MAGLAW, Panjab University Law Magazine (Peer-Reviewed, Student-Run), Volume 5 Issue 2: No Publication Fee

MAGLAW is the law magazine of the Department of Laws, Panjab University, Chandigarh, published since 2017. It is peer-reviewed and refereed, and it exists specifically to carry work written by law students across constitutional law, criminal law, international law, intellectual property, human rights and allied fields.

The journal runs a student editorial board working alongside a faculty editorial board, with all matters overseen by the Editor in Chief. Student editors handle submissions, the review process, editing and final publication; manuscripts are then assessed by qualified reviewers, usually law faculty members or legal professionals, who evaluate quality, relevance and scholarly rigour before recommending publication.

MAGLAW publishes original research papers and articles, reviews and case comments. The Volume 5 Issue 2 brochure describes the journal as a bi-annual publication; the journal's own website page describes it as annual.

The Editorial Board has curated this issue to be deliberately multi-faceted, spanning personality rights and digital identity, women-centric legislation and institutional reform, and a decade of judicial evolution across technology, access and procedure. The stated aim is to give writers a medium to express their views and readers a spread of perspectives on questions that are live right now.

Authors must pick any one theme and one sub-theme under it.

• Theme 1. Women-centric legislation: shield or weapon? Revaluating legislation, institutional failures and equitable path to reform.
  • The justice paradox: strategic misuse versus failure of benefits to marginalised victims due to systemic barriers.
  • Judicial responses and procedural safeguards to prevent misuse.
  • Economic rights and the alimony dilemma: maintenance or extortion.
• Theme 2. Judicial reforms in the last decade: evaluating structural, technological and procedural evolution.
  • AI and technology in the legal sphere: regulation, governance and integrity.
  • Access to justice: procedural and institutional barriers.
  • Specialised adjudication: tribunalisation and jurisdictional conflicts.
• Theme 3. Personality rights in modern times: ownership of identity, commercial value and free expression.
  • Commercialising identity: names, voices, mannerisms and brand value.
  • Postmortem rights: AI, deepfakes and digital replicas.
  • The gap in law: the need for codification and clear guidelines.

• Only bona fide students pursuing an LL.B. (three-year or five-year programme), LL.M. or Ph.D. in law are eligible.
• Co-authorship is permitted up to a maximum of two authors per paper. The co-authors may be from the same or different institutions.
• Submissions by student authors with professionals as co-authors will not be considered.
• Manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and submitted solely to MAGLAW. Simultaneous submission to another journal is treated as unethical publishing behaviour.

• Research Papers: 3,000 to 6,000 words.
• Case Notes: 2,500 to 3,000 words.
• Legal Opinion: 1,500 to 2,000 words, being a focussed opinion giving a clear, independently reasoned position on one or all defined legal questions related to the relevant theme.

Word limits exclude footnotes but include the abstract.

Stage one, abstract submission. Authors must first submit an abstract of not more than 200 words along with five keywords through the Open Journal System. The abstract must be accompanied by a cover letter and a self-declaration or undertaking in the prescribed format, annexed to the brochure as Annexure-1 (Bonafide Student Self-Verification Form) and Annexure-2 (Cover Letter). Abstracts are screened by the Editorial Board, and only selected abstracts are invited to the manuscript stage.

Stage two, manuscript submission. Authors of selected abstracts get one month from the date of intimation to file the complete manuscript through the Open Journal System. Manuscripts go to reviewers, whose decision is communicated to the authors. Where reviewers suggest minor or major changes, authors get four days to incorporate them and re-submit the anonymised manuscript.

Both stages run exclusively through the OJS portal at maglaw.puchd.ac.in. No other route is accepted.

• Anonymity: no personal credentials, names, institutional affiliations or other identifying details may appear anywhere in the work apart from the separate cover letter. Violation of anonymity disqualifies the submission.
• Artificial intelligence: AI-assisted writing tools are strictly prohibited. An AI report generated through Turnitin or Urkund must be filed with the manuscript, and the AI similarity index must not exceed 0%.
• Plagiarism: a certificate of originality from Turnitin must accompany the work, and the plagiarism or similarity index must not exceed 20%.
• Authors are solely liable for plagiarism or copyright violation; the journal, publisher and editorial board bear no liability. Work must not be obscene, offensive, defamatory or racially prejudiced.

• Font Times New Roman; British English only; page margins one inch on all sides.
• Main body and headings in size 12 with 1.5 line spacing; footnotes in size 10 with 1.0 spacing.
• Citation style: Indian Law Institute (ILI) footnoting. Footnotes must be automated.
• Headings and sub-headings aligned left, content justified, one-inch indent for each paragraph and a single-line gap between paragraphs.
• Hyperlinks must be in black; tables, figures, charts and graphs numbered consecutively.

Research paper manuscripts follow this structure: abstract (200 words) and keywords (5), introduction with objectives of study, research methodology, content or data analysis, arguments and discussion, results or findings, and conclusion with suggestions. Case notes and legal opinions follow issue or theme, legal position, reasoning, and conclusion or recommendation, with case notes additionally setting out the contentions of the parties.

MAGLAW levies no publication fee or processing charge on authors at any stage of submission, review or publication. The journal is fully open access: published articles are freely available from the date of publication and free for readers to download for personal use. Ownership and copyright of published material lie with the journal.

The brochure's cover-letter annexure notes that author names as entered will be reflected on the certificate of publication, so authors should check those details carefully before filing.