We are honoured to have been appointed by the Society of Legal Scholars in the United Kingdom and Ireland as the new Editors of Legal Studies, and we are very grateful to the advisory committee and the Executive Committee.
We pay tribute to our immediate predecessors, led by Bruce Wardhaugh and Nicola Glover-Thomas as Editors in Chief, with the support of Phil Handler, Margaret Brazier, John Pearson and Hannah Quirk, for their strong stewardship. We express our appreciation for our predecessor Editors who have created and curated the journal over the past 43 years: we are conscious of the great mantle which we are inheriting in assuming the Editorship.
The editorial and publishing team at Cambridge University Press continue to offer sterling and much-appreciated support for the work of the journal.
We are also grateful to authors and peer reviewers for their important contributions to the journal's success. The expertise offered by reviewers is crucial for the success of any journal, and for Legal Studies it involves maintaining its place as one of the leading generalist journals in the common law world. The process is an opportunity for an author to receive advice for making their argument stronger, in many different ways: be it clarity, focus, significance, coherence, suitability for the chosen audience, or other qualities. Even at this early point in our Editorship, we have already been impressed by the care, precision and sincerity with which referees have engaged in the process, and the way in which accepted authors have responded to the feedback. The refereeing and editing process for leading journals is intense and time-consuming: but it is valued and valuable because of the rigour it brings. Legal Studies, in partnership with CUP, recognises the work of reviewers by offering an Annual Reviewer of the Year Award.
Our mission statement for our Editorship is to preserve the finest traditions of Legal Studies, with a vision for the rigorous, ecumenical, generalist aims of the journal as a globally-respected home for leading, varied scholarship. The journal's affiliation to The Society rather than an individual academic institution sets it apart, and it is known for the quality of the work published within its issues, rather than the type of scholarship. Our own individual interests as scholars cover a range of substantive areas and intellectual perspectives, and we shall continue to invite submissions that represent all scholarly traditions. As Editors, we shall be working as a team, contributing equally to management and taking joint responsibility for all issues. We shall rotate primary roles amongst the team during the course of year, and allocate submissions based on a combination of specialist and generalist judgement.
We want to maintain the many strengths of the journal, while recognising opportunities for further innovation over the course of our tenure. The first year will be a smooth transition, as we have been working with Bruce and the outgoing team, to offer continuity for authors whose papers were in the publication process during our period of handover.
Along with the Society and Cambridge University Press, we are individually and collectively committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We shall be having regard to the representativeness of submissions and accepted papers, as well as our reviewers and Advisory Board.
During our Editorship, we shall be expanding the offering of the journal beyond the quarterly issues. We are keen to build upon the work of previous Editors in supporting emerging scholars both in their early publication strategies and wider career development. Online content, including virtual seminars on aspects of the publishing process, will be offered, to provide additional support for authors, and to enable authors to make informed judgements about tailoring their submissions to be suitable for a major generalist law journal. For that reason, we also emphasise our willingness to receive initial expressions of interest prior to submission from prospective authors.
The opening article in our first issue is Dr Alysia Blackham's ‘Abandoning individual enforcement? Interrogating the enforcement of age discrimination law’, which was awarded the Best Paper Prize at the Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference 2022, held at King's College London. This excellent article was the unanimous choice of the judging panel, comprising Catharine MacMillan (the Society's Immediate Past President), James Lee (as one of the new Editors), and Nicola Wake (the Society's Subject Sections Secretary), who commended her novel work that engages with mixed methodologies to offer a nuanced analysis of an important issue within labour law. We are delighted to publish it as our first article, both because of its intrinsic merit and because it emphasises the close connection between the journal and the work of Society. The other articles in the issue demonstrate the broad range of work which we are keen to support throughout our Editorship.
This first issue also features our new Current Developments section, which we have added to provide the opportunity for shorter contributions (of up to 3,000 words) on recent case law, law reform proposals or legislative developments. Our existing book reviews will also feature in this section, and this issue includes a contribution from Richard Mullender. The aims of the new section are several: to offer an additional route for authors and readers to engage with the journal, by enabling rapid responses to key developments; to encourage a wide array of contributions, including from work falling within the remit of the Society's Subject Sections; and to provide an additional opportunity for scholars, including those early in their academic careers, to gain experience with a generalist journal.
We conclude by reiterating our commitments. A commitment to Legal Studies, as a journal to showcase the best of legal scholarship and that to reflect the diversity of the legal academy. A commitment to the Society of Legal Scholars, as a force for good in supporting legal scholars at all stages of their careers. A commitment to constructive, efficient engagement with authors and reviewers whose contributions make the journal a success. And a commitment to you, our readers, that we shall publish rigorous, original, innovative, creative, distinctive work of interest to our generalist audience.
