Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal

Scope and Approach

ANIDIP is a peer-reviewed scientific publication that annually presents the results of research from the various fields in the human and social sciences. The areas covered are peace and armed conflict, serious human rights violations and international crimes, international justice (in particular, criminal justice), and transitional justice to the academic community, the actors involved in the administration of justice and civil society. In each ANIDIP issue will feature the research papers selected for publication through the Blattmann, Odio Benito & Steiner Essay Competition. These will be accompanied by one or several unpublished research articles conducted by doctoral candidates, university professors, or professionals with at least 10 years of professional practice. These will be chosen by a public call.

This is aimed at stimulating multidisciplinary knowledge, multidimensional academic debate, and the application of International Criminal Law in Ibero-American countries, as well as making public the application of case law in the International Criminal Court (ICC), ad hoc international criminal courts, and national judicial bodies with competence in international crimes. ANIDIP also seeks to disseminate the mandate, activities, and jurisprudence of other bodies that address situations that may constitute international crimes.

ANIDIP is published by Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario (Colombia); Tirant lo Blanch publishing house (Spain); and the Iberoamerican Institute of the Hague for Peace, Human Rights, and International Justice (IIH).

Peer-Review Process

Procedure for Submitting, Reviewing, and Selecting Research Papers and Works

There are three procedures for the submission, academic peer review, and selection of research papers and works for publication in the ANIDIP journal: (i) research papers submitted to the Blattmann, Odio Benito & Steiner Essay Competition; (ii) research papers submitted to the Critical Studies on Justice Competition; and (iii) research submitted by doctoral candidates, university professors, or professionals.

In these three cases, the editorial team performs the first round of review. Here the relevance of the submitted document is evaluated in terms of journal focus, its compliance with the unpublished nature of the content, and adequate source citation as per the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide, as well as checking for originality and plagiarism conducted by Turnitin software.

Public call for research articles

Upon receipt of the research article, a double-blind evaluation process begins, by submitting the papers to anonymous subject-matter expert peers for them to evaluate the manuscript within a month upon receipt, under the following criteria:

Thesis: (i) conceptual value of the thesis put forward in the paper; (ii) clarity of the proposal; and (iii) innovative nature.
Argument: (i) conceptual value of the arguments presented in support of the thesis; (ii) thoroughness in the development of arguments; (iii) innovative nature of the arguments (beyond analyzing the arguments presented by other authors); and (iv) logical link between the thesis put forward and the supporting arguments developed.
Sources: (i) citation of the most relevant international and national academic sources in the subject matter and (ii) variety of international legislative and case law sources (and national ones when relevant for the paper).
Format: compliance with the norms listed in Annex I of the Competition Call (regarding both maximum paper length and format and citation rules). The format requirement will represent 10% of the global assessment of the paper, while the remaining three criteria will each represent 30% of the overall score.

In their evaluations, anonymous peers will determine whether the submitted work is accepted or rejected for publication and will include recommendations to improve those that are accepted. Evaluations by anonymous peers will be sent to the authors of the respective papers for their revision within a maximum term of 30 days.

The number of research works to be published in each issue will depend on the quality and evaluations by the anonymous peers.

Blattmann, Odio Benito & Steiner Essay Competition Edition on International Criminal Justice

After the deadline for submission (also established in the public call), abstracts will be randomly distributed among the members of the international jury of the competition, for each of them to select one of the abstracts received within 15 days.

The authors of the selected abstracts will be contacted immediately thereafter to prepare a paper of 8,000–10,000 words (including footnotes, an abstract of 200 words or less at the beginning of the text, followed by five keywords, and then by a final bibliographic reference list mentioning all the works and documents cited in the paper). These must be sent to the aforementioned email address and be received by the coordination team of the competition before the deadline for submission (the annual call establishes the final date to submit final works).

After the deadline for submission, works will be submitted to the members of the international jury of the competition, who will evaluate the submitted papers pursuant to the criteria set forth in the public call of the relevant year’s edition. All papers will be submitted to the international jury anonymously to ensure total impartiality.

The international jury will evaluate all selected papers and send their scores to the competition’s organization team. The winning paper will be determined on the basis of the results of each work and will have the chance to be published in ANIDIP. In addition, the international jury will select papers that, with the appropriate modifications, deserve to be published in ANIDIP. To this end, the members of the international jury will fill out a format specifically focused on determining whether the qualifying papers deserve to be published in the journal, specifying the corrections to be made by authors and the recommendations for the texts to be included in the corresponding ANIDIP issue.

