What this policy covers
Two kinds of text are edited here, and not in the same way. The first is a manuscript accepted after peer review, which is edited with its author. The second is the Journal’s own online-edition copy — dispatches and summaries written in-house under the JLCW Research Desk byline. Where a piece has been drafted with AI assistance it says so, on the piece itself: the Journal asks authors to disclose AI-assisted handling of their submissions, and applies that standard to its own desk.
Collaborative editing
Once a manuscript is accepted and the publication agreement is signed, we ask the author for a source packet: for the load-bearing footnotes, either the passage being relied on or a pinpoint link to it. Our editors — supported by AI-assisted tools and always under human editorial control — then work through substantive and line edits and conform every citation to Bluebook form. We edit for clarity, accuracy, and consistency while preserving the author’s argument, thesis, and voice; the edit does not introduce new claims or change the author’s conclusions. It produces an editor’s letter setting out what was changed and any citation concerns that remain.
What is automated, and who decides
AI-assisted tools carry the first pass: initial screening of a new submission, the substantive and line edit of an accepted manuscript, Bluebook conformance, and citation verification. Nothing publishes on that basis. The edited manuscript goes to a review gate where an editor either approves it or sends it back with changes, and the people who sit at that gate are named on the masthead. Only then does the edit reach the author, who reviews and approves material changes before publication, and publication itself is an editor’s action. Accepting or declining a submission is likewise an editorial decision, with the Editor-in-Chief taking final review. Screening declines a submission on its own in two narrow cases only: work clearly outside the Journal’s scope, and work in which more than a fifth of the sampled citations cannot be verified against their sources.
Accuracy and citations
We verify citations and quotations against their sources — against the author’s own source material where it has been supplied, rather than against whatever a search happens to return. A footnote with no source behind it is not recorded as verified, and neither is one the check could not complete; both come back to the author rather than passing as checked. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy of their factual and legal assertions, and editors flag anything that appears unsupported. What we expect of a manuscript before any of this begins is in the author guidelines.
Corrections
If a material error is identified after publication, we issue a notice: a correction, a retraction, or an expression of concern, according to the error. The notice is written out, dated, and recorded against the published article, so the record carries its own history. The integrity of the record is paramount. If you believe something we have published is wrong, write to the editors through the contact form.
Independence
The views expressed in the Journal are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Journal, its editors, or its board. If you are considering sending us work, the guidelines describe how review runs and the submission portal is where it starts.