About

Presentation

McGill Law Journal / Revue de droit de McGill was founded in 1952 by students of the Faculty of Law of McGill University. Sixty years later, the Journal continues to be entirely student-run and all texts selected for publication are peer reviewed. The Journal stands out by its bilingual, bijuridical, multidisciplinary character and its transsystemic perspective. A generalist publication focussing on the Canadian legal context, the Journal aims for an international perspective and fosters a theoretical approach of civil law and common law. All these features make the Journal a well-known and respected publication. Today, the Journal is recognized as an important forum for the critical analysis of contemporary legal issues in the realms of public, private, and international law, and has garnered significant recognition as one of the most cited publications by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Indexing

• Annuaire de jurisprudence et de doctrine du Québec
• Current Law Index
• Index to Canadian Legal Literature
• Index to Canadian Legal Periodical Literature
• Index to Legal Periodicals
• The H.W. Wilson Company

Publication calendar

The Journal publishes four issues per volume, one per season, starting in Winter.

Editorial policy and ethics

Introduction

The McGill Law Journal is currently accepting English and French-language submissions for Volume 64 (2018–2019). The Journal is a generalist publication that welcomes articles in all areas of law. Submissions are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. Selected submissions are subject to a peer review process. The McGill Law Journal is permanently archived on Portico.

Editorial Process

The editors of the Journal approach the task of editing with an ethic of respect for the style and ideas of the authors whose work we publish. All articles published in the Journal are edited so as to conform to the style rules contained in the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 9th ed. Where the Citation Guide is silent on technical issues of grammar or matters of style, the Journal edits in accordance with its internal style manuals. For English articles, editing decisions are based on the most current editions of the Chicago Manual of Style and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, while French articles are edited in accordance with le Robert, le Grévisse and the Dictionnaire terminologique de l'office de la langue française. With respect to the addition, deletion, clarification, or reorganization of content, editorial decisions may be based on the comments of internal or external reviewers. Final decisions on such matters, however, are left to the author.

Authors are given appropriate opportunities to read and correct proofs of the article.

Every quotation and footnote published in the Journal is verified for both style and substantive content by an editorial team to ensure the accuracy and pertinence of the sources that are cited. This thorough editorial process is essential to the maintenance of the high academic standards of the Journal. If sources cited by an author cannot be obtained by the Journal, the author may be asked to provide the Journal with a copy of the source.

Copyright & Preprint Policy

Copyright for all manuscripts accepted for publication will remain with the author. However, the author must sign an agreement granting the Journal an exclusive license to publish the piece for the first time, in addition to a non-exclusive license to reproduce and distribute the article or extracts thereof. Any subsequent reproduction or republication of the article must bear the legend that it first appeared in this Journal. Furthermore, our agreement prohibits online posting of the published article until 8 months after publication (unedited manuscripts may be posted, but they must note that publication in the Journal is forthcoming and that articles may not be cited without permission).

Submission & review process

1. Categories of Submissions

The McGill Law Journal encourages scholars and practitioners to submit manuscripts of various types. The most common categories of submissions are:

• Articles: Strong preference will be given to articles between 10,000 and 15,000 words including footnotes. The Journal will not accept submissions that are unfinished theses, preliminary drafts, or book chapters. Submissions must be accompanied by an abstract or synopsis in order to be considered. A table of contents precedes articles and case comments published in the Journal. It is preferable that authors include both an abstract and table of contents with their submission.
• Book Reviews and Book Notes: The McGill Law Journal welcomes submissions of reviews and notes on books published within the 18 months preceding the submission. In addition, we maintain a list of specific books available for review (available upon request by email). Those interested in receiving a review copy of a book should email us (journal.law@mcgill.ca) with a short paragraph explaining how their background makes them well suited to review the proposed work, as well as a CV and list of publications. Book reviews should not exceed 5,000 words including footnotes, and must include a title. Book notes shoud not exceed 1,000 words including footnotes.
• Case Comments: Case comments should not exceed 10,000 words including footnotes.

2. Submission Method

The Journal requires all submissions to be in Microsoft Word format and emailed as attachments to journal.law@mcgill.ca. The Journal does not accept manuscripts submitted via fax or standard mail. All submissions must be free of any references identifying the author.

