Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law Special Issue: The Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Property, Planning and Environmental Law Practice and Processes

The Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law, published by Emerald Publishing, is a CIB-encouraged journal for high quality legal scholarship in the related areas of property, planning and environmental law. It publishes original legal research for academic scholars, policy makers and practitioners, including those working in real property, housing, legal and real estate practice, landlord and tenant law, environmental regulation and land use planning. It was previously published as the International Journal of Law in the Built Environment until 2017.

The journal page lists a 2025 Journal Impact Factor (Clarivate) of 0.8 and a 2025 CiteScore (Scopus) of 1.2. The Editor-in-Chief and guest editor of this call is Dr Luke Bennett.

AI is accompanied by confident predictions of restructured professional workflows, automation and enhanced productivity, yet AI hallucinations are increasingly being uncovered in court proceedings and in business and governmental decisions. The call asks whether this points to a rise in professional liability claims, and how ready professionals are for a future role of assurance: human verification of the accuracy and validity of AI generated advice.

The call seeks contributions examining the impact of AI upon the operation of law within property, planning and environmental professional practice. Papers might focus on AI's impact on training and education, regulation, transacting, advising and assessing.

• How AI is currently being adopted and used in professional advisory and transactional practice in property, planning and environmental law
• Training future property, planning and environmental management professionals to engage critically with AI tools and provide effective assurance of AI outputs
• Who will have liability for hallucinations within property, planning and environmental law processes
• Special issues, circumstances, risks and opportunities in implementing AI in property, planning and environmental law practice and processes
• How successfully AI can be incorporated into property, planning and environmental regulation, and the dangers of automating licensing applications, regulatory investigation and enforcement
• How well existing legal frameworks address the physical footprint and effects of AI (for example energy and water use) through the lenses of property, planning or environmental law

The call invites contributions from around the world. Contributions could be empirical, doctrinal or conceptual. Interested submitters are recommended to contact Dr Luke Bennett before submitting to discuss the suitability of their proposal.

• Article: up to 8,000 words, including all text, figures and tables (allow 280 words for each figure or table)
• Reference style: Harvard
• Keywords: up to 6 short, relevant keywords
• Language: UK or US English; files in Microsoft Word format
• Peer review: double anonymous, with every submission sent to at least 2 independent and anonymous reviewers
• Any use of AI to help craft a submission must be fully disclosed; empirical submissions must provide evidence of ethical approval
• Every submission must be fully referenced, original and thought-provoking, with a rigorous and critical approach to analysis and exposition

The journal is a hybrid journal: a subscription journal that offers authors the option to publish open access. Authors who choose open access pay an article processing charge (APC). Alternatively, authors can take the green open access route and self-archive the article at no cost to the author.

Submit the paper through the journal's online submission system (ScholarOne Manuscripts). The two official Emerald pages give different closing dates: the journal homepage lists the call as closing on 30 May 2027, while the call page states that the deadline for submission of papers is 31 May 2027. Submit by 30 May 2027 to be safe. Queries on the suitability of a proposal go to Dr Luke Bennett at l.e.bennett@shu.ac.uk.