About the Journal

The CLRS Journal of Global Justice & Governance (ISSN: 3049-1940) is a diamond open-access journal focused exclusively on international law. Published by the Centre for Legal Research and Studies, the journal aims to provide a platform for high-quality, peer-reviewed legal research that addresses key global issues through a legal lens.

At its core, the journal explores how legal frameworks and governance structures can be utilized to address global justice—ensuring that fundamental rights, fairness, and accountability are upheld universally, across borders. The journal delves into areas such as human rights, international criminal law, and economic governance, examining how these legal domains contribute to achieving justice on a global scale.

Simultaneously, the journal focuses on the role of global governance—how international legal institutions like the United Nations (UN), World Trade Organization (WTO), and International Criminal Court (ICC) operate within complex global challenges. It assesses how these bodies influence and enforce laws, ensuring that global governance is grounded in the principles of justice, transparency, and legal accountability.

By concentrating on issues at the intersection of global justice and governance, the journal emphasizes critical legal topics such as:

  • International human rights law and the legal mechanisms to protect marginalized populations globally.
  • Environmental law and governance, as global frameworks tackle the urgent challenges of climate change and sustainability.
  • International criminal law, focusing on the accountability of state and non-state actors for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other breaches of international norms.
  • Global economic governance, exploring the role of law in ensuring fair trade, equitable distribution of resources, and addressing economic inequality.

The CLRS Journal of Global Justice & Governance is designed to foster impactful legal research by restricting authorship to research fellows, academicians, and professionals to maintain the highest quality and scholarly rigor. By offering open access, the journal ensures that pivotal legal research is freely available to a global audience, encouraging engagement with key issues that shape the future of international law.

Through its strong commitment to international law, the journal provides a platform for addressing global injustices and promoting effective governance structures, contributing to the evolving discourse on how law can serve as a foundation for global justice and equitable governance.

CrossRef Membership & DOI Assignments

The journal is a CrossRef member, ensuring that each published article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for enhanced citation tracking and long-term accessibility. This allows scholars, researchers, and institutions to cite and access articles with a persistent, reliable link, improving the journal's global reach and credibility.

Published biannually, the journal follows strict ethical standards and peer-review processes to maintain its academic integrity and prioritizes rigorous legal analysis and scholarship. The journal serves as a critical platform for rigorous, peer-reviewed legal scholarship that seeks to shape a more just and equitable global order.

Focus and Scope

The journal focuses exclusively on international law and its intersection with the concepts of global justice and governance. By offering a platform for rigorous legal analysis, the journal seeks to advance scholarly understanding of how international legal mechanisms can address the most pressing issues of our time, such as human rights abuses, environmental degradation, economic inequality, and international conflicts.

At the heart of the journal is the belief that justice and governance should transcend national boundaries. The journal explores how international legal institutions, treaties, and norms function to uphold justice on a global scale, ensuring that states, international organizations, and other global actors are held accountable for their actions. The journal also critically examines governance structures, focusing on how laws and legal institutions shape global governance and influence policies that affect the global community.

Scope

The CLRS Journal of Global Justice & Governance covers a wide range of topics within the framework of international law, with the following key areas of interest:

1. International Human Rights Law: The journal welcomes research that explores how international legal mechanisms protect and promote human rights globally. Topics may include the enforcement of human rights treaties, the role of international courts and tribunals in adjudicating human rights violations, the protection of vulnerable populations, and the legal implications of emerging human rights issues such as digital privacy and climate justice.

2. International Criminal Law and Accountability: The journal is interested in research that examines the prosecution of individuals and entities for serious international crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It also explores the role of international tribunals like the International Criminal Court (ICC) in ensuring accountability for violations of international norms and how states cooperate (or fail to cooperate) in enforcing international criminal justice.

3. Environmental Law and Global Governance: With the growing urgency of global environmental challenges, the journal invites research on the legal frameworks governing climate change, biodiversity, environmental sustainability, and the equitable use of natural resources. Submissions could analyze international treaties such as the Paris Agreement, global environmental governance mechanisms, and the intersection of environmental justice with human rights and economic development.

