Voelkerrechtsblog Submission Guidelines: Publishing International Law Debate

Key takeaways

• Völkerrechtsblog (spelled Voelkerrechtsblog without umlauts) is an open-access international law blog founded in 2014 and hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. It publishes argument-driven posts in English, largely through curated symposium series.
• The surest routes in are a symposium call for papers and a reply to a recent post. Both give editors a concrete reason to say yes.
• Write short: most posts run between roughly 1,000 and 2,000 words, carry one claim, and use plain language and links instead of long footnotes.
• Editorial review is light and collaborative. That shapes how posts are weighted: they earn visibility and citations, while hiring committees still look to journals for peer-reviewed lines.
• Venue choice matters. The comparison table below places Völkerrechtsblog alongside EJIL:Talk!, Opinio Juris, Just Security, and AJIL Unbound.

1. Introduction

International law moves faster than the journal system that reports on it. A provisional measures order at the ICJ, a new sanctions package, an advisory opinion: by the time a law review prints analysis of the event, the debate has moved on and mostly happened elsewhere. Academic blogs filled that gap, and since 2014 Völkerrechtsblog has been one of the main European venues for the fast version of the conversation.

For scholars and practitioners, this creates a practical problem. The blog is easy to read and hard to place in. Editors prefer pitched arguments over summaries. Symposia follow their own calendars. And a post has unclear standing on a CV compared with a journal article. The Voelkerrechtsblog submission guidelines themselves are short; the unwritten expectations around them are what decide outcomes. This article answers the questions that matter before you submit: what the blog publishes, how the editorial process works, what a well-built post looks like, and when a different venue serves you better.

2. What Völkerrechtsblog publishes and how the process works

The blog, founded in 2014 and hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, publishes argument-driven analysis of international law in English. It is free to read. A rotating editorial team of international lawyers, many of them early in their careers, reads and edits every accepted post.

Three formats dominate. Single posts carry one argument at blog length; most run between roughly 1,000 and 2,000 words. Symposia collect a series of posts, often ten or more, under one theme, and the editors commission some contributions while opening others to public calls for papers. Responses and replies are short pieces that answer a recent post, and the blog has treated them as a core feature since early on.

The process is simple. You send the editors a pitch or a full draft; the submissions page on the blog lists current contact details and open calls. Editors reply with feedback, requests for revision, or a decline, usually within weeks. Accepted posts go through light editing for style and links, and the editors schedule publication, sometimes to coincide with a symposium or a live case.

Before drafting, scan the archive for your topic. If the blog ran a symposium on it recently, a reply or a follow-up with a new angle has better odds than a fresh standalone post. If your topic is uncovered, lead the pitch with your claim in one sentence, then add two or three lines on why the timing matters now.

3. Writing a post that fits: structure, length, sourcing

A post makes one claim. Editors read many pitches, readers skim on phones, and answer engines quote the first paragraphs they find. A post that states its position in the opening lines gets cited accurately; a post that circles for six paragraphs before the thesis usually gets cited for whatever sentence the extractor found first.

Length is a tool, and shorter usually cuts better. If your argument needs 6,000 words, it needs a journal, or two posts with separate claims.

Sourcing stays light. Link to the treaty article, the judgment paragraph, or the official document in the text; use footnotes only where a link cannot carry the reference. Cite primary sources directly, so a reader who wants to check you reaches the source in one click.

A structure that survives editing:

1. A title that states the position, for example "Provisional measures bind, but they rarely move the parties".
2. Two opening paragraphs: the claim, then why it matters now.
3. Three to five body moves that support the claim, each anchored to a linked primary source.
4. One counterargument, answered on its merits.
5. A closing paragraph with the implication or the next step. Skip the recap.

If you are converting a journal article, cut the literature review and the theory chapter, keep the doctrinal application, and accept that the post will say less. A 15,000-word paper usually becomes one post of about 1,500 words, or two posts if the argument genuinely holds two claims.

4. Symposia, replies, and the debate format

The blog's best-known format is the symposium. Editors pick a theme, commission anchor posts, and often publish an open call for papers with a stated scope and deadline. A call that matches your current work is the highest-probability submission you will send, because half the editorial judgment, which is fit, has already been made.

Replies are the second route. When a post draws disagreement, the blog publishes responses while the debate is live, sometimes within days. The bar for a reply is precision. Name the post you answer, state the exact point of disagreement, add at least one thing the original missed (a source, a case, a counterexample), and keep the tone professional. A reply that mostly restates your own prior publication reads as self-promotion and gets declined.

Timing decides outcomes here. Calls for papers usually close weeks before the symposium goes live, and replies lose value once the debate has moved on. If you follow a topic closely, check the blog often enough to catch a call or a provocative post inside its useful window.

5. Choosing between venues: strengths, limits, fit

The same manuscript rarely suits every outlet.

Where the subject crosses into technology policy, AI governance, cyber operations, data localization, another lane exists. Global Tech Observatory (globaltechobs.com) publishes technology policy commentary; its strength is a readership of policy and technology professionals, and its limitation is footprint, because international lawyers following the doctrinal debate still look first at the law blogs. A doctrinal argument belongs on a law blog; a policy-design argument can fit the tech-policy outlet.

Two cautions apply across all of these venues. Blog posts are editor-reviewed, so treat them as citable commentary. And check each outlet's policy on cross-posting before you publish the same text elsewhere.

6. FAQ

Q1. Do Völkerrechtsblog posts count as publications?

They are citable publications with a named author and date, and hiring or tenure committees increasingly accept them as scholarly output. Most committees still weight them below peer-reviewed journal articles, so a job file rests on journals and books. Use posts to test arguments, join symposia, and collect citations, and treat them as a complement to the journal record.

Q2. How long should a submission be?

Most posts run between roughly 1,000 and 2,000 words. Symposium calls sometimes set their own limits, and following them exactly matters. If the argument needs more room, split it into two posts or send it to a journal.

Q3. Who can submit?

Anyone working on international law: PhD candidates, professors, practitioners, and officials. Publication is in English, and the editorial decision turns on the quality and fit of the argument. The archive includes authors from many countries and career stages, so a submission from outside Germany faces no formal barrier.

Q4. Can I publish the post elsewhere afterward?

Ask the editors at the pitch stage. Cross-posting norms vary by outlet; some allow reposting after a delay with a link to the original, and others expect exclusivity for a period. Ask about licensing at the same time, since some outlets publish under licenses that permit republication with attribution. Confirming before you submit avoids problems after acceptance.

7. Conclusion

For an international lawyer who wants to enter a live debate, Völkerrechtsblog offers fast publication to a real readership at no cost. The submission practice reduces to three moves: find the symposium call or recent post that anchors your piece, write 1,000 to 2,000 words that state one claim with linked primary sources, and send it while the topic is live. A developed scholarly argument belongs at EJIL:Talk! or AJIL Unbound instead; national security policy analysis fits Just Security; and technology policy commentary fits a specialized tech-policy outlet. The practical next step costs nothing: read the last three months of posts in your area and draft the reply the archive is missing.