Submission guidelines

The “Gdańsk Legal Studies” request that contributors comply with the following standards.

Texts sent to "Gdańsk Legal Studies" for publication should be delivered in electronic form in the DOC or DOCX format.

All texts shall meet the following requirements:

  • Font: Times New Roman (size 12)
  • Interlines: 1,5
  • Margins: 2,5 cm


Along with the text, an author should also send:

  • his/her residence address (or correspondence address – if this address is different),
  • telephone number,
  • e-mail address,
  • academic title, academic degree and name of the institution in which she/he is employed,
  • ORCID number.

Literature shall be provided at the end of the article/commentary, in alphabetical order according to the surnames of the authors. 

ARTICLES

Each article submitted in Polish should be accompanied by:

  • a short summary in English and Polish (400 – 1.000 characters) – without citations,
  • 2-5 keywords in English and Polish (in alphabetical order),
  • title of the article in English.

In the case of articles submitted in a foreign language, it is enough to attach the summary, keywords and title of the article in English.


An article should have 15,000 to 40,000 characters (including spaces and footnotes). 

For clarity, the main text should include:

  • introduction,
  • body (comprising subdivisions where suitable – please use Arabic numerals 1, 1.1., 1.2.),
  • conclusions.


COMMENTARY

Each commentary submitted in Polish should be accompanied by:

  • a short summary in English and Polish (400 – 1,000 characters),
  • 2-5 keywords in English and Polish (in alphabetical order),
  • title of the commentary in English,
  • theses of the commentary (theses should be sent in a separate file). 


In the case of commentaries submitted in a foreign language, it is enough to attach the summary, keywords and title of the commentary in English.


A commentary should have 15,000 to 20,000 characters (including spaces and footnotes).


The description of the factual situation of a commentary should not be too extensive and should be limited to the elements that are needed for the analysis of the judgment itself. The text of the commentary should not be divided by points or subheadings.

The commentary should be preceded by the reference number of the judgment and its thesis, highlighted in bold. At the same time, the author should indicate the title of the commentary which will be placed before the reference number of the judgment and in the thematic index.

Consequently, the title of the commentary shall consist of two elements – the first one defines the subject of the commentary, and the second one indicates the decision which is discussed in the text. 

Examples of the titles of commentaries:

Limitations of the legislator in shaping the municipality’s tasks 
Decision of the Constitutional Tribunal of 25 October 1995, K 4/95 

Inadmissibility of a constitutional complaint against a general and concrete local law act (local spatial development plan) 
Decision of the Constitutional Tribunal of 6 October 2004, SK 42/02 

The editors reserve the right to amend the proposed title of the commentary.

The theses of the commentary are the author's most important statements expressed in a text (not theses of the court). At least one thesis should be attached to the commentary.

VARIA

Reviews, notes, reports etc. should not exceed 10,000 characters.


References

References are to be given in footnotes. Footnotes should be limited to citations wherever possible. Long, discursive footnotes are discouraged. When placing a footnote marker in the text, please place it immediately before the preceding punctuation mark:

for example: Constitutional Tribunal in Poland was established in 19823.


Please begin the text of the footnotes with a capital letter and end it with a full stop (whether the footnote is a single word, a phrase, or one or more complete sentences), except where the footnote consists solely of an internet or email address.

for example:

1 It was expressis verbis provided in the first Polish Constitution.

2 The full text of the draft is available at www.sejm.gov.pl.

3 www.sejm.gov.pl


Reference to a complete publication

  • author’s initial(s) and last name followed by a comma;
  • title of the publication in italics and, where appropriate, edition number;
  • place of publication, year of publication, relevant pages;

for example: A. Rytel, A. Gajda, Constitutional law, Gdańsk 2018, p. 17.


Reference to part of a publication (i.e. contribution or article)

  • author’s initial(s) and last name followed by a comma;
  • title of the publication to which we refer to (chapter, article) in italics followed by the comma and “[in:]”, next the title of the book in which the publication was included
  • place of publication, year of publication and relevant page(s);

for example: A. Rytel, Participatory budgeting, [in:] Participatory democracy, ed. P. Uziębło, Gdańsk 2017, pp. 13-15.

Reference to a periodical or one of a series

  • author’s initial(s) and last name followed by a comma;
  • title of the periodical or the series;
  • year of publication;
  • number, date, or frequency;
  • page;

for example: A. Rytel, Current problems of the constitutional judiciary in Poland, “Gdańskie Studia Prawnicze” 2018, No. 4, p. 34.