SUBSCRIBE

SUBMIT

Submissions

Submissions are now closed.

Authors who are or have recently been students (within the past 10 months) must include a letter or email from a law professor supporting the publication of the paper in a law journal.

Upon acceptance, authors will be required to submit the following:

 

  • A 200 word (maximum) abstract which will be translated into the other official language,
  • Any acknowledgements that the author wishes to make and the author’s credentials, including any institutional affiliation (maximum 100 words).

 

The Ottawa Law Review provides disclaimers, upon request, stating that all opinions expressed are solely the author’s and not the institution’s.

Ottawa Law Review Style Guide

FORMAT

  • Microsoft Word document (.doc)
  • 12 point Times New Roman font
  • Double-spaced text
  • 1 inch margins
  • Arabic numeral page numbers on bottom right corners
  • The full title and a table of contents shall immediately precede the work

CITATION FORMAT

 

Footnotes must be used (not endnotes), and they must conform to the most recent edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (Toronto: Thomson Reuters Canada), known as the “McGill Guide”.

 

Please do not include a bibliography.

Both French and English submissions are accepted.

 

Article
Articles must have compelling legal analysis sufficient to make an original contribution to the existing literature on a specific legal topic. The maximum length of an article is 15,000 words (excluding footnotes).

 

Case comment
Case comments are a creative and critical discussion of the impact of a noteworthy case’ impact. The maximum length of a case comment is 10,000 words (excluding footnotes).

 

Book Review
Book reviews are formal evaluations of notable books recently published. Book reviews must go above and beyond summarizing the contents of the work. The maximum length of a book review is 2,500 words (excluding footnotes).

Originality and Exclusivity

The Ottawa Law Review publishes only original material, meaning that a substantially similar version of the work has not been previously published. Authors must inform the Ottawa Law Review if their submissions relate to any prior work.

 

Additionally, the Ottawa Law Review only considers exclusively submitted material that is not simultaneously under consideration by any other publication.

 

 

Plagiarism

It is the author’s responsibility to comply with the University of Ottawa’s policy on academic fraud. The Ottawa Law Review strictly adheres to this policy.

 

 

Anonymity

The Ottawa Law Review considers submissions anonymously, without regard to the author’s identity, institutional affiliation, prior publications, credentials, or previous submissions.

 

To facilitate an anonymous peer-review process, no identifying information may appear in the submission, including credentials, biographical information, acknowledgements, or references/citations to the author’s previous works, that may identify him or her as the author of the submission.

 

The Editors-in-Chief (Articles) and Submissions Manager are the only members of the Editorial Board who has knowledge of the identity of the author. Neither the assessors nor the other Editorial Board members have knowledge of the author’s identity during the evaluation process.

The Ottawa Law Review obtains a minimum of two independent assessments from peer-reviewers who have expertise on the legal topic before the Editorial Board considers a submission for publication.

In addition to style, organization, persuasiveness, coherence, conciseness, clarity, etc., the substance of the submission is evaluated based on the following criteria:

 

  • Does the article contain a clear idea or argument as its thesis?
  • Does the article seriously consider opposing arguments?
  • Does the article make a significant contribution to existing literature in the field?
  • Is the idea or argument discussed in a novel manner?
  • Are the supporting citations current, thorough, and accurate?
  • Does the article lay a foundation for further debate?
  • Is the subject of the article relevant to the legal community?

 

A majority vote determines the outcome.

Each Senior Board member can vote for one of three possible decisions regarding a submission:

a. Accept
b. Accept with conditions
c. Reject

Articles are accepted only when there is no need for the author to make changes. Conditions are usually added.

SUBMIT

  • Drop files here or
    Max. file size: 10 MB.
      Files Must Be Less Than 10 Mb. Allowed File Types: Doc Docx
    • Drop files here or
      Max. file size: 2 MB.
        Files Must Be Less Than 2 Mb. Required, Maximum 500 Words
      • Drop files here or
        Max. file size: 2 MB.
          Files Must Be Less Than 2 Mb. Required, Maximum 100 Words
        • Drop files here or
          Max. file size: 10 MB.
            Files Must Be Less Than 10 Mb. (i.e. Letter From A Professor)
          • By clicking submit, I certify that the paper submitted is my own original work, that I retain the right to offer it for publication, that neither it nor a substantially similar version has been previously published or accepted for publication, and that neither it nor a substantially similar version is under consideration for publication elsewhere or has been accepted for publication elsewhere.

          If you have questions about our submission process, please contact our submissions managers at lawrev.submissions@uottawa.ca.