About the Journal

1. Overview

The seeds of judicial education in Pakistan were sown as early as 1958, when the First Law Reforms Commission emphasized the need for rigorous hands-on training through mentorship programs—a visionary step to bridge theory and practice. By 1967, the Second Law Reforms Commission took this further, proposing a dedicated Judicial Academy to professionalize civil judges and magistrates. This dream finally took root in 1988 with the establishment of Federal Judicial Academy (FJA), a milestone that transformed judicial training nationwide. 

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, early training was modest—just two-week attachments for judges. But a breakthrough came in 1993 when the province’s civil judges began attending the FJA’s structured six-week pre-service training programs. By 2001, training became mandatory under the Judicial Service Rules, signaling a paradigm shift toward institutionalized excellence. 

The 2003 reforms added precision: two-weeks training for District & Sessions Judges / Zila Qazis, three weeks for promoted Additional District & Sessions Judges / Izafi Zila Qazis and Senior Civil Judges / A’ala Ilaqa Qazis, and four to eight weeks for newly recruited Additional District & Sessions Judges / Izafi Zila Qazis and Civil Judges / Ilaqa Qazis. This era also saw districts buzzing with workshops and seminars—grassroots momentum that sparked a bold idea: Why not a provincial judicial academy? 

In 2008, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ignited this vision by founding a Judicial Training Centre. By 2011, relentless advocacy by PHC leadership turned this into a mission. Meetings with provincial officials, strategic lobbying, and unwavering resolve culminated in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy’s inauguration in March 2011. Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, a seasoned judge, steered its launch, kick starting operations with a landmark two-day orientation for court staff. 

The Academy’s fate accelerated under Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, who took office in late 2011. His impassioned appeal to the Provincial Law Minister—“Establish this Academy now, not later”—echoed as a rallying cry. By December 28, 2011, the Governor’s Ordinance gave it legal teeth, and weeks later, the Provincial Assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy Act (2012), etching it into history. 

What began as short-term attachments in the 1950s evolved into a flagship institution—a testament to Pakistan’s commitment to judicial professionalism. Today, the Academy stands not just as a training hub but as a beacon of innovation, empowering judges with skills to deliver justice in an ever-changing world. 

This journey—from ad-hoc mentorship to a world-class Academy—reflects a relentless pursuit of excellence, proving that visionary leadership and persistence can turn even the boldest ideas into enduring institutions.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy (KPJA) is an autonomous body under a Board of Governors (BoG) which is headed by Hon’ble Chief Justice, Peshawar High Court as Chairman. The other members of the Board are Hon’ble Senior Puisne Judge Peshawar High Court, Registrar Peshawar High Court, Member Inspection Team Peshawar High Court, Additional Registrar (Admin) Peshawar High Court, different Secretaries to the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Principal Law College University of Peshawar. KPJA is a premier training institution to train judges, court staff and members of the justice sector organizations. The Director General executes the affairs of the Academy under the directives of BoG.

2. Scope and Mission

There are multiple means of training and dissemination of knowledge. Publication of law journal is one of them. For on seat training and continued professional development of judges and court staff, law journal plays a vital role. To publish journal and promote research are the statutory functions of the KPJA. To discharge this duty, KPJA has launched its own law journal, ‘Peshawar Law Review’ (PLR).

Objectives

Enlisted below are the objectives of the PLR:

• To provide judges, court staff, researchers, legal academia, law officers and law students a forum to share their ideas and experience on different legal issues
• To draw critical opinion and to promote, monitor and publish high quality research in all facets of law, especially relating to the administration of justice

• To shed light on the grey areas of law for further reforms and to improve the quality of administration of justice in courts and relevant departments
• To elevate judicial education and catalyze a robust research culture by investing in transformative infrastructure, advancing human capital with cutting-edge expertise, and driving innovative research to optimize justice delivery and empower communities

• To publish quality research of experts from fields allied to the administration of justice
• To promote interdisciplinary approach to enhance the quality of justice being administered in the courts

3. Contributors

Keeping in view the objectives of the journal contributions/manuscripts will be received from following categories of individuals:

• Judges of the Superior Judiciary and the District Judiciary
•  Persons holding judicial office or discharging judicial functions
• Trainers from all Judicial Academies of Pakistan
• Writers, thinkers, academicians from fields allied to administration of justice
• Law officers, prosecutors, lawyers, probation officers, prison officers, court staff

4. Contents

The PLR will receive following form of writing for publication:

