About the Journal

Bilingual journal for legal academics and professionals working internationally between China and Europe. Discusses international and transnational topics of interest to an audience of European and Chinese international law firms and scholars who analyse both regions.

Parallel publication in English and Mandarin Chinese editions. Published by the Swiss Chinese Law Associaiton.

General coordinator: Zhang Tianze

Editors: Jerry Guo (Chinese), Wei Jianan (Chinese) and David Dahlborn (English)

 

ISSUE 7 CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: The Future of Legal Referrals

For a chance to be published and take part in the significant international conversation on the changing face of legal referrals, submit your contribution to journal@scla.world by 31 May 2023, following the guidelines below.

Exploring the Future of Legal Referrals:

Recently, rapid transformations of the legal industries around the world have introduced new challenges and opportunities for legal professionals. New technology is changing the dynamics of client-lawyer relationships. It is now essential to create the future of legal referrals and how they shape the legal profession.

We invite original, unpublished manuscripts on a wide range of topics related to legal referrals, including, but not limited to:

  • What would an international legal referral code look like? How would it align with (or take precedence over) local referral rules?
  • Harnessing technology and AI for streamlining legal referral processes: Exploring specific tools, applications, and platforms that can facilitate efficient and effective legal referrals, as well as analysing their practical implications and challenges.
  • Navigating ethical dilemmas in legal referrals: Examining case studies involving conflicts of interest, client confidentiality, and informed consent to highlight best practices for legal professionals when participating in referral networks.
  • Cross-border legal referrals and collaboration: Investigating the practical aspects of building international referral networks, including overcoming language barriers, understanding foreign legal systems, and the potential for collaboration between legal professionals in different jurisdictions.
  • Online legal platforms and their practical implications: Analysing the effectiveness of web-based platforms that facilitate legal referrals, including their impact on client experience, legal service accessibility, and the competitive landscape of the legal profession.
  • The economics of legal referral fees: Assessing the real-world implications of referral fees on legal practice, client relationships, and the affordability of legal services, along with potential alternative fee arrangements and their practical viability.
  • Improving legal referral systems: Examining specific strategies and initiatives, such as mentorship programs, community outreach, and collaborative platforms, which can enhance the efficiency and value of legal referral networks at the local, national, and international levels.
  • Comparative analyses of legal referral systems: Providing practical insights through case studies of various referral systems, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and evaluating the adaptability and transferability of best practices across jurisdictions.
  • Bar associations and professional organisations as referral facilitators: Investigating the role of these organisations in fostering effective referral networks, including their impact on professional development, continuing education, and networking opportunities for legal professionals.
  • Legal referral networks and access to justice: Exploring the practical implications of referral systems on marginalised and underserved populations, with a focus on initiatives and programs designed to increase access to legal services and promote social justice.

Submission Guidelines:

  • Submissions must be in English and adhere to the SCLA Law Review Journal's author guidelines (please see below or: https://ac.sclalawreview.org/index.php/ac/authorguidelines).
  • Submissions should be between 2,000 and 12,000 words, not including a bibliography.
  • Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words and must accompany each submission over 8,000 words.
  • Authors should submit their manuscripts in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx) to journal@scla.world. 
  • The deadline for submissions is 31 May, 2023.
  • All submitted manuscripts will undergo a review process after which authors will be notified of the editorial decision to publish, reject, or publish with revisions. If accepted for publication with revisions, authors will be expected to make any necessary revisions in a timely manner.

Please feel free to share this call for submissions with colleagues and peers who may be interested in contributing to this important discussion.


AUTHOR GUIDELINES PLEASE NOTE (read carefully):
 

  • Only drafts sent to journal@scla.world before 23:59 Central European Time on the date of the deadline will be considered for bilingual publication, unless you have a prior agreement with the journal.
  • Your draft article must be your own original work and must be previously unpublished at the time that our publication is released in print (this includes personal or professional blogs, forum discussions, etc).
  • Drafts which require extensive copyediting due to the quality of writing may be turned down. 
  • We ask that you also inform us if your draft is being considered by another publisher. Permission from any copyright owner must be sought by you if your draft contains material that is not your own copyright.
  • We ask that you refrain from including material of a libellous nature. 
  • We ask that you refrain from infringing on someone else’s copyright. This includes using text copied from a source without attribution, passing someone else’s work off as your own or failing to accurately cite a quotation. 
  • It is our responsibility to report deliberate plagiarism, if detected, to any relevant academic or professional bodies. 
  • Direct quotation from a source must be clearly indicated by quotation marks and a reference.
  • Refrain from using footnote references and provide in-text citations.
  • If a bibliography if provided, please list titles alphabetically according to their authors’ surnames and use the following format:
    For chapters in edited volumes, journal articles, or news articles:

Name of author or authors (year of publication), 'Title of chapter or article', name of journal, volume, issue [and date of publication and hyperlink if appropriate].

E.g.: Milly Hung (2023), ‘International Collaboration of Legal Firms’, SCLA Law Review, vol. 1, no. 6.

            For books:

Name of author or authors (year of publication), Title of book [and (edition) if applicable].

E.g.:  Mark Lunney, Donal Nolan & Ken Oliphant (2017), Tort Law: Text and Materials (6th edition).

 

About the Swiss Chinese Law Review

Our journal aims to link-up legal professionals and academics working in and between China and Europe. The journal will offer a platform for exchanging insights and connections.

As a contributor we hope to be able to introduce you to our international network of legal professionals and scholars with a shared interest in Swiss-Chinese relations and the law.

The Swiss Chinese Law Association is a voluntary association of lawyers and academics aiming to create a more transparent and integrated market between European and Asian countries. We hope to achieve more open and trustworthy international legal service by creating a common standards framework for law firms in Switzerland and China.

See www.scla.world/journal/ for more details.

 

Current Issue

Vol. 2 No. 6 (2022): Swiss Chinese Law Review
					View Vol. 2 No. 6 (2022): Swiss Chinese Law Review

Today working with colleagues in other countries is something many lawyers and firms take for granted. Huge swaths of the legal industry would not exist without it. But what do these assumptions mean? What have we learnt from the past decades of a globalised legal world? Is this knowledge still a guide to the future? How has collaboration between law firms in different countries changed and what does the future hold? What are the benefits and disadvantages, and, more poignantly, what have they meant? Beyond filling up a scorecard on our work with friends and colleagues across the globe, this issue of the Swiss Chinese Law Review breaks down the details of the past, present, and future implications of working internationally. What is it that you have noticed that everyone else has missed?

The sixth issue of the Swiss Chinese Law Review casts a broad net to catch the pearls of wisdom and experience that will change how and why we collaborate across borders. We want to understand the big-picture theory, but also the everyday details. What is the aggregate of international experience that indicates a general trend? Or which are the individual case studies from your firm’s cross-border that disprove the models and the predictions? How does working across borders mean different things to different people, and at different times? 



Published: 2023-05-03

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