The competition’s winning paper, as well as any other works considered of sufficient quality by the international jury, will be sent to the anonymous evaluators for them to give a second opinion regarding their suitability for publication. They will also be in charge of making corrections and recommendations to ensure that works meet the high quality standards and are publishable in the journal.

Papers receiving a positive assessment will be published in the language they were originally written (Spanish or Portuguese), in the section “Research Papers from the Blattmann, Odio Benito & Steiner Essay Competition” of the corresponding ANIDIP issue. The publication will be conditional on the papers’ authors implementing the changes evaluators consider necessary for publication within 30 days from receipt.

The final version of the papers to be published must be received, at the latest, on the date established in the call of the relevant year so that the publishing house of Universidad del Rosario can work on the layout and editing stages toward publishing the issue at the beginning of the following year.

The criteria for assessing the participating essays in the competition will be as follows:

Thesis: (i) conceptual value of the thesis put forward in the paper; (ii) clarity of the proposal; and (iii) innovative nature.
Argumentation: (i) conceptual value of the arguments presented in support of the thesis or in response to its weaknesses; (ii) thoroughness in the development of arguments (both those positively supporting the thesis and those aimed at addressing the weaknesses that the thesis may present); (iii) innovative nature of the arguments (beyond analyzing the arguments presented by other authors); and (iv) logical link between the thesis put forward and the supporting arguments developed.
Sources: (i) international and comparative legislation; (ii) international and comparative case law; and (iii) international and comparative doctrine.
Format: (i) compliance with the word limit (8,000–10,000); (ii) compliance with single-spacing, Times New Roman, 12 point font, and APA 7th Ed. 2019 style guidelines.

The format requirement will represent 10% of the overall assessment of the paper, while the remaining three criteria will each represent 30% of the overall score.

All the relevant information to participate in the Blattmann, Odio Benito & Steiner Essay Competition can be found at the following link: https://www.iberoamericaninstituteofthehague.org/actividades/certamen-de-ensayos-blattmann-odio-benito-y-steiner

Critical Studies on Justice Competition Edition

An abstract of 300 words or less, prepared in Word format, will be sent between September and November every year (the exact dates will be established in the competition’s annual public call) to the following email address: iih.certamensayos@gmail.com. Abstracts must revolve around topics related to international justice although they may develop research problems from any of the following disciplines: (i) philosophy; (ii) psychology; (iii) science and technology; (iv) national law/justice; (v) international law/justice; (vi) community anthropology/justice; (vii) theology/transcendent–spiritual justice; and (viii) international relations and political science. They may be written in Spanish or in Portuguese.

After the deadline for submission (also established in the public call) has passed, abstracts will be randomly distributed among the members of the international jury of the competition, for each of them to select one of the abstracts received within 15 days. For this competition, the international jury will comprise professionals and academics working in the different disciplines that are covered by the abstracts. This way, each abstract is evaluated by an expert in the area of knowledge that is the object of author applicants.

The authors of the selected abstracts will be contacted immediately thereafter to prepare a paper of 8,000–10,000 words (including footnotes, an abstract of 200 words or less at the beginning of the text, followed by five keywords, and then by a bibliographic reference list mentioning all the works and documents cited in the paper). These must be sent to the aforementioned email address and must be received by the competition’s coordination team before the deadline for submission (the annual call establishes the cutoff date for the submission of final works).

After the deadline for submission has passed, works will be distributed by subject/discipline to the members of the competition’s international jury, who will evaluate the works received pursuant to the criteria set forth in the public call of the relevant year’s edition. All papers will be anonymously submitted to the international jury to ensure full impartiality.

The international jury will evaluate all selected papers and send their scores to the competition’s organization team. The winning paper will be determined on the basis of the results of each work and will have the chance to be published in ANIDIP. In addition, the international jury will select papers that, with the appropriate modifications, deserve to be published in ANIDIP. To this end, the members of the international jury will fill out a form specifically focused on determining whether the qualifying papers deserve to be published in the journal, specifying the corrections to be made by authors and the recommendations for such texts to be included in the corresponding ANIDIP issue.

