Chinese Journal of Transnational Law
The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that aims to address global challenges from the perspective of transnational law, which is broadly defined to cover international law (public and private), international economic law, comparative law, the interaction between domestic and international law, and any other legal field possessing a cross-border element. This journal embraces relevant submissions from different cultures and regions and attracts readers from the global, regional and Chinese markets. The journal shall be open to not only traditional doctrinal and theoretical legal research on transnational law, but also contextual and inter-disciplinary research. Although focused on contemporary matters in its aspiration to be a forum for the latest debates on transnational legal studies, it also considers submissions inspired by in-depth historical perspectives that cast new light on present developments. The CJTL covers broad topics including but not limited to:
- Innovative transnational dispute resolution, including both state-to-state and private dispute resolution mechanisms and the impact of culture, psychology, language and geopolitics on dispute resolution;
- Transnational trade, investment and economic governance;
- Transnational family law and the wellbeing of children, including surrogacy, child abduction and same sex marriage in the cross-border context;
- Transnational regulation of technology;
- Transnational corporate responsibility and governance;
- Transnational protection of private rights in tort and transactions;
- Transnational law and development;
- Transnational law and global health governance;
- Transnational environment protection and climate change;
- Transnational criminal law;
- Unilateral sanctions, extraterritorial regulations and blocking law.
| Zheng Sophia Tang | Wuhan University, China |
| Ignacio de la Rasilla | Wuhan University, China |
| Tong Qi | Wuhan University, China |
| Jinyuan Su | Wuhan University, China |
| Lei Zhu | Wuhan University, China |
| Yayezi Hao | Wuhan University, China |
| Zixin Meng | Wuhan University, China |
| Bjorn Ahl | University of Cologne, Germany |
| Joaquin Alcaide | Seville University, Spain |
| Freya Baetens | Oxford University, UK |
| Ilias Bantekas | Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar |
| Congyan Cai | Fudan University, China |
| Adeline Chong | Singapore Management University, Singapore |
| Ming Du | University of Durham, UK |
| George Galindo | University of Brasilia – ILC, Brazil |
| Qisheng He | Peking University, China |
| Yenkong N. Hodu | Manchester University, UK |
| Jie Huang | Sydney University, Australia |
| Zhengxin Huo | China University of Politics and Law, China |
| Mary Keyes | Griffith University, Australia |
| Nico Krisch | The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Frédéric Mégret | McGill University, Canada |
| Jianqiang Nie | Wuhan University, China |
| Michaels Ralf | Max Planck Institute, Hamburg, Germany |
| Giesela Ruhl | Humboldt University, Germany |
| Guangjian Tu | Macau University, Macau, China |
| Jiangyu Wang | Hong Kong City University, China |
| Shen Wei | Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China |
| Karen Alter | Northwestern University, USA |
| Paul Beaumont | University of Stirling, UK |
| Jose Beneyto | University San Pablo CEU, Madrid, Spain |
| Simon Chesterman | National University of Singapore, Singapore |
| Huikang Huang | Wuhan University – ILC, China |
| Jin Huang | China University of Politics and Law, Beijing, China |
| Marcelo Kohen | The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Christian Mestre | Wuhan University, China |
| Roger O’Keefe | Bocconi University, Italy |
| Anne Peters | Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg, Germany |
| Hélène Ruiz-Fabri | Max Planck Institute, Luxembourg, Germany |
| Symeon C. Symeonides | Willamette University, USA |
| Jorge Viñuales | Cambridge University, UK |
| Yongping Xiao | Wuhan University, China |
| Jinsong Yu | Renmin University, China |
| Peer Zumbansen | McGill University, Canada |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Chinese Journal of Transnational Law
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjtl to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Chinese Journal of Transnational Law will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.4 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 Chinese Journal of Transnational Law will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the Journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the Journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
- 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
2.6 Research data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Research ethics and participant consent
3.3 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.4 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript for submission
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Identifiable information
4.4 Supplemental material
4.5 Reference style
4.6 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
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Before submitting your manuscript to Chinese Journal of Transnational Law, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope:
The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that aims to address global challenges from the perspective of transnational law, which is broadly defined to cover international law (public and private), international economic law, comparative law, the interaction between domestic and international law, and any other legal field possessing a cross-border element. This journal embraces relevant submissions from different cultures and regions and attracts readers from the global, regional, and Chinese markets. The journal shall be open to not only traditional doctrinal and theoretical legal research on transnational law, but also contextual and inter-disciplinary research. Although focused on contemporary matters in its aspiration to be a forum for the latest debates on transnational legal studies, it also considers submissions inspired by in-depth historical perspectives that cast new light on present developments. The CJTL covers broad topics including but not limited to:
- Innovative transnational dispute resolution, including both state-to-state and private dispute resolution mechanisms and the impact of culture, psychology, language and geopolitics on dispute resolution;
- Transnational trade, investment and economic governance;
- Transnational family law and the wellbeing of children, including surrogacy, child abduction and same sex marriage in the cross-border context;
- Transnational regulation of technology;
- Transnational corporate responsibility and governance;
- Transnational protection of private rights in tort and transactions;
- Transnational law and development;
- Transnational law and global health governance;
- Transnational environment protection and climate change;
- Transnational criminal law;
- Unilateral sanctions, extraterritorial regulations and blocking law.
