European Law Blogger Prize 2026: Call for Blog Submissions (€300 Prize)

The European Law Blog was founded in January 2012 by Laurens Ankersmit and comments on current developments in EU law, covering case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, EU legislation, EU law scholarship, legal takes on EU politics, and international law developments seen from an EU perspective. It aims to deliver academic-quality, peer-reviewed analysis in a style that is short, accessible and at times opinionated.

The Blog is fully open access and non-profit. It carries ISSN 2950-1970, publishes by default under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA licence, and assigns a DOI to every post through Crossref.

The Editorial Board of the European Law Blog has announced the third edition of the European Law Blogger Prize, generously funded by the University of Amsterdam’s Fonds Europa Instituut.

A prize of €300 will be awarded to the early-career author of the best blog post submitted between 14 September and 14 December 2026. Any accepted submission is published on a rolling basis, so authors do not have to wait for the Prize result to see their work appear on the Blog.

The Prize is open to early-career scholars, which the Blog defines as follows.

• LLM students
• Doctoral students
• Postdoctoral researchers who defended their doctoral thesis within the last two years

Applicants must indicate how they fulfil these requirements at the time of submitting their post.

The Blog invites engaging, well-written and well-researched contributions on current developments in EU law. Every post must satisfy three criteria set by the editors.

• Interesting: timely, relevant and contextual, placing micro-level developments within macro-level themes such as proportionality, federalism, the rule of law and institutional integrity.
• Well-written: grammatically correct, accessible and to the point; opinionated posts that inspire debate are encouraged.
• Well-researched: factually accurate, linked to relevant sources, precise on legal material and aware of the relevant debates.

Authors should observe the Blog’s editorial guidelines before submitting.

• The ideal post runs to 1,500 to 2,500 words. Longer posts are possible for particularly significant cases and shorter ones for brief points of interest; a topic that cannot be covered in fewer than 3,000 words may merit separate posts or a law journal.
• Posts must be original and must not have been published elsewhere, and should not be under consideration at another outlet while the review is running.
• Use clear headings, open with the issue and principal argument, and close with a short conclusion.
• Give references as hyperlinks wherever possible and avoid footnotes; where footnotes are used the site supports OSCOLA. Cite paragraph numbers in parentheses and link directly to primary sources.
• Marketing links and wholly self-promotional posts are not accepted, and any conflict of interest must be disclosed at the time of submission.
• Any use of generative AI tools, including for language editing, must be disclosed to the editors; the author remains fully responsible for the content.

The European Law Blog runs a double-blind peer review model in which the author’s identity stays unknown to reviewers.

• The editorial assistant screens each submission for the formal requirements and the Blog’s remit.
• Each eligible submission is reviewed by at least one member of the editorial board or, where appropriate, an external reviewer.
• A second reviewer is consulted in cases of uncertainty or rejection, and the editorial board decides where reviewers disagree.
• Authors are notified of the outcome, publish, revise or reject, with reviewer comments delivered by email.

The winning entry for the Prize is selected by a committee made up of the associate editors of the European Law Blog.

Authors are advised to contact the editorial team at info@europeanlawblog.eu before submitting, to confirm that the proposed topic has not already been covered or assigned to another author.

Submissions are made through the submission form on the Blog’s submissions page, or alternatively as a Word document sent to info@europeanlawblog.eu. Where you submit by email, remove all author information from the document so that the double-blind review is preserved. Remember to state how you meet the early-career definition so that your post is entered for the Prize.

Please note that the Blog is on its annual summer break between 18 July and 13 September 2026, and only posts submitted from 14 September 2026 onwards count towards this edition of the Prize.

There is no submission fee and no publication charge. The Blog is fully open access and non-profit.

Accepted posts are published on a rolling basis under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA licence, which lets others distribute, remix, adapt and build on the material provided attribution is given and modified material carries the same licence. Authors who want a different open-access licence may request it at the time of submission. Every published post receives a Crossref DOI.