• Research papers, articles and essays
• Case notes, Case Reviews
• Legislation reviews
• Book reviews
• Conceptual Frameworks, Analytical and Simulation Models
• Empirical studies, Technical Notes from Researchers

5. Guidelines for Authors

Format

Enlisted below is the format that must be followed by the Authors:

• PLR only accepts manuscripts in MS Word format in Times New Roman, font size 12, in double space
• Authors are required to submit abstract of not more than 200 words along with the manuscript
• Manuscript shall be sent as attachment and complete detail of author including name, designation, address (including email address) and institutional affiliation shall be mentioned

Referencing Style

• References should be inserted as footnotes and numbered consecutively
• The Chicago Manual of Style Sixteenth edition (footnotes) shall be followed

Originality and Co-authorship

• Writing submitted to PLR must be original and must not be under consideration for publication or published elsewhere
• PLR permits Co-authorship to a maximum of three persons

Nature of Contributions

• The length of research articles, papers or essay should be between 4000 to 6000 words which must be thoroughly researched and referenced
• Case notes should be between 1000 to 1500 words
• Legislation review should be between 2000-4000 words
• Book Reviews should be between 3000-5000 words

Publication Policy

Quality Tests

Writings submitted for publication in the journal will be subjected to peer review process and plagiarism test to ensure quality of publication.

Deadlines of all processes

All the deadlines and durations are flexible. Sometimes it takes more or less time depending on the quality of the article and the review process.

• Duration of paper submission

Deadline for the submission of papers in this journal is 20th of Second month.

• Duration of Review of articles

Deadline for the review of papers in this journal is the last date of fourth month starting from the 1^st date of third month.

• Duration of Acceptance of articles

Overall duration of acceptance of papers in this journal is 30-45 days starting from the submission of papers and ending at the successful completion of peer review process.

• Duration of Publication of articles

Overall duration of publication of papers in this journal is 40-75 days starting from the submission of papers and ending at the uploading the final peer reviewed on our website.

• Timelines of publication of issues

Following is the detailed timeline for publication of our issues

 

Process	Start Date	End Date
Call for Papers & Discrepancies Check	1st date of first Month	20th of Second Month
Proofreading	21st date of Second Month	Last date of Second Month
2 Simultaneous Reviews	1st date of Third Month	Last date of Fourth Month
Final Publication	1st Date of Fifth Month	Last Date of Fifth Month

 

Current Issue

PLR believes that access to knowledge and research benefits all. Therefore, the contents including current issues will be subject to open access policy and material published will be available on line free of costs or otherwise as determined by the Editorial Board.

Call for Papers

PLR receives papers throughout the year in line with its publication policy. However, specific call for each new issue will be published on website requesting contributions, if already received papers are not sufficient for the issue.

 

Article processing/publication fee

Peshawar Law Review (PLR) is managed and run by a public sector organization and no publication charges have been fixed yet, however, the policy may be revised subsequently and nominal charges may be fixed in future to meet the expenses made thereon.

• Article Processing Charges (Pre-Acceptance)-APC-I

It constitutes about 45% of the whole process' charges. For permanent, instant, all-inclusive and worldwide access to the full article text the Publication charges covers Editorial charges, review and evaluation charges, technical infrastructure charges and production charges.

• Article Publishing Charges (Post-Acceptance)-APC-II

It constitutes about 55% of the whole process' charges. The Publication Charges cover marketing and promotion charges, circulation charges and so on.

Waiving:

If an author would like their article to be published under a gold open access model, but cannot afford the APC, then individual waiver requests are considered on a case-to-case basis and may be granted in cases of genuine need. Authors who are eligible for such concession include those who have won any national excellence award, undergraduates with quality manuscript, orphans, special person, handicapped and those whose parents or siblings are martyred/affected by war on terror.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

A Declaration of Conflicting Interests policy refers to a formal policy a journal may have to require a conflict-of-interest statement or conflict of interest disclosure from a submitting or publishing author.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) states in its Guidelines on Good Publication Practice (2003) that: “Conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published. They have been described as those which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.”

Many scholars, researchers, and professionals may have potential conflicts of interest that could affect their research. As a result, the journal requires a formal declaration of conflicting interests enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated published article.

A potential conflict of interest may arise from relationships, allegiances, or hostilities to particular groups, organizations, or interests, which may influence one’s judgments or actions excessively. The issue is particularly sensitive when such interests are private and/or may result in personal gain.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are evaluated fairly and are not necessarily rejected when any competing interests are declared. Examples of conflicts of interest might include the following, although it is not an exhaustive list:

• Having received fees for consulting.
• Having received research funding.
• Having been employed by a related company.
• Holding stocks or shares in a company that might be affected by the publication of your paper.
• Having received funds reimbursing you for attending related symposia, or talk.
  
