The difficult climate of contemporary academia (research exercises, managerialism, limited funding, etc) can be especially harsh for early career scholars. This is even more true in these extraordinary times of academic social distancing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which they are forced to work from home without their friends, colleagues and supervisors. For all these reasons, the International Journal of Law in Context is strongly committed to offer opportunities to new and young scholars. We provide constructive feedback and advice on papers submitted to the Journal by such scholars and aim to prioritize the publication of their work. Moreover, the Journal has teamed up with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) at the University of Oxford to organize frequent Law in Context Early Career Workshops.

Law in context early career workshops

The first workshop was held around this time five years ago, in June 2015. This was followed by three successful events in 2016, 2017 and 2019. The purpose of these meetings is to bring together a small group of scholars at a relatively early stage in their careers to support them in developing research projects and preparing publications to submit to scholarly journals in the field of socio-legal studies. During the workshop  – in the beautiful and inspiring surroundings of an Oxford college – scholars make presentations, take part in discussions, and receive feedback on their work from senior research staff from the Oxford Centre and the editorial team of the Journal. After the workshop, staff members and the editors are also available for individual consultations to discuss participants’ research ideas and possible pathways to publication. All previous workshops were characterized by open and lively discussions, not only about individual research projects but also about general issues like writing, publishing, and how to respond to peer-review reports. As these comments from some of the participants illustrate, they especially appreciate the constructive feedback and the supportive environment of the workshop:

• “I really benefited from the instructive presentations, discussions and individual feedback and enjoyed how the workshop was organised around a small select group of participants. The representatives of CSLS and International Journal of Law in Context had a remarkable capacity for creating a constructive and responsiveness environment where even work-in-progress in its very early and insecure stage could be presented and receive very helpful feedback.”
• “It was the one of the best workshops I have attended. Everyone was really engaged and interested in the papers and projects presented. My own paper greatly benefited from the critical and constructive feedback received, and it was fantastic getting to know established and early career scholars in such a collaborative environment.”
• “The geographic diversity of the participants really enriched the interesting presentations, and the Q&A sessions were so well facilitated that it created a space for real learning from each other. The extra time for individually tailored discussion for each participant to have one-to-one advisory time with a member of staff from the Centre was very inclusive and supportive making this a unique workshop experience and really valuable for early career researchers.”

A global forum for interdisciplinary research in action

As the subtitle of our journal indicates, our mission as editors is to establish the IJLC as ‘a global forum for interdisciplinary research’.[1] While – on paper – this goal is still somewhat abstract, the early career workshops clearly demonstrate what this idea looks like in action. Firstly, the workshops have a truly global character. Workshop participants come from all parts of the world, from Europe and North America but also from Africa, Asia and South America. Secondly, the workshops are an open forum for innovative research and academic debate. The IJLC is the companion journal to the Law in Context book series, which was founded in the early 1970s. As William Twining, one the founders of this series, explained, law in context ‘is neither a distinctive theory of or about law, nor an academic orthodoxy.’[2] Similarly, we try to accommodate papers in the workshops from ‘a variety of standpoints, ideologies, perspectives, and methods.’[3] Finally, the workshops are truly interdisciplinary. We welcome participants interested in all kinds of research about law and its relationship with other disciplines including, but not limited to, science, literature, humanities, philosophy, sociology, psychology, ethics and geography. After the workshop many papers are eventually published in the Journal. In this way, the early career workshop is not only beneficial for the participants, but it also helps us to keep an eye out for innovative, groundbreaking and critical research from a new generation of global scholars.

We are open to your suggestions

We are already looking forward to the next early career workshop, which will be held in 2021. In the meantime, if you have suggestions how we may further support early career scholars (both during the Corona-crisis and afterwards), you can find contact information on the Editorial Board page.

Marc Hertogh is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Law in Context

[1] Penny Andrews, Marc Hertogh, Jane Holder and David Nelken, ‘Editorial’, International Journal of Law in Context, 10 (1), pp. 1-4 (2014).

[2] William Twining, ‘Reflections on “Law in Context” in William Twining, Law in Context: Enlarging a Discipline (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) at 36.

[3] Ibid.