4. Global Economic Governance and International Trade Law: This area focuses on how international law regulates global economic relations, including trade, investment, and finance. The journal seeks articles that explore the legal frameworks of institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), how international trade law affects economic inequality, and how global economic governance can be reformed to promote fairness and equity. Issues such as corporate accountability and the legal aspects of sustainable development are also highly relevant.

5. International Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management: The journal is also interested in research that analyzes the mechanisms for resolving disputes between states, international organizations, and non-state actors. This includes the role of international arbitration, mediation, and negotiation in resolving territorial disputes, trade conflicts, and political tensions. Articles that explore how international legal systems contribute to peacebuilding and conflict resolution are particularly welcome.

6. Cyber Governance and Digital Justice: With the increasing importance of technology in global governance, the journal invites submissions that examine the role of international law in governing cyberspace, data privacy, cybersecurity, and the regulation of emerging technologies. The journal also focuses on how international law can address challenges related to digital rights, online privacy, and the governance of the internet in an interconnected world.

7. International Institutions and Global Governance: The journal explores the role and effectiveness of international institutions such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization (WTO), and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in addressing global challenges. Articles may focus on institutional reform, the role of international organizations in global governance, and how legal frameworks guide the actions of these bodies to ensure transparency, accountability, and fairness in global governance.

8. Global Health Law and Governance: The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of international cooperation in public health. The journal is interested in research that examines international legal responses to global health crises, the role of the World Health Organization (WHO), and how international law governs issues such as vaccine distribution, pandemic preparedness, and cross-border healthcare regulation.

Open Access Policy

The CLRS Journal of Global Justice & Governance is committed to being a diamond open-access journal, meaning that all published content is freely accessible to readers without any subscription or paywall. Furthermore, the journal does not charge any article processing charges (APCs) to authors, ensuring that high-quality research can be published and disseminated without financial barriers. This model fosters inclusivity, ensuring that scholars from across the world, especially from underrepresented regions, can contribute to and benefit from the journal’s research. All published articles are available under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), allowing users to share and adapt the content, provided proper attribution is given.

Author Eligibility

In order to maintain the highest level of academic rigor, the journal limits submissions to research fellows, academicians, and legal professionals. The journal does not accept submissions from students, ensuring that the content published meets the scholarly expectations necessary to advance meaningful discussions in the fields of global justice and governance.

Copyright Notice

Authors retain copyright over their work, granting the journal the right to publish and distribute it under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0). This ensures that the authors’ work is protected while allowing for maximum dissemination and citation.

Archiving and Preservation

The journal is part of the LOCKSS and CLOCKSS archival systems, which ensure the long-term preservation of published content. This guarantees that all articles will remain accessible even in the event of website or system failures.

Peer Review Process

The CLRS Journal of Global Justice & Governance follows a rigorous double-blind peer review process to ensure the highest standards of academic integrity and quality. Upon submission, manuscripts undergo an initial editorial review to check for alignment with the journal’s scope and adherence to ethical and formatting guidelines. Qualified reviewers, with expertise in the relevant area of international law, evaluate the submission anonymously based on originality, methodological rigor, and contribution to the field of global justice and governance. Reviewers provide detailed feedback and recommend acceptance, revisions, or rejection. Authors are required to address all reviewer comments and resubmit their revised manuscript for further evaluation. The editorial team, in consultation with reviewers, makes the final decision. The journal strictly adheres to COPE guidelines, ensuring a fair, confidential, and ethical review process, with accepted manuscripts being published open-access, free of charge to both authors and readers.

Sponsorship

The journal is fully sponsored by the Centre for Legal Research and Studies (CLRS), an independent organization committed to advancing legal research and promoting global justice.

History of the Journal

Founded in 2024, the CLRS Journal of Global Justice & Governance was established to create a space for legal academics and practitioners to engage in meaningful dialogue on the global challenges of governance and justice.

Privacy Statement

The journal adheres to strict data privacy policies. We are committed to protecting the personal information of authors, reviewers, and readers. All data collected is used exclusively for the operation of the journal and is not shared with third parties without consent. [View our full Privacy Policy here.]