University of Bologna Law Review, Volume 12 Issue 1 (2027): Call for Papers

The University of Bologna Law Review (UBLR) is a generalist, diamond open access, student-run law journal founded in 2016. It is owned by the Department of Legal Studies of the University of Bologna (Italy) and published by Alma Diamond, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, with hosting by AlmaDL Journals. It publishes exclusively in English, applies double-blind peer review by at least two external reviewers, and is included in the ANVUR scientific journals list (Area 12, Legal Studies).

The journal lists its indexing as including Scopus, Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index, DOAJ, HeinOnline, EBSCO, ERIH PLUS, vLex and the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals. Scimago ranks it Q4 in Law (SJR 2025).

UBLR is accepting submissions for Volume 12 Issue 1 (2027). The call is open-theme: manuscripts may address any area of legal studies from national, international or comparative perspectives, including cross-border legal phenomena. The journal gives priority to work that advances theoretical understanding or offers new analytical frameworks, and welcomes interdisciplinary approaches.

The call opened on 14 September 2026 at 8.00 AM (GMT+2) and closes on 29 October 2026 at 8.00 PM (GMT+1), which is 12.30 AM IST on 30 October. Manuscripts cannot be submitted, amended or resubmitted outside the call period.

Word counts exclude metadata and footnotes.

• Articles: 8,000 to 20,000 words (longer pieces only in exceptional cases)
• Essays: 5,000 to 12,000 words
• Notes (case commentary, statutory interpretation, discrete legal developments): 3,000 to 8,000 words
• Conference Papers (substantially expanded conference research): 4,000 to 10,000 words

The journal publishes scholarship by students, academics and professionals and reviews manuscripts without regard to the author's citizenship. The corresponding author must hold at least a first degree. Co-authored work is accepted: every contributing author is entered in the submission metadata and each must have approved the submitted version.

• British English; file in Word, OpenOffice, RTF or ODT format (PDF is not accepted).
• Fully anonymised, including file properties; refer to your own earlier work in the third person.
• Title, optional subtitle, abstract of up to 500 words, up to 5 keywords and up to 3 optional JEL codes.
• All references in footnotes, following The Bluebook (22nd ed.). OSCOLA is accepted at submission and converted in production; in-text styles such as APA or Harvard are not accepted.
• Original work, not published elsewhere and not under consideration by any other journal. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted. Complete PhD or postgraduate dissertations are not considered unless adapted into a self-contained article. Preprints (for example on SSRN) are allowed but must be disclosed with a link.
• Non-public research materials and datasets must be uploaded, with a Data Availability Statement where the manuscript rests on research data.
• Any use of generative AI must be declared, naming the tool, version, date, prompts and purpose.

There is no fee. The journal charges neither article submission charges nor article processing charges, and publishes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence with authors keeping copyright.

Submissions are accepted only through the UBLR website on the OJS platform; emailed manuscripts are not considered. New users register an account on the journal site, then log in and submit, checking every item on the Submission Preparation Checklist.

• Within 48 hours: confirmation of receipt, or desk rejection for non-compliance with the guidelines (a desk-rejected manuscript can be amended only while the call is open).
• Within 4 weeks of confirmation: outcome of the preliminary assessment, including an iThenticate similarity check.
• Peer review typically takes up to 12 weeks, after which the Editor-in-Chief decides whether to extend a publication offer.
• Accepted papers go through copyediting and LaTeX typesetting and receive a DOI.