Author Guidelines

The Air & Space Lawyer is a scholarly newsletter published quarterly by the Forum on Air and Space Law of the American Bar Association (ABA) focusing on current legal, regulatory, and policy issues in the fields of air and space law. The publication reaches more than 2,000 attorneys in the United States and abroad.

Content. The Air & Space Lawyer seeks timely, relevant articles of interest to lawyers, regulators, and policymakers involved in air and space law. Feature articles offer in-depth treatment of a topic that affects these fields. Point/counterpoint article pairs present lively debate on controversial topics in air and space law. The Air & Space Lawyer also publishes interviews with key aviation and space government officials and industry leaders. 

Length. Feature articles typically are between 2,500 and 4,000 words (8–13 double-spaced pages, inclusive of endnotes). Point/counterpoint articles typically run from about 1,500 to 2,500 words per article. Any article of more than 4,000 words may be returned to the author with a request that the author(s) edit the article in accordance with these guidelines. 

Outline Requirement. The editorial board requests that authors submit an outline of their article prior to preparing and submitting a draft of the article. Outlines should be sent via e-mail attachment to the Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor prior to beginning drafting. 

Style. Authors should use a style that is less formal than would be found in a law journal article but more formal than a magazine in order to be pertinent and helpful to our readers in their practice area. Citations should appear as endnotes and follow the Harvard Bluebook (20th ed.) style. The endnotes should be limited to accurate citations and, occasionally, brief textual comments. In general, it is best to minimize the number of citations. In particular, we discourage “Id.” citations.

Biographical Note. With the article, authors should list their name and current title and include a short sentence (about 25 words) describing their current professional affiliation. This biographical note will appear with the article if it is accepted for publication. The author’s e-mail address will be included with the biographical note unless the author requests that it be omitted.

Disclosure of Interests. In addition to disclosing an author’s professional affiliation, it is our policy to disclose any professional or other interest that an author may have in the subject matter of the article (e.g., a relevant client representation).

Manuscript Submission. Authors should submit draft articles by e-mail attachment either to the Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor, or to the editorial board member with whom they are working.

Editing. If your article is accepted for publication, it may undergo peer review in addition to editing by ABA Publishing. The edited article will be sent to the author for review before publication. The editorial staff reserves the right to make deletions to conform to space limitations.

Copyright. While authors retain copyright to their original material, the ABA retains copyright to the formatted version of all material published in The Air & Space Lawyer. Authors are asked to sign a publication agreement that grants to the ABA the exclusive right of first publication, the nonexclusive right to reprint, and the right to use the work in another ABA publication or medium.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the editorial board member with whom you are working, the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, or the ABA staff editor.