Editorial
- Description: An introductory piece submitted by an Academic Editor providing insight into the topic of the thematic issue, otherwise written by the journal's editor as an introduction to any standard issue.
- Notes: Only allow commissioned editorials (or only editorials written by the editor).
- Word count:2,000
Original Research Article
- Description: Original Research Article should present innovative work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or understanding. Research Articles should be original and rigorous.
- Word count: 8,000-12,000
- Word count includes abstract/references: yes
- Abstract structure: structured
- Reference limit: unlimited
- Table limit: unlimited
- Figure limit: unlimited
- Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2
Short Article and Recent Development
- Description: Short Article and Recent Development is aimed at publishing short, but important, breakthrough research and developments in law and practice. They provide a critical reflection on a specific issue and must be much deeper in substance than a case note or legislation commentary.
- Word count: 5,500 to 6,000 words
- Word count includes abstract/references: yes
- Abstract structure: structured
- Reference limit: unlimited
- Table limit: unlimited
- Figure limit: unlimited
- Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2
Book Review
- Description: We publish two types of book reviews. (1) A short Book review (up to 1500 words) should provide brief summaries of books that are relevant to the field, along with meaningful commentary that provides readers with guidance on the academic and practical value of the reviewed book. (2) A critical book review article (up to 2000 words) is a long-form essay that is not a mere summary of the book and must be analytical and critical in its content. The reviewer must produce substantive arguments and view on the theme and/or the main argument of the book. Our website review editors will regularly commission book reviews. At the same time, we are always interested in extending our panel of reviewers. Should you wish to review books for the journal you should write to the website review editors with your biographical details and interests along with information on the proposed book. We are also interested in reviews of books published outside the English-speaking world.If you are a book author or publisher and would like us to consider reviewing one of your books, we welcome email alerts and catalogues of recent and forthcoming titles. Once we have arranged for an author to write a review of a particular book, we will request that the publisher send the book direct to the reviewer. We also welcome hard copies of books for our consideration.
- Word count: up to 2000
- Word count includes abstract/references: Yes
- Abstract structure: optional, unstructured
- Reference limit: unlimited
- Minimum number of peer reviewers: short book reviews are reviewed by members of the Editorial team; critical book review articles are reviewed by minimum 2 reviewers.
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).
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
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.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.
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.
Chinese Journal of Transnational Law 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
Chinese Journal of Transnational Law encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
- Cite this data in your research
Peer reviewers may be asked to peer review the research data prior to publication.
- Peer reviewers may be asked to assess compliance with the research data policy
- Peer reviewers may be asked to assess research data files
If you need to anonymize your research data for peer review, please refer to our Research Data Sharing FAQs for guidance.
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
Chinese Journal of Transnational Law 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 plagiarized 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 Research ethics and participant consent agreement
If applicable, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for participant information and images to be published was provided by the participant(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the participant’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the participant’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
3.3 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.
3.4 Open access and author archiving
Chinese Journal of Transnational Law 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.
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.
Where a journal uses double-anonymised peer review, authors are required to submit:
- A version of the manuscript which has had any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) removed or anonymized. This version will be sent to the peer reviewers.
- A separate title page which includes any removed or anonymised material. This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.
See https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/Manuscript-preparation-for-double-anonymized-journal for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.
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 supplemental files.
Chinese Journal of Transnational Law adheres to the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities. A quick reference guide for this style can be found here. Please use footnotes and not endnotes.
4.6 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.
Chinese Journal of Transnational Law is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjtlto login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the Journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
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 Chinese Journal of Transnational Law editorial office as follows:
Dr Zixin Meng [4303001@whu.edu.cn]
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.
If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com