Call for Papers: Philippine Law Journal, Volume 100 Issues 1 to 4 [ISSN 0031-7721, Peer Reviewed, HeinOnline]

The Philippine Law Journal (PLJ) is the flagship peer-reviewed, student-edited law review of the University of the Philippines College of Law and the preeminent legal periodical on Philippine law. It was established in August 1914, which makes it the oldest law review in the Philippines and the oldest English-language law journal in Asia.

The Journal is published quarterly in print and digital formats and carries academic articles, student notes, essays and comments across a wide expanse of legal fields. It is published and institutionally supported by the College of Law, which funds publication and administrative expenses. Editorial work is done by an Editorial Board of ten Juris Doctor students selected annually by a Faculty Examination Committee through competitive writing and editing examinations, supported by a Faculty Adviser, a Business Manager and a Board of Editorial Consultants. The Board exercises full editorial independence from the College of Law and holds final authority over every publication decision.

The Journal carries ISSN 0031-7721, and its archive is available on HeinOnline, where it also forms part of the Philippine Law Collection.

Volume 100 of the PLJ is accepting submissions of scholarly works for Issues 1 to 4. The call names the following as examples of what the Journal is looking for:

• Legal articles
• Book reviews
• Student notes
• Comments on recent jurisprudence and legislation

Issue 4 will be a special themed issue, and the Journal has said the theme is to be announced. It had not been announced as of this writing.

The Journal welcomes works of interest to legal scholars and expressly welcomes multidisciplinary approaches to legal scholarship. All submissions undergo blind deliberation by the Student Editorial Board. Authors must indicate whether the work is intended for print publication or for the PLJ Forum, the Journal's online companion, although the Board may recommend moving a piece from one to the other.

Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis until the Volume is filled. Authors are strongly encouraged to submit on or before the cut-off date for the issue they are aiming at:

• Issue 1: 31 August 2026
• Issue 2: 31 October 2026
• Issue 3: 31 December 2026
• Issue 4 (themed): 28 February 2027

28 February 2027 is the last cut-off published for Volume 100. Because the Volume closes once it is filled, an early submission carries more weight than a late one.

The call states that students are welcome to submit their work, and the Journal's submission page is addressed to authors generally, so academics, researchers and practitioners may submit as well. Neither the call nor the submission page imposes any nationality, citizenship, institutional affiliation or bar-membership condition, so authors based outside the Philippines may submit.

One designation is restricted. Notes are works written by J.D. students of the University of the Philippines College of Law only, and the Journal expressly states this does not include students enrolled in other law schools or in the College's own graduate programme. Articles, essays, comments, book reviews and Forum pieces carry no such restriction.

All manuscripts must be original and unpublished, except in exceptional circumstances involving memorialisation or republication of historically significant works. By submitting, authors warrant that the work is unpublished in any other academic journal, law review or publication, whether print or online, and whether in the Philippines or in any foreign jurisdiction. The Journal's policies refer to the author or authors of a submission but publish no cap on the number of co-authors.

A submitted work may be designated as an article, note, essay, comment, book review, feature or Forum piece. There is no minimum word count, but the Journal states that exceeding the following limits, which exclude footnotes, weighs significantly against acceptance or publication.

• Articles: works that comprehensively engage with and advance the literature on topics relevant to law or its adjacent fields, in the tone and conventions of academic writing. Not exceeding 20,000 words.
• Notes: works by J.D. students of the UP College of Law, regardless of form and substance. Not exceeding 20,000 words.
• Essays: opinion submissions not necessarily bound by the form of academic writing, presenting clear arguments on matters of interest to legal scholars. Not exceeding 15,000 words.
• Comments: works critically engaging with a development in law, such as a recent case or a piece of legislation, and summarising its salient points. Not exceeding 10,000 words.
• Book Reviews: critiques of a forthcoming or published book. Not exceeding 10,000 words.
• Forum pieces: works for online publication on the PLJ Forum, addressing issues of general scholarly interest that are timely and novel, and not bound by academic tone. Not exceeding 7,500 words.
• Features: works commissioned by the Journal from specific persons for a specific undertaking or purpose.

Submissions that do not conform to the Journal's form and citation requirements may, at the discretion of the Editorial Board, be declined without review.

