About the Journal
About the UNIO – EU Law Journal
The UNIO – EU Law Journal is a biannual open access online peer-reviewed journal that follows a double-blind peer review system. It falls within the scope of the Jean Monnet Chair entitled “Citizenship of rights: European citizenship as the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States” and it is scientifically supported by CEDU (Studies in European Union Law), one research group of JusGov (Research Centre for Justice and Governance) of the University of Minho, Portugal. Although the UNIO – EU Law Journal is a biannual journal, articles are published through a system of continuous publication (i.e. as they are received) to ensure short publication timeframes.
The UNIO – EU Law Journal aims to publish scientific articles which demonstrate an advanced understanding of European Union law and enhance the production of knowledge in this area. The UNIO – EU Law Journal accepts original articles written in English and which are not under consideration elsewhere at the time of submission. Articles previously published in other scientific platforms may be accepted, exceptionally, for publication in the UNIO – EU Law Journal, if: i) the original language of publication was not English; ii) the subject matter of the article is of special interest to the readership of the UNIO – EU Law Journal; and iii) the article clears the editorial and peer review processes.
As an online bilingual review (English/Portuguese), the author may choose to publish the selected text in both languages as long as the author provides the translation into Portuguese or undertakes its costs. The quality of the Portuguese translation will be reviewed by the UNIO – EU Law Journal.
Because of language barriers, Portuguese research in European Union law is usually unknown outside the country. Most Portuguese authors publish few works in English and find it difficult to enter primary European academic circuits. However, there are many high-quality Portuguese works on EU law. As a bilingual review, the UNIO – EU Law Journal aims to promote and disseminate the work of Portuguese researchers abroad, as well as to publish the works of researchers from different parts of the world, especially from Lusophone countries. Thus, we are contributing to the network of academics who study EU law.
This journal is, to our best knowledge, the first bilingual (English/Portuguese) journal of EU law, and one of the first Portuguese law journals governed by international standards of academic credibility, such as a peer-review system. It will therefore contribute to enhancing the quality of Portuguese academic research in EU law and to promote the exchange of ideas and knowledge among researchers of different nationalities. As an open access on-line journal, it will have a great impact and will serve as a useful tool to academics, students and other professions in the legal field.
Copyright and Open Access
Authors retain copyright of the articles submitted to UNIO - EU Law Journal. However, publication in the UNIO - EU Law Journal requires that authors grant the journal the right of first publication of their article. Articles will be licenced and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY).
The UNIO – EU Law Journal 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, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
Absence of publication fees
The UNIO – EU Law Journal does not charge any fees for publication or processing of articles.
Digital archive
Ethical rules for publication and use of AI
Publication in the UNIO – EU Law Journal is governed by the journal's Ethical Rules and Principles applicable to the Publication Process.
The UNIO – EU Law Journal does not accept submissions written entirely or generated by Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) due to the fact that this type of technology does not offer guarantees regarding the originality of the publication, cannot assume the legal obligations that arise from the publication of a scientific article, nor can it guarantee compliance with the procedural and ethical rules that govern the journal.
Without prejudice, the UNIO – EU Law Journal recognizes the potential of AI as a tool to support scientific research and, as such, allows authors to use AI, including large language models, exclusively in the preparation, research, and revision of articles. The author remains fully responsible for the tasks delegated to AI and must carefully supervise the results generated by this technology.
The UNIO – EU Law Journal reserves the right to use AI writing detection tools and to exclude or issue a formal retraction for submissions that exceed the use of AI permitted by the journal, as described above.
