About the Journal

 
 

EDITORIAL POLICIES

FOCUS AND SCOPE

We are interested in topics which relate generally to European issues in information and technology law. Articles submitted might cover topical issues in intellectual property, media, use of technology in governance and legal education, crime, commerce, human rights issues, jurisprudence etc.

The journal will consider articles which cover more international aspects – such as developments in the international context - but these should be written in a comparative manner, and be of interest to a European readership. Articles which look at non-European issues in law and technology can also be considered where they compare and contrast with European approaches.

The usual permitted word length for research articles is a maximum of 12,000 words, including footnotes. We follow the practice of JILT and welcome commentaries. These are shorter articles which are not peer reviewed, but are of interest to the readership. Topics may well cover comments on a single case, a series of cases, educational technology issues (developments in software, perhaps), or notes on developments which the author feels should be brought to the attention of the readership, but where a fully developed article is not yet available.  Students undertaking research projects may also find the commentary section useful to provide a short overview of their findings.

Book reviews have ironically declined as book publishing has increased. Although we will publish reviews in the traditional sense, we will also consider short synopsis type articles from authors who wish to promote their own published books which are of relevance and potential interest to the readership. These will not be peer reviewed.

EJLT will also consider a series of articles which are published together as a ‘Special Issue’.  The proposed editors of such a series should contact the EJLT editorial team as early as possible to ensure a publication slot is made available.  The reviewing process is still applicable to special issues, but this will be carried out in conjunction with the special editors who have a particular role in ensuring the quality of the issue they edit remains high.

Where an article does not provide a novel perspective (e.g. ‘review articles’) we are prepared to publish so long as the article provides a useful, critical insight to a field.

 

SECTION POLICIES

REFEREED ARTICLES

Open Submissions Indexed Peer Reviewed

COMMENTARIES

This section contains papers which have been produced as part of conferences or workshops.  The papers are not peer reviewed, but are made available to the community as 'ideas in draft'. They may apper in more polished formats later.

Open Submissions Indexed Peer Reviewed

BOOK AND RELATED TOPICS

Open Submissions Indexed Peer Reviewed

WORKSHOP/CONFERENCE PAPERS

The journal will sometimes, with the collaboration of the organisers, provide a platform to publish papers from conferences or workshop which represent ideas in development. This section will not be refereed and will be edited by the conference/workshop editor.  Papers will appear together as a seperate section in the journal.

Open Submissions Indexed Peer Reviewed

REVIEW ESSAY

A review essay focuses on a text or a series of texts.  The text is usually a book or a number of them, but could also be a series of articles.  The review will be 5,000 words or more, normally.  It will be peer-reviewed.  It does not require an abstract, but should have a title and state the citation of the text(s) under review at the start of the Essay.

Open Submissions Indexed Peer Reviewed

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

EJLT is primarily a refereed journal though we will publish non-refereed Commentaries.

To be accepted as a refereed articles there must be strong suport from at least two referees that the article is novel and important. However, we realise that referees will frequently have conflicting perspectives upon an article and where conflict of views occurs, the final decision on suitability and academic quality of the article will be made by the editorial team. 

EJLT does not promote any particular view of law and/or technology, and is happy to publish articles of any perspective so long as they are well argued, and of suitable nature and quality. 

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

THE OBJECTIVES OF EJLT

  • To work towards the general aims of the open access movement in law publishing – to make legal thinking available without cost or technical barrier to the reader wherever that reader may be.
  • To provide a publishing platform which puts the author’s desire for wide scale dissemination at the heart of the publishing enterprise.
  • To provide the reader with journal articles of the highest quality.
  • To encourage the development of a coherent European legal framework through well considered arguments which will influence policy makers.
  • To encourage the development of technological innovation in law schools through providing a refereeing process which understands both legal and technical matters.

THE ORIGINS OF EJLT

The origins to the journal lie in the Law Technology Journal which was published at Warwick University and supported by the CTI Law Technology Centre (now the UK Centre for Legal Education) and BILETA (British and Irish Legal Education Technology Association – as it was then known). The editor was Abdul Paliwala and dissemination of the journal was by print and also via ‘gopher’ technology (users "go for" information), a predecessor to the www which developed in the early 1990s.

After four years, LTC ceased publication in 1996 and was retitled and relaunched as The Journal of Information Law and Technologywhich was – at first – jointly published by Warwick University and Strathclyde University. Later JILT was published entirely at Warwick University under the editorship of Abdul Paliwala.  The journal continued to be actively supported by BILETA.  JILT was one of the first journals to be published as an open access law journal using web technology. For an insight into the thinking of the editorial team, see Paliwala’s From academic tombstones to living bazaars: The changing shape of Law ReviewsJILT 1996 (1).

JILT was innovative and highly regarded by the research community, winning awards for the quality of the publication covering the international aspects of the discipline. It continued to publish in the fields of technology and law until 2009. 

At this point the editorial role was passed from Abdul Paliwala to Philip Leith at Queen’s University of Belfast. Discussions led to the idea that a relaunch and refocusing of the journal towards the ever growing importance of European issues in technology and information law.  When LTJ and JILT began, European computer law was in its infancy and the notion of common use of technology in education across Europe was the goal of idealists. Now, the law of information and technology is becoming more and more harmonised and European inter-University collaboration has become commonplace.  The journal’s core interests have not really changed since the early 1990s; its support from and close connection to BILETA has continued, so a change of title and approach simply means a refreshing of the ideas which gave impetus to the LTC and JILT in those early years.

The journal is currently edited by Abhilash Nair at the University of Exeter.