September, 2021
The Makerere Law Journal is a student-edited law journal published by the Makerere University Law School. The Journal considers submissions from all legal writers, students and scholars in the Republic of Uganda and the world over.
Submissions may be contributing to the improvement the legal education, law reform in the jurisprudence of Uganda or any other African jurisdiction on matters of legal doctrine and philosophy, Human rights, Public Policy, Governance, Economics and more others. Other submissions on points of law from outside African jurisdictions are also considered.
Hence, we prefer but do not require submissions that have a connection with the African jurisdiction.
The Journal is manned by students of law and is independent in the performance of it's work. Submissions are reviewed, edited and published by the student editors who are specifically selected, trained and equipped with the requisite skills. Through an intense editorial process, they work with the author to edit a submission until it is ready for publication.
The following scholarly works are accepted for submission:
The Journal publishes original contributions in form of Articles, comments and notes.
Articles; These are full – length pieces of original scholarship. These should be a comprehensive and thorough analysis of issues related to the theme of the Journal.The Journal strongly prefers Articles under 15,000 words in length. This will include footnotes. The length that exceeds 15,000 words will weigh significantly against consideration of the Article for publication.
Commentaries; These are shorter pieces of original scholarship. Case Commentaries should not be mere summaries of a case. They should be analytical an interesting or new perspective.
The Journal strongly prefers Commentaries under 6,000 words in length. This will include footnotes. However, the journal may consider an extra 2,000 words where the subject matter is significantly broad.
Case Notes; A case note should analyze a single case. In contrast, a comment addresses an area of the law, focusing on specific issues, cases, and legislation. The Journal strongly prefers Notes under 2,000 words in length. Footnotes are not permitted. The length that exceeds 2,000 words will weigh significantly against selection for publication.
Legislative/Policy Commentaries; These are shorter pieces of scholarship. These should be writings that analyse any recent or contemporary policy or legislative development or those in need of review.
The Journal strongly prefers Commentaries under 6000 words in length. This will include footnotes. However, the journal may consider an extra 2,000 words where the subject matter is significantly broad.
All the submissions to the Journal shall be made through the submission form on the organization’s website.
The Makerere Law Journal reviews submissions carefully, and our editing process is intense. All submissions will be read by multiple members of the Editorial Board. If your submission is accepted for publication, the Editorial Board may suggest structural and substantive changes where necessary. After such changes have been made (if any), we will work with you to edit and prepare your piece for publication.
Contributions are reviewed in a blind review procedure on a rolling basis. The review of an article usually takes four weeks, but the Journal reserves the right to review texts for as long as necessary to reach a publication decision.
All submissions must be accompanied with an Abstract of no more than 200 words detailing the general arguments and ideas contained in the scholarly work.
On submission, attached to the essay manuscript should be a copy of the Author’s Information and the Declaration of Originality Form appropriately filled.
All word limits are inclusive of footnotes.
The Makerere Law Journal only publishes exclusive submissions. For that reason, any work being submitted should not have been previously submitted for publishing or published in any other forum.
The Makerere Law Journal is committed to a culture of open access and as such, all published pieces will be available for free online.
The Makerere Law Journal is committed to a strict policy of ZERO PLAGIARISM. To that end, we do not permit authors to repurpose sentences or paragraphs published elsewhere without quotation marks or citations. In case of any gross plagiarism found in the contents of a submitted manuscript, that manuscript will be rejected.
The Makerere Law Journal strongly encourages authors/contributors to submit their manuscripts through our electronic submission system at (editorial@makererelawjournal.org), preferably in Microsoft Word Format.
There is no best time to submit a manuscript to the Makerere Law Journal. We will never reject a contribution for lack of space; rather, we hold it over for consideration by the next volume.
The Makerere Law Journal notifies authors of our decisions by email. We normally do not inform authors of the status of their manuscripts other than through email. As a matter of policy, we do not discuss the reasons for our publication decisions.
On publication, authors will receive a link to their article – which will be Open Access and therefore available to share with the author’s contacts, or in social networking sites, or on other platforms
All submissions outside Ugandan jurisdiction MAY be reviewed by professors and recommended to the Student Editorial Board for editing.
Note: International submissions shall be those with topics unrelated to Uganda but this excludes mattes of international law and human rights.
International submissions made to the Makerere law journal must be in English preferably UK English and must follow the formatting guidelines herein.
For efficient communication during the review process, the email(s), telephone number(s) or postal address(es) of the author(s) should be included or attached in the submission.
The institution to which the author belongs or professional biography of the author should be submitted with the scholarly work. (PhD candidates are encouraged to declare their academic status)
Important to note is that topics of history and politics will not be accepted but this excludes legal history of the country under study.
Authors are encouraged too keep abreast with the themes of the Journal for consideration by the editors.
All scholarly work will be published both on the Journal’s website and social media. The Editorial board reserves the right to announce your publication on Twitter handle and may share your work on internet platforms for circulation.
There shall be hard copy publications as well.
Translation from English of scholarly work will be done at the author’s expense. (The option of translation is not mandatory)
The Editorial Board generally encourages submissions that adhere to the following guidelines:
Creative and original — the author must approach their topic in a way that is new or different from other writing on the same subject. The submission should not simply summarize history or literature in an area. Rather, authors should present a different and/or new perspective.
Narrow and well-defined topics rather than those that are excessively broad — the author’s submission should focus on one specific and well-defined idea or concept in depth rather than attempt to tackle multiple issues.
