The Columbia Journal of Asian Law (CJAL) commenced publication in 1987 as the Columbia Journal of Chinese Law (中國法研究學刊) under the auspices of the Columbia University School of Law and the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law. At that time, the Journal provided a forum for legal practitioners and scholars from the People’s Republic of China, the United States, and elsewhere to discuss a broad range of issues relating to law in the PRC.

As Asia became increasingly integrated and legal issues increasingly cross-border in their impact, the Journal made the decision in 1996 to expand its geographical coverage to South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia.  CJAL also includes a diverse array of legal subjects in areas of both public and private law and now has multiple decades of cutting edge articles on the latest legal developments in countries across Asia.

CJAL is a graduate-student run publication welcoming historical, comparative, and multi-disciplinary manuscripts covering legal issues in Asia as well as papers or notes examining the impact of rapidly changing legal regimes on specific areas of practice.

Open Access Policy

Columbia Journal of Asian Law is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Since 2015, authors retain their copyright and agree to license their articles with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License. You can read more about Creative Commons licenses at creativecommons.org.

Articles published in CJAL are available on Westlaw, LexisNexis and HeinOnline. Articles may not be available in these databases until up to a year after publication. Please contact the Journal (jrnasian@law.columbia.edu) to open or renew institutional and personal subscriptions.

Columbia Journal of Asian Law is a no-fee journal. Authors are not charged for the publication of their articles.

Peer Review Policy

All authors' submissions undergo a preliminary screening by the Submissions Editor to determine whether an article meets high standards of quality and its content fits with the journal's scope and mission. Once an article is found to align with the journal’s interests, the Editor-in-Chief will evaluate the article, review the author’s credentials, and makes a decision, in consultation with the Managing Editors, on whether to extend a publication offer. If the author contracts with the journal, the editing process will be carried out by a Managing Editor and the journal's staffers in coordination with the author. The Editor-in-Chief reviews the final version and approves it for publication.

Archiving Policy

Columbia Journal of Asian Law is archived in Columbia University’s Academic Commons. Academic Commons is Columbia University’s institutional repository, offering long-term public access to research shared by the Columbia community. A program of the Columbia University Libraries, Academic Commons provides secure, replicated storage for files in multiple formats. Academic Commons assigns a DOI and accurate metadata to each work to enhance discoverability.

Ethics Policy

CJAL requires authors to certify that the works published constitute their own original works, do not violate any existing copyright, and do not defame, invade the privacy of, violate the civil rights of, or otherwise infringe the rights of any person. Any concern regarding the foregoing should be directly addressed to the Editor-in-Chief of CJAL.

CJAL requires all editors participating in articles selection decisions to report conflicts of interest to the Editorial Board and to recuse themselves from the making of those decisions. A conflict of interest arises when the relationship between the editor and the author(s) is such that reasonable minds would conclude that the editor’s impartiality is impaired.