for example, February 1, 2013.

Endnotes/Footnotes

Endnotes should not be used. All material in notes (including citations) should be in footnotes.

Headings

JLR generally does not use numbered or lettered headings. If cross reference is made to a section within the article, please reference the heading title, for example: See the discussion under “The History of Article 18.”

Headings are set flush left.

HEADING 1 IS SET IN ALL CAPITALS

Heading 2 Is Set in Italics and Capitalized in Headline Style

Heading 3 Is Set in Roman and Capitalized in Headline Style

Heading 4 Is Set in Small Capitals and Capitalized in Headline Style

Inclusive Language

JLR encourages inclusive language, including alternatives to the masculine pronoun as a generic pronoun and prefers “humankind” to “mankind,” “humanity” to “man,” etc.

Jewish Law Sources

See Appendix 1 for JLR’s approach to Jewish law sources.

Non-English Titles

A translation of a non-English article, chpater, or book title should be provided following the non-English title in brackets. See Chicago Manual of Style, 14.99, and Bluebook, 20.2.2. Translations are not needed for the title of the journal itself or the title of an edited volume. The goal is to provide the reader with some insight into the subject matter of the cited material.

Omissions and Alterations

JLR prefers the Bluebook standard for omissions, alterations, and the use of ellipses. Changes to case are indicated with brackets: “[T]he “T” here was lowercase in the original, but … [t]he “t” here was uppercase in the original.” Ellipsis should have three dots if indicating an ommission in the middle of a sentence and three dots plus a period if indicating an omission that includes the end of a sentence.

For information see Bluebook R5.2 and R5.3.

Page Numbers

Inclusive page numbers should be used in citations. JLR does not use ff. or passim.

For works in a collection (book chapters, journal articles, etc.), the first citation should include the full page-span of the work followed by a pincite if appropriate.

Punctuation

Full stops should be followed by a single space.

The serial or “Oxford” comma is used. For example, “red, white, and blue;” not “red, white and blue.”

Curly or smart quotes are used, e.g., “He went to the store;” not "He went to the store." The curly or smart apostrophe is also used, e.g. John’s son will inherit the farm; not, John's son will inherit the farm.

Page spans should use the en-dash not a hyphen, e.g., 98–99; not, 98-99.

Dashes used for emphasis or setoff should be em-dashes without spaces, e.g., “Two days ago—on my birthday—I received terrible news;” not, “Two days ago–on my birthday–I received terrible news;” and not, “Two days ago – on my birthday – I received terrible news.”

URLs

URLs should not be shortened using a URL shortening service such as TinyURL or bit.ly. Where possible DOI or permalink URLs are preferred.

Spelling

English spellings should follow the U.S. English usage, except for quoted matter.

For reference see Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) or Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.

Transliteration

JLR does not follow any one transliteration scheme. Languages that do not use the Roman script should be transliterated using a simple and consistent transliteration scheme appropriate for a general interest audience. Authors are encouraged to consult the ALA-LC Romanization talbes, available at https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html in in doubt. Transliterated scripts employing diacritical marks must be submitted using a Unicode font for all characters. For authors unfamiliar with Unicode, the Tibetan and Himalayan Library provides a useful introduction, available at https://collab.its.virginia.edu/wiki/toolbox/Using%20the%20Right%20Fonts.html.

Vatican Sources

See Appendix 2 for JLR’s approach to Vatican and Papal sources.

Appendix 1: Jewish Law Sources

Jewish law sources are not treated in either the Chicago Manual of Style or the Bluebook. To ensure consistency, JLR has developed the following citation formats for Jewish law sources that are consistent with each style-guide.

Torah

• Because Torah is generally cited to the Hebrew Bible, follow the appropriate style-guide’s recommendations for Bible or Sacred Texts.

Mishnah

• CMS: Mishnah, [Tractate] [Chapter]:[Verse/Mishnayot]. Ex. Mishnah, Eduyot 1:5.
• BB: Mishnah, [Tractate] [Chapter]:[Verse/Mishnayot]. Ex. Mishnah, Eduyot 1:5.

Midrash

• For modern editions of Midrash, follow the standard citation forms for books in either CMS or BB.
  • CMS: [Author], [Title] ([Place], [Publisher], [Date]), [Page Range]. Ex. Yehoshua Mondshine, Sifrei ha-halakhah shel admor ha-zaken (Kefar Chabad: Kehot, 1984), 49–50.
  • BB: [Author], [Title] [Page Range] ([Year]); ex. Yehoshua Mondshine, Sifrei ha-halakhah shel admor ha-zaken 49–5 (1984).
• For classical Midrash published prior to modern printing, the following form, which mirrors the Mishnah citation, is acceptable:
• CMS: [Title of Collection], [Tractate] [Chapter]:[Verse/Mishnayot].
• BB: [Title of Collection], [Tractate] [Chapter]:[Verse/Mishnayot].

