Submissions Guidelines

Inter Gentes accepts submissions on a rolling basis addressing recent developments in international law and legal pluralism. We prioritize clear, argument-driven work over purely descriptive pieces. In keeping with our mandate, we are especially interested in papers that advance innovative perspectives or challenge conventional understandings of international law.

I. General Submission Guidelines

Inter Gentes is committed to publishing thoughtful scholarly pieces that contribute to the theoretical development of legal pluralism and international law. Our general submission process, described in this document, welcomes articles on any topic relating to international law and/or legal pluralism.

Inter Gentes is committed to fostering a forum that reflects diverse viewpoints. We invite submissions from professionals, scholars, and students working in international law, legal pluralism, or other relevant disciplines. We are an open-access, peer- reviewed publication.

II. Submission Requirements

Format and Citations

All submissions should be sent to intergentes@mcgill.ca in Microsoft Word format, with text double-spaced and footnotes single-spaced. We accept pieces in English, French and Spanish. With the exception of direct quoting and other referencing, papers should be written in one language.

Authors must include an abstract of not more than 300 words, as well as a resume or CV, which includes a list of current publications, if applicable. The Journal does not accept manuscripts submitted via fax or standard mail.

All articles are published using the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (McGill Guide). We may review and conditionally accept submissions that use another citation style, but authors will be required to convert citations to the McGill Guide format before publication. Authors must provide complete citations, including pinpoints to pages or paragraphs where appropriate, and be prepared to supply cited sources upon request. Our Editorial Team will work with selected authors to ensure that citations are accurate.

Categories of submissions

Our academic submissions are released as part of our annual issue and undergo a full editorial process, including double-blind peer review. The word limits for this, excluding footnotes, are:

1. Academic articles (8000 – 15,000 words)
2. Case comments (1500 – 4000 words)
3. Book reviews (1500 – 4000 words)

Op-eds, however, undergo a shorter, internal editorial process and be featured on our website. We accept op-eds on current international law and legal pluralism issues with a word limit of 500 to 800 words.

NB: All word limits exclude footnotes.

III. The Selection Process for Academic Submissions

After submission, articles undergo a two-stage evaluation. First, the Editorial Board—composed of McGill Law students—conducts an internal review to determine whether an article (1) proceeds to double-blind peer review, (2) is returned to the author for revisions and resubmission, or (3) is declined. Only articles that pass this internal stage are sent to external reviewers.

Submitted papers are evaluated against the following criteria:

1. Originality: Does the article make an original contribution to the literature?
2. Audience appeal: does the paper fall within the mandate of Inter Gentes?
3. Plausibility/robustness of argumentation.
4. Grammar, punctuation, and referencing.
5. Suspected plagiarism, including AI plagiarism (see below for full AI policy)

If the article is approved to be sent to peer review, at least two experts in the field will anonymously review the submission and provide substantive comments. The author will then be asked to incorporate this feedback into their article before publication.

Following peer review, the Executive Board of Inter Gentes makes all final publication decisions. The Faculty Advisor and members of the Advisory Board may be consulted during this process. Authors whose articles are selected should expect to work closely with the Editorial Board on substantive edits and formatting before publication.

Timeline

We make decisions on a rolling basis, although the timing of our decision on many submissions may vary depending on the time of the year. The review process can take several weeks as we make every effort to carefully consider articles that meet our selection criteria. We appreciate your patience during the McGill Faculty of Law’s examination periods (November-December and March-April) when the review process is likely to be protracted.

Terms of Acceptance

At submission, authors must state if the article is under consideration at other journals. Once a paper has been accepted for peer review, it cannot be under consideration by other journals. All authors whose publication has been accepted by Inter Gentes will be required to sign an agreement indicating acceptance of our exclusivity, copyright, and AI policies.

Copyright remains with the author. However, authors must sign an agreement granting the Journal an exclusive license to publish the manuscript for the first time, as well as a non-exclusive license to reproduce and distribute the article or excerpts thereafter. Later reproductions should cite Inter Gentes as the initial publisher.

AI Policy 

Any use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools or technologies in the preparation of a study or in the drafting of an article’s content must be clearly disclosed at the time of submission. While such tools may be used to improve language, style, and readability, the Editorial Board reserves the right to make further inquiries where it believes AI tools have been used inappropriately. For example, authors may use tools such as Grammarly or large generative models to edit and refine their text; however, manuscripts that are generated entirely by AI tools in response to user prompts are not permitted.

We ask that all authors expressly confirm their compliance with these policies in their submission email.