Verfassungsblog hosts online symposia on topical events and developments in legislation and jurisdiction and puts cutting-edge scholarship up for discussion. Symposia can be subsequently published as edited volumes. Our aim is to create a lively and multi-faceted constitutionalist public sphere in Europe and beyond. Since 2011 high-profile issues of public interest in constitutional law and politics have been at the center of controversial debates on Verfassungsblog on a regular basis, including the constitutional decline in EU member states like Hungary, the regional separatism in Scotland and Catalonia, European constitutional courts and their fraught relationships and more.

If you have an idea for a blog symposium, subsequently published as Verfassungsbook, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via submission@verfassungsblog.de. The form for proposals is available here.

Information for editors

1. Review

All proposals for symposia and books are reviewed by at least one member of our Advisory Board. Volume editors are responsible for ensuring the scholarly quality of contributions. The manuscripts will be subject to editorial review and, if necessary, to review by one or more of our Advisory Board Members. We understand academic publishing as community work in which everyone contributes what they do best in order to achieve the best possible result. Verfassungsblog’s editorial team will thus provide suggestions regarding concept, titles, abstracts, and structure. We may decline publication of individual articles if they do not meet the required academic standard.

2. Format

Verfassungsblog is committed to academic rigour in substance but the format of its publications differs from traditional scholarly publications. Articles should not exceed 2,000 words. This brevity requires to formulate a strong thesis at the very beginning of the text that will then be unfolded and substantiated. References should be provided as hyperlinks. Find out more about format and style requirements here.

3. Copyright and License

Our articles and books are by default published under a CC BY-SA license with the authors retaining the copyright of their publications. This means that everyone is free to “copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially”; “remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially”. If you have reasons to choose a stricter or more open license, other licensing options can be discussed.

4. Costs and funding

Verfassungsblog is an Open Access publication platform. We strive to make all publications free to both authors and readers, especially through collective funding via university libraries and research institutions. While we are working on this aim without exception, we still depend on securing funding for each Verfassungsbook. To cover the costs of our work we need to charge 6,000 Euros per edited volume. Ideally, editors will be able to cover the costs, e.g. through research grants. Many universities and university libraries also provide dedicated funds to support open access publications, which editors may draw upon to (partically) cover the costs. If you do not have the financial means, we encourage you to still make a proposal. We are first and foremost committed to publishing high-quality research that is of relevance to academia and the public and will try to assist editors in securing funding for books that, in our opinion, should be published and read.