  

If there are other interests that the reasonable reader might feel has affected your research you may also wish to declare them. (Please note that it is not expected that details of financial arrangements be disclosed when a competing interest is declared.)
Conflict of interests upon identification of any conflict of interest, the editors may require more information from the author that may include the following:

• Acknowledgement of financial support/sponsorship in their contribution.
• Any commercial or financial involvements that might present an appearance of a conflict of interest related to the contribution are disclosed in a covering letter accompanying the contribution and all such potential conflicts of interest will be discussed with the editor as to whether disclosure of this information with the published contribution is to be made in the journal.
• If they have signed an agreement with any sponsor of the research reported in the contribution that prevents you from publishing both positive and negative results or that forbids you from publishing this research without prior approval of the sponsor.
• If they have checked the manuscript submission guidelines to ensure whether the journal requires a Declaration of Conflicting Interests and have complied with the requirements specified where such a policy exists.

The Authors are required to fill and sign the Copyright and Author Consent Form upon submitting the manuscript.

Correction and retraction Policy

Authors who discover errors in articles they have published are required to contact the editorial office of the journal through the corresponding author with a detailed description of the correction that is needed. Corrigenda (corrections of author’s errors) and errata (corrections of publisher’s errors) will be published at no charge to the authors. Requests for corrections that affect the interpretation or conclusions of a published article will be reviewed by the editors.

An article may be retracted when the integrity of the published work is substantially undermined owing to errors in the conduct, analysis, and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also result in a study’s retraction.

The original article is marked as retracted but a PDF version remains available to readers, and the retraction statement is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper. Retraction statements will typically include a statement of assent or dissent from the authors.

In exceptional circumstances, the editorial office reserves the right to remove an article from the journal’s online platforms. Such action may be taken when

• The editorial office has been advised that content is defamatory, infringes a third party’s intellectual property right, right to privacy, or other legal rights, or is otherwise unlawful.
• A court or government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, requiring removal of such content
• Content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health. Removal may be temporary or permanent. Bibliographic metadata (e.g., title and authors) will be retained and will be accompanied by a statement explaining why the content has been removed.

Referencing

Any paper submitted to PLR is expected to be a high-grade scholarly publication which is later exposed to peer-review. Hence, PLR sets rigorous criteria to the citation of sources. All References should be inserted as footnotes and numbered consecutively. PLR encourages contributors to incorporate references in Chicago Manual of Style Sixteenth edition.

Plagiarism Policy

Academic quality standards require a Law Journal to be publishing original work of authors having the quality of novelty. However, confessing the limited resources of students to verify the originality, uniqueness and novelty of submissions, Peshawar Law Review permits total of 15% unoriginal content to be used in the manuscript, nonetheless, acknowledging and citing the original sources is mandatory.

Peer review policy:

The journal manages and evaluates all the research articles, papers, and cases by "Double-Blind Peer Review" exclusively. The journal uses double-blind review, which means that the reviewer, editor, and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, editor and vice versa throughout the review process.  

Peshawar Law Review (PLR) is one of the few journals in Pakistan using ScholarOne for peer review of the articles which is the most widely used and powerful peer review system.

This journal has a comprehensive process of evaluation as it follows double-blind peer review wherein after preliminary assessment (or Pre-Editorial Review) of an article by the Managing and Assistant Managing Editor(s), the same is reviewed by another internal Committee (known as an Editorial Review Committee) comprising the Editor, Associate Editor(s)and Assistant Editor(s) if needed. However, selected members of the Advisory Board of our journal covering the subject area of the article are also consulted after the pre-editorial review. If there is no issue, the article goes through a cycle of final evaluation i.e., review by peer reviewers of the relevant subject.

Publication Frequency, Format and Language

PLR will be initially published biannually; however, subsequently KPJA may consider publishing it on quarterly basis. Each volume will, at least, contain two research papers/articles, two essays, one book review. Journal will be published in print form and will also be available in soft form online. PLR does not intend to place language as a barrier, therefore, subject to quality tests writings will be received in Urdu and English. In order to achieve the higher targeted goals including the obtaining of recognition of W-category and to cope up with the need of the academia, the frequency of the journal was set as reflected below:

S. No	Number	Issue	Month
1	I	Spring	June
2	II	Fall	December