International Journal of Rural Law and Policy 2020

International Journal of Rural Law and Policy 2020

The International Journal of Rural Law and Policy is a peer reviewed journal covering the many interdisciplinary and complex issues which make up rural and regional law and policy.

About the journal 

The first publication of the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy was launched in November 2011. The articles in that first issue resulted from a colloquim on water law held at the University of New England in January 2011. Since that time, the journal has published several special issues concerned with REDD+ and mangroves, soil governance, mining law and policy, and rural regional legal issues. The journal has also published a diverse range of articles, from the application of family violence law in rural Australia papers to policies on seed banks.

Focus and Scope

Many excellent journals deal with legal doctrine and practice, policy and institutions. None, however, concentrate specifically upon the unique issues and features of rural and regional law and policy. Such issues are sufficiently distinctive and important to justify the specialist focus of this journal

We define ‘rural’ broadly, encompassing areas beyond major metropolitan areas and including areas often termed ‘regional’.

Rural people encounter many of the same law and policy issues that challenge their urban counterparts: crime, the struggle for social justice, property and commercial transactions, and the pursuit of sustainability. However, more than those who live in cities or close to cities, rural people face these challenges from within environments that affect the character of the challenges themselves as well as the feasible responses to them. Out of such features arise many law and policy issues that are vital to rural people but which may be of marginal interest to the majority population clustered in large urban areas. Natural resources law and policy, indigenous social justice, and equity of access to services and transport are illustrative of such issues. There are also many issues that may not be uniquely rural preoccupations but which take on a particular character in a rural setting, including sexual freedom, personal reputation or professional ethics in a small community, and the challenges of creating viable enterprise networks when distant from urban centres where most consumers reside.

These special considerations for rural law and policy are relevant around the world. There is an opportunity to learn how to design better governance systems, innovative laws, and improved policies from each other. We offer the medium of this journal as a platform to explore and share the learning.

We have adopted an open access policy for this journal, with the intention of replicating some of the features of the modern community to benefit both readers and authors. We are taking advantage of the flexibility that modern technology provides, by publishing:

  • Editions, which comprise papers on a theme.

  • Regular publications of unsolicited, relevant papers on an ad hoc basis. Scholars and practitioners are invited to submit papers for peer review and inclusion.

  • Commentary. We invite comment (see the comment link to each paper) upon all papers published in the journal. On a periodic basis, the comments will be reviewed and a ‘commentary’ published.

Editorial decisions are not affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race or religion of the authors. Decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or other agencies outside of the journal itself.

We hope that by these means the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy will generate a lively community of scholars of rural law and policy, as well as contributing innovative and useful ideas to the field.

Further information

If you are interested in publishing an article within the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy, you may contact Dr. Siva Barathi (Sharl) Marimuthu at smarimut@une.edu.au.

For further information about the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy, please visit the Journal Index on the UTS ePress Journals Database.