About ELTE Law Journal
THE PUBLISHER: EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY – EÖTVÖS UNIVERSITY PRESS
The publisher of the ELTE Law Journal is the university press of the Eötvös Loránd University: Eötvös University Press. Eötvös University Press is fully owned by Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (ELTE). The ELTE Law Journal is financially maintained by the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University and its Faculty of Law.
ELTE is the oldest, largest and most prestigious university in Hungary. Tuition at the Faculty of Law began in 1667. No other Hungarian Faculty of Law has a longer uninterrupted record, and it ranks well among Central Europe’s law schools in terms of its distinction.
The Faculty of Law and Political Sciences maintains wide-ranging international relations, primarily with universities in Europe, and is proud to be involved in educational and research projects with peer institutions abroad. Integrating research and education at the Faculty into the European Higher Education Area and fostering international educational and scholarly ties are key components of its vision.
True to its traditions, ELTE will further expand its international contacts in research, education and student exchange. At a time when globalisation and European integration are on the agenda, an intercultural approach to law and its application – in other words, comparative legal studies – are indispensable for a sound analysis of legal issues and the settlement of legal disputes.
THE JOURNAL: ELTE LAW JOURNAL – AIMS AND SCOPE
The ELTE Law Journal is one of the leading English-language law journals in Hungary. While the ELTE Law Journal is linked to the Faculty of Law of ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, its aim is to attract not only a Hungarian but also a regional and international readership, including scholars, law-makers and practitioners. This aim is also reflected by the international composition of the Advisory Board, which provides support and advice for the Editorial Board.The Editorial Board of the ELTE Law Journal invites authors to submit original articles that explore contemporary, practical issues in the field of private law, criminal law, constitutional and administrative law, international law and European law. We have a strong preference for submissions with a comparative approach and for articles exploring legal issues from the perspective of European law and/or international law.
The Editorial Board of the ELTE Law Journal is committed to attract authors of high-quality papers from all over the world. Authors are selected on the basis of the scholarly quality of their work. Submissions are welcome from established and young scholars, PhD students and practitioners.
The journal is published both in printed and electronic form. The language of the ELTE Law Journal is UK English.
ISSN 2064 4965
CONTENT: ARTICLES AND NOTES
1 Articles
Articles are longer contributions; however, they should not exceed 12,000 words, inclusive of footnotes. We invite articles that are not merely descriptive but represent, both in terms of method and findings, important contributions to European and international legal scholarship and may also be of interest to practitioners.
2 Notes
Notes should not exceed 5,000 words, including footnotes. The ELTE Law Journal accepts notes in the categories set out below. Similarly to articles, notes should take an analytical approach rather than being merely descriptive.
2.1 Recent legislation, treaties and model laws
Notes can present any legislation of any country, provided that it is of justified interest to an international, and particularly a Central European, readership. Legislation of the European Union and of international and supranational organisations may also be presented in this section, along with recommendations, model treaties or laws of such organisations as well as International Treaties. Preference will be given to contributions with a European, international and/or comparative perspective.
Authors should offer a brief presentation of the legal and institutional context of the legislation (e.g. by a short outline of the legal system and the legal and regulatory environment, along with the main institutions of the country or organisation concerned). Preceding legislation – or the lack thereof – should also be presented, together with the reasons and circumstances that led to the enactment of new legislation. Notes should present the main features of the legislation or describe a clearly delimited part thereof. If possible, the legislation should be also examined in the European/international context or from a comparative perspective. Authors should present their analysis and evaluation discussing the virtues and shortcomings of the legislation, elaborate their legal standpoint and provide a prognosis of any expected political, economic or social impacts and case law that the legislation is likely to generate.
2.2 Case notes
Any decision of any court (national or international) can be presented, provided that it may present an interest to an international, and particularly a Central European, readership. As far as national courts are concerned, the journal prefers decisions of the highest national courts or decisions against which there is no judicial remedy under national law. Case notes may present not only decisions of courts and tribunals in a narrow sense but also of constitutional courts, international courts, courts with a special jurisdiction (e.g. human rights tribunals) or of national and international courts of arbitration and mediation bodies. Preference will be given to contributions with a European, international and/or comparative perspective.
The significance of the decision must be pointed out in the introduction of the note. Authors should present the legal background to the decision and, if appropriate, the political, economic and social context as well. Notes shall present the facts of the case, the procedural history and the content of the ruling. It should analyse the decision, highlighting the relevant doctrinal and practical problems. If possible, the decision should also be examined in a European/international context and/or from a comparative perspective. Authors should present their analysis and evaluation discussing the virtues and shortcomings of the decision and explaining their legal standpoint. Notes should also provide an evaluation and analysis of the expected impact of the decision on future case law and its possible political, economic and social impacts.