Papers receiving a positive assessment will be published in the language they were originally written (Spanish or Portuguese), in the section “Research Papers from the Blattmann, Odio Benito & Steiner Essay Competition” of the corresponding ANIDIP issue. Their publication will be conditional on the papers’ authors implementing the changes that the evaluators consider necessary for publication within 30 days from receipt.

The final version of the papers to be published must be received, at the latest, on the date established in the call of the relevant year, so that the publishing house of Universidad del Rosario can work on the layout and editing stages toward publishing the issue at the beginning of the following year.

Papers receiving a positive assessment will be published in the language they were originally written (Spanish or Portuguese), in the section “Research Papers selected by the Critical Studies on Justice Competition” of the corresponding ANIDIP issue. Their publication will be conditional on the papers’ authors implementing the changes that the evaluators consider necessary for publication within 30 days from receipt.

The final version of the papers to be published must be received, at the latest, on the date established in the call of the relevant year, so that the publishing house of Universidad del Rosario can work on the layout and editing stages, so that the issue is published at the beginning of the following year.

The criteria for assessing the participating essays in the competition will be the following:

Thesis: (i) conceptual value of the thesis put forward in the paper; (ii) clarity of the proposal; and (iii) innovative nature.
Argument: (i) conceptual value of the arguments presented in support of the thesis or in response to its weaknesses; (ii) thoroughness in the development of arguments (both those positively supporting the thesis and those aimed at addressing the weaknesses that the thesis may present); (iii) innovative nature of the arguments (beyond analyzing the arguments presented by other authors); and (iv) logical link between the thesis put forward and the supporting arguments developed.
Sources: (i) international and comparative legislation; (ii) international and comparative case law; (iii) international and comparative doctrine.
Format: (i) compliance with the word limit (8,000–10,000); (ii) compliance with single-spacing, Times New Roman font, 12 point, and APA 7th Ed. 2019 style guidelines.

The format requirement will represent 10% of the overall assessment of the paper, while the remaining three criteria will each represent 30% of the overall score.

For more information see in this respect the "Announcements" section.

Publication Frequency

The Ibero-American Yearbook of International Criminal Law has an annual frequency.

Open Access Policy and Publication Fees

This journal provides free and immediate access to your content under the principle of making research available to the public for free to promote increased exchange of global knowledge. This means that no fees are charged to authors for their article’s management, evaluation, and publication.

Deeply committed to the dissemination of scientific knowledge to nonspecialized audiences, Universidad del Rosario’s journals also advertise their content via www.lasillavacia.com/iq, in addition to various registration and indexing systems at the national and international levels.

Anti-Plagiarism Policy

Manuscripts subjected to review by Universidad del Rosario’s journals must be original and unpublished. The editorial team will review the authenticity of all manuscripts submitted to the journal through different means, such as the Turnitin tool. When an article is subjected to review, the authors accept that the document will be examined toward avoiding plagiarism of any kind and promoting ethical policies in publications.

Preservation and Self-archiving Policies

The journals edited by Universidad del Rosario ensure the digital preservation of its content through the system Preservation Network de PKP (Public Knowledge Project).

In addition, the works published in this university’s journal allow for the self-archiving of the version published by the editor (“published version”) in the repositories of the institutions where the authors are affiliated, and the inclusion of the URL corresponding to the journal’s file in which the article can be found is strongly advised.

Conditions:

Copyrights and publishing rights must be certified.
A link to the editor’s version must be included.
The version published by the editor (“published version”) needs to be included.

Funding Sources

The Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal is jointly funded by Universidad del Rosario’s Law School, the Ibero-American Institute of the Hague, and the Tirant lo Blanch publishing house.

Journal's History

ANIDIP started in 2013 with the launch of the Blattmann, Odio Benito & Steiner Essay Competition on Criminal International Justice, held by the IIH. The journal and the competition were launched with institutional support from the ICC, the Ibero-American General Secretariat, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), Universidad del Rosario (Colombia), and the Editorial Tirant lo Blanch publishing house.

Since its beginnings, the essay competition’s international jury is the final stage regarding the selection of papers that will be published in the ANIDIP journal. The jury has been constituted by a judge of the International Criminal Court—René Blattmann in 2013, Elizabeth Odio Benito in 2014, and Silvia Steiner in 2015—the Ibero-American Secretary-General, and the president of the IIH.