Tosefta

• CMS: Jerusalem Talmud, [Tractate] [Folio or Chapter:Verse] ([edition]). Ex. Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 72b.
• BB: Jerusalem Talmud, [Tractate] [Folio or Chapter:Verse] ([edition]). Ex. Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 72b.
• The same form is to be employed for the Babylonian Talmud.

Non-Talmudic Commentaries

• For modern editions, cite as a book in CMS or BB.
• For classical editions cite as follows:
  • CMS: [Author], [Title in Hebrew or English] [Chapter]:[Verse]. Ex. Ramban, Commentary on Genesis 18:4–5.
  • BB: [Author], [Title in Hebrew or English] [Chapter]:[Verse]. Ex. Ramban, Commenary on Genesis 18:4–5.

Mishneh Torah

• CMS: Mishneh Torah, [Section] [Chapter]:[Paragraph]. Ex. Mishneh Torah, Nizkei Mamon 1:1.
• BB: Mishneh Torah, [Section] [Chapter]:[Paragraph]. Ex. Mishneh Torah, Nizkei Mamon 1:1.

Shulchan Aruch

• CMS: Shulchan Aruch, [Section] [Chapter]:[Paragraph]. Ex. Shulchan Aruch, Hoshen Mishpat 201:1.
• BB: Shulchan Aruch, [Section] [Chapter]:[Paragraph]. Ex. Shulchan Aruch, Hoshen Mishpat 201:1.

Responsa

• CMS: [Author], [Title], [section if included] [Volume or Responsa]:[Responsa or Subpart]. Ex. Moshe Feinstein, Sefer Igrot Mosheh, Yoreh Deah 1:160.
• BB: [Author], [Title], [section if included] [Volume or Responsa]:[Responsa or Subpart]. Ex. Moshe Feinstein, Sefer Igrot Mosheh, Yoreh Deah 1:160.
• For reported responsa from Israel’s religious courts, see Bluebook T2.22.

Translation of Jewish Law Titles

• Because many Jewish law titles are idiomatic expressions that do not convey useful information or may be confusing to the non-specialist, translations of titles for the sources above are not required despite JLR’s preference for translation of titles.

APPENDIX 2: VATICAN SOURCES

Vatican and Papal sources are not treated in either the Chicago Manual of Style or the Bluebook. To ensure consistency, JLR has developed the following citation formats that are consistent with each style-guide.

Papal Encyclicals

Papal Encyclicals may be cited to the online collections of the Vatican, available through the Vatican’s website: www.vatican.va, or through published collections. Encyclicals are cited using the papal author’s name, the latin name of the encyclical, the English description of the subject of the encyclical, the date the encyclical was delivered, the section number referenced, and the URL.

For example:

• CMS: John Paul II, Fides et Ratio [Encyclical on the relationnship between faith and reason] (September 14, 1998), § 13, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html.
• BB: John Paul II, Fides et Ratio [Encyclical on the relationship between faith and reason] (1998), § 13, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html.

If citing multiple Papal documents, a general note can be included with the first citation indicating that all Papal documents are cited to the version found at www.vatican.va.

Note that the English title is capitalized sentence style—not headlines style—and set in Roman, not italics. (see CMS 14.108)

Papal encyclicals cited to a published source are cited the same as above, except replacing the date of delivery with the publisher information.

For example:

• CMS: John Paul II, Ex corde Ecclesiae [Encyclical on Catholic universities] (Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1990), § 4.
• BB: John Paul II, Ex corde Ecclesiae [Encyclical on Catholic universities] (1990), § 4.

Vatican Council Documents

Documents from the First or Second Vatican council may be cited to the Vatican’s website: www.vatican.va, or through published collections.

Council documents are cited using the name of the Council, the latin name of the document, the English name referencing whether the document is a declaration, a decree, or a constitution, as well as the subject matter, the date the document was delivered, the section number referenced, and the URL.

For example

• CMS: Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae [Declaration on Religious Freedom] (December 7, 1965), § 4, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html.
• BB: Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae [Declaration on Religious Freedom] (1965), § 4, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html.

For citing to a published source, cite as above, except replacing the date of delivery with the publisher information.

For example

• CMS: Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes [Pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world] (Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1965), § 1.
• BB: Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes [Pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world] (1965), § 1.