1 General Guidelines for Submissions

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts are submitted in MS Word format (.docx) to door@dorh.hr. In the subject of the email, it is necessary to enter: Submission of manuscript: [Title of the Article].

Length of Manuscripts

The editorial board recommends that papers not exceed 60,000 characters (including spaces), which also includes the list of references, tables, images, and appendices. Papers longer than the recommended number of characters will be considered if the quality of the work and the topic addressed justify it.

Language of Manuscripts

Manuscripts written in Croatian or English are accepted.

Structure of Manuscripts

The manuscript must include:

1. An abstract of no more than one page (1,800 characters including spaces), in the language in which the paper is written (papers in either the Croatian or English language are accepted)
2. A list of up to five keywords placed below the abstract in the language in which the paper is written,
3. The main text of the manuscript and the bibliography,
4. An abstract of the paper in English if the manuscript is written in Croatian, or an abstract in Croatian if the manuscript is written in English.

Formatting

The format of the main text (abstract and body of the paper) should adhere to the following:

• Font: Calibri
• Font size: 12
• Line spacing: 1.15
• Page size: A4
• Margins: 2.5 cm

Page numbers should be included, and the title page should contain:

• The title of the article,
• The name, surname and title of the author, name and address of the institution where the author is employed or the home address in both Croatian and English, e-mail address and the ORCID identifier
• An abstract of no more than one page (1,800 characters including spaces), and a list of up to five keywords in the language in which the paper is written
• An abstract of the paper and a list of up to five keywords in English (if the manuscript is written in Croatian)
• An abstract and a list of up to five keywords in Croatian (if the manuscript is written in English)
• A brief biography of each author (up to one-third of a page in length)

Footnotes should be formatted as follows:

• Font: Calibri
• Font size: 10
• Line spacing: 1

2 Citation

All citations must follow the OSCOLA referencing style (Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities).

• First citation of a source: Identify the source in detail, including the author’s name and surname, title of the source (in italics), publisher, year of publication, and the exact page number.
• Subsequent citations: Use a shortened form of citation in the text, i.e., author’s name, year of publication, and page number.

Examples of citations:

1. Books

Horvat, Marko, Legal Theory Explained, (4th ed, Law Press 2020) 45–47.

2. Journal articles

Smith, Jane, ‘Human Rights in the Digital Age’ [2021] 12(3) Journal of Law & Technology 120, 125.

3. A statute published as a standalone printed edition and commentary on a statute

Horvat, Marko; Smith, Jane, (eds), The Croatian Criminal Code (Law Press 2024)

Horvat, Marko; Smith, Jane, Commentary on the Civil Procedure Act (Law Press 2022) 120–121

4. Encyclopaedia

‘Notary Public’, in the Encyclopaedia of the Institute of Lexicography, vol 4 (Law Press, 1968) 413

5. Proceedings from congresses, conferences, and symposiums

Proceedings of the 26th Meeting of Lawyers in the Economy, Opatija, 11–14 September 2024

6. Final and graduate theses, doctoral dissertations

Horvat, Marko, ‘The Criminal Offence of Murder in the Case Law of the County Court in Zagreb’ (graduate thesis, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law 2019)

7. Case law

• Domestic: Judgment of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia of 22 January 2025, No Rev-74/2024-2
• Foreign: Doe v State [2019] UKSC 20, [2020] 1 AC 123.

8. Legislation

Act on the Confirmation of the Treaty between the Republic of Croatia and the Italian Republic on the Delimitation of Exclusive Economic Zones, Official Gazette – International Treaties No 3/24

9. Online sources

European Court of Human Rights, ‘Guide to Article 8’ (ECHR, 1 May 2022) https://example.com accessed 10 June 2024.

Rules for Writing Repeated Citations

Bibliography

List all sources in alphabetical order at the end of the manuscript under the heading “Bibliography”.

Example:

• Horvat, Marko, Legal Theory Explained (4th edn, Law Press 2020)
• Smith, Jane, ‘Human Rights in the Digital Age’ [2021] 12(3) Journal of Law and Technology 120

Additionally, sources used by the author (listed at the end of the manuscript) should be categorised as follows:

BIBLIOGRAPHY: This category encompasses all sources not classified under the categories listed below, irrespective of the medium, including scientific and professional articles, books, e-books, dissertations, proceedings, and others.

REGULATIONS AND DOCUMENTS: This category includes constitutions, regulations, conventions, decrees, directives, statutes, codes of ethics, declarations, resolutions, and additional documents.

JUDGEMENTS AND OTHER DECISIONS: This category includes court judgements, arbitral awards, rulings, opinions, and similar sources.

INTERNET SOURCES: This category encompasses articles and content originating from online newspapers, portals, and various websites. Online scientific journal articles are grouped under “bibliography.”

3 Guidelines for Generative AI Usage

General

For the purposes of these guidelines, generative AI (generative AI tools or AI tools) are defined as general-purpose AI models or general-purpose AI systems, as outlined in Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and the Council of 13 June 2024 (Artificial Intelligence Act).

AI tools are not eligible to be credited as authors of a publication. AI tools are unable to fulfil the criteria for authorship since they cannot assume accountability for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they lack the capacity to determine the existence or non-existence of conflicts of interest or to manage copyright and licence agreements.

Use of Generative AI

Generative AI may be employed solely for language improvement, including the verification of grammar, structure, spelling, punctuation, and formatting of the manuscript. Authors should refrain from submitting manuscripts in which Generative AI tools have been employed in manners that supplant fundamental researcher and author responsibilities, such as:

• producing text without thorough revision

• generating synthetic data as a substitute for missing data

• creating any form of content that is factually inaccurate, including abstracts or supplementary materials.

If authors employ generative AI tools in the formulation of ideas and concepts, they should disclose in a footnote and the bibliography the manner in which the tool was utilised, even if none of the AI-generated content appears within the manuscript. The authors are required to supply a detailed description of the AI tool employed and the process by which the information was generated, including the prompts used and the date of access. Authors are expected to include this acknowledgement both as a footnote and within the bibliography.

Example 1:

I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT [https://chat.openai.com/] to generate ideas and material for background research and project planning in the drafting of this assignment. The following prompts were entered into ChatGPT on February 1, 2025:

• Academic writings and evidence indicate that the criminal offence of bribery is not regulated in some countries.

Example 2:

I acknowledge the use of Copilot [http://copilot.microsoft.com] to simplify the concept of state ownership in communist countries. AI output was used only for initial clarification and was checked against academic sources. The following prompts were entered in Copilot on May 3, 2024:

• What is state ownership in communist countries?

4Proofreading Process

All accepted manuscripts in Croatian undergo language editing in accordance with the Croatian Orthography of the Institute of the Croatian Language (http://pravopis.hr/).

For abstracts and papers written in English by authors who are not native speakers, the Journal will provide language editing by a native speaker. This ensures that published papers adhere to the expected standards of clarity and fluency in English.