Amsterdam Law Forum is the online journal from the faculty of law of VU University. It serves as a platform for academic work, opinions and has a literary review. The Editorial Board, which is fully comprised of international and Dutch law students, is responsible for the journal to be published four times a year. We are delighted that you chose to write for our journal. For submission you have to follow these simple steps:

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Style sheet

1. Lay-out

You are kindly requested to format your article according to the following rules of style. 

  1. The article should start with the title you have selected with all letters in bold capitals (left indented).
  2. Below the title, insert your name as you would like it to appear. Your name should be left indented and italicised.
  3. At the end of your name insert the first footnote of your article using the symbol asterisk (*) and include in this footnote a brief account of your academic biography, also in italics.
  4. If you are writing a scientific contribution, please include a short abstract of around 100 words at the beginning of the article. For opinion articles, an abstract should not be included.
  5. Articles should be submitted in a Word Document format (.doc).
  6. The text for the articles should be in Baskerville 12 point single-spaced font and the footnotes and quotations should be in Baskerville 11 point single-spaced font.
  7. The whole of the article should be justified, single-spaced and without indented lines at the beginning of each new paragraph. Please do not include page numbers.
  8. Please include all references in the form of footnotes. Please, use normal numbering, beginning with 1 and do not use italics except as required by the referencing system. Footnote numbers should be inserted after punctuation.
  9. For each heading/section, use Roman numbers in front of the heading (I, II, IV etc).
  10. The headings should be bold. Subheadings should be preceded by I.1, I.2, etc. and should also be bold.
  11. Headings and subheadings should be in sentence case, that is, the first letter of every word that is not an article or preposition is capitalised.
  12. For every new section leave an extra space between the lines, but do not indent the first line. A line should be left after each heading before the text begins
  13. Adjectives, verbs and substantive nouns in the headings and subheadings are capitalised.
  14. If you include quotes of more than 4 lines, they should be font 11 and indented on both sides (margin 1,5). This is not a strict rule however, so if you have got two quotations with one comprising of 5 lines and one comprising of 4 lines, obviously you need not apply a different lay-out for the different quotations.

2. Abstract

If you are writing a scientific contribution, please make sure that the abstract is formatted according to the following rules.

The word ‘Abstract’ should be placed above the abstract, centered, neither in bold nor italics.

  1. Font Baskerville, size 11.
  2. The abstract should be indented with margins of 1,5 on both sides.

3. Specific points of style

  1. Capitalise the first word in a footnote and end with a period.
  2. Italicise non-English words, including Latin.
  3. For internal cross-reference in footnotes, one should start with the name of the author (without initials) followed by the year of publication and the word supra. 
    E.g. Jones 2004, supra note 65, p. 12.
  4. Use ibid in footnotes to indicate an identical reference previously made.
  5. Use idem in footnotes cite the immediately preceding authority, but a different page or paragraph. E.g. Idem, p. 12.
  6. Use an ampersand to separate two authors in a reference. They should appear in the order in which they are listed on the publication. 
    E.g. F. James & G.C. Hazard, Civil Procedure, London: Penguin Books 1971, p. 12.
  7. Use para. for a single paragraph and paras. for the plural. For the page number, please use p. or pp. if you refer to more than one page.
  8. If using quotation marks for an actual quotation, use ‘single’ quotation marks. If using quotation marks for emphasis or any other reason, use “double” quotation marks.
  9. UK English spelling is preferred
  10. S-spelling is preferred. (e.g. organise).

 4. Abbreviations

Abbreviations that are in common use (UN, EC, EU, US, NATO) need not be given in full on first use. Other abbreviations should be spelled out on first use with the abbreviation given immediately following in parentheses, e.g. World Health Organization (WHO). However, do not use an abbreviation if the name in question is only mentioned a few times – always give it in full.

Acronyms and lettered abbreviations will be rendered with no stops.

Terms such as ‘article’, ‘resolution’, ‘paragraph’, and ‘declaration’ should not be abbreviated (unless they are given in footnotes, see below). Paragraph numbers of articles should be given in parentheses, e.g. ‘Article 5(6b)’; ‘Article XII(1)’.

5. Bullets and Numbering

All bullets should be black dots. For indented bullets, use horizontal dashes.

  • Like this

 –    and this

Use common Arab numbers, and no roman numbers. For indented numbers, use Latin letters

  1. Like this
     a.And this

6. Numbers and Dates

Numerals will be written out up to and including ten; 11 and above will be given in figures.

Number spans are elided to the shortest pronounceable form, so 375–6, not 375–76 or 375–376 (but 317–18).

Use the form day–month–year, e.g. 2 November 2002.

Decades: always use ‘1960s’, not ‘sixties’ or ‘60s’. Centuries are spelt out.

7. Capitalisation

Avoid capitalisation as much as possible – when they are used generically do not capitalize such words or phrases as ‘state’, ‘state parties’, ‘members’, ‘contracting parties’, ‘treaty’, and so on.

Courts, tribunal chambers and personnel: capitalise specific chambers, such as ‘Appeals Chamber’, ‘Trial Chamber I’, a generic term such as ‘trial chamber’ should not be capitalized. Where the formal functions of the Office of the Prosecutor are being discussed, then ‘Prosecutor’ should be capitalised, but it should not be when the term is used generically. Similarly, ‘defence’, ‘defendant’, ‘accused’, ‘applicant’, ‘respondent’, ‘judge’, and so on should not be capitalised. When a reference is made to the contracting parties of GATT as a body, leave capitalisation the way the author has indicated.

Spelling, miscellaneous

Please note that the following should be used:

‐ First World War, Second World War, not World War I, World War II

‐ ‘jus’, not ‘ius’ (except where the latter is given in a quotation)

‐ ‐ise endings

– ‘our’ spelling, e.g. ‘neighbour’

‐ third world (noun), third‐world (adjective) G7, etc.

‐ fora

‐ co‐operation, co‐ordination etc.

‐ 2 bis, ter etc.

8. Citations

Citations should always be in the form of footnotes. Never use in-text references. A bibliography at the end of the text is not required. 

Authors are kindly asked to follow the OSCOLA referencing system. A comprehensive guideline can be found on https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/oscola_4th_edn_hart_2012.pdf