Keele Law Review Volume 7 (2027): Call for Papers on Private Power, Democracy and Human Rights [Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, ISSN 2732-5679]

The Keele Law Review (KLR) is an online, open-access, double-blind peer-reviewed general law journal based at the School of Law, Keele University, United Kingdom. It was founded in 2020 by Prof Yossi Nehushtan as a forum for critical legal commentary, and it also gives students a learning role as Assistant General Editors. The journal carries ISSN 2732-5679 and has published six volumes to date. Its open-access policy means published work is free to read, in line with the Law School's emphasis on academic inclusion, diversity and accessibility.

The KLR has announced a call for submissions for its 7th volume (2027) on the theme 'Private Power, Democracy, and Human Rights'. The special issue is co-edited by Prof Yossi Nehushtan, Prof Danielle Anne Pamplona and Beatriz Flugel Assad.

The call proceeds from the observation that the increasing concentration of private economic and technological power raises profound questions for democratic governance, constitutionalism, accountability and the protection of human rights. Multinational corporations, digital platforms, financial actors and emerging technological enterprises increasingly shape public discourse, influence political decision-making, affect labour relations, control access to information, and impact environmental and social conditions worldwide. The editors seek to explore that relationship from interdisciplinary, comparative, theoretical and empirical perspectives.

Contributions are welcomed from scholars working in public law, constitutional law, human rights, business and human rights, corporate governance, international law, political theory, labour law, environmental law, technology regulation and related fields.

Submissions on any topic relating to the theme are accepted, including but not limited to the following.

Business and Human Rights

• Corporate human rights due diligence, and mandatory HRDD legislation
• Access to remedy and corporate liability

Democracy and Constitutionalism

• Private power and constitutionalism
• Corporations as quasi-public actors
• Corporate influence on democratic institutions
• Lobbying, campaign finance and democratic legitimacy
• Corporate capture and regulatory capture
• Democratic accountability of transnational corporations

Digital Platforms and Technology

• Big Tech and democratic governance
• Platform governance and freedom of expression
• Artificial intelligence, human rights and corporate responsibility
• Digital surveillance and private actors
• Algorithmic decision-making and discrimination
• Online content moderation and democratic values
• Data governance, privacy and corporate power

Sustainability and Global Governance

• Investor power and human rights
• Transnational regulation and global governance

Emerging and Critical Perspectives

• Corporate power in the Global South
• Decolonial approaches to business and human rights
• Feminist perspectives on corporate accountability
• Corporate involvement in authoritarian contexts
• Human rights implications of private security actors

The call states that manuscripts are welcome from academics, early-career researchers and PhD candidates. Short notes are also welcome from LLM students. The call places no restriction on the author's nationality or institution, so researchers based in India may submit.

The journal's general submission page adds that it welcomes full-length pieces from scholars, practitioners and PhD students, while undergraduates and postgraduates may submit shorter works and current awareness notes.

For this special issue the editors ask for an abstract or proposal of 400-600 words in the first stage. The abstract document should include the author's contact details and affiliation.

• Full papers: no longer than 10,000-15,000 words including footnotes
• Short notes: no longer than 4,000-5,000 words
• Full articles must carry an abstract of 150-250 words
• Citations must follow OSCOLA; Oxford English spelling is used
• The manuscript must be anonymised for double-blind peer review, with author details, funding sources and acknowledgements on a separate title page
• Submissions must be original and not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere

The call and the journal's submission page state no submission fee and no publication or article processing charge. The KLR is fully open access, so published articles are free to read. The journal retains no copyright: authors retain the copyright in their articles. Authors receive final proofs by email for review before publication.

Email your 400-600 word abstract to Prof Yossi Nehushtan at y.nehushtan@keele.ac.uk and to Beatriz Flugel Assad at beatriz.flugelassad@worc.ox.ac.uk. Write 'Proposed paper - KLR' in the subject line of the email, and include your contact details and affiliation in the abstract document. Abstracts are due by 1 September 2026, a date the journal has already marked as extended.

Authors whose abstracts are accepted will be notified by 10 September 2026 and must submit the full manuscript by 3 May 2027.

Decisions to publish are based on editorial assessment followed by double-blind peer review. Acceptance of an abstract is an invitation to submit a full paper, not a guarantee of publication. The special issue is scheduled to appear in late 2027 as Volume 7 of the Keele Law Review.