Submitting Book Reviews

Since its early days, EJIL has featured reviews of significant scholarly works, offering context, praise, and critique. Nearly 600 books have been reviewed to date in EJIL, all of them freely available via our archive on this site. Over the years, we have introduced different formats of reviewing, but the short review, engaging, on 3-5 pages, with a particular work, remains the most common type.

Book reviews published in EJIL are typically solicited (though we will carefully consider proposals for specific book reviews or suggestions of books that should be reviewed, and we will also consider for review books sent directly to us). We are wary of bland book summaries and expect reviewers genuinely to engage with the author's work. We will not publish 'sweetheart reviews' of books published by friends and/or academic teachers. By the same token, reviews published in EJIL should maintain a tone that does not offend good taste; disagreement, even when harsh, should be expressed in a non-disagreeable manner. If these principles are observed, we believe that book reviews can stimulate academic debate, be a much-needed compass to the literature and help identify key contributions to scholarship.

If you are interested in understanding more about book reviewing, this EJIL podcast will be of interest to you.

Please send book review contributions and proposals directly to the Book Review Editors, Christian J. Tams and Gail Lythgoe at ejil.review@gmail.com.

Review copies should be sent to:

EJIL Book Review Editor
C/o Prof. Christian J. Tams
Rm 209, 10 The Square
School of Law, University of Glasgow
Glasgow, UK
G12 8QQ