Journal of Legal Education

Submission Methods

The Journal of Legal Education requires that manuscript submissions be made via Scholastica. Inquiries to the JLE on other topics may be addressed to jlesubmissions@aals.org.

Article types

Authors must submit manuscripts electronically (Word documents preferred). Authors may not submit manuscripts submitted for consideration by another publication. Citation style should conform to the most recent edition of A Uniform System of Citation, published by the Harvard Law Review Association. Manuscripts over 50 pages will be reviewed with particular care to determine whether such length is warranted.

Journal of Legal Education, Policies on Author’s Use of AI
The JLE requires that each author of an accepted piece warrant that it represents the author’s original insights, interpretations, and ideas, and that author has “written” the Article as is customarily understood. By “written” the JLE means that machine learning tools –including Large Language Models, AI, and all other forms of automated writing assistance –may have been used to support original research, writing, editing, or revision, but that such tools have not been used to generate substantial prose. As part of the publication process, the JLE also requires authors to disclose the degree to which they used machine learning tools to assist in writing their piece and to warrant that their disclosure is accurate.

The JLE has identified the following five ways in which machine learning tools might be used by an author to write a piece.

Category 1: No substantive use. The Author made no substantive use of machine learning tools in creating the work. The use of electronic or automated checks of grammar, spelling, or punctuation, and/or reference to built-in AI search tools when researching does not amount to a substantive use that must be declared.

Category 2: Research use. Research assisted by machine learning tools was employed in the creation of the work, but the tools were not used for conceptualization or for drafting any portion of the piece.

Category 3: Consultation and/or Refinement Use. Machine learning
tools were consulted to conceptualize, refine thinking, outline or copyedit the work, but the overall ideas in the work were generated by human authors and the writing was performed by human authors. For any piece in Category 3 that the JLE accepts for publication, the JLE will require a footnote disclosing and describing the author’s use of AI.

Category 4: Substantial assistance. Machine learning tools provided substantial assistance in crafting the text of the submitted work. For works whose creation falls within Category 4, the JLE editors will inquire further about the degree of assistance that any machine learning tool, including AI, provided in the creation of the article. Based on the author’s response, the editors may decide to publish the work with a footnote disclosing the author’s use of machine learning tools or they may decide not to publish the piece.

Category 5: Substantial generation. Machine learning tools generated a substantial portion of the text or ideas for the submitted work. The JLE will not publish work in Category 5.

Submission requirements

Manuscript Format Word documents are prefered.

• Style guide: The current edition of The Uniform System of Citation, published by the Harvard Law Review Association.

• Figures/tables/illustrations requirements:

Submissions containing images must also be accompanied by separate, stand-alone files; the image file names should be labeled to match the figure/image numbers displayed in the manuscript (e.g., image1.jpg). Images may be .jpeg, .jpg, .tif or .eps. Grayscale mode is preferred, but all images must be at least 300 dpi resolution. Final image inclusion is at the discretion of the editors. Manuscripts will be screened preliminarily by the Journal’s editorial staff. Depending on the outcome of that process, submissions may then be sent to an appropriate scholar for double-blind review. Because our publication queue is long, manuscripts accepted for publication may not appear in print for up to a year following acceptance.

Additional Required Files
The Journal requires that all authors sign a publication agreement.

Editorial and Peer Review Process

Manuscripts will be screened preliminarily by the Journal’s editorial staff. Depending on the outcome of that process, submissions may then be sent to an appropriate scholar for double-blind review. Because our publication queue is long, manuscripts accepted for publication may not appear in print for a year or longer following acceptance.

Publication Details

After a manuscript has gone through the initial review process and has been accepted for publication, the manuscript is sent to copy and citation editors for review. After that takes place, the article is returned to the author for final approval. There is some variation to this review process, and authors may receive copies for approval after the editing process is finished and again, after the citations edits are completed.

Copyright

The AALS holds the copyright to the JLE as a compendium, but it does not own the copyright to individual articles published in the JLE. In most cases, AALS retains a nonexclusive license to publish, reproduce, display, and distribute JLE articles in any language and in any form, and to grant third-party use without seeking the author’s prior express consent. No part of an article may be reproduced, republished, or reprinted without permission in writing from the AALS. Certain permissions can be granted free of charge (i.e., reprints for academic use, such as a casebook), while others incur a fee (purely commercial purposes).

Permission to use copyright-protected JLE materials should be obtained, in writing, by the requesting party prior to using the JLE materials. The AALS grants permission for use of JLE content in academic classrooms free of charge. Classroom use entails the copying and no-fee distribution of works to enrolled students and instructors at a college or university. Most commercial republication requests, other than, for example, use in an academic casebook, requires payment of a copyright release fee for non-exclusive, one-time use of the work. A publisher wishing to use any copyrighted material from the JLE must obtain advance permission from AALS to republish, unless that copyrighted material is considered “fair use.” As a general matter, “fair use” is typically limited to scholarly, educational and other non-commercial uses.

When permission is granted, authorized users of copyright-protected JLE materials should in all cases identify the author and the JLE and affix a notice identifying AALS as the copyright holder of the JLE: © 2020 Association of American Law Schools.

For permission to use copyright-protected JLE material and other copyright questions, contact copyright@aals.org .