Virginia Journal of International Law

The Virginia Journal of International Law publishes three times a year. We invite submissions of unpublished manuscripts on public and private international law. We occasionally also publish works that are more comparative in nature, provided that they relate to international law. Our editors look favorably on research and scholarship that explores an innovative and thought-provoking area or question in international law.

General Submissions Guidelines

Editing Policy: The Virginia Journal of International Law currently practices a light-editing policy. That being said, all our pieces must be rigorously substantiated in accordance with the best publication practices. Authors agree to make any changes required for their pieces to meet the Journal’s publication standards, including making changes to and adding explanatory text and footnotes.

AI Policy: VJIL recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) is an increasingly useful tool in the legal field and in legal research and writing, in particular. Nonetheless, VJIL expects that all submitted scholarship is the original and sole work of the author. Authors submitting their work for publication with the Journal must attest that they have not used any generative AI or equivalent programs to draft or generate substantive text in their work. Should the Journal discover after acceptance that the piece is not the sole work of the author or has been misrepresented, the Journal reserves the right to rescind the offer to publish.

Foreign Language Sources: VJIL frequently publishes pieces relying on foreign languages sources and materials. Authors agree to comply with all requests for sources, particularly such foreign language sources, and to provide English translations upon request and in a timely manner.

Articles Submission

We encourage submissions from scholars, practitioners, and individual SJDs. Article submissions must be between 15,000–28,000 words, and Essay submissions must be between 10,000–15,000 words, including footnotes.

Claims must be supported by citations in Bluebook format, and authors should refer to the 21st edition of the Bluebook for citation form. For the ease of the production process, non-English-language sources cited are expected to be submitted along with the manuscript upon author’s acceptance of offer for publication.

While authors are strongly encouraged to submit via Scholastica, we consider submissions by email to submissions@vjil.org. Your email submission should include (1) a Word document that contains your piece, including title, abstract, and table of contents but no identifying information and (2) a CV.

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot provide feedback on pieces that we do not accept.

Please note that we no longer accept hard-copy submissions.