GLJ authors should consult the Preparing your materials page and submit using the GLJ ScholarOne site.

Aims and scope

The German Law Journal is a pioneering open-access forum for the publication of scholarship and commentary on comparative, European, and international law.  It has been online and freely-available since 1999.  Founded as a transatlantic newsletter on developments in German law, the Journal has secured a place among the world's leading law reviews disseminating scholarship across borders. The Journal combines high-quality theoretical research with reports on current developments and thematic special issues. Pursuing this agenda, the Journal has gained a reputation for innovative publishing - linking cutting-edge, border-crossing scholarship with open access and speed to publication.

Types of article

GLJ welcomes the submission of articles* (original scholarship on issues pertaining to the GLJ scope), 

The journal occasionally publishes other types of article, including editorials, introductions to special issues, interviews, developments, obituaries and From the Headquarters (announcements from the GLJ), but these tend to be on an invited basis. 

Peer review process

All unsolicited contributions are reviewed in a double blind peer review procedure on a rolling basis. To this end please make sure that your paper is anonymised before submission by eliminating any reference to your name or other elements that might enable the reviewer to immediately recognise the author. The review of an article usually takes 6-8 weeks, but the Journal reserves the right to review texts for as long as necessary to reach a publication decision.

Open Access Model (Waiver Fund)

Since launch the GLJ has been open access (OA). The GLJ and its publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP) are committed to ensuring that GLJ authors without financial resources can still publish on an OA basis.

The majority of GLJ authors are supported by institutional open access agreement (Transformative Agreements) held with CUP, which allow authors affiliated with that institution to publish on an OA basis without needing to find additional funds to cover publishing costs. These agreements are triggered on the basis of the corresponding author's affiliation data as entered into the ScholarOne system; authors typically do not have to request or activate coverage through these agreements. See which institutions are covered through this tool and see the Open Access Options page for more details.

The small minority of GLJ authors who do not have a Transformative Agreement but do have access to grant funding that budgets for OA publication are expected to pay an article processing charge (see Fees and Pricing). 

Authors with neither Transformative Agreements nor funding to pay an article processing charge (APC) are covered by a waiver fund that GLJ and CUP have set aside from the journal's finances. All authors can therefore submit to the GLJ in the knowledge that there is no hard financial barrier to publication. If you are accepted for publication but do not have access to funding, you can still publish on an OA basis in the GLJ.