How publishing works in this field
The two systems barely overlap. US law reviews are student-edited, accept multiple simultaneous submissions through a central platform during spring and autumn windows, and allow authors to expedite an offer by asking higher-ranked journals to decide quickly. Outside the US, and in specialist and interdisciplinary legal journals everywhere, review is by academic peers and simultaneous submission is forbidden.
SSRN functions as the field's working-paper layer. Posting before or during submission is normal, builds readership, and does not count as prior publication in either system — though a peer-reviewed journal may still ask.
What slows papers down here
Citation format is a gate rather than a detail. US law reviews expect Bluebook with footnotes carrying the substance of the argument; much of the Commonwealth uses OSCOLA. A manuscript in the wrong system signals that the author has not read the journal, and the footnotes cannot be converted quickly.
Jurisdictional framing limits reach. A doctrinal analysis of one jurisdiction is publishable, but an international or comparative journal needs the argument to travel — which means saying what the problem is an instance of, not only what the statute says.
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Questions we are asked in this field
In the US student-edited system, yes — simultaneous submission is the norm and expediting an offer is expected practice. In peer-reviewed legal journals, including most outside the US, it is prohibited. Know which system you are in before submitting.
Whichever the target journal uses — typically Bluebook for US law reviews and OSCOLA across much of the Commonwealth. It is not cosmetic: legal footnotes carry argument, and converting between systems late is slow and error-prone.
Not in the law review system, where it is standard and often helps. Peer-reviewed legal journals are generally fine with it too, but check, since a minority of publishers treat any prior posting as publication.