AIMS AND SCOPE
Comparative Maritime Law (hereinafter: CML) is a key periodical in maritime law and the law of the sea in Croatia and the surrounding region. The journal publishes academic and professional papers in the fields of maritime and transport law, insurance law, and the international law of the sea. It also publishes original texts on maritime and transport conventions and other international unification instruments and their professional translations, reviews of domestic and foreign judicial and arbitral decisions, reports on scientific and professional conferences, reviews of recently published books in the relevant fields, reports, selective bibliographies, and cumulative indices (occasionally).
The journal has both domestic and international editorial boards and engages in exchanges with eleven domestic and five international journals.
The authors of papers and readers are eminent domestic and foreign legal experts, university professors, and associates from other scientific institutes, commercial court judges, legal experts in the field of insurance, and young authors new to academic work.
The instructions for authors outline the process of preparing and submitting papers, while the Code of Ethics encourages positive behavior in journal editing for all participants.
All articles are reviewed by distinguished domestic and international experts and academics. There is a double-blind review process which involves a minimum of two reviewers.
Articles and abstracts are published in Croatian or English.
CML is an open access (OA) journal.
The CC BY-ND licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long articles are passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit given to the authors.
The journal is indexed and abstracted in various portals and catalogues.
The journal is non-profit. Authors are not charged publication fees.
The journal is published annually, and an electronic version is available on the HRCAK portal without time restrictions.
In the event of the journal’s discontinuation, the electronic version will remain available on the HRCAK portal.
HISTORY OF THE JOURNAL
The journal appeared under the title “Comparative Maritime Law and Commerce” at the end of 1958, at a time when there were no adequate regulations for maritime affairs. Thus, this periodical publication was launched for the scientific and practical processing of comparative maritime law and the regulations of maritime law and transport law in general.
The need to provide current information on legal instruments in the field of the maritime economy and overseas exchange was met from the very beginning. The Adriatic Institute was entrusted with work on the preparation and drafting of maritime laws and regulations for the entire community.
The format of the first 99 issues was 30 cm, printed by multiplying the typed pages using the chrome-plated technique.
With issue number 100 in 1983, publishing was updated, the look of the journal changed (it was shrunk to 24 cm in blue covers), an ISSN number was added, and the content was refreshed so that the sections and topics stood out more clearly. Thus, articles, translations and comments, judgments, reports, book reviews and various other information became visually distinct. A cumulative index was also published occasionally.
The following developments have taken place during the journal’s history:
1) In the title
- From 1958 to 1988, the journal was published under the title Comparative Maritime Law and Commerce;
- From 1989 to 1996, the journal was published under the title Comparative Maritime Law (*there were some differences in Croatian);
- Since 1997, the title has been Comparative Maritime Law.
2) The title was linked to the international standard serial number (print/electronic):
- From 1984 to 1990: ISSN 0352-4949;
- From 1991 to 1996: ISSN 0353-5487;
- From 1997 until today: ISSN 1331-9914;
- Since 2015, it has also been available in electronic format: ISSN 1848-8927.
3) In the publisher’s name:
- From 1958 to 1974, the name of the publisher was the Adriatic Institute;
- From 1974 to 1991 the name of the publisher was the Department of Maritime Law, History and Maritime Economics (Zagreb);
- Since 1992, the publisher has been Jadranski zavod (The Adriatic Institute of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts).
4) In periodicity:
- To begin with, the journal was a quarterly publication, then it came out biannually and quarterly, and since 2001 it has been an annual journal.
CML has managed to remain consistent in its credibility, high quality standards and collaboration with the most renowned authors, reviewers and contributors, despite many changes that have occurred throughout its long-standing publication.
