Download Author Instructions

Pravni zapisi, Union University Law School Review requires exclusive submissions written in English and only exceptionally in the Serbian language (the contributions written in Serbian will have a low priority). It seeks two categories of works: the first category includes scholarly articles. The second category includes case notes (on recent landmark decisions), comments on recent legislation, and book reviews.

In principle, a book review should be written in the form of an article and edited following the Instructions for Authors of this journal. It will be subjected to the anonymous review process.

A book review, no longer than 1500 words, may also be published, if written and edited following the Instructions for Authors of this journal and provided that:

  • it includes the book’s full information: Author/Editor Name, Book Title, Publisher, Year of Publication, Number of Pages;
  • it includes the main ideas, the strength and weaknesses of the book and avoids summarizing the book or extensive quotations from the book;
  • the reviewer avoids criticizing the author for failing to write the book that the reviewer had in mind;
  • it avoids immoderate cheerleading for the book or author;
  • it includes the intended audience for the book;
  • it includes affiliation and email of the reviewer.

Before writing a book review, please contact Editor-in-Chief to inquire if the journal is interested in reviewing the suggested book. Contact email: pravni.zapisi@pravnifakultet.rs

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT

Length and File Format: Manuscripts (scholarly articles) should not exceed 15000 words, in Times New Roman font, 12 pt, 1,5 spacing, left margin 3,5 cm, right margin 3 cm. Footnotes are written in 10 pt font. In exceptional cases, the Editorial Board may approve for the publication a longer manuscript than required. Longer manuscripts may be accommodated in multiple issues. Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word for Windows format.

Language and Script: Manuscript should be written in English language with an abstract in Serbian at end of the text (up to 1.000 characters), or exceptionally,  in the Serbian language, in Latin script with an abstract in English at end of the text (up to 1.000 characters). When written in English, American-English spelling should be used. If your first language is not English, you may wish to have it professionally edited by a native speaker or a professional translator. The authors are liable for the costs of language editing. Manuscripts written in poor English are not going to be considered for the publication.

The author’s name should be written in the right corner and followed by the information in the footnote on the title, affiliation, and email. A title and affiliation reference may include acknowledgments, the title of the related project, an indication of the financial research support, etc.:

Ruth White*
Professor, Union University Law School Belgrade; e-mail: rwhite@gmail.com

Abstract: An abstract at the beginning of the scholarly article (up to 1.000 characters) should contain the research goal, methods, results and conclusions.

Key Words: The abstract should be followed by up to 10 key words.

Subtitles: Subtitles should be written in the following way:

1. CAPITAL LETTERS BOLD
    1.1.   CAPITAL LETTERS REGULAR
1.1.1.   Sentence Case

Please do not use more than three levels of subtitles.

References: Footnotes rather than endnotes should be used. The list of references should be included at the end of the manuscript.

List of References: Reference list at the end of the text must be included. The list of references should contain all the materials used, i.e. mentioned in the text. In the list of references, bibliography should be numbered and separated from legislation, case law, internet and other sources. The list of references should be structured in the following way:

  • bibliography
  • legislative sources
  • case law
  • internet sources
  • other sources

Bibliography  is organized in alphabetical order according to:

  • the first letter of the author’s surname;
  • the first letter of the first word in the name of the organization if the author is unknown or the first letter in the title of the reference if neither the author nor the organization is known.

When an author has a preposition in his name (de, della, van, von, zu or similar) written after the first name, the preposition is written after the first name of the author in the footnote and bibliography (e.g. Jean de Page is referenced as: Page, J. de) and the order in the bibliography is determined according to the first letter of the author’s surname.

Use of bold, italic, or underline: To make emphasis in the text, please do not use bold, italic, or underline. Italic letters should be used in the text for Latin or foreign language words, judicial cases, and full-text citations.

RULES OF CITATION

Books                                                                                             

Sunstein, C., 2001, Designing Democracy: What Constitutions Do, New York, Oxford University Press .

