Submissions Information For The Howard Law Journal
The Howard Law Journal is published three times per year by the Howard University School of Law. The Editorial Board of the Journal invites authors to submit manuscripts of substantial legal merit. The Journal prefers authors to submit manuscripts through Scholastica. Alternatively, authors may email their manuscripts as a Microsoft Word attachment to hljexecutivesolicitations@gmail.com. Authors should provide an abstract, CV, and cover letter along with submissions. All submissions should be double-spaced with footnotes. The use of gender-neutral language is encouraged. The Journal does not publish submissions by current students of other institutions.
Submission Requirements
Length: We highly recommend submitting manuscripts that adhere to the specified length limits (including all text, footnotes, and appendices):
- Articles: 25,000 words*
- Essays: 12,000-17,500 words
- Book Reviews: 8,500 words
*Submissions longer than 30,000 words are less likely to be accepted. The abstract does not toward the word limit.
Citations: All footnotes must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the current edition of The Bluebook. Failure to conform to The Bluebook will weigh against acceptance of your manuscript.
Source Attribution Policy: We want to ensure that all ideas from supporting literature are appropriately cited to maintain accuracy. We require authors to use quotation marks or citations when reusing sentences or paragraphs from other sources. This applies to any exact language or ideas that have been paraphrased, even if it is the author’s own prior work.
Submission Categories
- Articles: Articles are scholarly pieces of work written by experts in a particular field or legal subject area. They tend to analyze a problem and suggest a solution. Published articles usually follow a traditional roadmap of an introduction, background, analysis/argument, and conclusion. Articles tend to be formal in tone and contain comprehensive substantive support via consistent citation.
- Essays: Essays typically explore novel issues and differ from Articles in that they often exercise significantly more structural, stylistic, and substantive flexibility. Essays also tend to be shorter than Articles and have lighter footnoting.
- Book Reviews: Book reviews are commentaries authored by professors and practitioners on forthcoming or recently published books. They range in style and length, and typically include a description of the book, an accompanying critical analysis, and an evaluation of the book in relation to relevant areas of the law. Book reviews offer an argument as to the merit and significance of the work, and oftentimes use the book to inspire new lines of scholarly inquiry.
Timing
The Howard Law Journal carefully considers all manuscripts that it receives. We review and accept manuscripts on a rolling basis. Authors who submit manuscripts typically receive a response via email within two weeks, however, it may take longer to reach a decision when submission volumes are high. We ensure that no article is rejected due to lack of space. Instead, we consider it for the next volume. We do not provide reasons for our publication decisions.
Review Process
We carefully review every submission that we receive. Each manuscript undergoes thorough review by our staff editors, Senior Articles Editors and the entire Executive Board, including the Editor-in-Chief.
Withdrawal
We ask that you inform the Journal if you decide to withdraw your article from consideration. Authors who submit a manuscript through Scholastica can log into their account and withdraw the manuscript. Authors who submit a manuscript via email but contact the Journal at hljexecutivesolicitations@gmail.com. Please include your name and the title of your manuscript in the subject line.