Clarity — the submission should be clear and straightforward in a way that allows a prospective reader to easily discern the topic. Simple language is preferred, but there shall be no penalties for flowery language provided that the essay communicates. Unnecessary and excessive legal jargon and confusing, long-winded sentences should also be avoided.
The submission should adhere to the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), 4th Edition. Authors should meticulously edit their submissions to ensure that they completely adhere to the above standards, and all other works referred to should be well-cited.
Proper form, structure and organization — all submissions should have a logical flow and should be well-structured to build the author’s ideas and arguments from one section to the next. For instance, making proper use of headings where necessary to indicate different ideas.
Address all the issues the author promises to — authors should follow through with what they set out in the introduction of their essay.
Structure and Format
General format
All submissions must be in Bookman Old Style, Font Size 12, Line Spacing 1.5 and Justified Alignment. All footnotes should be in Bookman Old Style, Font Size 10, Line Spacing 1.0, and Left Aligned.
Citation Format
Use footnotes rather than endnotes. Use the OSCOLA (4th edition, 2012) style of referencing.
Foreign Words and Phrases
These should be italicized. Such words that have been generally accepted in the English language should, however, not be italicized. Examples include inter alia, status quo, et cetera, per se, etc. Do not put foreign words in quotes.
Language
Submissions should use British English throughout (‘-ise’ and NOT ‘-ize’).
References
Use the Oscola (4th Edition) Style of Referencing.
General
Gender-neutral language is encouraged. This can be achieved by using the plural or by avoiding use of a gender-specific pronoun. If this is not appropriate, use either ‘he’ or ‘she’ throughout the entire work without alternating. You may use ‘he or she’ but not ‘he/she’ or ‘(s) he’. The use of first person ‘I’ in submissions is generally discouraged. When communicating a personal opinion, the author is advised to use ‘the author’, ‘the author submits that’ or ‘the author is of the opinion’.
If copyrighted material belonging to others is used in the scholarly work, the author must give full credit to the author and publisher of the work used. If a quotation exceeds “fair use,” permission from the copyright owner must be obtained and uploaded as supplemental material as part of the scholarly submission. Ugandan copyright law allows authors to quote or reproduce short portions from a work protected by copyright without seeking permission, so long as they are making “fair use” of the copied material.
To determine whether an excerpt from a copyrighted work meets “fair use” criteria, one should consider the amount and substantiality of the portion quoted or reproduced, the nature of the copyrighted work used, how the use of the excerpt will affect the market for or value of the copyrighted work, and the purpose and character of its use, including whether it is commercial in nature or for profit.
Any permission required for use of copyrighted or licensed material must be obtained before the dissertation is submitted. Permission to use copyrighted material is obtained from the owner of the copyright.
The author may withdraw papers that have already been published only if the position of law or their views have since changed. Authors intent on withdrawal must email the Board with reasons for withdrawal. The decision to accept withdrawal of a paper shall be considered in line with the Copy Rights law of Uganda. Any other reason for withdrawal of an already published paper will not be allowed.
A manuscript may be withdrawn before publication, but this is discouraged. Late withdrawals at an advanced stage of editing attract a fine of shs. 50,000 for inconveniences caused to the Board. The author shall be required to give 1 weeks’ notice to the Chief Editor or the Editorial team before the decision of withdrawal is considered. In the event of late withdrawal, the Board reserves the discretion to reject such withdrawal.
The law journal will periodically carry out Symposia series from its submissions. These will be picked from articles and case comments. Case notes will not be included for symposia.
The author will on submission of their manuscript attach an exclusive application for their article to be included in the Journal’s symposia series. However, the journal editorial board with consent from the author shall select an article for inclusion on the Journal’s symposia series.
The Journal is a nonprofit and therefore the author should not expect remuneration for the inclusion of their submission in the Journal’s symposia series.
The Journal Editorial board shall select the Journal symposia committee to select and arrange the symposia series. The members of the committee shall be members of the Editorial board.
The subject matter for a submission’s inclusion in the symposia series will include but not limited to; Emerging technological trends and the law, recent and contentious Legislation or Case Law and Long-standing fundamentals of law
The Makerere Editorial may publish reviews, and responses of already-published scholarly works with 5 years or more of existence. For the editors, it is important for the authors to declare that they are improving the arguments or law views adopted by a previous author.
Conditions for publishing already-published works:
The title shall remain the same and the structure of the work. The authorship shall remain the same except for the addition of a reviewer who improves the version of the article or commentry.
The author or any other person may review or create a revision of an already-published project by Makerere Law Journal.
If the author of an already published work is competently available for consent to the review of their work, a reviewer shall be required to seek the consent of the author as soon as practicable.
The reviewer of an already-published work shall be duly acknowledged in the latest revision of the scholarly work.
For responses to already-published works:
The responses to articles, commentaries, notes shall also be included in the same document where possible unless the author can meet the requirements of a minimum of 6 pages for a separate document.
Responses to already-published works by the Journal are allowed at any time except the review which has to be done to only those works with 5 years or more of existence.
Responses with a novel test or approach to the legal doctrine or law-view must have valid thesis backed by evidentially-based reasons. Therefore, mere criticism of the previous authors’ works shall not be accepted unless consented to by the author.
Editing Checklist
Creativity and Originality
The Journal encourages originality. This means authors should submit work authentically engineered by themselves. (not copied from any source and owned as the writers').
No Plagiarism
Where the author uses another writer’s work, it should clearly appear in either foot notes, quotations or reported speech that recognizes the original author.
Significance
Authors are encouraged to bring forward fresh ideas; these include different interpretations and analysis that add new knowledge to their selected fields, putting together concepts in new ways.