Focus and Scope
Overview
Al-Adalah: Jurnal Hukum dan Politik Islam is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the study of law, legal politics, Islamic law, Islamic politics, and socio-legal developments, with particular attention to Indonesia and their significance for wider regional and international scholarly debates.
The journal provides a scholarly forum for rigorous research and critical analysis of contemporary legal and political developments. It particularly welcomes research that examines Indonesian legal developments in relation to broader theoretical, comparative, regional, and international discussions.
Areas of Focus
Al-Adalah: Jurnal Hukum dan Politik Islam welcomes scholarly manuscripts within the following principal areas:
1. Constitutional and Public Law
Research concerning constitutional law, administrative law, public institutions, constitutional governance, state authority, public policy, and the relationship between law and government.
2. Legal Politics and Legal Reform
Studies of legal policy, law-making, legal development, regulatory reform, institutional transformation, and the political, social, and historical factors influencing legal change.
3. Islamic Law and Islamic Politics
Research on Islamic legal thought, Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic legal institutions, Islamic political thought, Muslim societies, and the interaction between Islamic norms, state law, politics, and contemporary governance.
4. Socio-Legal and Empirical Legal Studies
Research examining law in society, legal institutions and practices, access to justice, legal consciousness, law enforcement, community experiences, and empirical dimensions of legal development.
5. Human Rights, Justice, and Governance
Research addressing human rights, equality, social and ecological justice, democratic governance, accountability, participation, legal protection, and the relationship between law and public interests.
6. Comparative and Transnational Legal Studies
Comparative research and studies of regional or transnational legal developments, particularly where comparison contributes to the understanding of Indonesian law or generates broader theoretical, doctrinal, or socio-legal insights.
Indonesian and International Relevance
Al-Adalah: Jurnal Hukum dan Politik Islam recognizes Indonesia as an important context for legal and socio-political scholarship. The journal therefore particularly welcomes research that examines Indonesian legal developments while engaging with relevant regional and international scholarship.
Research focusing on Indonesia does not need to include a foreign jurisdiction to be considered internationally relevant. International relevance may instead be demonstrated through:
- engagement with relevant international or comparative scholarship;
- theoretical or conceptual contributions extending beyond the immediate case studied;
- analysis of legal developments with regional or transnational significance;
- comparison with other legal systems where substantively relevant; or
- critical analysis of Indonesian developments that contributes to broader debates in law, governance, justice, Islamic law, or legal politics.
The journal particularly encourages manuscripts that demonstrate how legal developments in Indonesia contribute to, challenge, or illuminate wider debates in contemporary legal scholarship.
Research Approaches
The journal welcomes different research approaches where they are appropriate to the research problem and applied with sufficient scholarly rigor. These may include:
- doctrinal or normative legal research;
- socio-legal research;
- empirical legal research;
- comparative legal research; and
- interdisciplinary research involving law and relevant fields of social sciences, humanities, politics, or related disciplines.
Methodological pluralism does not mean methodological looseness. Manuscripts must demonstrate a clearly defined scholarly problem, an appropriate methodological or analytical approach, reliable sources or evidence, coherent analysis, and a meaningful scholarly contribution.
Manuscript Types
Al-Adalah: Jurnal Hukum dan Politik Islam publishes three principal manuscript types:
- Original Research Article – presents original research, findings, analysis, or scholarly arguments based on an appropriate doctrinal, socio-legal, empirical, comparative, or interdisciplinary approach.
- Conceptual Article – develops a substantial legal, constitutional, political, Islamic legal, theoretical, or interdisciplinary argument grounded in relevant scholarship and authoritative sources.
- Review Article – provides a rigorous and critical synthesis of established scholarship, legal developments, jurisprudence, or research literature and identifies significant research gaps, debates, or implications.
Out of Scope
Manuscripts may be considered outside the journal's scope when they:
- fall primarily outside law, legal politics, Islamic law, Islamic politics, or meaningful socio-legal inquiry;
- lack a clearly defined scholarly problem, research question, objective, or conceptual purpose;
- are predominantly descriptive without sufficient scholarly analysis or contribution;
- are primarily opinion, advocacy, general commentary, or professional writing without sustained scholarly analysis;
- use a methodology or analytical approach that is absent, fundamentally inappropriate, or insufficient for the claims made;
- provide materially inadequate, unreliable, or unsupported evidence or sources;
- address a topic only tangentially related to the journal's areas of focus without a meaningful legal or socio-legal contribution; or
- constitute news reports, general essays, or other non-scholarly materials that do not meet the requirements of an academic journal.
Manuscripts that are simultaneously submitted to another journal or that substantially reproduce previously published work may also be rejected in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and research integrity policies.
Editorial Assessment of Scope
Scope assessment is based on the manuscript's substantive argument, research problem, methodological or analytical approach, evidence, and scholarly contribution rather than on the title or keywords alone.
The editors may request that a manuscript be reclassified into a more appropriate manuscript type where necessary. Reclassification does not guarantee acceptance or progression to external peer review.
Manuscripts that fall within the journal's scope and satisfy the initial scholarly and technical requirements may proceed to external peer review in accordance with the journal's Peer Review Process.