3. Submission Exclusivity

The Journal does not accept submissions that are simultaneously under consideration by other publications. We ask that authors confirm their compliance with this policy in their submission email; if we do not receive confirmation, we will ask an author to provide it, and we will only begin evaluating the submission upon receipt of this confirmation.

4. Citation Style

Please use footnotes rather than endnotes. Articles must use footnotes that adhere to the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation. The author must provide complete citations and ensure that pinpoints to specific pages or paragraphs are provided where required. Please cite only to proper sources (example: cite to the print version of a newspaper article or book instead of the online version), as citation accuracy is an important part of our selection process.

Review Process

Once submitted, manuscripts are taken through a two-step formal evaluation process conducted by the Editorial Board and external peer reviewers. Only those articles that pass an internal evaluation by the Editorial Board will be sent out for external peer review.

The review process lasts between five (5) and fifteen (15) weeks. Please note that the review process may take up to four (4) weeks longer around the Faculty of Law's examination periods (November–December and March–April). We consequently recommend that you submit your piece outside of these periods. Questions regarding the status of submissions should be directed to the Executive Coordinating Editor by email at journal.law@mcgill.ca or by phone at (514) 398-7397.

The following are some of the criteria used by the Editorial Board in assessing submissions:

• Quality of scholarship: Quality and depth of research; originality of the author's contribution, including presence of new and creative thought; plausibility of the author's argument;
• Literary quality: Writing style and organization of ideas, including language, syntax, and flow; and
• Use of citations in footnotes: Over/under-referencing, accuracy of sources, relationship and relevance to the text.

Further Questions

For futher questions regarding submission requirements and the editorial process, please contact the Executive Coordinating Editor by email at journal.law@mcgill.ca or by phone at (514) 398-7397.

Plagiarism Policy

Definition of plagiarism

Plagiarism is the action of appropriating and using or general failure to credit, whether intentionally or negligently, the thoughts, writing, or associated material presented in a previous work.  

This definition is drawn from the Canadian Oxford Dictionary but incorporates self-plagiarism and emphasizes that plagiarism need not to be intentional.

Anti-plagiarism measures

At the preliminary step of the review process, the Editorial Board conducts a review of scholarship related to the submission in order to evaluate its originality. This step helps to spot significantly plagiarized work. Submissions that fail the originality requirement at this stage are rejected.

If an article passes the first phase of review, it is also checked for plagiarism at the peer-review stage. The Journal’s peer-reviewers are leading scholars and professionals in their fields. We rely on their expert opinions to determine the value of a given piece in the broader literature and help us spot similarities with other works which may amount to plagiarism. Articles with substantive plagiarized material are also rejected at this stage.

Each text accepted for publication is thoroughly reviewed by the Editorial Board. Through the editorial process, the Journal ensures that it will not publish plagiarized material; every claim is checked for accuracy and integrity. Every source is checked to ensure that the reference adequately supports the claim made in the text. The Journal keeps a digital record of all the sources cited in the articles we publish, along with each editor’s evaluation of the source and claim. The Journal includes a clause in each publishing contract stipulating that, if substantive plagiarism of text or ideas is detected at this stage, the Journal retains discretion to reject the text. If the problem is one of inaccurate attribution or minor phrasing, the Journal requires authors to properly attribute and adjust their claims.

Editorial board

Editorial Board - Volume 68

• Ommu-Kulsoom J. Abdul Rahman, Editor-in-Chief
• Shona Moreau, Managing Editor
• Andie Hoàng-Lefranc, English Executive Editor
• Marie-Ève Ouellet, French Executive Editor
• Aaron Gao, Coordinating Executive Editor
• Robyn Otto, Citations Editor
• Geneviève Plumptre, Podcast Editor

Faculty Advisory Council

• Dean Robert Leckey, Faculty Advisor, McGill University
• Professor Adele Blackett, McGill University 
• Me Daniel Boyer, McGill University
• Professor Johanne Poirier, McGill University
• Professor Geneviève Saumier

Advisory Board

• Dean Robert Leckey, McGill University
• Me Fabien Fourmanoit, BCE 
• Me Azim Hussain, Norton Rose Fulbright
• Megan Hough, Department of Justice Canada
• Me M. Jarvie, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg
• Brian Pel, Heuristica Discovery Counsel
• Me S. Struthers, McCarthy Tétrault
• Professor Nathalie Vézina, University of Sherbrooke