Barak, A., 2008, The Judge in a Democracy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, p. 28.

Kommers, D., Miller, R., 2012, The Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany, Durham, Duke University Press, p. 196.

For more than three authors:
Dorsen, N., et al., 2003, Comparative Constitutionalism: Cases and Materials , St. Paul, Minnesota, West Group, p.286.

Journal Articles

Tushnet, M., 2002, Law and Prudence in the Law of Justiciability: The Transformation and Disappearance of the Political Question Doctrine, North Carolina Law Review, Vol. 80, No. 4,  pp. 1203–1235.

When quoted, the name of the journal Pravni zapisi should always be written in Serbian.

Chapters in Edited Books

Hirschl, R., The Judicialization of Politics, in: Caldeira, G., Kelemen, D., Whittington, K., (eds.), 2008, The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 119-141.

Citation of theses and dissertations

Karamarković, L., 2003, Poravnanje i medijacija, doctoral disertation, Union University Law School Belgrade.

Citation of texts from newspapers (printed editions)
Milikić, M., 2013, Sudije već tri godine niko ne ocenjuje, Danas, 12–13 January, p. 4, column a.

Citation of texts from newspapers (available on Internet)
Derikonjić, M., 2011, Apel stručnjaka zbog propusta u reformi pravosuđa, Politika Online,
(http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Hronika/Apel-strucnjaka-zbog-propusta-ureformipravosudja.lt.html, 12.01.2011)

Repeated citation
Citation of a single text by an author: Poznić, B., 1993, p. 55.
Citation of a text on a number of pages which are accurately determined: Poznić, B., 1993, pp. 55–60.
Citation of a number of pages which are not accurately determined: Poznić, B., 1993, p. 55 etc.
If more titles of the same author from the same year are cited, for repeated citation these titles should be marked with a, b, c etc. in order of appearance in the article: Petrović, M., 2001a.
For citation of data on the same page of the same work as in the previous footnote please use ibid.
For citation of data from the same work as in the previous footnote, on another page: Ibid., p. 75.

Works presented in published conference proceedings

Brown, C., 2008, Multicriteria analysis, pp. 89–112, Operational Research Conference, London, September 17–19.

Citation of legislation
Advertising Law, Official Gazette of the RS, No. 79/05. (Further in the text: AL)
If the mention legislation is cited later: AL.

For amended legislation: Law on the Constitutional Court, Official Gazette of the RS, Nos. 109/07, 99/11 and 18/13.

For legislation which is no longer in force: Act on Administrative Procedure, Sl. list SRJ, br. 33/97, 31/01.
If the mention legislation is cited later: AAP, 1997.

Presenting articles, paragraphs and items of the legislation in the text: Article 7 para. 2 item 4 of the Law; Article 8 paras. 3-4 have the Law; Article 9 para. 5 items 6-7 of the Law;
In footnotes: Art. 3-5. and 7. of the Law; Art. 5–9. of the Law; Art. 5, paras. 1–3, para. 7, 9.and 12. etc.

Citation of international case law
General rules:

  1. Titles of cases should be written in italic.
  2. Versus should be abbreviated to “v.”.
  3. Where appropriate, the abbreviated title of the case should be listed in parentheses, also in italic.
  4. If a part of the judgement/decision is cited, the reference should contain the page number or paragraph in which the cited text appears.

International Court of Justice
The name of the court should be given in its English abbreviation (ICJ), with the full title of the case in italic and in the case of interstate disputes with determination of parties to the dispute in parentheses, type of decision, date, publication in italic, the first page in which the case appears, page and paragraph in which the referenced part of the text appears.
ICJ, Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States), Judgment of 27 June 1986, ICJ Reports 1986, p. 14, p. 62, para. 109.

Interpretation of the Agreement of 25 March 1951 between WHO and Egypt, Advisory Opinion of 20 December 1980, ICJ Reports 1980, p. 73, pp. 89-90, para. 37.

