Edsel Law Review

The Edsel Law Review is an independent law journal, not affiliated with any academic institutions or organizations, being published by the independent Edsel Press, as a part of the Edsel Network, an independent scholarly web of projects.

The journal is published exclusively online, not having a print version. The journal publishes an article the moment it is ready, rather than organizing itself into issues. The journal is fully diamond open access, meaning neither readers nor authors are charged any fees of any kind. The journal values financial freedom for both consumption and production of intellectual content in academic format, and aims to protect this value through the diamond open access model.

The journal is currently edited by a single uncompensated volunteer Editor-in-Chief in his free time. All donations are appreciated to first maintain the website financially, and to compensate the editor's work second.

The journal specializes in conceptual law, rather than doctrinal law or empirical law, as described in the conceptual law guide. In essence, the journal seeks to publish articles of any length on conceptual law, both national to a country and international. We also publish response papers to articles and responses within the journal, with a different evaluation standard.

The journal utilizes the following standard of rigor for the evaluation of articles, as the ideal and in the journal's opinion, appropriate standard for evaluating conceptual law:

- Seriousness, meaning being a serious completed submission, as a minimal standard of distinguishing between legitimate and non-legitimate submissions.

- Coherence, meaning that the conclusions can sufficiently traced back to the premises.

- Internal consistency, meaning that there is sufficient consistency in the text not contradicting itself in an unaddressed manner.

- Clarity, meaning that a legal scholar should be able to follow the argument from the beginning to the end, sufficiently to grasp the route taken and the point of the paper.

Articles shall be judged to this standard of rigor, and all articles published in the journal have met this standard of rigor that the journal safeguards as a core pillar of its values.

Response papers have a more speedy evaluation standard, requiring being a serious and sufficiently professional response genuinely engaging with an article or a response published in the journal.

Editor-in-Chief = Aku L. T. Jutila

When article submissions are received, they first go under desk review by an editor, where the topic fit and seriousness of the manuscript are assessed, essentially whether or not it is conceptual law and a legitimate submission. Authors will be informed of the desk decision, along with a reason for acceptance or rejection.

If accepted, a submission will undergo full editorial review by the editors of the journal, where the coherence, internal consistency, and clarity of the manuscript are evaluated. In essence, it is the substantive review of the manuscript. During this stage, if revisions are required, the editors will write comments for the author's benefit on what requires revision.

After full editorial review, the author may either receive a publication offer with no revisions requested, a publication offer conditional on revisions, or a final rejection of the manuscript. If an author wishes to accept a publication, they must agree to the publication agreement, and though we publish non-exclusively, then withdraw the manuscript from consideration in any journals that do not also accept non-exclusive publication, as we do not wish to infringe on existing publication agreements regarding the manuscript.

After a publication offer is accepted, the manuscript will go into production within the journal, being editorialized in ways such as standardization of style into the journal style, fixes to grammar as found necessary, and the standardization of citations into the house style. Once the manuscript is finished, it will be published on the website at the earliest convenience.

The author(s) remain solely responsible for the accuracy of all claims and citations. The journal cannot verify the accuracy of every claim and citation due to institutional access constraints, and as such, authors are expected to be responsible for accuracy with them.

When response submissions are received, they first go under desk review by an editor, where the seriousness of the manuscript is assessed, essentially whether or not it is a legitimate submission. Authors will be informed of the desk decision, along with a reason for acceptance or rejection.

If accepted, a submission will undergo full editorial review by the editors of the journal, where the professionality and genuine engagement the manuscript are evaluated. We also aim to spot any libelous claims to the best of our ability. In essence, it is the substantive review of the manuscript. During this stage, if revisions are required, the editors will write comments for the author's benefit on what requires revision.

After full editorial review, the author may either receive a publication offer with no revisions requested, a publication offer conditional on revisions, or a final rejection of the manuscript. If an author wishes to accept a publication, they must agree to the publication agreement, and though we publish non-exclusively, then withdraw the manuscript from consideration in any journals that do not also accept non-exclusive publication, as we do not wish to infringe on existing publication agreements regarding the manuscript.

After a publication offer is accepted, the manuscript will go into production within the journal, being editorialized in ways such as standardization of style into the journal style, fixes to grammar as found necessary, and the standardization of citations into the house style. Once the manuscript is finished, it will be published on the website at the earliest convenience.

The author(s) remain solely responsible for the accuracy of all claims and citations. The journal cannot verify the accuracy of every claim and citation due to institutional access constraints, and as such, authors are expected to be responsible for accuracy with them. We expect responses to never be defamatory, and any defamation that may slip through our review remains the legal responsibility of the author.

Submission to first decision median = N/A

First decision to final decision median = N/A

Final decision to publication median = N/A

Acceptance rate = N/A