Author Guidelines

The Contributors are advised to adopt the following strategy while drafting and submitting a manuscript:

a) Selecting a Topic

Writing a research paper, article, essay or case note especially on law subjects takes weeks and sometimes months or even years keeping the limits of the article as mentioned in Para 13 (3000-8,000 words) in mind. Hence, the writer has to be heedful while selecting a topic of his/her expertise to research and write on.  A writer may start out by browsing broadcasts and blogs to gain notions.

The following are recommended categories to research on:

• Case Notes

It evaluates the main cases in depth and suggests how it affects the current body of law. A case note generally pinpoints the issues which a court has to address, studies the judgment the court came to and evaluates the legal impediments of the ruling and its significance.

• Book Review

A book review provides an academic analysis of a newly published book, which  normally covers  contents of  a book and communicates  the arguments of the book’s author, the quality of which are then judged, and counterarguments are presented, if required.

1. Comment

Itscrutinizes different aspects of the Law, which may include:

•  Jurisdictional Conflict
  • Fragmented Authorities
  • Majority vs. Minority View
  • Conflict of Laws
  • Unresolved issues
• Prospective and Retrospective application of Laws
  • Relating existing law to new facts
  • Relating new law to existing facts
  • Can also take an issue of first impression in one district and apply it to laws of a different district/circuit.

• Other law review topics, usually earmarked for attorneys, faculty and legal professors.
  • Legal History – the study of chronological development in an area of law.
  • Legal Philosophy & Jurisprudence- the study of the essential elements of a legal system.
  • Original research or empirical data
    1. gather and present statistical data
    2. proper survey techniques needed
• Pre-emptive measures

Once a researcher selects a topic,   pre-emptive measures, to make sure that no one else has published on the same topic or if there are publications on the same topic, they don’t contain material of the same nature are to be conducted. The researchers will have to categorize, trace and inspect articles that bear a resemblance to your topic. This procedure is also adopted by the Federal Law Journal which at its discretion will contemplate whether to publish a submission or otherwise.

• Referencing

Any paper submitted to FLJ is expected to be a high-grade scholarly publication which is later exposed to peer-review. Hence, FLJ sets rigorous criteria to the citation of sources. FLJ encourages contributors to incorporate references in American Psychological Association (APA) style.