The University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change (JLASC) has re-opened for article submissions as of August 1, 2024! Submissions will be for Volume 28, issue 2 and onwards, to be published in the late fall or early winter/spring semester. Submissions will close for the semester in late November or when all spaces for the issues have been filled.
JLASC is unique among law school journals in both our mission and our article selection process. Our mission is to advance progressive social change through interdisciplinary legal scholarship. To that end, we publish interdisciplinary scholarship that addresses social, racial, and economic justice, welcoming contributions across all areas of law. We particularly value scholarship that bridges disciplines, integrates theory and practice, or has practical implications for both the legal community and society at large. Examples of scholarship that furthers JLASC’s mission are available on our website in our latest volume. These articles address issues from the constitutionality of abstinence-only sex education to the significance of confronting the Labor Movement's history of racial discrimination in mobilizing Black and brown workers today.
Articles are chosen democratically via a student-run seminar. All editors read, review, and critically discuss each article before voting on whether to make an offer. Our article selection process ensures we advance progressive social change from within. By centering deliberative democracy, we foster equality, incorporate diverse perspectives, and ensure our publications resonate with our broad, interdisciplinary readership. Our democratic article selection process means that our review time, especially early in the semester, can take slightly longer than other journals. We aim to provide all authors who submit with a decision within 5 weeks.
JLASC prefers submissions of around 15,000 words and typically no more than 25,000 words, including footnotes, and formatted in the Bluebook style. We also request that all submissions include an abstract and key words.
Authors with institutional access should submit to JLASC through Scholastica. Otherwise, authors with no access may submit directly to the journal via email, jlascarticleseditor@gmail.com.