The online publication of the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal marks a significant point in the growth and development of this discipline. Originally constituted as Entertainment Law, and published by Frank Cass, this publication marks at least two changes.

First, the addition of the word ‘sport’ to the title was partly pragmatic, to enable the journal to be more easily identifiable to researchers working in these fields, and partly a recognition of the numbers of sport related pieces we were receiving. Whilst sport will continue to be a crucial and important part of our coverage, previous issues of the journal lie testament to the diversity and eclecticism that we were hoping for when we wrote our introduction to Entertainment Law Volume 1 Issue 1 and we would like to continue this. Any interested potential authors please contact us for guidance if you are unsure whether the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal is a suitable vehicle for your work.

Second, we believe the online publication of the journal is the most exciting aspect of its development thus far. Embracing the democratic potential of the internet, and opening up access to more and more scholars and interested parties, can only be a good thing in terms of the future health of the discipline. The academic rigour and quality will of course continue unabated, but hopefully the material will be accessible by a wider audience. In terms of this development, the editors would like to thank the Warwick team of the ELJ, and in particular Abdul Paliwala and Paul Trimmer, for their help and expertise developing this. Royston Makepeace and the School of Law, Manchester Metropolitan University deserve a special mention as their sponsorship helped bring this site to fruition.

The founding editors of the Journal were Steve Greenfield, David McArdle and Guy Osborn. We now add Mark James, originally book reviews editor, to full editorial status in worthy recognition of the important job Mark has performed over the years. As noted elsewhere, we welcome submissions across a broad spectrum of legal scholarship, we define entertainment broadly and many varied areas of scholarship will fall within its compass. Please consult previous issues or contact any of the editors if you have a query. One important note, in terms of submissions, the house style is now as noted here, two of the articles in this Issue, (Volume 3 Number 1) by Ian Warren and Geoff Pearson are written in the ‘old’ house style but future articles must be submitted in the new format.

Steve Greenfield

Mark James

Dave McArdle

Guy Osborn

September 2005