Law, Culture and the Humanities
Our mission is to publish high quality peer reviewed work at the intersection of scholarship on law, culture, and the humanities. All commentaries, articles and review essays are peer reviewed.
We provide a publishing vehicle for scholars engaged in interdisciplinary, humanistically oriented legal scholarship.
We publish a wide range of scholarship in legal history, legal theory and jurisprudence, law and cultural studies, law and literature, and legal hermeneutics.
We encourage reflection on a broad range of text and media that will contribute to dialogue across and among fields about such issues as interpretation, identities and values, authority, obligation, speech, justice and power.
"Law, Culture, and the Humanities is an important voice in the movement that sees law not simply as the exercise of power or as a social technology, but as a system of meaning, a way in which the culture marks out possibilities of life for individuals and communities alike." James Boyd White, Hart Wright Professor of Law, Professor of English, and Adjunct Professor of Classical Studies, University of Michigan, USA
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Our mission is to publish high quality, peer reviewed work at the intersection of scholarship on law, culture, and the humanities. All commentaries, articles and review essays are peer reviewed.
We provide a publishing vehicle for scholars engaged in interdisciplinary, humanistically oriented legal scholarship.
We publish a wide range of scholarship in legal history, legal theory and jurisprudence, law and cultural studies, law and literature, and legal hermeneutics.
We encourage reflection on a broad range of text and media that will contribute to dialogue across and among fields about such issues as interpretation, identities and values, authority, obligation, speech, justice and power.
| Austin Sarat | Amherst College, USA |
| Jennifer Culbert | John Hopkins University, USA |
| Keally McBride | University of San Francisco, USA |
| James Martel | San Francisco State University, USA |
| Susan Sage Heinzelman | University of Texas, USA |
| William Macneil | Griffith University, Australia |
| Linda Meyer | Quinnipiac University, USA |
| Karl Shoemaker | University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA |
| Peter Fitzpatrick | Birkbeck, University of London, UK |
| Lauren Berlant | University of Chicago, IL, USA |
| Peter Brooks | Princeton University, USA |
| Ruth Buchanan | University of British Columbia, Canada |
| Nahum Chandler | UC Irvine, USA |
| Drucilla Cornell | Rutgers University, USA |
| Joan Dayan | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Wai Chee Dimock | Yale University, USA |
| Lindsay Farmer | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Shoshana Felman | Emory University, USA |
| David Fisher | Geological Survey of Canada, Canada |
| John Frow | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Eugene Garver | St John's University, USA |
| David Theo Goldberg | University of California Humanities Research Institute, USA |
| Felipe Gutterriez | University of California, USA |
| Dirk Hartog | Princeton University, USA |
| R S Hunter | Kent Law School, University of Kent, UK |
| Richard Johnstone | Socio-Legal Research Centre, Griffith University, Australia |
| Orit Kamir | Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel |
| Shai Lavi | Tel Aviv University, Israel |
| Desmond Manderson | Australian National University, Australia |
| Laurent Mayali | University of California, USA |
| Panu Minkkinen | University of Helsinki, Finland |
| Martha Minow | Harvard University, USA |
| Francis J. Mootz III | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| George Pavlich | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Renata Salecl | Yeshiva University, USA |
| Nomi Maya Stolzenberg | University of Southern California, USA |
| Kendall Thomas | Columbia University, USA |
| Terry Threadgold | University of Cardiff, UK |
| Kieran Tranter | Socio-Legal Research Centre, Griffith University, Australia |
| Véronique Voruz | University of Leicester, UK |
| Melanie Williams | Exeter University, UK |
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Law, Culture and the Humanities will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Law, Culture and the Humanities may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint when making your submission.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Law, Culture and the Humanities, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Law, Culture, and the Humanities (LCH) publishes a wide range of scholarship in legal history, legal theory and jurisprudence, law and cultural studies, law and literature, and legal hermeneutics.
In addition to regular articles, LCH publishes Commentaries and book reviews. Articles should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words in length (including footnotes), normally, but either shorter or longer submissions may be considered on their merits.
Commentaries are solicited by the Editor, but all are peer reviewed.
Ideas for book reviews should be submitted directly to the book review editor, Jennifer Culbert (jculbert@jhu.edu). For the format, see any recent issue of LCH.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Law, Culture and the Humanities requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Law, Culture and the Humanities encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Law, Culture and the Humanities and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Law, Culture and the Humanities offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
References should follow the 'Humane' System. They should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text, and even though they will be set as footnotes should be supplied separate from the main text. Click here for further information.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided below. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Manuscripts should be submitted to the editor by e-mail attachment to:
Law, Culture, and the Humanities
Professor Austin Sarat
Department of Law, Jurisprudence & Social Thought
Amherst College
Amherst, MA. 01002
USA
lch@amherst.edu
Submissions should in RICH TEXT FORMAT and include a 100 word abstract, and a list of key words. Please do not put your name or identifying information on the main text. Provide your name(s), address(es) and contact information on a separate title page. Any tables, maps, or illustrations should identified by the title of the article.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Law, Culture and the Humanities editorial office as follows:
Law, Culture, and the Humanities
Professor Austin Sarat
Department of Law, Jurisprudence & Social Thought
Amherst College
Amherst, MA. 01002
USA
lch@amherst.edu