2.3 Conversations
This section provides a forum for short writings, in the first place discussion notes and responses to articles previously published in the ELTE Law Journal.
PUBLICATION FREQUENCY
The ELTE Law Journal is published twice a year in June and in December.
EDITORIAL BOARD AND ADVISORY BOARD
The members of the Editorial Board of the ELTE Law Journal have broad international experience in research and teaching. The Editorial Board is characterised by a diversity in expertise. This enables the Editorial Board to take decisions on submissions related to the various topics pertaining to the profile of the journal. The Editorial Board is supplemented and helped by an international Advisory Board. The members of the Advisory Board are highly renowned scholars from various jurisdictions who represent different areas of law.
THE EDITORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES
The main function of the editors is to take part in the decision-making of the Editorial Board and to contribute to the selection of articles for publication in the ELTE Law Journal. Decisions on publication or rejection are made by the members of the Editorial Board based on objective criteria.
The editors contact experts to ensure the peer review of submission and occasionally they may also act as reviewers if it is necessary. In the course of contacting appropriate reviewers, the editors must have to regard to and avoid any conflict of interest.
Editors have to inform the Editorial Board of any relevant information regarding submissions. In particular, the Editorial Board must be notified by the editors of any research misconduct identified, including plagiarism.
The editors keep the submissions and the outcome of the peer reviews procedures confidential.
AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES
Authors must ensure that their submissions are original. Any plagiarism must be avoided by authors. Authors consent the use of any plagiarism detection software by the Publisher and/or the Editorial Board to check the originality of the submission.
All those who have made significant contributions to the submission are to be considered and indicated as co-authors. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all persons having contributed to the submission (and only such persons) are indicated as co-authors. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all co-authors have approved the submission of the paper and any subsequent amendment.
Authors are obliged to actively participate in the peer review process set out below. In particular, they have to amend their articles in accordance with the comments and proposals of the reviewers and the editors and they have to make retractions or corrections of mistakes if it is necessary.
Authors should provide information in their article if they received financial support to the research on which the submission is based.
The author’s submission must be exclusive: Only articles that are not being concurrently submitted elsewhere are considered for publication by the Editorial Board. Authors must not submit an article to the ELTE Law Journal which is essentially the same as a paper previously published by the author in another journal.
No fee or charge is imposed for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in the journal.
PEER-REVIEW PROCESS
All submissions are subject to a critical review before acceptance and, once accepted, a rigorous editorial process before publication. The ELTE Law Journal applies blind peer-review. Peer review is a method by which the Editorial Board seeks advice from experts to assess each manuscript submitted to the journal. Blind review means that both the author and the reviewers remain anonymous.
All submissions are revised anonymously at least by one expert invited by the Editorial Board. In light of the reviewer’s opinion, the Editorial Board takes a decision on the publication or rejection of the submission. If the Editorial Board needs further information to decide, it can ask an additional reviewer to give opinion on the submission.
Authors are required to amend their articles in accordance with the remarks made by the reviewers and editors within the deadline set by the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board may reject the submission if the author does not comply with the requested amendments within the deadline set. Authors have to explain if they do not follow any of the proposed changes. Once the final version of the contribution is submitted, changes in content and style may not be made; only typographical errors may be corrected.
The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject any article without further review if it finds that the article does not fit into the profile of the journal, it is evident that it lacks the sufficient scholarly or linguistic quality to be published or it does not comply with the requirements of the ELTE Law Journal submission guide. The Editorial Board takes all decisions on publication based on objective criteria, in particular the scholarly quality of the work concerned and the requirements set out in the ELTE Law Journal submission guide.
Only articles that are not being concurrently submitted elsewhere are considered for publication by the Editorial Board. The reviews, the outcome of the review process and the content of the reviewed articles are treated confidentially prior to publication. In conducting the peer-review process, the Editorial Board is committed to avoid any conflict of interests.
REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES
Reviewers are expected to prepare their opinion within reasonable time. The opinion should contain corrections and proposals helping the authors to improve their papers. The reviewer’s assessment must be objective; it must be based on scholarly acceptable arguments and criteria. The reviewers have to inform the Editorial Board of any research misconduct, including plagiarism, identified in the course of the review process.
Reviewers must treat articles received for review as confidential. Reviewers must disclose any conflict of interest in relation to the manuscript to be evaluated.
PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
The Publisher and the members of the Editorial Board disapprove and knowingly do not allow any research misconduct. The Publisher and the members of the Editorial Board are committed to take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of articles where any research misconduct has taken place. If the Publisher or the Editorial Board becomes aware of any allegation of research misconduct, those allegations are examined and addressed appropriately. The Publisher or the Editorial Board can require the retraction or the correction of the article if any research misconduct has been identified. The Publisher and the Editorial Board are ready to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies if it is necessary to address an identified research misconduct. The Editorial Board handles all complaints and appeals against the decisions of the Editorial Board taking the ethical principles of the journal and the responsibilities of the parties involved into consideration.
ETHICAL OVERSIGHT
The Editorial Board of the ELTE Law Journal is committed to provide ethical oversight regarding the entire publication process, which extends in particular to policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices.
POST-PUBLICATION DISCUSSION AND CORRECTIONS
The ‘Conversations’ section of the ELTE Law Journal provides a forum for discussion notes and responses to articles previously published in the ELTE Law Journal. Discussion notes must conform to the substantive and formal requirements of the journal.
When, after publication of their article, any significant error is found by the author in it, the author must notify promptly the Editorial Board and the Publisher and cooperate with them to either correct the paper in the form of an erratum or to retract the paper. If such a significant error is found by the Editorial Board or the Publisher, following the notification of the author, the latter must cooperate with the Editorial Board and the Publisher to correct or retract the paper, or alternatively provide sufficient evidence to the Editorial Board and the Publisher about the correctness of the content of the article.
ACCESS
The ELTE Law Journal is published both in printed and electronic form. The journal issues and individual articles are publicly available to readers free of charge through the journal website.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Authors must ensure that the manuscript submitted by them are their own intellectual property and it is prepared and submitted by respecting others’ intellectual property rights. This requirement applies to all parts of the submission, including tables, figures, data, text, etc. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain all necessary permission from intellectual property right holders before submission.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING
All articles published in the ELTE Law Journal are copyright-protected. The content of the issues of the ELTE Law Journal is copyright of Eötvös University Press. It can be reproduced with the permission of the Publisher and the other copyright owners. It may be used for personal reference, but not otherwise copied, altered in any way or transmitted to others without the written permission of Eötvös University Press.
The Publisher enters into a written publication agreement with authors on copyright and licensing. The Publisher has the exclusive worldwide right for a period of one year after the publication of the article in the ELTE Law Journal to publish, reproduce, and distribute the article in its entirety or in the form of an abstract. After the termination of the one-year period, the Publisher has the non-exclusive right with the same content for an indeterminate duration. The details of copyright and licensing are set out in the publication agreement concluded with authors.
Published articles can be posted on third-party repositories by the author after one year following their publication in the ELTE Law Journal in accordance with the provisions of the publication agreement. In such a case, the author has to indicate in any subsequent full or partial reproduction in electronic or printed form that the article has been originally published in the ELTE Law Journal.
ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM CHECK
Authors must ensure that the article they submit to the ELTE Law Journal is original. All sources used by authors must be appropriately cited by using quotation marks and/or referenced in footnotes.
The Editorial Board is committed to exclude plagiarism. The editors and reviewers examine the originality of the articles submitted to the ELTE Law Journal and for this purpose they can avail themselves of any plagiarism detection software.
Any information related to plagiarism regarding an article submitted to or published in the ELTE Law Journal is examined by the Editorial Board. Following the examination of the case, depending on the extent and gravity of the plagiarism, the Editorial Board can reject the submission or require the author to modify the article. If plagiarism is identified regarding a published article, the Editorial Board in agreement with the Publisher takes the necessary steps. Depending on the extent and gravity of the plagiarism, they can include making corrections, clarifications and retractions.
ARCHIVING
The ELTE Law Journal is published both in printed and electronic form. Due to the printed publication, journal issues will be available any time in printed form. The Publisher preserves the archives of the articles and journal issues. For the event, the journal would no longer be published, it is intended to render the articles available through the website of the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University.
The issues are archived in the Electronic Periodicals Archive & Database (Elektronikus Periodika Archívum és Adatbázis, EPA) of the National Széchényi Library as well as in the ELTE Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT), the storage website of documents and archives of the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University.
JOURNAL POLICIES ON DATA SHARING
The ELTE Law Journal encourages authors, where relevant and always respecting all ethical and legal standards, to share, cite, and link to their research data publicly, in particular through a public data repository.
ADVERTISING
No advertisements are placed in the printed or electronic issues or on the website of the ELTE Law Journal.
MARKETING OF THE JOURNAL
The Editorial Board and the Publisher undertake that any direct marketing activity related to the ELTE Law Journal, including solicitation of manuscripts that is conducted on behalf of the journal, will be appropriate, well targeted, and unobtrusive. The Editorial Board and the Publisher provide only truthful and not misleading information about the journal or the Publisher for readers or authors.
