The next deadline for submissions is: September 30, 2010.

Call for Submissions

The Indigenous Law Journal publishes annually. We invite submissions from all peoples, nations and perspectives.

Original, unpublished submissions are sought from academics, students, judiciary, practitioners, or anyone else writing in the area. The journal will publish scholarly works of any form. Articles, notes, comments, reviews, stories or other submissions are all encouraged. Please ensure your submission conforms to the guidelines for authors as set out below.

To ensure the integrity of our double-blind selection process, all submissions and questions related to submissions must be directed to our Submissions Manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Content of Submissions

The Indigenous Law Journal is dedicated to developing dialogue and scholarship in the field of Indigenous law both in Canada and internationally. Our central concerns are Indigenous legal systems and legal systems as they affect Indigenous peoples. Priority is given to papers that fit within this mandate.

Our Review Process

Submissions are subject to a two-stage review process. The Senior and Associate Editorial Boards first review the paper internally. All papers provisionally accepted for publication following this review then receive double-blind external peer review. Once the comments and recommendations of the External Review Board are returned, the Senior Editorial Board makes the final publication decision.

In all cases and at all stages, review is anonymous.

Authors of submissions that are not accepted for publication will be notified by mail and/or e-mail. Unfortunately, the Indigenous Law Journal cannot return manuscripts.

How to Submit

Please submit your paper via e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

All submissions should include a separate cover page containing the title of the article and the author's contact information (see below for more detail).

The e-mail should be marked as a submission in the title bar, and include two files: (1) the paper, which must use footnotes, not endnotes, and should include an abstract, and (2) a separate cover page containing the title of the article, and the author's name, status (i.e. student, faculty, practitioner, judge...), address, telephone number(s), and e-mail address. The files must be saved in Microsoft Word or Rich Text format.

In order to facilitate our peer review process, the Indigenous Law Journal requests that all authors identify themselves as either "Students" or "Professionals." The "Student" category includes undergraduate, LLB, JD, LLM, MA, and articling students. The "Professional" category includes everyone else, such as SJD and PhD students, professors, judges, legal practitioners, and independent scholars.

As a safeguard to our double-blind selection process, authors are requested to direct all future correspondence about their submissions to our Submissions Manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Although we strongly urge all authors to submit via e-mail (in .doc, .wpd, .odt, or .rtf format) we also accept submissions by regular mail. Please mail a double-spaced, typed copy of your original and unpublished paper to:

The Indigenous Law Journal
c/o The University of Toronto Faculty of Law
78 Queen's Park Circle
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C5
Canada

Submission Format & Style Guide

The Indigenous Law Journal adheres to the style guide of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 5th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2002) (a.k.a. The McGill Guide) and articles must conform fully with this guide.

The formatting guidelines for submissions are as follows: Submitted papers must be double spaced and must use 12 pt, Times New Roman font. The margins should be the default margins set by Microsoft Word, which is 2.54 cm for the top and bottom, and 3.17 cm for the left and right sides. Finally, papers may be no longer than 50 pages long. Papers that exceed this length restriction or otherwise do not conform to these guidelines may be returned unread.

Once a submission has been accepted for publication, authors should regard this submission as the final version. Changes in style and content cannot be accommodated after this point. Authors will have an opportunity to review proofs and to correct typographical errors. The Indigenous Law Journal reserves the right to make editorial changes in manuscripts accepted for publication, including changes required to improve grammar, spelling and clarity and to ensure that the submission conforms to the Indigenous Law Journal style. The Indigenous Law Journal reserves the right to refuse or withdraw acceptance from or delay publication of any manuscript at any time.

Other Important Information

The Indigenous Law Journal does not accept submissions that are or will be under consideration for publication elsewhere concurrent with our review process. Submissions must make a substantial original contribution to the literature and cannot have been previously published in a refereed journal or any similar publication. In determining previous publication, we do not distinguish between print and electronic journals.

The opinions expressed are those of the individual writers, and neither the Indigenous Law Journal nor the editors accept responsibility for them. Although every effort will be made to ensure the accuracy of all citations, the ultimate responsibility for all citations lies with the authors.

Authors published in the Indigenous Law Journal are always entitled to re-publish their papers at a later date in another forum. The Indigenous Law Journal asks to receive credit as the original publisher.

We are bound by the University of Toronto's Academic Code, which defines plagiarism as "the wrongful appropriation and purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas ... of another." Papers submitted to the Indigenous Law Journal receive careful and thorough review by editors, and all footnotes and relevant literature are checked. Papers suspected of plagiarism may be reported to author's institution.