Australian Journal of Asian Law

The Asian Law Centre (ALC) and Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society (CILIS) are involved in the publication of the Australian Journal of Asian Law (AJAL). This refereed journal is produced as a joint initiative of scholars from the ALC and CILIS at Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne, with support and advice from Australian and international colleagues.

The Australian Journal of Asian Law publishes two issues per year. Journal articles are double-blind peer reviewed.

From edition 13(1), the journal is no longer available in hardcopy. Instead, the Australian Journal of Asian Law is freely available in electronic form via our SSRN website. This important change enhances the quality, availability and accessibility of the journal. The Australian Journal of Asian Law's ISSN is 1839-4191.

Aims and Scope

The Australian Journal of Asian Law is a forum for debate for scholars and professionals concerned with the laws and legal cultures of Asia. It aims for recognition as a leading medium for scholarly and professional discourse in a region characterised by rapid growth and social change.

The Australian Journal of Asian Law is focused on the domestic laws of Asia, rather than international law or comparative law. Authors can submit articles that relate to a single Asian country, without comparison to any other country.

If authors wish to include comparison between countries, they are welcome to do so, however:

1. The comparison must be included to support a relevant part of the central argument of the article.
2. We encourage comparisons to be made with other Asian jurisdictions sharing relevant legal or institutional commonalities.
3. Where comparison is made with a non-Asian country, a good reason for doing so should be provided (for example, that the relevant area of law is not dealt with in any other Asian jurisdiction, or that the non-Asian country selected is a leader in reform in this area, or is the best global example of good (or bad) practice, etc).

Statement of Ethics

The Australian Journal of Asian Law requires high standards of ethics by authors, reviewers and editors. These standards are also supported and practised by the publisher of the Australian Journal of Asian Law. Our ethics requirements and procedures are based on international standards, including those advocated by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE).

View AJAL Policy on Ethics and Malpractice

Subscription and Access

Access to the Australian Journal of Asian Law from volume 13 onwards is free.

To subscribe to the Australian Journal of Asian Law:

1. Access the SSRN webpage.
2. Click on "subscribe to this e-journal".
3. Follow the instructions provided by SSRN.
4. You will need to register as a member of SSRN in order to be able to subscribe to the e-journal.

From 2012, back issue print and electronic copies of the journal will be available for sale from Federation Press. With regard to pre-2012 back issues please contact Federation Press directly: info@federationpress.com.au

The Australian Journal of Asian Law is indexed by HeinOnline, EBSCO, SCOPUS and Informit. Articles can also be obtained through these databases.

The ISSN of the Australian Journal of Asian Law is 1839-4191.

List of Articles

View AJAL Articles

How to Contribute

The editors welcome contributions from scholars and professionals worldwide. We publish multi-disciplinary, historical and contemporary research and/or fieldwork in English, including first English translations. We also publish book reviews and case notes (guidelines for these are available on request). The journal does occasionally commission longer essays (20,000 words) but does not accept unsolicited submissions of this length.

Contributions should involve analysis of issues, engage with existing academic literature and not be simply descriptive.

There are no author fees for publishing articles in the Australian Journal of Asian Law.

Articles can be submitted at any time but will ONLY be considered once every two months, with the cut-off dates being the last day of the month for January, March, May, July, September and November. For example, a paper received on 1 February will not be considered until after 31 March.

Requirements for submission

1. Standard articles or translations should be 8,000 to 12,000 words (inclusive of notes and reference), depending on the subject matter.
2. Book reviews or review essays should be 1,000, or, 3,000 words for a longer review essay.
3. Case notes should be 2,000 to 5,000 words.
4. Intending authors should adopt the style used in this journal, that is, in-text citations. A style guide is available from the editors on request.
5. An abstract of 150-200 words should accompany every submission.
6. We recommend that authors who are not native speakers of English seek the assistance of a native speaker to proofread their articles before submitting them to the journal.
7. All submissions must include the authors contact details, institutional affiliation and position.
8. A reference list of all material mentioned in the article, including books, book chapters and journal articles must be provided at the end of the article. Separate lists of court decisions and laws mentioned should also be provided.
9. Author name and titles, academic qualifications and other relevant personal and identifying information should be recorded on a separate sheet.
10. Contributions should be submitted to the editors (law-asianlawjournal@lists.unimelb.edu.au) as an email attachment using Microsoft Word.
11. Submissions must be original, not have been published elsewhere, and not currently under consideration by another publication.

Copyright Conditions

Australian Journal of Asian Law retains:

1. copyright in articles published, and rights to reproduction and distribution of the article in any form, including hard copy, electronic media, computerised or digital retrieval systems; and
2. a license to publish a reproduction of your article in English in Australian Journal of Asian Law and to make subsequent reprints or republications of the article.

Australian Journal of Asian Law requires from authors:

3. an undertaking that no substantially similar article or derivative of it will be electronically published or electronically distributed within two years of the date of first publication in Australian Journal of Asian Law;
4. an undertaking that you have not knowingly engaged in plagiarism, that the article contains no libel, and that it has not been submitted anywhere else for potential publication; and
5. acknowledgement that acceptance of this publication agreement means that the article cannot be published by another journal, book or research/working paper series, unless prior permission is sought from the Australian Journal of Asian Law editor (law-asianlawjournal@lists.unimelb.edu.au).  Generally, this permission will only be granted for book chapters, unless exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated.  If permission is granted, prior publication in the Australian Journal of Asian Law must be acknowledged.  (You can, however, put a hyperlink on your webpage to your article in SSRN and also reprint the abstract.)