In case a dissenting opinion is cited, after the date of the decision the type of dissenting opinion and surname of the judge should be given:

ICJ, Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States), Judgment of 27 June 1986, Dissenting Opinion of Judge Schwebel, ICJ Reports 1986, p. 259, p. 388, para. 257.

Permanent Court of International Justice

PCIJ, Status of Eastern Carelia, Advisory Opinion of 23 July 1923, Series B, No. 5, p. 7.

International criminal tribunals
English abbreviation of the name of the tribunal (ICTY, ICTR), full title of the case in italic, chamber, number of the case, type of decision, date, Internet site where the decision can be downloaded from in parentheses followed by the date when the page was accessed (in accordance with citation of texts from the Internet) and number of para. which is cited.

ICTY, Appeals Chamber, The Prosecutor v. Dusko Tadic, IT-94-1, Decision on the Defence Motion for Interlocutory Appeal on Jurisdiction of 2 October 1995 (http://*** , DATE), para. 17.

ICTR, Trial Chamber, The Prosecutor v. Ignace Bagilishema, ICTR-95-1, Judgment of 7 June 2001 (http://***, DATE), para. 85.

European Court of Human Rights

English abbreviation of the court’s name (ECtHR), full title of the case in italic, application number, type of decision, date, paragraph in which the cited part of the text is.

ECtHR, Osman v. the United Kingdom, no. 23452/94, Judgment of 28 October 1998, para. 116.
When decisions of the Grand Chamber are cited, its English abbreviation in square parentheses should be written after the date.

Lautsi and Others v. Italy, no. 30814/06, Judgment of 18 March 2011 [GC], para. 70.

If a dissenting opinion is cited, apply accordingly the rule for citation of judgements of the International Court of Justice (after the date of the decision write the type of dissenting opinion and surname of the judge) and provide the number of paragraph in the opinion referred to.

Lautsi and Others v. Italy, no. 30814/06, Judgment of 18 March 2011 [GC], Concurring Opinion of Judge Bonello, para. 3.5.

Court of Justice of the European Union

English abbreviation of the court’s name (CJEU), case number, full title of the case in italic, type of decision and date, ECLI identifier, paragraph in which the cited part of the text is.

CJEU, case C‑399/11, Stefano Melloni v. Ministerio Fiscal, Judgment of 26 February 2013, ECLI:EU:C:2013:107, para.11.

When citing the opinion of the Advocate General or the opinion of the CJEU, a type of decision should not be included:

Opinion of AG Tanchev to CJEU, case C-619/18, European Commission v. Republic of Poland, 11 April 2019, ECLI:EU:C:2019:325, para. 8.

Case Opinion 2/13, Opinion of the Court, Opinion of 18 December 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2454, para.79.

UN documents
Title of the document, determination that it is a UN document (UN doc.) followed by the official numeration of the UN and the date of adoption of the document in parenthesis.

UNSC Resolution 1244, UN doc. S/RES/1244 (10 June 1999).

Human Rights Committee, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 40 of the Covenant, Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee, Serbia, UN doc. CCPR/C/SRB/CO/2 (20 May 2011).

Citation of EU documents
Commission Decision 93/42/EEC of 21 December 1992 concerning additional guarantees relating to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis for bovines destined for Denmark.

Citation of texts from the Internet
Gajin, S., 2012, Ljudska prava, Pravno-sistemski okvir, Belgrade, Pravni fakultet Univerziteta Union u Beogradu, (http://www.pravnifakultet.rs/images/2012/Sasa_Gajin_-_Ljudska_prava_E_izdanje.pdf, 01.01.2013).

In materials from the Internet authors are often not listed. If the name of the author exists it should be given in the reference. In the worst case, provide only the Internet address.

Walter, M., Konaguchi, J., Multicriteria analysis, (http://www.gigabook/multicriteriaanalysis.pdf, 05.05.2005) or http://www.echr.coe.int/echr/homepage_EN.