• File format: Word (.doc or .docx) only, in 11.5 pt Garamond with single spacing. PDF submissions will not be considered.
• Abstract: authors are encouraged to include a short abstract and a set of keywords on the first page.
• Anonymisation: all identifying information, including name, affiliation and acknowledgements, must be removed from the manuscript file.
• Author information: a curriculum vitae or resume may be attached as a separate file. It is used only for background verification during editing and is not shared with, or considered by, the Editorial Board during deliberations.
• Preemption memo: a brief memorandum of one to two pages on the significance and originality of the work is encouraged, without identifying information.
• Citations: claims must be supported by credible sources and proper citations. Footnotes should follow the Philippine Law Journal Manual of Style and Citation (the PLJ Maroon Manual) or the Bluebook (22nd ed. 2025). The Journal publishes pincites for all citations except where a source is used merely as an illustrative example.
• Research data: authors conducting empirical research should provide the relevant datasets with the submission.

The Journal publishes only originally drafted works and will not accept any work that includes content generated by artificial intelligence or through any AI tool. The policy took effect on 1 March 2025 and applies to all works submitted to and solicited for publication.

Only four uses of AI are permitted: use ancillary to the research methodology, such as software for automation, data collection, transcription, data processing or data analysis; use to enhance academic writing techniques, such as summarising, footnoting, plagiarism detection or proofreading; use for demonstrating the technology itself in furtherance of the thesis or substance of the work; and other analogous uses that are reasonable in extent and do not impair the originality of the work.

By submitting, authors warrant the originality of the work and their non-use of AI-generated content. Any permitted use may be declared in the submission email or in the preemption memorandum. A finding of AI use in violation of the policy merits non-publication, without prejudice to further action under law and under the academic policies of the University and the College of Law. A finding of plagiarism of any form merits non-publication and blacklisting.

Every submission is first deliberated on by the Editorial Board blindly, without knowledge of the author's identity, and results in one of three outcomes: accepted for publication, rejected, or conditionally accepted subject to specified revisions and re-deliberation. All decisions are final and are not subject to appeal.

Works designated as articles additionally undergo double-blind peer review. Once the Board accepts an article, the Chair selects two reviewers from the Journal's Peer Review Network, who are given two weeks to review and who recommend outright publication, publication with revisions, or rejection. Two outright publication recommendations ordinarily result in an offer of publication; where revisions are required the author is given two weeks to revise, unless more time is requested, before a second-round deliberation. Peer review may take up to four weeks from referral, extendable to six weeks with the Chair's approval. Notes, essays, features, comments, book reviews and Forum pieces do not undergo peer review, although an otherwise exempt note may go through the process in order to be published as an article. The Journal states that its peer review policy is aligned with the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Accepted works go through substantive and technical editing with an assigned Article Editor, overseen by a Supervising Editor and the Issue Editor, using Track Changes. The author must confirm the final manuscript before publication. The Journal does not accept resubmission of a rejected manuscript within the same Volume, and reserves the right to withdraw publication at any stage for plagiarism, unethical research practices, prior publication elsewhere, or violation of the AI policy.

The Journal does not charge authors any fee for submission, review or publication. It notes only that authors may separately be charged by third-party submission platforms such as Scholastica under those platforms' own terms of service. Published articles are downloadable from the Journal's website without subscription or access fees. Print copies are sold separately, at PHP 1,000 a year locally and USD 120 a year abroad, but that is a reader subscription and is not a condition of submitting.

On accepting an offer of publication, authors grant the Journal a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free licence to publish, reproduce, distribute and archive the work in print or digital formats, including institutional repositories and indexing services. Copyright in individual articles remains with the author. Authors warrant that the work will not subsequently be published in other periodicals without due credit to the Journal, and will not subsequently be submitted to paper prize or scholarship competitions. Authors may republish, reuse or adapt the work later with proper attribution to the Philippine Law Journal as original publisher.

To submit, email the manuscript in .doc or .docx format to plj@up.edu.ph, attaching your curriculum vitae or resume as a separate file and, if you wish, a preemption memorandum without identifying information. State in the email whether the work is intended for print publication or for the PLJ Forum.