Study and Analysis of International Law Scholarship (SAILS)

In 2024, the Virginia Journal of International Law collaborated with the Yale Journal of International Law and Georgetown Journal of International Law on the joint publication of nine essays as part of the Consortium for the Study and Analysis of International Law Scholarship (SAILS). SAILS is an effort by a committed group of international law scholar-practitioners to cultivate sustained attention to scholarship and its interaction with practice by investigating the relationship among theory, research, and practice to address international law’s 21st Century challenges.

As part of this inaugural SAILS project, each journal published three essays within their individual issues. The published essays include:

  1. Bianca Anderson & Kathleen Claussen, International Law Publishing Trends: What Journals Print

  2. Elena Chachko, International Law and Political Science: A Retelling 

  3. Kathleen Claussen, The World of International & Comparative Law Journals 

  4. Harlan Grant Cohen, A Short History of the Early History of American Student-Edited International Law Journals (VJIL)

  5. Jorge Contesse, International Law Scholarship in Latin America (VJIL)

  6. Oona Hathaway & John Bowers, International Legal Scholarship: An Empirical Study 

  7. Daniel Peat & Cecily Rose, The Changing Landscape of International Law Scholarship: Do Funding Bodies Influence What We Research? 

  8. Niccolò Ridi & Thomas Schultz, Tracing the Footprints of International Law Ideas: A Scientometric Analysis (VJIL)

  9. Pierre-Hugues Verdier, Comparative International Law and the Rise of Regional Journals 

All nine essays and further information about SAILS can be found at the SAILS website and on Twitter/X @SAILS_Intl_Law. A discussion of the SAILS project and the nine essays took place at the American Society of International Law Annual Meeting in Washington, DC in April.